First from scratch build

TheDreido · 7 Aug 2011 at 09:07

Hi,

I'm building a new PC for gaming (and other general web/work purposes), it's my first completely new build with all the components.

I don't need any peripherals, as I already have two 1080p monitors (I only game on one) and mouse, keyboard etc.

I have a blu-ray drive to put in it, so haven't included an optical drive in what I have specced already.

So, here it is:

Graphics Card MSI GeForce GTX570 £254.99
Processor Intel i5 2500k £161.99
Motherboard Asus P8Z68-V £129.98
SSD Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s £88.99
Case Cooler Master CM-690 II Advanced £79.99
OS Windows 7 Home Premium £79.99
Power Supply Lepa B-Series 750W '80 Plus Bronze' £72.98
HDD Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gb/s £72.98
RAM Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB £53.99
CPU Cooler Gelid Tranquilo CPU Cooler £25.99

Which comes to a total of £1,021.87

Budget: £1,100

Specific upcoming games include the obvious: BF3, GW2, Skyrim, SWTOR, DX:HR. To name but a few.

It would be great if people could tell me what they think/give any advice as to improvements/changes that could be made please!

Thanks!

P.S Been a forum lurker for months now, and just realised I should have signed up and posted earlier, to take advantage of free delivery ;p

stulid · 7 Aug 2011 at 09:16

Swap out the WD Black for a Samsung F3.

And have you seen the Lancool K62 cases?

TheDreido · 7 Aug 2011 at 09:19

Cheers!

Is there no speed difference between the two? (As the HDD will be holding my Steam games)

TheDreido · 7 Aug 2011 at 09:22

stulid said:
And have you seen the Lancool K62 cases?

Watching a video review on youtube now

stulid · 7 Aug 2011 at 09:25

TheDreido said:
Cheers!

Is there no speed difference between the two? (As the HDD will be holding my Steam games)

Nothing you will notice.

Use the money towards a SSD.

TheDreido · 7 Aug 2011 at 09:43

stulid said:
Nothing you will notice.

Use the money towards a SSD.

Awesome. I've upgraded to the 128GB M4.

Oh and I prefer the windowless design of the CM 690 II.

Thanks for the help!

I'll be clicking that order button later today

TheDreido · 7 Aug 2011 at 14:16

Woohoo!

I've ordered!

Thanks Stulid, I did go for the Lancool in the end XD I like the blue...

stulid · 7 Aug 2011 at 14:18

Ha, will look good with the blue bits on the ASUS.

TheDreido · 7 Aug 2011 at 15:11

Idd, that's what I was thinking

TheDreido · 13 Aug 2011 at 17:24

Hello!

I've just set this build up (with a Gainward GTX 570 Phantom instead of the MSI due to stock).

It has started up flawlessly, installed windows, and I am now installing the drivers on the Mobo disk.

Considering I am using an SSD, is there anything specific to do with settings that i need to set?

Thanks in advance!

stulid · 13 Aug 2011 at 17:27

Get the latest Nvidia drivers - http://www.nvidia.co.uk/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-uk

Disable Disk defrag for the SSD (defrag kills them quicker) and you can disable system restore to free up some valuable SSD space.

TheDreido · 13 Aug 2011 at 17:48

Cheers Stulid

Also, my HDD is being detected in the BIOS. But it isn't appearing in My Computer.

I know I am being a noob, but how do I set this up?

stulid · 13 Aug 2011 at 17:50

Go into admin tools, computer management, disk management,

You will see a shaded area, right click it, format and make a new logical volume and give it a letter name.

TheDreido · 13 Aug 2011 at 17:53

Ahh thanks, formatting it now XD

TheDreido · 13 Aug 2011 at 23:51

Wow is this rig fast!

Considering I am coming from an i5 650 and a 5770. The SSD is nice too ;D starts up like a MAC.

Only thing is (always a but...) it is pretty loud... is there something I could do to get it to be quiet when not playing games?

stulid · 13 Aug 2011 at 23:54

TheDreido said:
Wow is this rig fast!

Considering I am coming from an i5 650 and a 5770. The SSD is nice too ;D starts up like a MAC.

Only thing is (always a but...) it is pretty loud... is there something I could do to get it to be quiet when not playing games?

Maybe add a fan controller for the cases three fans etc, that will be where most of the noise is from.

TheDreido · 14 Aug 2011 at 00:00

Yeah, I'll probably do that, thanks again Stulid

stulid · 14 Aug 2011 at 00:36

What you can do to confirm its the case fans, is just to try the PC with them unplugged for a few minutes, you should be use to the noise the PC makes now, so try with them unplugged(they are going into the PSU? where they will be running maxed out)