New build - advice please

Rhodan

Rhodan

Rhodan

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11 Jul 2004
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407
I'm looking at the following build. Primarily would be used for gaming, mostly RTS like Civilization 5, Total War games, Footy Manager, and FPS like the Stalker games, Crysis, Metro 2033, Fallout 3.

I'd like to keep the cost under £1000 if possible. I do already have three Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm drives.

Intel Core i5 760 2.80GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £158.99
Prolimatech Megahalems Rev B CPU Cooler (Socket 775/1156/1366) £42.98
Prolimatech Blue Vortex Blue Wings 140mm Fan £10.99
Asus P7P55D-E Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard £109.99
G.Skill Ripjaw 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL8D-4GBRM) £88.11
EVGA GeForce GTX 460 Superclocked 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £199.74
Antec P183 Super Midi Tower Case - Gun Metal Black £99.99
Corsair HX 650W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650HXUK) £99.99
LG GH22NS50 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £82.99

Questions

1) Is there a better CPU cooler that can offer the excellent performance vs noise that the Prolimatech offers?
2) Would 4GB ram be enough, or would you recommend more?
3) Thoughts about the GPU?

Thanks in advance!
 
1)No if you want to go better (by any significance) you will need to go water cooling.
2)4gb should be enough.
3)If you want to save money and overclock yourself then just buy a basic one like :
OcUK Value GeForce GTX 460 1024MB £170
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-140-OK&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1830
Although for £30 more you could buy Asus GeForce GTX 470 V2 1280MB that will destroy the 460
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-237-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1810

Also Patriot Viper 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C7 1600MHz £80 with faster latency settings than the g-skill
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-041-PA&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517
 
Thanks for the reply, will check those out.

Any thoughts on a monitor, been looking at the Dell U2311H and wondering how that was for gaming?
 
1 question though I noticed you specced a 140mm fan whats it for as the cooler uses a 120mm and your case doesnt have space for a 140mm fan either??

Cooling System:
- 1 rear (standard) 120mm x 25mm TriCool Fan
- 1 top (standard) 120mm x 25mm TriCool fan
- 1 lower chamber (optional) 120mm x 25mm
- 1 front (optional) 120mm fan
- 1 middle (optional) 120mm fan

One of these would be good for the cooler
Akasa AK-FN058 Apache Black Super Silent 120mm Fan - 4 Pin PWM £14.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-057-AK
or
Sharkoon Silent Eagle SE Modular 120mm Fan £12
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-007-SH&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=4

The dell would be a superb choice. ALso popular are the BenQ G2420HDBL 24" Widescreen LED Monitor £171
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-033-BQ&groupid=17&catid=510&subcat=
 
A 460 is borderline adequate and some of those titles will already require aa off/detail reduced. With a £1000 budget you can do better - at least a 470 or maybe 5870 if you save a little in other areas. PSU is more than you need and that's an expensive case. They would get the chop if it were me for increased GPU horsepower. Depends what your priorities are, I guess.
 
Thanks for the replies.

@ dfour - Cheers will have a look at those fans.

@ stulid - Yes was thinking of going SLI in the future, is that board not SLI compatible?

@ Liampope - That Antec is good for air flow and cable management which is why I chose it. Can you recommend another? Something that's just plain, I'm not wanting something that's riced up and looks like a street in Las Vegas :). Also, which GPU would you recommend then?
 
Hard to recommend as case choice is so personal. Some people want a big expensive display piece and some just want a fit for purpose box that isn't offensive. I'm in the latter category so I love my Xigmatec Asgard for only £28. Understated but decent looks and houses my i5/5850 rig just fine with a couple of extra fans added. Obviously at that price it lacks the build quality of high-end cases and also lacks space for concealing cables for the tidiest cable management.

Just have a browse in the shop. There are coolermaster, silverstone, antec, zalman etc etc models that people really like that are worth considering.

Even if you dont save anything on the case, just swapping to this ram...

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-203-CS

And this PSU...

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-031-OC&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1098

...already saves you enough to swap that 460 for a 470. Well worth doing.
 
 
Thanks guys, appreciate all the replies.

My last question then, should I get a more powerful single GPU up front, or should I get a GTX 460 and add another one later on?

I don't want a lot of noise being generated if possible, what do you think is best?
 
Rhodan said:
My last question then, should I get a more powerful single GPU up front, or should I get a GTX 460 and add another one later on?
Click to expand...

Do what I said a few posts up and trim some fat to fund a 470. That will see you right for a good while to come.

Do OCUK ship to New Zealand then? ;)
 
Choice bro's!

Not sure, but it's a great please to ask for advice! I have previously bought from OCUK when I lived in the UK for a couple of years, so I keep coming back for advice :)
 
Can you wait a smidgen? The HD6000s are out in October, so you can either save a few quid on current HD5000s or get yourself an even better card at current HD5000 prices. :)
 
Yes, I'll only be buying in about a months time, just wanted to get all the research done and get ready to click the check-out button :).

Everybody has been talking about GTX 460's and GTX 470's so far in this thread, what would you recommend from the ATI stable in the HD5000 range then?
 
You'd be forgiven for thinking we're all nvidia fanboys, but it's simply because they've just pulled ahead of ati in bang-for-buck so that's why they are being specced pretty much without exception. I've actually got a 5850 and love it, and ati haven't suddenly become poor cards - they just arent quite as good bang for buck as nvidia 460 and 470 right now even though their prices have dropped since their peak a few months ago. So by all means consider 5850 and 5870 - both are still excellent value for money cards.

It's amazing how quickly nvidia have turned the situation around - for at least a year, up to and including the launch of the 470 and 480 they couldn't touch ati bang for buck. Personally I think it must be killing nvidia to be selling these cards so cheap but it's all good news for you and me. It's great there is proper competition in the GPU market now, and it will only get better with the ati refresh. Ati will probably pull ahead of nvidia again in bang for buck and the specs the guys on here are putting together will look different.
 
Thanks for that mate. I'll see what happens over the next month with regards to the GPU.

Stulid raised an interesting point about the speed of the PCI-E slots and SLI. So do the boards like the Asus P7P55D Evo Intel P55 have full speed support both both GPU's in an SLI configuration?
 
Rhodan said:
Stulid raised an interesting point about the speed of the PCI-E slots and SLI. So do the boards like the Asus P7P55D Evo Intel P55 have full speed support both both GPU's in an SLI configuration?
Click to expand...

think those i listed are all 8X/8X, its th UD7 i got no idea about, but its £170 something pounds, so is just ridiculous.
 
Very true I own a 5850 but even thought they are faster than the 460/465 they are also more expensive and when you need a new case and psu as well as the rest of the internals every penny counts in your budget.

460 is the best bang for buck card ATM. If AMD dropped the 5850 £20-30 then it would all change.

Another website did a test with sli/Xfire on a 16x/8x and found little loss but 8x/8x was a noticable loss in fps.
 
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