First PC Build £1k

hellhasnofury

hellhasnofury

hellhasnofury

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I'm a huge noob at custom PC building but after a fair amount of research I think I'm happy with my final build, I'd like to ask a load of specific questions, but to be entirely honest I don't know enough about PC building to even know what to ask.

But hey, here goes. Obviously it's a gaming build but I also do a lot of film editing. Any suggestions for modifications I should consider ? '

I Guess a few things I'm thinking could be -

Is the 7950 overkill for a 1k build ?

Is the cheap 'n' cheerful case big enough to house the components ? (I've never built a pc before and it's a really intimidating task so a bit of space knocking around I'd imagine would make life easier)

Will the case need more cooling ?

Is the power supply big enough ?

I tried putting the components into that PartsPicker website (i think it's called) but most of them were not listed so I don't even know if this is compatible.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE FARCRY3, Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs & 20% off MOH Warfighter PC Games £259.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £159.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £129.98
1 x OCZ Vertex 2E 120GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-2VTXE120G) £71.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020015-UK) £69.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) £69.95
1 x Avexir MPower Series 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (AVD3U16001008G-2CM) £65.99
1 x Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £39.98
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler (Socket Intel® Socket LGA1366/1156/1155/775/AMD Socket FM1/AM3+/AM3/AM2+/AM2)


Thanks for taking the time to read this far, as I said I'm new to all this and It's intimidating! ANY help or advice would be massively appreciated :)
 
looks ok.

Your psu is fine a bit overkill TBH but good incase of crossfire.

For gaming the 7950 will be amazing.

I would change the SSD to a sata 3 1 at least.

Something like a Crucial M4, Sansung 830 / 840, intel.
 
This if you want to go dual card in the future.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE FARCRY3, Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs & 20% off MOH Warfighter PC Games £259.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £159.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £129.98
1 x Intel 330 Series 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £83.99
1 x XFX Pro Series 750W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £79.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) £69.95
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black £64.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED316GM1600HC11DC01) £47.99
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 140 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA775/AM2/AM3) £39.95
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £966.77 (includes shipping : £12.50).



This for single card.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE FARCRY3, Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs & 20% off MOH Warfighter PC Games £259.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £159.95
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 830 Series SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive - (MZ-7PC256B/WW) £142.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £81.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) £69.95
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black £64.99
1 x PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III Series 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply - White £59.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED316GM1600HC11DC01) £47.99
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 140 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA775/AM2/AM3) £39.95
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £957.77 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Do you have an OS?
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 670 FTW 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Borderlands 2 & Assassin's Creed III PC Games (02G-P4-2678-KR) £311.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £239.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC128N/EU) £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £81.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) £69.95
1 x PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III Series 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply - White £59.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Case - Black £49.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED316GM1600HC11DC01) £47.99
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 120 REV A CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/AM2/AM3/FM1) £24.98
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £1,006.84 (includes shipping : £12.50).



if you do film editing, you may benefit from a 3770k and an nvidia gpu with cuda cores (depending on your editing software)

otherwise, this (for 130 quid less):
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE FARCRY3, Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs & 20% off MOH Warfighter PC Games £259.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £159.95
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC128N/EU) £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £81.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) £69.95
1 x PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III Series 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply - White £59.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Case - Black £49.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED316GM1600HC11DC01) £47.99
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 120 REV A CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/AM2/AM3/FM1) £24.98
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £874.80 (includes shipping : £12.50).


amd card and a cpu with no hyperthreading
 
Thanks very much for all your responses, it seems a few of you are suggesting the Antec 300 won't house 2 7950's ? Can somebody confirm this? (It's pretty much the only case I found appealing under £100 but if if it's not big enough I suppose aesthetics come second).

The 750W PSU i have currently chosen is only £20 more than the step down (which is out of stock) so I figured meh, I'm buying this computer as a 5+ year investment so eventually dual cards will probably be the way.

I'm somewhat reluctant to go for the Nvidia alternatives as most of the research I've done was AMD based. I understand it may be faster with more cores, but how much film editing is this thing really going to struggle with?
Anybody with any experience? Being perfectly honest won't this thing pretty much burn through almost anything I could throw at it and the odd 5%-10% would just be extra margins of overkill? (PLEASE correct me if I'm misguided).

Thanks again


Edit- Is the SSD a bit of an indulgence?
 
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the antec 300 was good for its time, but its showing its age compared with newer cases. if you must get the 300, then get the 302 (the updated version)
the cx 750 you picked is non modular, which is all fine and dandy, but you'll have a mess of unused cables lying at the bottom of your case (your personal preference though)
just see what brand of gpu your video program is optimised for, that's the gpu you should use.
3570k vs 3770k http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/551?vs=701 its slightly >10% improvement with highly threaded workloads.
ssds arent indulgence anymore. once you go ssd, you'll never go back
 
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Have you seen the Fractal Arc Midi? I used to love the Antec 300, until I saw the Arc. :) It's a good price too. Overclockers seem to be really low on Fractal stock. :(

For a PSU I would stick with the Corsair, but would avoid XFX if you can help it. I've had bad experiences with their products and RMA service.

Btw a 600w psu would be more than enough. My build is a 3570K @4.5Ghz, 7970 etc etc, draws 330Watt at full load. Never seen it reach 400w yet.

edit: Antec 302 look's good, the 300 lacked cable management and graphics card length is now a bit limited.
 
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tamzzy said:
the antec 300 was good for its time, but its showing its age compared with newer cases. if you must get the 300, then get the 302 (the updated version)
the cx 750 you picked is non modular, which is all fine and dandy, but you'll have a mess of unused cables lying at the bottom of your case (your personal preference though)
just see what brand of gpu your video program is optimised for, that's the gpu you should use.
3570k vs 3770k http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/551?vs=701 its slightly >10% improvement with highly threaded workloads.
ssds arent indulgence anymore. once you go ssd, you'll never go back
Click to expand...

Can you suggest an alternate to the CPU that would allow for Dual carding a few years down the line?

It may be an older case but are there any real grounds to suggest it being insufficient ? I can always bulk it out with fans if the cooling is crap, and it seems big enough to stuff 2 7950's in there at a future date.


Edit: I wrote that before somebody came in and helped with almost all of it.

The problem is budget, I'm cutting costs where possible however does anybody have any input regarding budging it up to i7 ? Will sticking with an i5 hinder me in any way in the future ?
 
Is it worth dropping down to the 7850 if i have no intention of dual carding in the future ? I imagine the 7850 and the 7950 will run just about anything for a couple years anyway ? I could use the money saved on the 7950 to get a better case/psu/cpu cooler. Any suggestions ?

Again really appreciate the advice, i'm hours away from clicking the button and taking the dive, the last minute changes are really helping!!
 
and besides, the bitfenix shinobi, silencer 500w and the true spirit 120 are among the best bang for buck components.[/QUOTE]

Switching to the true spirit based solely on your account, it'll fit nicely and do the job better than the one I'd previously chosen? Thanks for the reply man, investigating the case now. As for the 500w psu it looks like a decent deal- again that's based solely on your advice.
 
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hellhasnofury said:
Switching to the true spirit based solely on your account, it'll fit nicely and do the job better than the one I'd previously chosen?
Click to expand...

yes

hellhasnofury said:
Thanks for the reply man, investigating the case now. As for the 500w psu it looks like a decent deal-
Click to expand...

either the silencer 500w or the corsair 550w
YOUR BASKET
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX550M High Performance 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020001-UK) £59.99
Total : £70.49 (includes shipping : £8.75).



i had a corsair hx+ 650w and it had a super annoying fan grinding noise (in fact it was 2, the replacement one had that too lol)
so i cant recommend the corsair one over the silencer.

hellhasnofury said:
Any idea if the 7950 is significantly more future-proof than the 7850?
Click to expand...
a lot
 
So I'll whack in a 7950 and a few years down the line, when we've reaped the joys of Half life 3 and Crysis 3 and it's due an upgrade, should i build with an SLI in mind and just whack in another GFU, or simply upgrade to the latest and greatest for another 3 years.

This is the difference between a bigger PSU and probably sticking to the motherboard i currently have (which btw any advice on would be very welcomed as it's probably what i'm most clueless about on the whole build)

Edit: really want to stress I can't thank you enough for the help, want to get this all wrapped up tonight.
 
Fantastic, thanks.

Final Thoughts ?

(Planning on banging an SSD in at a later date, I assume that's not much of an issue?)

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE FARCRY3, Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs & 20% off MOH Warfighter PC Games £259.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £159.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £129.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) £69.95
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX550M High Performance 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020001-UK) £59.99
1 x Antec 302 Three Hundred Two Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £52.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED316GM1600HC11DC01) £47.99
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 120 REV A CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/AM2/AM3/FM1) £24.98
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
 
stick with the z77 d3h.
or if you wanna a dual gpu capable board, then the z77x d3h. the ud3h isnt really needed.
and you'll save 50 quid.
if you wanna dual gpu, you'll also need a 750-850w psu.
 
I don't know enough about computers to get myself out of the possible problems SLI might bring. Probably best to just switch in and out GPU's a few years down the line.

You're suggesting knocking the motherboard down a notch? As I said I don't know enough about motherboards to know what the implications would be :( other than not allowing me the option of sli. You couldn't elaborate on that a little more could you ?

My knowledge pretty much stretches as far as USB 3.0 and "oh wow there are tons of shiney features and impressive reviews"
 
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