HD 5970 Build.

Sharpsilver

Sharpsilver

Sharpsilver

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A £1650 build!

I've debated endlessly between an i5 and an i7, and several other parts, however I feel adamant I'm close. I read a thread somebody posted in the Gfx card section about what CPU's complement the 5870/5870 xfire and I feel that there is no point in me wasting £140 or so for a rig which wont be used for encoding... so here it is.. Version 50.595X :rolleyes:

  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5970 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
  • Dell ST2410 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor
  • Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - OEM
  • Coolermaster HAF 932 Case - Black
  • Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard
  • Corsair TX 750W ATX SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-750TXUK)
  • Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9)
  • Corsair H50-1 High-Performance CPU Watercooler (Socket LGA775/1156/1366/AM2/AM3)
  • Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ)
  • Saitek Eclipse 2 Illuminated Keyboard - Blue/Red/Purple
  • Logitech MX518 Gaming-Grade Optical Mouse (910-000616)
  • Sony Optiarc AD-5240S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM
  • Akasa AK-FN057 Apache Super Silent 120mm Fan - 4 Pin PWM
This is for a £1500 budget, and hits exactly £1515, however I would have ideally like'd to have been able to fit in a headset + Souncard in there as well. but that might've been pushing it a bit close to the max :p

The I5 will overclocked to 4.00ghz or around that, and will be my first time overclocking. Will take it slow, and for that reason I also decided to add a replacement apache fan for the h50 because apparantly that's worth sometimes 1-3 celcius.

However how does this look? Is there anything that is out of place or are there better alternatives that would suit this budget better that would allow me to keep the 5970 in there? Rig will be used for Gaming, MS Office, Music, general browsing

Any suggestions appreciated.
 
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Well is a 5970 necessary? I would go for the one 5850 or 5870 and get yourself a headset.... How about taking the 932 out and putting the Antec 902 in? Similar performance but cheaper price...How about some OCZ Platinum 1333 ram which is cheaper than the corsair
 
Your spending this much money in the first place why not spend a few hundred pound extra and get i7 core?
 
I'll give you a clue, you can get that Dell screen for £45 cheaper elsewhere...

And as the OP said, he doesn't need to do the encoding etc so the i7 would be superfluous in terms of both performance and expense. Why spend more money than you need to?
 
@Big.kidz

Would the 5970 fit in a Antec 902 though? It was one of my choices at first and since It couldn't fit a 5870 without removing one of the hard drive cages I thought it was a lost cause. If somebody could confirm then that would be fantastic.

My budget could probably be expanded to a max of around 1600 take a few £££.

I think the main reason behind me wanting to keep the graphics card as top-end as possible is because this rig will need to last me a while, since I have tendency to buy hardware in all my previous systems, (2 pre-built dells and a iMac) that is outdated and now with this budget I want to take full advantage of what I'm able to get for the budget, I am intent on doing so... probably sounds like I'm being a bit silly but, hey. :P

To all the suggestions.

Will a Antec 902 have enough space (if I removed a Hard drive cage similarly like when fitting a 5870), to house a 5970 card?

Will there be much difference in performance between 1333mhz DDR3 and 1600mhz DDR3 RAM running at dual channel? I thought the sticks I listed were already good value though.

And the monitor, Wakayoda, could you suggest some alternatives? Saying that I could get better for cheaper from OcUk, or I could go elsewhere and get it a little bit cheaper like Jamesgoss, suggested?

If I made a few cutbacks I think I might just be able to sqeeze in a decent headset and sound card without going too far over.
 
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Spending anything more than 800-1000quid on a PC now is fail anyways, you pay 1600 and 3months later it's worth 1200...


And 5970 is such an overkill for this build, 5850 is more than plenty for anything and will be for a quite some time yet.

Seriously, drop GPU to 5850, PSU one notch down, leave the fan as it is and get 2nd hdd for raid 0 instead.

And then if you feel like needing more power in a year or so, buy whatever is new or slap in another 5850 in CF for silly money.

If you're buying 5970 you could just as well get 30 inch monitor, 8gb of 2000mhz ram and DICE or phase cooling with i7 950....

Would look more sensible this way.
 
Okay, Now I realise, having the 5970 may be a tad overkill. Replaced the 5970 with a 5870 instead. I also downgraded the 750tx to a 650 and this freed up about £200 or so from the £1400 budget. Last change was bumping the 500mb HDD up to a 1TB drive instead. And on RAID0, I'm not really sure how I would go about setting up that... unless somebody wants to elighten moi :).

Here is version 2 of my first spec.

  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card -
  • Dell ST2410 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor
  • Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - OEM
  • Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard
  • Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9)
  • Antec 902 Nine Hundred Two Ultimate Gaming Case - Black
  • Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650TXUK)
  • Corsair H50-1 High-Performance CPU Watercooler (Socket LGA775/1156/1366/AM2/AM3)
  • Razer Carcharias Stereo Headset
  • Asus Xonar D1 7.1 PCI Sound Card (90-YAA0B0-0UAN00Z)
  • Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ)
  • Saitek Eclipse 2 Illuminated Keyboard - Blue/Red/Purple
  • Logitech MX518 Gaming-Grade Optical Mouse (910-000616)
  • Sony Optiarc AD-5240S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM
  • Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g)
I'm underbudget by about £70 or so quid here as well, which means that I can spend the rest on £30 for Windows 7 Student, and some games to test this rig out. :D

How does this look?
 
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I would personally stick with the HAF case as it will last you some time (longer than just this build, so good investment) and has loads of cable management and gpu room. I love mine. At this money i would also try to be going for a i7 rig, but thats just my personal preference. Everything else looks in order and agree on the 5970 being overkill.

Enjoy your pc when you get it!
 
I'd go for 750W antec new modular PSU, scores great in all reviews and is very good price - leaves room for upgrades too
 
I thought the point of a core i5 build was to make it as cheap as possible D:

Loose the 5970 and get 2 5770s. Good FPS on high resolution but not as overkill.

and its cheaper than 1 5870 :) and better. Cheaper + better = win
 
Hmm, the HAF 932, I never realised it didn't come with dust-filters, that's a big downer there. It's perfect apart from that! :(

Once upon a time I thought about a CM Storm Sniper case, because it fits 5870/5970, good airflow and has those handles on top which means I could take it around places a little easier (I would be with this rig).

CM storm Sniper instead of the 902, it may be another £37, but would that be better option? I'm not sure on the HAF 932 beause it has 0 dust filters, and that means my rig would probably be a haven for dust bunnies.... thoughts?
 
The sniper is a really nice case so i would go with that.....Good call on the 5970 as unless you have multiple 24'' + monitors there is no point for that much power ;)
Are you completely set on i5? I would recommend going for a AM3 setup that way you can upgrade to a Thuban cpu :)
 
Biz.Kid09 said:
The sniper is a really nice case so i would go with that.....Good call on the 5970 as unless you have multiple 24'' + monitors there is no point for that much power ;)
Are you completely set on i5? I would recommend going for a AM3 setup that way you can upgrade to a Thuban cpu :)
Click to expand...

Well, I thought about that, was reading through a thread earlier which said that at 1920 x 1080/1200 a Phenom II x 4 965 overclocked is only a 100pts behind a i7 or so on 3dvantgage tests. I was quite suprised by this, surely a 4ghz I7 processor would walk all over a Phenom II at 4.1ghz/3.8ghz? Either way, it makes the outlay seem even less worth it. Plus like Biz.Kidz said with the new 6 Core AMD CPU coming out i could upgrade it when they are released. I think looking at these facts may tip the Phenom II into my favour over the i5. Plus I'm not even sure there are anymore releases lined up for the 1156 socket?

Couldn't find an OEM Phenom II 965 x 4 so I couldn't save a bit there sadly.

  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
  • Dell ST2410 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor
  • Asus Crosshair III Formula AMD 790FX (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
  • Coolermaster Storm 'Sniper' All Black (Mesh) Edition Case - Black
  • OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C7 1333MHz Dual Channel (OCZ3P13334GK) [OCZ3P13334GK]
  • Corsair TX 750W ATX SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-750TXUK)
  • Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ)
  • Corsair H50-1 High-Performance CPU Watercooler (Socket LGA775/1156/1366/AM2/AM3)
  • Razer Carcharias Stereo Headset
  • Saitek Eclipse 2 Illuminated Keyboard - Blue/Red/Purple
  • Logitech MX518 Gaming-Grade Optical Mouse (910-000616)
  • Sony Optiarc AD-5240S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM
  • Akasa AK-FN057 Apache Super Silent 120mm Fan - 4 Pin PWM
  • Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g)
How does this version 3 look like? Bit overbudget now by about £9, however this feels a bit more futureproof as a system. Could downgrade the Sniper to a Antec 1200 instead for a bit more saving there and skip out on the fan. But the Sniper is quite nice, although I've heard apparantly it has a bit of trouble with large expansion cards/graphics by being a bit wobbly.

Thoughts?
 
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I like the look of that...I would'nt know mate sorry but to me it looks pretty soild....I would say to save some money go for http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-109-OC
and i would get this motherboard
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-230-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1481
as it has USB 3.0 and 6gb/s sata ;) so more future proof....
or if you want to save some money
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-231-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1481
that still has usb 3 e.t.c but just slightly worse chipset but wont make a big difference....
 
Another revised revised version of the spec I listed before, with several changes.

AMD Phenom II 965 x 4 3.4ghz (125w)
Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P Motherboard
2 x 2gb XMS3 DDR3 1600mhz.
Megahalems CPU Cooler with two black Akasa Apache Fans and AM3 retention kit
Sapphire HD5870
CM HAF 932
1tb Samsung Spinpoint F3
Sony AD-5240S-0B Dual layer Optical drive.
Asus Xonar DX/XD
Corsair 750w TX Power Supply

Periphrals

Logitech Desktop Microphone
Logitech MX518 Mouse
Razer Lycosa Keyboard
Goldring DR-150 Headphones

+
Windows 7 Home Premium (student offer)

This in total comes to around £85 UNDER my budget of £1650, which is fantastic. Dropping the overkill 5970 saved a ton.

How does this look however as a near-final spec? Should I save the remaining funds for some software/games and go with this spec?

Feedback/critisism/love is appreciated. :)
 
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