Gaming / Overclocking Build, £1400

zenf

zenf

zenf

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15 Jun 2003
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1,342
It's been a long time since I've looked into a new build so I was hoping one of our hardware gurus could take a look at this spec? I'm looking for performance, overclocking capability and future proofing but I'd prefer not to spend more than £1,400. Having said that, value for money is the main thing for me so I can go above if the gains are worth it.

Here's what I'm looking at, the only things that can't be changed are the graphics card as it's already been ordered for £20 less (:p), and I'm pretty certain I want the i7 4770K.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £379.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £269.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Desktop Kit - (MZ-7TE250KW) £160.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-OC Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £158.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £99.95
1 x Corsair CS750M 750W Semi-Modular 80+ GOLD Certified Power Supply (CP-9020078-UK) £79.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit (TXD38G2666HC11CDC01) £69.95
1 x Corsair Graphite Series 230T Compact Mid Tower Case Windowed - Grey (CC-9011040-WW) £66.95
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £52.99
Total : £1,349.39 (includes shipping : £8.00).



I think a 650W PSU would be enough but I'd like to be covered for running a crossfire setup in the future, I guess a 750W would be OK for that? And I keep seeing Seasonic or SuperFlower being recommended but I've never had any issues with Corsair, is it worth spending a bit more for one of those?

Cheers!

Edit: It looks like I'll have to mount the fans for the H100i on the outside of the case if I go with the 230T which isn't ideal.. Any recommendations for a smallish case but big enough to accomodate the H100i and a couple of graphics cards 267mm long?
 
Last edited:
All looking good dude, apart from the case. Although seeing your edit I see you want something more compact. The Corsair Carbide 540 looks great, but is more of a chunky cube - not exactly compact but not too tall I guess:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case - Black (CC-9011030-WW) £129.95
1 x Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case - Silver (CC-9011034-WLED) £129.95
1 x Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case - Arctic White (CC-9011048-WW) £129.95

 
Orange Ram and Case to match the Motherboard ?

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £249.95
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £149.99
1 x Seasonic G series 750w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £99.95
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2133HC11ADC01) £69.95
1 x Corsair Graphite Series 230T Compact Mid Tower Case Windowed - Orange (CC-9011038-WW) £66.95
Total : £650.28 (includes shipping : £11.25).




The OEM cpu is £20 cheaper.
The Evo basic is £11 cheaper for the same read/write speeds.
A better psu which should be ok for crossfire.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 OC WindForce 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-R929OC-4GD) £379.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £249.95
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £149.99
1 x Gigabyte G1.Sniper M5 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £139.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £99.95
1 x Seasonic G series 750w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £99.95
1 x Corsair Obsidian 350D Windowed Micro ATX Case - Black (CC-9011029-WW) £94.99
1 x Avexir Venom Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17200C9 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U21330904G-2CIG) - Green Light £79.99
1 x Toshiba 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA200) HDD £59.99
Total : £1,376.21 (includes shipping : £17.85).



Very similar, except matching RAM/Mobo, slightly nicer case (imo) and nice and compact... people have started speccing the powercolor 290 a lot... but I know that the windforce cooler is meant to be very good, and wont ruin the colour scheme of the ram/mobo :)
 
The Only Beardy said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 OC WindForce 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-R929OC-4GD) £379.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £249.95
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £149.99
1 x Gigabyte G1.Sniper M5 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £139.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £99.95
1 x Seasonic G series 750w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £99.95
1 x Corsair Obsidian 350D Windowed Micro ATX Case - Black (CC-9011029-WW) £94.99
1 x Avexir Venom Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17200C9 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U21330904G-2CIG) - Green Light £79.99
1 x Toshiba 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA200) HDD £59.99
Total : £1,376.21 (includes shipping : £17.85).



Very similar, except matching RAM/Mobo, slightly nicer case (imo) and nice and compact... people have started speccing the powercolor 290 a lot... but I know that the windforce cooler is meant to be very good, and wont ruin the colour scheme of the ram/mobo :)
Click to expand...


Nice spec, but the op already has the gpu :)
 
zenf said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £379.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £269.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Desktop Kit - (MZ-7TE250KW) £160.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-OC Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £158.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £99.95
1 x Corsair CS750M 750W Semi-Modular 80+ GOLD Certified Power Supply (CP-9020078-UK) £79.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit (TXD38G2666HC11CDC01) £69.95
1 x Corsair Graphite Series 230T Compact Mid Tower Case Windowed - Grey (CC-9011040-WW) £66.95
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £52.99
Total : £1,349.39 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Click to expand...

While that spec is okay, ill point out some things you may have missed..

- The motherboard slot spacing. As the gPU you've picked is JUST over 2 slots wide a standard 2 slot motherboard wouldn't work.. The one you've picked will but you'll have to use slot 1 and slot 3, which means you can only have 2 cards max.. So why not save a chunk of money and get a cheaper board that can also have 2 GPU's?

- The Antec 1220 is much cheaper and just as good as the H100i

- The OEM CPU is £20 less.

- That PSU isn't great, this Seasoninc 750W would be MUCH better.

- The Case isn't all that special either. The Ronin is a better choice.

Heres my spec:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £379.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £249.95
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Desktop Kit - (MZ-7TE250KW) £160.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £119.99
1 x Seasonic G series 750w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £99.95
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 1220 Series 4 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £81.6
1 x BitFenix Ronin Tower Case - Black £69.95
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit (TXD38G2666HC11CDC01) £69.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £44.99
Total : £1,291.45 (includes shipping : £11.75).



Saved you a lot of money. :)
 
Wow, thanks very much all!

WalderX said:
All looking good dude, apart from the case. Although seeing your edit I see you want something more compact. The Corsair Carbide 540 looks great, but is more of a chunky cube - not exactly compact but not too tall I guess:
Click to expand...

The Carbide 540 does indeed look great but it's a bit more than I'd like to spend on a case and it's probably a bit too wide for my desk. :p

lee32uk said:
Orange Ram and Case to match the Motherboard ?

The OEM cpu is £20 cheaper.
The Evo basic is £11 cheaper for the same read/write speeds.
A better psu which should be ok for crossfire.
Click to expand...

Tempting to go orange! Everything else I have is blue at the moment but it's probably about time for a change, and orange and blue go well together at least. :D Isn't that RAM worse though, DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz for the same price as PC3-21300C11 2666MHz? And why is the Seasonic better, more reliable?

WalderX said:
These cases are also looking top notch, unfortunately not out till end of the month though:
Click to expand...

Oohh.. Yep, that could definitely be worth waiting for!

The Only Beardy said:
Very similar, except matching RAM/Mobo, slightly nicer case (imo) and nice and compact... people have started speccing the powercolor 290 a lot... but I know that the windforce cooler is meant to be very good, and wont ruin the colour scheme of the ram/mobo :)
Click to expand...

I wasn't thinking that much about the colour scheme before tbh, starting to now though! I think the Powercolor one is pretty much black so should be OK. Again though, isn't that RAM worse for the money?

Doomedspeed said:
While that spec is okay, ill point out some things you may have missed..

- The motherboard slot spacing. As the gPU you've picked is JUST over 2 slots wide a standard 2 slot motherboard wouldn't work.. The one you've picked will but you'll have to use slot 1 and slot 3, which means you can only have 2 cards max.. So why not save a chunk of money and get a cheaper board that can also have 2 GPU's?
Click to expand...

Sorry, I'm confused.. Do you mean a cheaper board that can ONLY have 2 GPU's? I thought that because of the width of the card, not many mobos would be able to have them in crossfire but the Gigabyte Z87X-OC can, so would be the one to go for? I guess the mobo you posted only has 2 slots but a good distance between them?

Doomedspeed said:
- The Antec 1220 is much cheaper and just as good as the H100i

- The OEM CPU is £20 less.

- That PSU isn't great, this Seasoninc 750W would be MUCH better.

- The Case isn't all that special either. The Ronin is a better choice.

Heres my spec:

Saved you a lot of money. :)
Click to expand...

Duly noted, cheers!
 
Last edited:
The Seasonic psu is superior to the Corsair one in your first post. It has better internal components, a longer warranty, and it is made by Seasonic who are one of the best (Along with Superflower and Enermax).
 
zenf said:
Tempting to go orange! Everything else I have is blue at the moment but it's probably about time for a change, and orange and blue go well together at least. :D Isn't that RAM worse though, DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz for the same price as PC3-21300C11 2666MHz? And why is the Seasonic better, more reliable?
Click to expand...

I doubt you would notice a difference between 2133 and 2666 Ram to be honest.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £379.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £249.95
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-OC Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £158.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £149.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 550D Quiet Midi Tower Case - Black (CC-9011015-WW) £119.99
1 x Seasonic G series 750w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £99.95
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £99.95
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £44.99
Total : £1,382.70 (includes shipping : £19.10).

 
zenf said:
Sorry, I'm confused.. Do you mean a cheaper board that can ONLY have 2 GPU's? I thought that because of the width of the card, not many mobos would be able to have them in crossfire but the Gigabyte Z87X-OC can, so would be the one to go for? I guess the mobo you posted only has 2 slots but a good distance between them?
Click to expand...

Sorry, it did seem a bit confusing when i read it back too....

Okay ets say your GPU is 3 slots (i know its not exactly but lets assume).

On the X-OC, you'd use slots 1 and 3..

If you had a 2 slot GPU (like the MSI gaming) the X-OC would accept 3 of them in slots 1, 2 and 3..

The motherboard i selected as enough distance between the 2 slots to accept 2 of your cards with room to breathe.

It is cheaper than the OC as it can ONLY accpet 2 GPU's.

As you could only use 2 GPU's with the OC anyway... The Z87X-D3H is better value.
 
lee32uk said:
I would get the basic Evo which shaves another £11 off the price.

The Seasonic psu is superior to the Corsair one in your first post. It has better internal components, a longer warranty, and it is made by Seasonic who are one of the best (Along with Superflower and Enermax).

I doubt you would notice a difference between 2133 and 2666 Ram to be honest.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'll definitely be getting the Evo basic and the Seasonic. I doubt I would notice the difference but I don't really look inside the case much either and I think I'd be happier knowing I've got the most bang for the buck.

Idleman said:
snip
Click to expand...

The case is a bit big and expensive but looks great, cheers!

Doomedspeed said:
snip
Click to expand...

Ah I'm with you. :) The main reason I was drawn to the Z87X-OC though was the overclocking capabilities as I've had some poor luck in the past. My last build was a E8400 in an Asus P5Q Pro which should've been just fine, but I couldn't achieve anywhere near the overclocks other people were getting with the same setup without putting silly volts through the chip. It was probably just a bad chip but it'd be nice to know the motherboard isn't holding it back and I've read a couple of reviews which say it's really good value for overclocking.

The GIGABYTE Z87X-OC motherboard is a great "no-frills" motherboard. It is an extremely good Haswell overclocker and a solid and stable motherboard. It targets a segment of the hardware enthusiast that wants great overclocking but does not need a quality motherboard at an inflated price that has a bunch of extras tacked on that you may not want. While the GIGABYTE Z87X-OC cannot be considered "cheap" at $185, it surely breaks ranks with many other high end motherboard as it is far from expensive.
Click to expand...

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/11/20/gigabyte_z87xoc_lga_1150_motherboard_review/7

GIGABYTE offers a very impressive package in the Z87X-OC, one that users moving into the more budget oriented overclocking scene should jump on. There is very little that competes in terms of price/package in the overclocking scene. For this I would like to give the GIGABYTE Z87X-OC our Editors’ Choice Silver Award.
Click to expand...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7409/gigabyte-z87xoc-review-overclocking-oriented-orange-at-200/8
 
How`s about a mATX build.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £379.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £249.95
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £143.99
1 x MSI Z87M Gaming Series Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £119.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £99.95
1 x Seasonic G series 750w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £99.95
1 x Corsair Obsidian 350D Micro ATX Case - Black (CC-9011028-WW) £89.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit (TXD38G2666HC11CDC01) £69.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £41.99
Total : £1,317.16 (includes shipping : £17.85).

 
Idleman said:
How`s about a mATX build.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £379.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £249.95
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £143.99
1 x MSI Z87M Gaming Series Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £119.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £99.95
1 x Seasonic G series 750w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £99.95
1 x Corsair Obsidian 350D Micro ATX Case - Black (CC-9011028-WW) £89.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit (TXD38G2666HC11CDC01) £69.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £41.99
Total : £1,317.16 (includes shipping : £17.85).

Click to expand...

Sexy - Yes

Would i Xfire in one - No..

:)
 
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