Help with a first build?

CrazyMoFo3000

CrazyMoFo3000

CrazyMoFo3000

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Joined
24 Jan 2011
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28
Hey people, I'm a Games student and have wanted a superpowered gaming computer for years, never had anything special spec wise! So its time for a new computer and rather than get something from a shop or an Alienware i thought it would be better to build one but i never have before so I wanted to see if anyone could advise me what parts to get? Ive seen the guide on this and its been useful I just wanna make sure my components are all ok rather than spend all the money and find out its not worth it! This is what i want in it...

overclockerspcbuilld.jpg


But im not sure how big of a case, what kind of cooling system or power supply i should have with it? Im hoping something like that would smash through anything i throw at it? Any help would be appreciated :D
 
OcUK GeForce GTX 580 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £389.99
(£324.99) £389.99
(£324.99)
Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor with FREE Lost Planet 2 PC Game - Retail £263.99
(£219.99) £263.99
(£219.99)
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium - Fatal1ty Champion Series 7.1 Sound Card (70SB088600005) £156.98
(£130.82) £156.98
(£130.82)
Silverstone RV02 Raven 2 Case - Black £135.98
(£113.32) £135.98
(£113.32)
Foxconn P67A-S Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) £99.98
(£83.32) £99.98
(£83.32)
Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 700W Power Supply £82.99
(£69.16) £82.99
(£69.16)
Noctua NH-D14 Dual Radiator CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/LGA1156/LGA1155/LGA775/AM2/AM2) £71.48
(£59.57) £71.48
(£59.57)
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache WD10EALX - OEM £53.99
(£44.99) £53.99
(£44.99)
Samsung SH-B123L/BSBP 12x BluRay ROM DVDRW DL & RAM Lightscribe SATAII Optical Drive - OEM Black £49.99
(£41.66) £49.99
(£41.66)
Patriot Viper 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C7 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVS34G1600LLK) £49.99
(£41.66) £99.98
(£83.32)
Sub Total : £1,171.14
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £13.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £236.98
Total : £1,421.87
 
Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Asus GeForce GTX 580 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £431.99
(£359.99) £431.99
(£359.99)
Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor with FREE Lost Planet 2 PC Game - Retail £263.99
(£219.99) £263.99
(£219.99)
MSI P67A-GD65 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) £144.98
(£120.82) £144.98
(£120.82)
GeIL 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Dual Channel (GVP38GB1600C9DC) £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
LG BH10LS30 10x BluRay-RW / 16 x DVD±RW Drive - Black (OEM) £77.99
(£64.99) £77.99
(£64.99)
Coolermaster CM-690 II Advanced Dominator Case - Black £76.99
(£64.16) £76.99
(£64.16)
XFX Pro 750W Core Edition Power Supply £72.50
(£60.42) £72.50
(£60.42)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £44.99
(£37.49) £44.99
(£37.49)
Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £26.53
(£22.11) £26.53
(£22.11)
Sub Total : £1,016.63
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £205.83
Total : £1,234.96
 
Going through a few tips I'd share:

-The i7 2600K is regularly passed up in favour of the i5 2500K for gaming- the i7's advantage is in hyperthreading, which is completely useless for games, and the i5 2500k overclocks better iirc.

-You shouldn't be spending more than about £150 on a motherboard. You won't see much improvement for your money.

-Onboard sound is fine unless you work in sound production, or have finely-tuned ears, a £500+ speaker system and lossless audio files. You won't notice the difference for gaming and the odd MP3.

-Triple channel RAM is for socket 1366- the old i7s. Socket 1155 motherboards take dual channel RAM. Also, I'd only take 2x2GB for gaming, as anything above that will go unused.

-Cooling is something I'd recommend as I assume you're overclocking. The Hyper 212 and Gelid Tranquilo are popular.

-Switch the hard drive to the F3 1TB, and buy yourself a nice 120GB SSD to put your OS and games on.

-The GTX 580 doesn't represent great value right now. If you're running a single 1920x1080 monitor, I'd get yourself a 6870 and save the money. If you're running a higher res (or multiple) monitor, or you decide to do so with the spare cash, then a 6950 flashed to a 6970, or 2 6850s / GTX 460s in CF/SLI would present better value for money.
 
hybrid572 said:
Going through a few tips I'd share:

-The i7 2600K is regularly passed up in favour of the i5 2500K for gaming- the i7's advantage is in hyperthreading, which is completely useless for games, and the i5 2500k overclocks better iirc.

-You shouldn't be spending more than about £150 on a motherboard. You won't see much improvement for your money.

-Onboard sound is fine unless you work in sound production, or have finely-tuned ears, a £500+ speaker system and lossless audio files. You won't notice the difference for gaming and the odd MP3.

-Triple channel RAM is for socket 1366- the old i7s. Socket 1155 motherboards take dual channel RAM. Also, I'd only take 2x2GB for gaming, as anything above that will go unused.

-Cooling is something I'd recommend as I assume you're overclocking. The Hyper 212 and Gelid Tranquilo are popular.

-Switch the hard drive to the F3 1TB, and buy yourself a nice 120GB SSD to put your OS and games on.

-The GTX 580 doesn't represent great value right now. If you're running a single 1920x1080 monitor, I'd get yourself a 6870 and save the money. If you're running a higher res (or multiple) monitor, or you decide to do so with the spare cash, then a 6950 flashed to a 6970, or 2 6850s / GTX 460s in CF/SLI would present better value for money.
Click to expand...

You are correct, i5 clocks higher, because of lack of HP.

And a massive +1 to rest of your comment, its spot on.
 
Hi there, welcome to the forums.

First, do you really a want a pre-clocked 580 as you could easily do it yourself and save paying the £90 premium, and there's a lower EVGA model that isn't overclocked but still has a ten year warranty once you register it with EVGA.

Does your course use 3Dgraphics or video editing software? If not you may be better going with an i5 2600K as the difference between that and the i7 is minimal for gaming.

The motherboard is pretty beastly but you don't really need it unless you want to run tri-SLI which doesn't have that good a scaling. Though I would expect you may want put SLi in the future.

So I'd probably suggest

Motherboard
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-317-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1906

Power supply
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-150-AN&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1088
That'll easily handle duel 580's

Cooler- I'd expect you to clock the socks off a sandy chip ;) and looking at your budget water or high end air cooling is an option
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-003-CS
or
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-011-NC&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395

Case
If this your first build then I can personally recommend the Corsair 600T, it will make things a lot easier, the HAF X is much better for air flow and slightly larger and I'd also take a gander at the NZXT phantom as it's known be an easy case to build in.

Memory

The new sandy processors use duel channel as opposed to triple channel so be sure to change that.

Lastly at your budget there's room for an SSD if you want one
 
Thanks for the speedy replies :D huge thanks for those tips and suggestions!

My course does use 3D graphics a lot, and i was going to overclock after i built it all (another thing ive never done before!). I was looking at the Corsair Obsidian 800D Case, theres one that they sell with a watercooled system built it? Wanting a metal case you see and thought that one looked cool :D

I wanted to set up a surround sound like a 7.1 system for the games plus ive always got movies and blu rays on and have heard the Asus Xonar is good. Thanks a lot for your advice people i am completely new to all this so really I've just kinda been thinking the higher the better, like I never even considered an i5 always thought Sandybridge i7 after it got announced :S

The graphics card was the only thing i was kinda sure about as I know Nvidia is highly rated, and the GTX 580 seems like their top of the line card? I will go for the non overclocked one can always figure out how to do it myself :D there is one thats a tiny bit more price wise, a Black Ops one, is it just a branded card or does it actually come with the game?

I saw that Samsung Blu Ray drive earlier, is it good? I know from personal experience Samsung are brilliant but always found Pioneer better? Thanks again for the help people keep it coming lol :D
 
Last edited:
for 3d graphics then you're better getting the i7 2600k as it has 8 threads and will be faster in 3d rendering
 
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