My new build for university.

ElateSword · 30 Apr 2012 at 23:59

I start university in september doing Games technology so I'll need a system good for running unity as well as games.Here is what I have at the minute:

ASUS Sabertooth X79 Mobo @ £240.97
PNY nVidya geforce GTX 580 1.5GB @ £310.29
60GB Sata 3, 2.5" SSD @ £59.19
2.5" to 3.5" mounting bracket @ £7.82
Corsair CMPSU-800GUK 800W power supply @ £82.50
intel core i7 3820 @ £222.44
Zalman CNPS 11X Extreme Processor Cooler @ £43.95
Artic Silver @ £5
Corsair CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B 16GB (4x4GB) 1600MHz @ £78.97
NZXT Phantom 410 Midi case @ £80
LiteOn IHAS124-19C 24x Internal DVDRW @ £15.75

What more could I need? or can you recommend? Or is there anything ehre that wont work together?

Thanks for any help you give.
PS if you need links I can provide them.

ElateSword · 1 May 2012 at 00:09

beejjacobs said:
That looks okay.

I'd get a different power supply, also which SSD is it?
Do you have a 64bit OS for the 16GB of RAM?

What's your total budget, we'll see if we can improve things.

I'm not looking to spend more than £1500 max as this is money straight from the university.

I'll provide links on the above post to each item I'm looking at, plus I have my own copy of 64bit so operating systems I'm sorted with.

ElateSword · 1 May 2012 at 00:14

Cythx said:
Is there any reason you want that particular CPU?

I figured because it's the cheapest i7 in the 2nd generation range.

ElateSword · 1 May 2012 at 00:24

Ollie1132 said:
I believe he is talking about his student loan.

It's a bursary so to say from the university, they give me £1500 in my first year and £500 in the 2nd and 3rd.

I'll drop the links now. And It's not only for university but for running the latest games as well.

ElateSword · 1 May 2012 at 00:29

Fire_fly said:
Unless you need it now then it may be advisable to wait until around August, or at least a few weeks, before buying as due to the Ivybridge launch the prices of the socket 1155 Motherboard and compatible ram has increased due to the demand.

I wont be able to buy until around December/January eitherway. I am considering buying a 1155 over a 2011 now however as they are cheaper and more readily overclockable (The ones with the 'k' suffix I mean).

ElateSword · 1 May 2012 at 00:30

Ollie1132 said:
You get that much bursary? Im jealous I get about a grand xD

It was because I achieved distinctions in my college course, the only thing I'm proud of to date :')

ElateSword · 1 May 2012 at 00:35

stulid said:
Well if you aint buying until next Xmas, speccing a PC now is a utter waste of time.

Come christmas, I wont be looking at buying anything thats released from now so I like to know where I stand a few good months before hand.

ElateSword · 1 May 2012 at 00:40

Does substituting a 2nd generation i7 for a 2600k and 1155 socket to buy a GTX680 sound like a good idea? Plus I probably wont have any need at all to go over 16GB Ram.

ElateSword · 1 May 2012 at 10:14

subbytna said:
Please get insurance before you go. I work in a university and the amount of breakins we hear about with new students and new tech. Freshers week is a thieves heaven.

Oh that wont be an issue I'll be living at home while studying, I'm only an hours journey away each day.

But to everyone else posting spec and advice thank you for the advice.

I know that if I buy a 2011 socket mobo and CPU I probably wont be able to afford a GTX680 but if I buy 1155 then I loose the PCI3.0 benefits so I don't know which pro's and con's outweigh each other here.

ElateSword · 1 May 2012 at 10:27

Ollie1132 said:
680 > 3.0 even in 8x mode 2.0 doesn't get saturated.

So would you recommend an i7-2600k or i7-3820? Both are in the same price range so all I would need to swap out is my motherboard.

ElateSword · 1 May 2012 at 10:32

Ollie1132 said:
What exactly are you going to be doing in games technology? and is it going to be quite HT/cache heavy?

As far to my understanding were going to be using unity and unreal engine so I'll probably have those running, I know that those programs wont be demanding but I also want to use the computer for gaming, I think my title was a little misleading when I made this thread sorry.

ElateSword · 1 May 2012 at 15:39

Ollie1132 said:
It's alright. Well a 2600k would be more than enough than for what you actually need. Going SB-E would have a few advantages but you wouldn't really be using everything fully. A 2600k has you covered for a good processor as well as having HT. Which the 3820 also has but the 3820 isn't overclockable wheras the 2600k is.

I will probably go with the 2600k then, thank you for all the help

Edit: does it matter which chip set I get as long as it's the same socket? The 1155 has like 7 different chipsets I've seen so far, the current motherboard i'm looking at is the maximus V Gene.