How does this look?

mcleish · 4 Jan 2014 at 10:43

YOUR BASKET
2 x Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Tri-X "BF4 Edition" 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (11227-00-50G) £379.99 (£759.98)
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £269.99
1 x SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 1000W Fully Modular "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £139.99
1 x MSI Z87M Gaming Series Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £119.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 350D Windowed Micro ATX Case - Black (CC-9011029-WW) £94.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £47.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler £26.99
Total : £1,602.90 (includes shipping : FREE).

Or

YOUR BASKET
2 x MSI Geforce GTX 780 Gaming Edition OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £359.99 (£719.98)
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £269.99
1 x SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 1000W Fully Modular "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £139.99
1 x MSI Z87M Gaming Series Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £119.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 350D Windowed Micro ATX Case - Black (CC-9011029-WW) £94.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £47.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler £26.99
Total : £1,562.89 (includes shipping : FREE).

For a powerful mATX system?

Fulax · 4 Jan 2014 at 10:47

I'd go with the Sniper M5 instead of the MSI board; it has a space between the PCI-E x16 slots so your cards will be able to breathe a bit.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte G1.Sniper M5 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £154.99
Total : £163.69 (includes shipping : £7.25).

What is your budget?

SiDeards73 · 4 Jan 2014 at 10:47

Both decent, would probably go for the 290s as they will probably edge it in performance especially if you play any mantle titles later.

Doomedspeed · 4 Jan 2014 at 10:52

Im not a fan of the MSI Matx motherboards..

Personally if you going for a power mATX rig, youre motherboard HAS to be either the Gene or the Sniper..

YOUR BASKET
2 x MSI Geforce GTX 780 Gaming Edition OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £359.99 (£719.98)
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £249.95
1 x Asus Z87 MAXIMUS VI GENE Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £159.95
1 x Be Quiet Power Zone 850W '80 Plus Bronze' Fully Modular Power Supply £99.95
1 x Corsair Hydro H110 280mm High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060014-WW) £94.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 350D Windowed Micro ATX Case - Black (CC-9011029-WW) £94.99
1 x Plextor M5S 128GB Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5S) £71.99
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 £47.99
Total : £1,612.27 (includes shipping : £13.75).

mcleish · 4 Jan 2014 at 10:56

Im around the £1550 mark, with a little more if necessary. Glad to know im on the right track

Thanks for the alternative spec Doomedspeed - I hope they're paying you for your services!! How does the H110 perform in terms of noise?

Danny75 · 4 Jan 2014 at 11:02

Note that you'd have to remove the dual optical drive cage to fit the H110 in.

mcleish · 4 Jan 2014 at 11:05

To be honest, I'm not a fan of WC CPU coolers. Ive had an EVO 212 before, and it worked brilliantly. Im always open to reason though.

Doomedspeed · 4 Jan 2014 at 11:05

Danny75 said:
Note that you'd have to remove the dual optical drive cage to fit the H110 in.

Surely not:

Danny75 · 4 Jan 2014 at 11:20

My bad Doomedspeed, I misinterpreted a sentence in a review on it

It was actually referring to the HDD cages on the front.

Doomedspeed · 4 Jan 2014 at 12:00

Danny75 said:
My bad Doomedspeed, I misinterpreted a sentence in a review on it

It was actually referring to the HDD cages on the front.

Na, worries, just wanted to clear the issue.

OvEr_KiLL · 4 Jan 2014 at 15:55

or get this and stick it on the back fan mount

YOUR BASKET
1 x Corsair Hydro H80i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £71.99
Total : £80.69 (includes shipping : £7.25).

mcleish · 5 Jan 2014 at 21:52

How does the BitFenix Phenom perform as a case? Does not having a front fan hurt the temps?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-147-BX

SiDeards73 · 5 Jan 2014 at 22:03

lovely looking case thats for sure, i dont think it would hurt performance too much as the case is so small air flow from the front would be limited anyhow.

mcleish · 5 Jan 2014 at 22:04

Ideal for 4770k and ski 780s?

SiDeards73 · 5 Jan 2014 at 22:05

are you going matx for portability reasons by any chance? or just limited for room?

Doomedspeed · 5 Jan 2014 at 22:07

mcleish said:
Ideal for 4770k and ski 780s?

I don't think the phenom would be suitable for SLI cards.

mcleish · 5 Jan 2014 at 22:11

SiDeards73 said:
are you going matx for portability reasons by any chance? or just limited for room?

Both really.

mcleish · 5 Jan 2014 at 22:12

Doomedspeed said:
I don't think the phenom would be suitable for SLI cards.

Too small?

Doomedspeed · 5 Jan 2014 at 22:18

mcleish said:
Too small?

Yeah, though it has got 5 slots, which means if you use the gene motherboard the 2nd card will have a bit of breathing room.

With SLI and Xfire cards you rely on the air from the front getting between the cards (over and under) thus providing fresh air to them (keep them cooler).

With the phenom the airflow is upwards (or downwards, if you're a bit odd) which means the air is hitting the back of the first card (not ideal) then being carried over/around the cards and out through the top..

Im not sure but i thing that sort of airflow would be worse for SLI cards than the standard front/back configuration.

Personally i think the 350D would be a better mATX case for the job.

mcleish · 5 Jan 2014 at 22:31

I see what you're saying, and I've looked around to find some reviews for it to see if anyone has run it with sli. You're probably right with the 350D though.