First Build - NZXT Phantom 410

Xenus

Xenus

Xenus

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Joined
21 Jan 2012
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52
Location
UK
Hi guys,

After my first build was delayed by a good few months finally got my finances in order and ready to start building. Few things have changed from my original list so just needing some advice really on whether my decisions are for the best.

I primarily play WoW and Swtor with some SC2 chucked in. I am also an illustrator so will be running PS and Illustrator. I won't be running crysis on ultra or anything like that but will need HDMI outputs for the monitor. No need for 3D. I would like to play WoW and Swtor on max settings, no real need for SC2 to be maxed out but would like my machine to be as future proof as it can be within budget. Anyways, be kind with your comments as I am new at this xD here is the list.

I already have a NZXT Phantom 410 case.

Krypton Z68 TURBO Intel Core i5 2500K 3.30GHz @ 4.00GHz DDR3 Overclocked Bundle

EVGA GeForce GTX 650Ti SSC PCI-Express Graphics Card

NZXT Hale Power 90+ 750W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache

Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost

LG BH10LS38 10x BluRay-RW / 16 x DVD±RW Lightscribe Drive - Black (Retail)

That's the list so far, not too sure about the sound card or anything else I may have missed. Also graphics card was little shot in the dark. If people have better recommendations or if I have messed anything up please let me know. I run Mac mostly so my partition the drive also, but mainly looking at running Windows 8 but sort of prefer 7, not much of a fan of the new OS. Thanks!
 
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You not going for an Ivybridge build ? Plus if you overclock yourself you will save a few more pennies. I have changed a few things to fit the same budget as your first post.
Not sure you would need a 750W power supply, but i have specced one anyway.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 WindForce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £179.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC128D/EU) £89.99
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX750M High Performance 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020040-UK) £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x LG BH10LS38 10x BluRay-RW / 16 x DVD±RW Lightscribe Drive - Black (Retail) £79.98
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) £54.98
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011/1366/1155/1156/775/ AMD AM3/AM3+/AM2/AM2+/FM1) £29.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £23.99
Total : £821.48 (includes shipping : £10.50).

 
Thanks a lot for the advice guys. yeah went for the 750 really to stay in a sort of safety zone as I wasn't really sure on the output. But if you think 650 is more than ample then can save some cash that way.

Reason I went for the overclocked bundle was my lack of knowledge really at putting these things together xD this seemed like the most complex process (please correct me if I am completely wrong) out of the lot which is why I thought letting OCuk do the hard work was the best option. Just not confident really do that part myself as of yet. The other suggestions make sense financially and are better options. thanks again!

Regarding Ivy Bridge, whats the difference in cost and would it be more beneficial going down that road for what I need the system for? I only have a brief knowledge of all this stuff so please bare with me
 
You could use a ~400w psu with a single 660 ;) edit: even a 300w, but at that low wattage level the quality of psus is a bit meh. I would go for this http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-019-SS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=2383. Only a £20 saving over the 750w corsair above but it's a more efficient design.

I wouldn't have though you'd need more gpu grunt than a 660 either as WoW is ancient N64 graphics and swtor isn't anything special either. What's your monitor resolution?
 
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well i was either guna use my iMac with retina display as a monitor or my other monitor which is 1920x1080 HD. Yeah WoW or Swtor doesn't exactly have the best visuals and I may play more games in the future. Quite limited to what I can play on my Mac and most games operate 'meh' through windows via boot camp. Which I think is just bad communication with the actual hardware on the Mac. That led me to try and build this machine really.

I mostly play games likd CoD and Skyrim on the xbox, purely because my Macs don't like them. Having a decent gaming pc will open a lot of options for new releases as well. So may stick with the 750w corsair.

Just want to keep things simple for the first build that will work decently without dumping more than 1k into it.
 
right so this is what I am hoping to go for

HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

"Spectre Z77 Aqua" Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.40GHz DDR3 Overclocked Bundle - Quad Core

NZXT Hale Power 90+ 650W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply

Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC128D/EU)

LG BH10LS38 10x BluRay-RW / 16 x DVD±RW Lightscribe Drive - Black (Retail)

Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003)

not sure if the heat sink will fit my case, it is quite large. If it is guna be tight I may contact OC to see if we can maybe do a diff build.
 
yeah i mean I have been chatting with a few people about the stuff im ordering and lot have said it is overkill for what I am going to be using it for, i mean swtor and wow on top graphics and maybe starcraft 2 im sure is easily done on a much cheaper build. I think maybe the overclocked bundle is pushing it costwise, could probably downgrade that to a sandybridge i5 overclocked bundle instead as I mentioned in my first post and maybe get the graphics card you suggested Snips

I haven't overclocked anything before so not sure whether getting the processor+motherboard+ram+heatsink as seperate bits rather than a bundle is the way forward without overclocking. Guess I am just not confident to do it myself but hey, I will probs have to learn sometime xD
 
well I was really surprised when i got it. Wasn't really expecting how big it was going to be, considering it is sposed to be a midi tower.

The build quality is really solid and has all the neccessary features for good cable management. The removable drive bays is a great featurefor those really big GPU's and leaves you with 2 drive bays spare. It's just a good looking case all around, nice ventilation and looks the part
 
So still debating on what bits to get for this build. Had lot of advice from people some saying intel i5 some saying AMD. Was suggested

Radon TURBO AMD A10-5800K 3.80GHz @ 4.40GHz DDR3 2133MHz Overclocked Bundle

rather than intel but not too sure where to go, AMD seems good value for money for what you get but intel does seem like a solid choice. It then makes me wonder about graphics cards, again I am torn between Nvidia and AMD. Looking at roughly between £150-200 for a GPU and around £300-350 for the processor, motherboard, RAM + heatsink which made me think the bunldes were good value.

Any additional help would be great!
 
I would definetley get the Intel spec. The bozos suggesting AMD are a bit off their rocker.

The AMD spec has a decent (ish) on board graphics so for the likes of a cheap gaming PC and a HTPC it works well. Remember WOW is very CPU bound the the Ivy i5 has the best IPC of the lot.
 
good to know. the guys i have been talking to sort of made a big deal about how much I was looking to spend on my machine compared to what they spent on their AMD machines. So didnt know whether it was worth cutting costs or going for intel. But as you say, the intel rep does do it justice and by the sound of it, it is worth paying the extra.

Nvidia seems to be the gpu of choice for most intel builds also. But not sure I have enough spare cash to upgrade the card from 660 to 660ti if going for the intel build. Which is why AMD cards sort of came into the equation for their value and what you get out of them.
 
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