Gaming build - your collective expertise would be much appreciated

BinnsY said:
This would be my suggestion. Nice quiet case and just a couple of minor tweaks to your origional budget. The MSI version of the GTX780 is £10 cheaper and just as good, the twin fozer cooler on it is also exceptionally quiet. I've included a nice heatsink thats about as big as you can fit in that case so you can keep the noise levels low as well.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Geforce GTX 780 Gaming Edition OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £369.95
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £173.99
1 x Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z87 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £119.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 330R Silent Mid Tower Case - Black £74.95
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £73.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
1 x Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler £17.99
Total : £901.85 (includes shipping : £12.50).

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Thank you kindly for putting this package together. The case looks great, especially if it is likely to be easier to cool things with it vs the Shinobi.

The MSI vs Gigabyte business: do MSI have a UK returns centre? I'd be willing to fork out the extra tenner on the Gigabyte if that's the only real difference between them.
 
OLDPHART said:
Sorry for that was doing ten things at once did not see his budget, the only thing l would do is get a better motherbroad then the
Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z87 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard-£119.99 inc VAT-

Gigabyte Z87X-OC Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard-£158.99 inc VAT

Asus Z87 MAXIMUS VI HERO Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard-£164.99 inc VAT

If you get a Shinobi put a 140mm fan in the top of the case, as you have only a 120mm fan rear and front for air flow and the Raider case is the same so the air flow not that good, the 140mm fan does make a differance to the case temps.
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Thank you for the information on the Shinobi and Raider with regards cooling. That's good to know.

I've been looking at the spec for the 787X-OC vs the 787: the primary difference I can see are more PCI-E x16 in the 787X-OC. May I ask why this is advantageous/worth the extra outlay vs the 787?
 
Qitarah said:
That will take the total price way over the original £800 budget.

Or would require lowering he graphics card down to like a 270x. Which would just be stupid!

Stick with the i5 and 780 graphics card.

If you want to push the budget a bit get a 4770k. Games are starting to make use of the virtual cores more often, and it will be a bit more future proof than the i5. However the i5 and 780 will absolutely suit your needs and last a good while.

make sure you get a aftermarket heatsink. It will help lower noise compared to the intel heatsink.
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Roger that on the aftermarket heatsink, that is certainly not something that would have ever crossed my mind! One of those will go into the basket; thank you for the suggestion.

I've been looking at the 4770k vs the 4670k after the mentions in this thread, and I'm unsure whether I (having been gaming on a six year old HP 'entertainment' laptop) will really get the use out of the 4770k just yet.
 
fowler002 said:
If you're not set on nvidia then

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-341-SP

That comes with free bf4, or you can save another £10 and get the msi gaming edition

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-239-MS

According to gibbo the sapphire is the best 290 currently available tho the msi is certainly not a bad second choice.
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Not set on Nvidia at all - I have no brand/make bias (too uneducated for that) but I do like things like UK returns centres. It just makes things so much more pleasant when things go wrong.

I'll have a look at the Sapphire. It sounds like it may be rather top spec and thus wasted on me!
 
Just having a look at the graphics card - can another graphics card be added at a later date, or will the Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z87 Intel Z87 mother board / and or the current graphics card not support it?

My apologies if this is a highly noobish question.
 
hughtrimble said:
Not set on Nvidia at all - I have no brand/make bias (too uneducated for that) but I do like things like UK returns centres. It just makes things so much more pleasant when things go wrong.

I'll have a look at the Sapphire. It sounds like it may be rather top spec and thus wasted on me!
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The sapphire 290 tri-x is no more top spec than a gtx780, they're both about equal(290 better in some games while the 780 is better in others).

If you prefer uk based RMA then the gigabyte 290 windforcenis on today only offer for £336 tho only 9 left at time of posting so be quick as they'll be sold out in quick time

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-133-GI

hughtrimble said:
Just having a look at the graphics card - can another graphics card be added at a later date, or will the Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z87 Intel Z87 mother board / and or the current graphics card not support it?

My apologies if this is a highly noobish question.
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All the motherboards mentioned in this thread so far support xfire/sli(I.e 2 graphics cards, xfire is the term for amd cards while sli is for nvidia cards). Only thing is you'll nene a 'bigger' psu than the one speced thus far if you're going a 290/780(the 650w superflower should be enough for 2x 280x but not quite for 2x 290/780).
 
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The AMD r9 290 Gigabyte version would be a very good alternative to the 780 you originally had, its on for a good price too at the moment. Also the 290 vs 780 comes down to which games you play really, and what you want to get out of your card.

As mentioned you would need to get a higher capacity PSU for crossfiring/sli (especially Xfire 290s).

And finally in regards to the i5 vs i7. From what you describe the i5 should be more perfect really.
 
fowler002 said:
The sapphire 290 tri-x is no more top spec than a gtx780, they're both about equal(290 better in some games while the 780 is better in others).

If you prefer uk based RMA then the gigabyte 290 windforcenis on today only offer for £336 tho only 9 left at time of posting so be quick as they'll be sold out in quick time

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-133-GI



All the motherboards mentioned in this thread so far support xfire/sli(I.e 2 graphics cards, xfire is the term for amd cards while sli is for nvidia cards). Only thing is you'll nene a 'bigger' psu than the one speced thus far if you're going a 290/780(the 650w superflower should be enough for 2x 280x but not quite for 2x 290/780).
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Good spot on the deal - just ordered one.

So now the graphics card is sorted, thanks to your good self!

May I ask what sort of PSU would be needed if I were to ever add a second of the 290 cards? I think it will be quite some time before that, but shelling out a few extra reddies now for a more powerful unit that would cost many more reddies to upgrade entirely seems like the better move.
 
Qitarah said:
The AMD r9 290 Gigabyte version would be a very good alternative to the 780 you originally had, its on for a good price too at the moment. Also the 290 vs 780 comes down to which games you play really, and what you want to get out of your card.

As mentioned you would need to get a higher capacity PSU for crossfiring/sli (especially Xfire 290s).

And finally in regards to the i5 vs i7. From what you describe the i5 should be more perfect really.
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I had no idea different games ran differently on certain makes of graphics cards. Is this only found through playing the games, or can it be predicted depending on the games' creators?

I have a feeling I won't need to be crossfiring this GPU for quite some time. But it's nice to have future options.
 
It's all the components all running at once that is the issue. But it's recommending 600W on the basis that that's the minimum (probably) required to run a pc with that GPU and therefore with the components you need to run a GPU, ie motherboard, ram, processor etc. It's not something you want to underestimate.

900W may be a little OTTP, maybe 800W would be better. You can roughly calculate it on some online calculators, but perhaps someone else would have recommendation for you.
 
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This is what I'm currently looking at man:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £173.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 330R Silent Mid Tower Case - Black £74.95
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £73.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
1 x Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler £17.99
1 x Enermax T.B.Silence UCTB14B 140mm Fan £9.98
Total : £421.00 (includes shipping : £11.75).




Why the liquid cooler and the different motherboard vs the current selection?
 
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I'd snap up this graphics card today, tis a good price.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-133-GI

The other parts are looking fine. Liquid cooling is pointless if your not going to be overclocking. That cooler you have listed will do the job just fine.


If you wanted to look for a slightly better motherboard (which I dont think is needed as per your description of not overclocking and just for gaming), then yer have a look on other websites for the Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H or Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H Intel Z87 they quite cheap from some other places (hint: rainforest) and are really good motherboards.


As for 290 vs 780. Your gonna get great performance from both, both will be amazing cards and will last you. If it was my money right now, Id buy the one i listed at the start of this post, because of mantle and the great price!
 
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Qitarah said:
I'd snap up this graphics card today, tis a good price.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-133-GI

The other parts are looking fine. Liquid cooling is pointless if your not going to be overclocking. That cooler you have listed will do the job just fine.


If you wanted to look for a slightly better motherboard (which I dont think is needed as per your description of not overclocking and just for gaming), then yer have a look on other websites for the Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H or Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H Intel Z87 they quite cheap from some other places (hint: rainforest) and are really good motherboards.


As for 290 vs 780. Your gonna get great performance from both, both will be amazing cards and will last you. If it was my money right now, Id buy the one i listed at the start of this post, because of mantle and the great price!
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Just a quick hint, try looking at the op and post #29
 
I'm the one who originally was trying to help the chap and saw the post bumped and thought i would try help again but yer I guess its easy to miss one post especially when there are only a few left of the card.
 
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Qitarah said:
...
The other parts are looking fine. Liquid cooling is pointless if your not going to be overclocking. That cooler you have listed will do the job just fine.


If you wanted to look for a slightly better motherboard (which I dont think is needed as per your description of not overclocking and just for gaming), then yer have a look on other websites for the Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H or Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H Intel Z87 they quite cheap from some other places (hint: rainforest) and are really good motherboards.

...
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Your help throughout this is very much appreciated Qitarah - my rather poor BB skills mean I have not made it very clear which parts I've purchased etc. and for that I apologise.

What is excellent is that so many of those kind enough to post in this thread have all said what a good deal that R9 290 GPU is, and that is certainly comforting! One will hopefully be with me by the morrow.

I just honestly cannot see myself overclocking things, at least not just yet. This will be my first 'build' and as such I am likely to be rather hesitant about messing around with components. What would be nice though, is the option to OC at a later date when I have grown some cojones! Therefore a superior motherboard and cooling may be worthwhile...?
 
Sure yer. Overclocking really isn't that hard anyways (well for up to a certain level).

The boards I mentioned in two posts above (gigabyte ud3h and ud4h) will do for a decent amount of clocking, this board in particular is quite highly recommended;

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-434-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=2574

As for a better cooler well then your coming to high end air coolers something like;

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-011-NC&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=2346

Or closed loop water cooling units such as;

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-015-CS&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=2262


As for spending the extra money on the parts listed, that's up to you buddy. If you are not going to overclock the extra will be mostly wasted, the mobo we originally talked about will let you overclock and is a decent board, but the other ones mentioned are well just...better.

(hint again; look on the rainforest named site for Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H)

As for the better heatsinks cooling. I personally prefer high-end air cooling over Closed looped watercooling (like the one I listed above) but thats just me. Sure you have a huge chunk of metal hanging off your motherboard but better than some plastic holding water! :D

Either way high end air or closed loop will both do the job of keeping things cool, and both have there own pros and cons!

Just as a note, check the product dimensions for heatsinks/etc and make sure it will fit in the case you decide on!

For the added price of the motherboard or extra cooling you could get the 4770k the original motherboard and down the road if you decided to overclock you could always pick up a better aftermarket cooler! However that said I think what it comes down to is setting yourself a budget and sticking to it.

If it was me? Id get;

The 290 you got.
The money saved from the original 780, put it towards a 4770k
Decent ish motherboard like the above mentioned Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H from the rainforest named website (A LOT cheaper than here currently, sorry OCUK!)
Get a the cooler you have listed and if you do decide to overclock later on get a better high end aircooler.
The same Ram we discussed/you have listed.


the 4770k (or 4670k admittedly), coupled with a r9 290 will make for a monster.
 
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