New build advice please

jmolls

jmolls

jmolls

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Joined
8 Dec 2011
Posts
4
Hi, I have decided its time to upgrade from my dusty old c2d, seems to be such more choice around now then there used to be which has me stumpped.

My bugdet was £800 but I think I can up that to £850+ if needed would prefer not to though.
So far i have come up with this list, though i'm not sure if there is better options out there and also would this all fit together (worried about heat sink's hitting ect)

MSI GeForce GTX 570 OC Twin FrozR III Power Edition 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £269.99

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail
£179.99

MSI Z68A-GD65-G3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £149.98

Corsair Enthusiast Series TX 650W V2 High Performance '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CMPSU-650TXV2UK) £79.99

Thermalright Silver Arrow CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA775/AM2/AM3) £54.98

Corsair Vengeance Blue 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B) £44.99

Total :

£792.52 with postage

Is the cooler overkill? I plan on oc to around 4ghz and would like the peace of mind about over heating.
Not sure about a case was looking to spend around £60 on one which there doesnt seem to be many options, would like an interesting looking case with a window and supplied fans, I quite like the look of Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black its out of stock but should be able to find it somewhere, would the above components fit in this ?

Any help / advice would be great, thanks
 
+1 for the recommendation for the kingston RAM. It's cheaper, almost exactly as fast and works with all coolers.

However, I disagree with the comment on the cooler - the GEIL is a really great value coole that performs well, but if the OP can afford the silver arrow then the lower noise and better cooling performance are really nice to have, especially if he plans to push the OC past 4GHz.

I would also recommend going for this PSU over the corsair. Mainly because it is (like the Corsair) an excellent quality seasonic design and guaranteed by a solid brand - but it is also semi-modular and £10 cheaper.

The GTX 570 is a nice card, but if you are going to spend £270 I would suggest going for a card with more than 1280MB of video memory. Instead I would suggest either going for this MSI 6970 2GB (with a really great set of bundled games) or look out for one of the models of the GTX 570 with 2.5GB of VRAM.

Finally, I would strongly recommend finding the money for a small SSD if possible. Installing the OS, your key apps and a game or two on an SSD really hugely improves how fast your computer "feels". Something like this would be my pick.
 
thanks for the replys, I have updated my basket with the ram :D
Im 50/50 on the cooler, I tend to get a little paranoid about temp's so thought it looked like the best choice even though the price is quite a lot higher then I wanted to spend.

I would prefer a more modular psu, just looked at the psu the first two reviews seem a little worrying?

The graphics card debate is the biggest headache for me at the moment, I started at a 6950, then a 560ti then a 570gtx, now debating the 6970 lol, I have watched and read a lot of reviews but am just as confused as before, I plan on 1080p max, on paper the 6970 seems a lot better but a few reviews hint towards the 570 being a more solid performer ? :confused:

Also got my eye on a used HAF X COOLER MASTER but unsure how much it will go for, is this a case worth spending a little extra on ?.

Never thought building a system would be so confusing lol
 
On the cooler front, you may want to look at this cooler which sits between the Gield and silver arrow in terms of price. It performs very well and uses two low-speed fans so it is very quiet, here is a review.

As for the PSU, please don't rely on user reviews - they are invariably written by the small % of people annoyed enough to write something and even the best PSUs have a failure rate (hence why good warranty is important). Instead, your best bet is to look for independent PSU reviews such as this or this.

The graphics card conundrum is a difficult one and the ground is constantly shifting. This is because all of these cards are good, the prices change day-by-day and different games do better with different cards. The only hard-and-fast rules I ascribe to are-
- buy from a good reseller (so RMA's are handled well if needed)
- buy from a good manufacturer (so they use good quality components and do fast RMAs)
- Get enough VRAM for the resolution you will be playing at (and hope you have enough for the future)
- Get a card that performs well in the games you play

Personally, I went with a HD 6970 and am happy with it. At this particular moment with the MSI TwinFrozr 3 6970 costs about the same as a GTX 570, comes with two £30 game codes and 2GB of video RAM (vs 1.28GB on the GTX 570) then I would recommend the 6970.

As for the HAF X, yes this is a very nice case - so long as you like styling and the particular case you are bidding on is in good condition. As for spending the extra money, I would say go for it. A GPU may last you a few years powering your games but a case can last many builds and possibly decades - so long as you pick a good one.
 
jmolls said:
Also got my eye on a used HAF X COOLER MASTER but unsure how much it will go for, is this a case worth spending a little extra on ?.

Never thought building a system would be so confusing lol
Click to expand...

Its definately worth spending the extra cash on as its a brilliant case - I have one. IMO its one of the best cases if your going to air cool your PC; 4x200mm fans which are great if used properly (intake & exhaust setup). This said, the HAF X is a full tower and given your desired specs, you could easily get away with a HAF 932 or the likes of (just to save alittle money).
 
ok I have pretty much settled on this setup:

MSI ATI Radeon HD 6970 2048MB Twin Frozr III GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with Battlefield 3 & Deus Ex PC Games**
£287.99


Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail
£179.99


MSI Z68A-GD65-G3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
£149.98


Antec TruePower New Modular 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply
£66.98


Thermalright Silver Arrow CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA775/AM2/AM3)
£54.98


Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX)
£35.99

I decided to go with the amd card since the reviews seem so close and hopefully the 2gb will give a little more future proofing.

I will have to buy soon as a few of these are on "this week only"
what is ocuk like on returns incase something was broken and it might take me a week after items arrive to test since im still seeking a case ?

next on my list will be a ssd but thats gonna have to wait till after the newyear.
Thanks for the advice so far :)
 
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