Ivy Spec check and video card choice

[chriscubed]

Looking to spend some hard earned dough on an Ivy system. I have monitor, keyboard, mouse etc already.

Gaming in 1080p, not sure what video card to go for - want to be able to play BF3 and other new games with decent settings, but doesn't have to be ultra-high.

Also not sure if the A50 cooler will fit in my Fortress, any advice on that or alternatives would be good. Planning on clocking the 3570k to about 4.5 without going crazy on volts/temps.

Any other suggestions for the spec below would be good too.

Budget - hard to nail down as I can spend whatever is necessary, but don't want to go over the top.

Here's my draft basket:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £173.99
1 x Asus Z77 Maximus V Gene Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £155.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 3TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST3000DM001) £134.99
1 x Silverstone Fortress FT03 Tower Case - Titanium (SST-FT03T USB 3.0) £129.98
1 x Sandisk Extreme SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive - (SDSSDX-120G-G25) £99.95
1 x Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10) £89.99
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £54.98
1 x Silverstone SST-SOD02 Slimline Slot Loading 8x DVD±RW SATA Drive - Retail £52.99
1 x Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £20.99
Total : £913.85 (includes shipping : FREE).

 

[chriscubed]

Just checked, you should have no problem housing the A50.
The cooler is 159.5mm and the case cooler limitation is 167mm.

Thanks, that's one concern off the list!

Heya, I'm new here so take what I say with a pinch of salt but I think you could probably go for a cheaper motherboard without much performance drop. Also with the single 3gb hard drive I think you'll find that bottlenecks your load times and such. Maybe x2 1gb in RAID 0 would be better. I've been advised here to get a SSD for the OS if at all possible, they're about £65.

Well, the mobo is MATX so there aren't a lot of choices, but I'd be open to suggestions of any other z77 MATX boards that would be cheaper.

The hard disk issue - I already include an SSD in the original post

I'm also looking to upgrade to an Ivy Bridge and I'm wondering if there is any motherboard or card that makes use of the onboard HD 4000 or does that basically become totally redundant when you plug something else in?

I believe the IGP output is disabled when you plug in a discrete card, however there are other benefits such as QuickSync and Lucid Virtu MVP - there are a number of threads that cover this in more detail.

 

[chriscubed]

*Edit* sry, original post again, you already have the case that's MATX, NM

That's the plan

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-518-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=2261

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-395-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=2261

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-061-AK&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=2261

Here`s` a few cheaper mATX boards. Get what supports your needs.

Thanks - comparing the features now.

 

[chriscubed]

A few adjustments - cheaper motherboard and added a 7850 video card. Will this 600watt PSU be enough for Ivy and the 7850?

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7850 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H785QN2G2M) £184.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £173.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 3TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST3000DM001) £134.99
1 x Silverstone Fortress FT03 Tower Case - Titanium (SST-FT03T USB 3.0) £129.98
1 x Asrock Z77 Extreme4 M Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £99.98
1 x Sandisk Extreme SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive - (SDSSDX-120G-G25) £99.95
1 x Samsung Green 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual/Quad Channel Kit (MV-3V4G3D/US) £96.98
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £54.98
1 x Silverstone SST-SOD02 Slimline Slot Loading 8x DVD±RW SATA Drive - Retail £52.99
1 x Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £26.99
Total : £1,072.33 (includes shipping : £13.75).

 

[chriscubed]

I saw that 7850 on offer.. price looks good but I'm not so sure about the cooler. Pretty happy with the choice of the HIS now I think.

I'm interested by your comments on the SSD though, the stats look worse than that of the SanDisk - why would you prefer a Crucial M4?

 

[chriscubed]

Well the 7850 is a good GPU, and not hot/loud with the reference cooler. I do agree the HIS looks nicer, and probably cools a bit better.

Fair enough, it's worth a look I agree, but I think the cooling should be better for my needs.

Everyone on here tends to recommend the M4 because it's known to be reliable. There was a slight issue with them, which Crucial fixed in a firmware update very promptly. They have been around long enough to know that its a good choice. For £8 more, I'd get the M4 if you can.

I think I'll take your advice on this one. The proven product is probably the one to go for really, and the M4 has the added advantage of being in stock at OcUK.

 

[chriscubed]

The M4 has come down from ~£150 not all that long ago, at £105 it's very hard to beat.

Will be a very nice build

Thanks, I'll post some pictures when it's all done

 

[chriscubed]

All ordered (from OcUK, happy days) with the exception of the CD drive, as it's out of stock and expensive for what it is.

Thanks for all the help everyone.

Lazder, I appreciate the post but you seem to have changed pretty much everything! The point is to build a full system in a low depth chassis, so it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb in my lounge. The 16GB makes about £50 difference, but ensures I can do what I like in the future with virtual machines.