My new rig from OC UK

jc0 · 21 Jan 2013 at 21:10

Hi all,

Nobody likes a show-off but I thought I'd share my new gaming pc with everyone/anyone who's interested, particularly as it would be a crime to let the superb building work by the Overclockers UK guys go unseen. I'm a bit of a closet-geek and don't really know anyone else who would appreciate the beauty of this system!

It's was originally a "Hydrophobia" system but changed pretty much everything in it (no doubt to the annoyance of the sales team but they didn't show it

) apart from the CPU! I had to purchase the graphics cards from elsewhere unfortunately as OC UK didn't have any 670 4GB cards with reference coolers in stock at the time (this is no longer the case).

The build-quality is really superb and it runs like a dream. Wish I'd gone for the white coolant but oh well! Had a small problem with the watercooling when it arrived but the tech support was superb and it was resolved quickly.

Then spec is:

Intel i3570k 3.4 GHz @ 4.6 GHz
ASUS Z77 Sabertooth Mobo
Corsair TX 850W PSU
Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) 1600MHz
Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD
Seagate Barracuda 500GB HD
EVGA 670 FTW 4GB SLI
CoolerMaster CM Stryker Case
XSPC Rasa 750 RX240 Water Cooling Kit

All comments/suggestions welcome!

A huge thank you to the build team for doing a really top-notch job of putting this system together. :cool:

RJC · 21 Jan 2013 at 21:11

Looking good

jc0 · 21 Jan 2013 at 21:14

Thanks RJC! The first couple of photos are really blurry, no idea why.

gustavbrostrom · 21 Jan 2013 at 21:24

What did you pay for this beast?

jc0 · 21 Jan 2013 at 21:29

It cost me around £1700 - a bit less as I sold the surplus 'Assassins Creed 3' and 'Borderlands 2' vouchers that came with the 670s. It's a lot of money to spend but I'm hoping it'll be running the latest games at max settings for at least 3 years and I'll get my money's worth! I also sold my old Core 2 Duo rig for £300 ish so I think I actually did pretty well, price wise (can you tell I've been thinking of ways to justify it to myself!?).

Doomedspeed · 21 Jan 2013 at 21:38

Weren;t you tempted to sprinkle some water on those beastly GPU's too? I know i would have been..

Looks amazing mate..

I never have liked the looks of the CM Storm (type) cases, though this one may have won me over.

stevejigga · 21 Jan 2013 at 21:54

really nice like the case to hope you got a nice monitor or monitors to put those cards through there paces

djshauny1 · 21 Jan 2013 at 21:57

That looks fantastic

More pics

jc0 · 21 Jan 2013 at 22:10

Hey Doomedspeed, cheers!

Yeah absolutely - watercooling the GPUs was in the original plan/spec but I was then told by the tech guys at OC UK that I'd need more water-cooling components to cool SLI graphics cards as well an overclocked CPU. I was happy with that but I was then told it would be a struggle to fit the extra rad/pump in the CS Stormtrooper case (my original choice before swapping to the Stryker!) and that they would recommend the HAF-X. Thing is, I take my PC into the living room quite a lot to plug in to my plasma TV and really wanted a case with a handle. So to cut a long story not particularly short, I decided on stick with aircooling the cards. They're very quiet/completely inaudible over the radiator fans and the temps are decent. I think it'll also be a lot more straightforward when it comes to selling them on.

Doomedspeed · 21 Jan 2013 at 22:16

jc0 said:
Hey Doomedspeed, cheers!

Yeah absolutely - watercooling the GPUs was in the original plan/spec but I was then told by the tech guys at OC UK that I'd need more water-cooling components to cool SLI graphics cards as well an overclocked CPU. I was happy with that but I was then told it would be a struggle to fit the extra rad/pump in the CS Stormtrooper case (my original choice before swapping to the Stryker!) and that they would recommend the HAF-X. Thing is, I take my PC into the living room quite a lot to plug in to my plasma TV and really wanted a case with a handle. So to cut a long story not particularly short, I decided on stick with aircooling the cards. They're very quiet/completely inaudible over the radiator fans and the temps are decent. I think it'll also be a lot more straightforward when it comes to selling them on.

Yeah, it'd take a fair amount more kit to get those 670's dripping. You certainly did the right thing.

Only just realized the case had a handle.

Yeah selling air cooled cards seems to be a lot easier, for obvious reasons.

Though in SLI you'll have no need to part with those for a long while.

jc0 · 21 Jan 2013 at 22:17

Thanks stevejigga and djshauny1!

I'm embarrassed to admit that I'm only gaming at 1080p at the moment :eek:

I was about to order a Dell 2710 so that I could play at 1440p but then saw that a new Apple Thunderbolt display is imminent and, being a bit of an Apple fanboy, I want to see how that shapes up before buying anything else. If it looks as good as the new iMacs and has a decent response time then I'd be very tempted. I'm not particularly clued up on displays so would appreciate any advice. I also wanted a decent amount of future-proofing which is why I went with the SLI 670s which admittedly, at the moment, are overkill.

I'm going to upload some more pics tonight as those first two are pretty terrible.

jc0 · 21 Jan 2013 at 22:25

Doomedspeed said:
Yeah, it'd take a fair amount more kit to get those 670's dripping. You certainly did the right thing.

Only just realized the case had a handle.

Yeah selling air cooled cards seems to be a lot easier, for obvious reasons. Though in SLI you'll have no need to part with those for a long while.

Cheers Doomedspeed! I wrestled with the air/watercooled GPUs decision for a while so it's good to get affirmation from someone else. Watercooled GPUs would have looked awesome but there was just one too many cons against the pros. The CPU runs really cool as well with the loop dedicated solely to it. I ran Prime95 for about 6 hours and the hottest core got to about 65 degrees. They sit at about 45 playing FC3 and BF3.

Doomedspeed · 21 Jan 2013 at 22:38

jc0 said:
Cheers Doomedspeed! I wrestled with the air/watercooled GPUs decision for a while so it's good to get affirmation from someone else. Watercooled GPUs would have looked awesome but there was just one too many cons against the pros. The CPU runs really cool as well with the loop dedicated solely to it. I ran Prime95 for about 6 hours and the hottest core got to about 65 degrees. They sit at about 45 playing FC3 and BF3.

Im the same i get tempted by too many things, that's why i keep to small cases, to limit my spending.

Thats great temps for 4.6Ghz. Tempted to push it a bit further?

Playing games like that my forehead gets hotter than 45C

jc0 · 21 Jan 2013 at 22:47

Yeah I am tempted to push it a bit further but I don't really know what I'm doing! Last time I OC'd a CPU, it was an AMD Athlon 1.4GHz!! I remember just changing the FSB speed and maybe the multiplier and that was it. The BIOS on the ASUS seems far more complicated than I remember and I wouldn't know what to do with the voltage settings and all that stuff... I'm not sure I'd see any FPS increases either but I might be wrong about that.

I'm far more tempted to follow this GTX 670 overclocking guide and get those cards pushed up to their limit. The guide says it will take 3 hours per card to properly but that will give you the best overclock the card is capable of to 0.1% or something crazy like that. Given that the EVGA cards have a 3 year warranty, I think it makes sense to push them as far as they'll go as early on as possible. I'll see how they cope with Crysis 3 at 1440p, everything turned up full...

Doomedspeed · 21 Jan 2013 at 22:57

jc0 said:
Yeah I am tempted to push it a bit further but I don't really know what I'm doing! Last time I OC'd a CPU, it was an AMD Athlon 1.4GHz!! I remember just changing the FSB speed and maybe the multiplier and that was it. The BIOS on the ASUS seems far more complicated than I remember and I wouldn't know what to do with the voltage settings and all that stuff... I'm not sure I'd see any FPS increases either but I might be wrong about that.

I'm far more tempted to follow this GTX 670 overclocking guide and get those cards pushed up to their limit. The guide says it will take 3 hours per card to properly but that will give you the best overclock the card is capable of to 0.1% or something crazy like that. Given that the EVGA cards have a 3 year warranty, I think it makes sense to push them as far as they'll go as early on as possible. I'll see how they cope with Crysis 3 at 1440p, everything turned up full...

Yeah, overclocking as moved on a bit from those days.. I would just leave it at 4.6Ghz, you won't see any FPS increase and you don't have to mess around with Prime95 and LLC's

Thats a really good idea, the guide looks pretty spot on too. Just remeber, as your in SLI the temps may be hotter than the guide suggests, so you may need to hold back a little. Overclock those bad boys will surely send you FPS through the roof anyway.

jc0 · 21 Jan 2013 at 23:13

Thanks for advice mate, I'll definitely bear that in mind. I originally had the KFA2 670 EX OC 4GB cards in the spec but removed them when I read those non-reference coolers are terrible in an SLI setup where they don't blow the heat out of the the exhaust - especially as I don't have a side fan. I had to ask the sales guys to take them out of the spec and I bought the EVGAs from somewhere else. I wanted the whole thing building by OC UK but I'm glad I made that decision in the end.

Here are some more photos. The last one is gratuitous showing off so my apologies, but I love my 55" Panny (it actually comes out look pretty small in the photo) and wanted to show why the case handle was a deal-breaker!

TwsT · 22 Jan 2013 at 08:40

Will let the lads in tech know about your appreciation glad you are happy and thanks for sharing.

jc0 · 22 Jan 2013 at 08:42

Thanks TwsT, much appreciated.

rjk · 22 Jan 2013 at 10:20

wow. that tv install is so clean.

your system shouldn't be lacking either, very nice spec you chose.

I think the case looks exceptional in white :cool:

jc0 · 22 Jan 2013 at 10:48

Cheers rjkoneill, very kind of you to says so! The TV install is pretty nice. There's a HDMI socket behind the tv which runs to the corner of the room where I use a Yamaha amp as a hdmi switch for the sky box, my media server and my pc when I'm using the TV for gaming. The only bad thing is that I don't have surround sound yet - just a 2.1 focal dome setup. I will turn it into 5.1 at some stage - probably when we re-decorate - but I can't face all the channelling and mess at the moment!