My PC Build - your opinion and advice

Warmagi · 24 Mar 2012 at 12:34

Hello everyone,

I'm new to the forums, so... hi

I want to get myself a desktop PC but nothing appeals to me from ready setups and the prices are usually a bit higher than parts themselves. I decided to build it myself, it will be my first PC build so any advice and tips welcomed (I'm a bit afraid of putting processor on the motherboard and putting a cooler on it).

Considering I am a bit tight with cash, I moved house recently, could you please advice me on this setup? Maybe something cheaper, maybe something better...
I will be grateful for any and all answers and if you possibly could say why if you advice me on changing some of the components.

Motherboard: Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £144.98

Processor: AMD Bulldozer FX-6 Six Core 6100 Black Edition 3.30Ghz (Socket AM3+) £129.95

CPU Cooler: Gelid GX7 High Performance Quiet PC Cooler (Socket Intel 775/1366/1155/6 and AMD AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+/FM1) - didn't give it much thought so any other options welcomed £39.98

Graphic card: HIS HD 6970 IceQ Turbo 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Deus Ex PC Game - Is there a lot of difference between 6970 and 6950? £279.95

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-15000C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1866C9) £52.79

PSU: Corsair Enthusiast Series TX 850W V2 High Performance '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CMPSU-850TXV2UK) £95.99

Case: CM Storm Enforcer Gaming Case - Black £72.98

Monitor: BenQ G2420HDBL 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black - didn't think about this choice a lot either, I just want something around 22, 23 inch and LED £139.99

I know there is no HDD and DVD player/reader/writer but it can be any right?

stulid · 24 Mar 2012 at 12:36

Excellent CPU and motherboard choice!!

You might want to select a i5 2500K instead

stulid · 24 Mar 2012 at 12:39

Had a play around,

YOUR BASKET
1 x PowerColor HD 7870 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £274.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £169.99
1 x Iiyama ProLite E2409HDS 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £137.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-GEN3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £122.98
1 x XFX 750W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £89.99
1 x CM Storm Enforcer Gaming Case - Black £72.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £39.95
1 x Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £21.98
Total : £954.97 (includes shipping : £20.10).

• Modular PSU
• 3 year UK warranty on the Gigabyte board
• Modern GFX card
• Low profile RAM to fit under the heatsink

Woden · 24 Mar 2012 at 12:39

Your motherboard and CPU aren't compatible. Grab the i5-2500k

mickyflinn · 24 Mar 2012 at 12:51

Go for a Sapphire HD 6950 "Dual Fan Edition" 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Deus Ex PC Game £229.99 inc VAT. It has a dual bios and will probablly unlock to 6970 spec , but not gaurenteed.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-273-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

You could get Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit £39.95 inc VAT

Also go for a Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler £25.99 inc VAT

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-001-GD&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395

Saving enough for a 60gb ssd OCZ Vertex 3 60GB 2.5" SATA-3 £69.98 inc VAT

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-079-OC&groupid=701&catid=2104&subcat=910

Warmagi · 24 Mar 2012 at 14:01

I completely overlooked compatibility. I was paying attention to that for most of the time then something happened and I must have blacked out

Ok, so what I would be better of with. This motherboard and I5 processor or Bulldozer 6core with some other motherboard... but I read that some of them are not compatible out of the box and you need to update BIOS first, and I dont have another CPU to do that.

Also I want to do a crossfire in future would 750W PSU be enough? Thats why I choose 850...

stulid · 24 Mar 2012 at 14:09

Bulldozer FX gets properly "owned" by Sandybridge,

FX 8150 vs i5 2500K - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/434?vs=288

750watts is fine for either 6970 in Crossfire or 7870's

Warmagi · 24 Mar 2012 at 16:59

Thank you for all the help so far. This is more or less a final build.
This is a fresh build, only things I have is surge protector mouse and speakers considering that, will I need anything else, like cables inside or out, paste for CPU cooler or... idk, anything? Maybe I forgot about some important component even...

Also, I have 2 external hard drives with 700GB total memory which I will be using to back up important files, thats why only 500GB HDD below. Do you know any programs to make partitions on a disk? I didn't do that for... ages so I'm lagging a bit with knowledge.

GPU:PowerColor HD 7870 PCS+ Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £289.99 is slight speed increase and different cooling (better?) justifies 15 more pounds in relation to Powercolor 7870 without PSC+ thingy

CPU:Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £169.99

Monitor:IIyama Prolite E2273HDS 22" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £129.95

Motherboard:Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-GEN3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £122.98

PSU:XFX 750W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £89.99

HDD:Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £83.99

Case:CM Storm Enforcer Gaming Case - Black £72.98

OS:Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £72.00

RAM:Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £39.95

CPU Cooler:Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £21.98

DVD Writer:LiteOn IHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM (Version B - with new Firmware) £19.99

All of that adds up to Total : £1,131.49

including £14.75 delivery
but I guess its not so bad considering its for years to come.
Also would I need any additional fans for my case?
Any changes(cost/quality) to the setup above welcomed.

I am really grateful for all the help and time you spent on this, I wouldn't been able customize it so without it.

stulid · 24 Mar 2012 at 17:02

Good selection of parts, try and get a bigger 24" for the extra £10

As for the different 7870 cards, up to you

but the standard one isnt slow or noisy.

mickyflinn · 24 Mar 2012 at 20:56

When you install windows you can create partitions then. Still think you should get an ssd if you can squeaze it into your budget.

Warmagi · 24 Mar 2012 at 21:24

mickyflinn said:
When you install windows you can create partitions then. Still think you should get an ssd if you can squeaze it into your budget.

Would it work if I would completely replace Seagate Baracuda HDD with this?:

Corsair Force Series 3 120GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive

I would still have 2 portable USB HDD's ...

or something like this:

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) + OCZ Agility 3 60GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-60G)

mickyflinn · 24 Mar 2012 at 21:34

Yes, install windows, programs and games on it you wont be disapointed. Mechanical Hard drives are great for storage but ssd are the way to go.

Look at the reviews

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-021-CS&tool=3

Doomedspeed · 24 Mar 2012 at 21:38

60GB will be enough for OS and a few games, so thats the way i would go. I prefer the M4's of the Force 3's to the OCZ's though. Just my personal opinion.

Lemin · 24 Mar 2012 at 22:11

Processor: AMD Bulldozer FX-6 Six Core 6100 Black Edition 3.30Ghz (Socket AM3+) £129.95
= rubbish. and im not drunc

spain · 24 Mar 2012 at 22:25

Edit: Ignore
I cant read.

Lemin · 25 Mar 2012 at 09:52

Sorry for drunken post last nite, (must keep off net when slaughtered)

[WU-TANG]GZA · 25 Mar 2012 at 11:08

This would be my choices right now (sticking with your case choice as it's obviously something you like)

YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK GeForce GTX 580 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £287.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £169.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-GEN3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £122.98
1 x BenQ G2222HDL 21.5" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £107.99
1 x Corsair Force Series 3 120GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (CSSD-F120GB3-BK) £107.99
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX750M High Performance 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020003-UK) £92.99
1 x CM Storm Enforcer Gaming Case - Black £72.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £72.00
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £39.95
1 x Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £21.98
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £1,135.94 (includes shipping : £20.10).

Warmagi · 28 Mar 2012 at 01:43

Thanks everyone, so now I got a problem... I wanted to order it this week so I could put it together on the delivery day which would be Saturday.
But now I can't decide on the Graphic card. I was pretty set on 6970, but then I was shown 7870, which is modern and very good as I learned. So I switched to having 7870 and buying another one in maybe a years time or a bit sooner for Crossfire. Suddenly there's Nvidia 580... but it is not so much better than 7870, although it got better drivers, more smooth. I really dont want to spend more than just under 300 on a card...

So... anything I should be aware of to make my choice easier? Any faults that set one of them behind or one handles something better than the other. One overclocks better or keeps temperatures lower IDK really what else should I suggest... and while powercolor 7870 is top of 7870 (maybe another one from 7870's is better?) Nvidia 580 from OcUK is rather bottom end of 580's...

anyway, I'm surely starting to sound like a madman, just put me out of my misery by advising me on those cards. Also I was thinking about saving 90 pounds and go for 7850... but... is it really worth it?

PS: as for the disk I'll go for Corsair Force Series 3 60GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive and Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache

PS2: oh and I really wont be gaming at higher resolution than 1920x1080 at which standard 7870 and 580 are pretty much equal...

arekgreenman888 · 28 Mar 2012 at 01:50

Asus P8Z68-V is cheaper and better board!

OptimaLnrg · 28 Mar 2012 at 01:52

580 you'd want a 3gb going forward if you intend to play newer games which can dump a mahoosive amount of textures onto cards.

The problem with that is they've barely dropped in price and constitute very bad value atm.