Help! First Time Build Advice

[bigrob10]

Hi all,

I am planning on building a desktop to last for a few years to come, but equally with the space to expand where necessary. I don't want it to cost the earth and part of the reason I am buidling it myself is to gain a deeper understanding of how things work.

Case CM Storm Scout 2
Power Supply Unit XFX 550W Core Edition 80+ Bronze PSU
Processor Intel Core i5 3570k
Motherboard Asus P8Z77-V LK S1155 Intel Z77 DDR3 ATX
Graphics Card MSI HD 7850 1GB
Memory Crucial 8GB (8GBx1) (DDR3 1600MHz)
Hard Disk Samsung 128GB SSD 840 Pro
Optical Disc Pioneer BDR-206DBK 12x BD-RE
OS Windows 7 Home Premium

I am running a bit over budget so if anyone notices anywhere I could make savings let me know. Does everything look okay here?

I will probably get a cheap large HDD to use alongside the SDD. Is it easy to manage running two different storage disks alongside each other? Is the SDD I have chosen good enough? Equally, would I be able to get away with a much cheaper hdd instead?


Also, is it worth upgrading to a 2GB 7850 GPU? I was originally aiming for one but it didn't seem worth it based on the review.

Thank in advance!

 

[snips86x]

Looks good.

You could change the SSD for aData or Plextor, cheaper & just as quick. You'll also need a cooler for that CPU, the stock ones are noisy.

Yes, go for the 2gb model. There is a grade B for £129.

 

[ivorito]

Also, you may be better off with the gigabyte board: z77 d3h. Good overclocking board but has great UK RMA.

If you feel like you want to cut your budget and go without an ssd consider the positives that an ssd will bring. You will see no benefit in game (besides loading), mostly in boot-up and application launch times.

 

[Wiry]

Looks good to me.

Also... if that crucial stick of ram is just 1 x 8gb stick, then i'd look into getting 2 x 4gb that way you'll be running in dual-channel.

 

[Doomedspeed]

Ill go through it:

Case: Your choice..
PSU: Great
CPU: Great
Motherboard: Go with the D3H instead..
GPU: Get the 7850 2GB
Memory: Get 2 X 4GB RAM
SSD: Good
Optical: Only get a Blu Ray if you NEED it, if not there a waste of money.
OS: Great..

Get a 1TB HDD for storage and your all set

 

[Gav_881]

+1 with doomspeed

Running two drives is easy put your OS and steam/origin and any others on the SSD and use steam mover or similar to move your less played games to your mech drive freeing up space on the ssd. When you want to play them move them back takes about 5 mins to move a 10Gb game so you dont need to keep uninstalling all the time. Also worth pointing your downloads directory to the mech drive as that can chew up space.

Dont forget to turn off hibernate and set up your system restore size as this will eat half your SSD for no reason otherwise.

 

[bigrob10]

Also, you may be better off with the gigabyte board: z77 d3h. Good overclocking board but has great UK RMA.

If you feel like you want to cut your budget and go without an ssd consider the positives that an ssd will bring. You will see no benefit in game (besides loading), mostly in boot-up and application launch times.

Thanks... are you suggesting I don't get an SSD drive?

 

[bigrob10]

Ill go through it:

Case: Your choice..
PSU: Great
CPU: Great
Motherboard: Go with the D3H instead..
GPU: Get the 7850 2GB
Memory: Get 2 X 4GB RAM
SSD: Good
Optical: Only get a Blu Ray if you NEED it, if not there a waste of money.
OS: Great..

Get a 1TB HDD for storage and your all set

I will switch over the memory as you have said...

Which optical drive would you suggest if you don't think blu ray is worth it?

Also, does anyone think it is worth getting Windows 8? I am unsure it has any merit as yet...

 

[Doomedspeed]

I will switch over the memory as you have said...

Which optical drive would you suggest if you don't think blu ray is worth it?

Also, does anyone think it is worth getting Windows 8? I am unsure it has any merit as yet...

These are the bit's i'd suggest..

YOUR BASKET
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ Nexuiz, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showd (GX-100-GI) £129.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) HDD £59.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £41.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £350.90 (includes shipping : £10.00).

 

[bigrob10]

These are the bit's i'd suggest..

YOUR BASKET
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ Nexuiz, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showd (GX-100-GI) £129.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) HDD £59.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £41.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £350.90 (includes shipping : £10.00).

Is it me or does this seem very good value?

Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £69.98

Is the toshiba one better?

 

[Doomedspeed]

Wow, that is good value.

 

[ivorito]

Thanks... are you suggesting I don't get an SSD drive?

Umm, I was just highlighting what change you would see using an SSD over a HDD.
Personally I would still get an SSD with your budget but its important to know the difference. Some people think SSDs speed everything up and improve frame times which is certainly not true.

 

[DaleTheWhale]

Umm, I was just highlighting what change you would see using an SSD over a HDD.
Personally I would still get an SSD with your budget but its important to know the difference. Some people think SSDs speed everything up and improve frame times which is certainly not true.

Definitely speeds things up though!

 

[honosuseri]

What was your budget fella?

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £239.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £187.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £69.98
1 x Zalman Z9 USB 3.0 Midi Tower Case - Black £54.98
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020059-UK) £54.98
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £41.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £32.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £804.89 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Case is packed with kit for the price. 500W modular PSU to help with cable management and improve air flow.

i5K OEM is a little cheaper, you have to buy a heatsink but we have some cash to go towards it. If you want to overclock then an aftermarket heatsink is a must. 8GB of RAM in dual channel at a good price. All on a good Z77 mobo with a 3 year UK based warranty and it has a dual BIOS which is a nice safety feature.

Good GPU with the same 3 year warranty. Comes with some nice games that you can keep or sell to help fund the rig. A 2GB 7850 (and overclock it) would be the minimum I would look at. It's not hard to max out the VRAM on 1GB GPUs these days.

2TB HDD is the same price as the 1TB version currently. It's only £10 more than the Toshiba 1TB but has twice the cache and capacity. I've omited the SSD to help pay for a better GPU now. The Plextor Pro is my current fav to spec. It's cheaper than the 840 Pro (better than the standard 840) and with a firmware update the speed rivals the 840 Pro.

You'll notice I left the OS out. You could try the evaluation edition of windows 8 for free. That will be a good 3 months to try before you buy and make a decision on what OS you want......could grab an SSD at the same time for the fresh install perhaps?

or

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £187.99
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ Nexuiz, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showd (GX-100-GI) £129.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x XFX Pro Series 750W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £84.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £69.98
1 x Zalman Z9 USB 3.0 Midi Tower Case - Black £54.98
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £41.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £32.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £747.85 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Slightly tweaked so you could run two 7850s at some point. PSU has enough juice for two 7950s so plenty of upgrade potential

Hope some of these tips help. Look forward to seeing what you settle on

 

[bigrob10]

What was your budget fella?

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £239.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £187.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £69.98
1 x Zalman Z9 USB 3.0 Midi Tower Case - Black £54.98
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020059-UK) £54.98
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £41.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £32.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £804.89 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Case is packed with kit for the price. 500W modular PSU to help with cable management and improve air flow.

i5K OEM is a little cheaper, you have to buy a heatsink but we have some cash to go towards it. If you want to overclock then an aftermarket heatsink is a must. 8GB of RAM in dual channel at a good price. All on a good Z77 mobo with a 3 year UK based warranty and it has a dual BIOS which is a nice safety feature.

Good GPU with the same 3 year warranty. Comes with some nice games that you can keep or sell to help fund the rig. A 2GB 7850 (and overclock it) would be the minimum I would look at. It's not hard to max out the VRAM on 1GB GPUs these days.

2TB HDD is the same price as the 1TB version currently. It's only £10 more than the Toshiba 1TB but has twice the cache and capacity. I've omited the SSD to help pay for a better GPU now. The Plextor Pro is my current fav to spec. It's cheaper than the 840 Pro (better than the standard 840) and with a firmware update the speed rivals the 840 Pro.

You'll notice I left the OS out. You could try the evaluation edition of windows 8 for free. That will be a good 3 months to try before you buy and make a decision on what OS you want......could grab an SSD at the same time for the fresh install perhaps?

or

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £187.99
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ Nexuiz, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showd (GX-100-GI) £129.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x XFX Pro Series 750W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £84.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £69.98
1 x Zalman Z9 USB 3.0 Midi Tower Case - Black £54.98
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £41.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £32.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £747.85 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Slightly tweaked so you could run two 7850s at some point. PSU has enough juice for two 7950s so plenty of upgrade potential

Hope some of these tips help. Look forward to seeing what you settle on

This is interesting... what are the benefits of the mobo over the Asus one I have selected?

 

[Doomedspeed]

This is interesting... what are the benefits of the mobo over the Asus one I have selected?

Uk RMA and many awards aswell as shining reviews from lots of professionals.

a lot of users here agree too.

 

[bigrob10]

What does everyone think about Blu Ray drives? I am considering chopping it out for a DVD RW as suggested above. Does anyone have any recommendations other than the one below?

OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM

What is everyone using?

 

[Wiry]

What does everyone think about Blu Ray drives? I am considering chopping it out for a DVD RW as suggested above. Does anyone have any recommendations other than the one below?

OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM

What is everyone using?

Just get which ever one is the cheapest. I'm using an LG but that one looks more than fine.