New Build - some advise needed

[Steviepunk]

This will be used for software development and database work, as well as some gaming when time allows, but want to check a few things before I take the plunge. I'm intending to overclock, though nothing extreme maybe somewhere between 4 and 4.5GHz

My basket is as follows:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £259.99
1 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE FARCRY3, Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs & 20% off MOH Warfighter PC Games £239.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) £209.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT256M4SSD2) £164.99
1 x MSI Z77A-GD65 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £131.99
1 x Toshiba (7K3000.D) 3TB SATA 6GB/s 64MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA300) £98.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 750w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020061-UK) £69.98
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI316G186C0K) £59.99
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 620 CPU Watercooler (Socket Intel LGA 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AMD AM2 / AM3 / AM2+ / AM3+) £55.98
1 x Pioneer BDC-207DBK 8x BluRay ROM / DVDRW SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (OEM) £54.98
1 x BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Case - White/Black £49.99
Total : £1,413.36 (includes shipping : £13.75).




1. Will the BitFenix Shinobi case be big enough to to take this? - main items that I guess could cause a problem are the 7950 card and maybe the watercooler.

2. Is the Patriot Extreme memory reliable? (Opted for 1866MHz to help with overclocking, priced very close to1600Mhz anyway) This stuff is at a good price, and is blue (trying to keep the colour scheme )

3. I'm sure the PSU will power this, but will it be able to support a second 7950 if I add another in the future?

The 840 Pro will be the boot drive (OS and main Apps), with the M4 used for storing some games (the rest going on the 3TB HDD). I don't want to go for RAID as I'm too worried about possible array failure.

Watercooler was chosen to ensure the memory slots have space, will be going to 32GB in the future

I chose an i7 over the i5 since I'll be doing development and database work, the extra threading capability will be useful there.
The motherboard was chosen as it has at least 4 6GB/s SATA ports and plenty of USB3 ports. Had also considered the Gigabyte UD5H, but this one seems to offer what I need and costs less.


Is there anything I'm missing or haven't considered?

 

[snips86x]

Nice to see you have thought it though.

1. Will the BitFenix Shinobi case be big enough to to take this? - main items that I guess could cause a problem are the 7950 card and maybe the watercooler.

The case is a good size, don't see why you can't have enough space for the card and watercooler. I've found the case can take up to 13" without a HDD and 10" with. (Take it they are referring to to a HDD directly behind the card) From what I can find, the card you've chosen is 10.6" long.

2. Is the Patriot Extreme memory reliable? (Opted for 1866MHz to help with overclocking, priced very close to1600Mhz anyway) This stuff is at a good price, and is blue (trying to keep the colour scheme )

Someone with experience can answer that one!

3. I'm sure the PSU will power this, but will it be able to support a second 7950 if I add another in the future?

It's recommended you use a 750. but when combined with the i7, you may need something more. I'm not confident to give you an estimate, I'm sure someone can.

The only thing I would change would be the Samsung SSD 840 to 830, read and write speeds are better. Since the 830's not on the table, I'm sure someone else maybe able to point you in an alternative direction or, the 840 you've chosen.

I take it you'll be putting the cooler in the rear exhaust?

 

[triggerthat]

The only thing I would change would be the Samsung SSD 840 to 830, read and write speeds are better. Since the 830's not on the table, I'm sure someone else maybe able to point you in an alternative direction or, the 840 you've chosen.

OP has gone for the 840 Pro which is better than the 830.

 

[honosuseri]

RAM over 1600mhz makes little odds on the 1155 socket. The antec 620 isn't a great CLC to be honest for that price a good air cooler would be better value.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £259.99
1 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE FARCRY3, Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs & 20% off MOH Warfighter PC Games £239.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) £209.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT256M4SSD2) £164.99
1 x MSI Z77A-GD65 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £131.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £94.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) £72.98
1 x BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Windowed Case - Black £59.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C10D3B1K2/16G) £59.99
1 x Pioneer BDC-207DBK 8x BluRay ROM / DVDRW SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (OEM) £54.98
1 x Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-E CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £51.59
Total : £1,417.97 (includes shipping : £13.75).



I personally recommend the samsung 830, if you want two 256GB SSDs then a pair of those will be ~£300 The 3TB HDD you picked isn't available though The Shinobi can take upto 320mm long GPUs so it can take that 7950 no probs, I used the windowed version as although it's £10 more it does have the window and comes with two 120mm fans not just the one in the version you used.

You have a nice budget so i'm sure you will see quite a few specs with different cases etc. Any more questions or god forbid problems come build day you know where we are. At 100 posts you would qualify for free P&P so it's worth discussing the options for sure

 

[RJC]

Considering the Patriot ram is the same price you might well stick with it.

PSU front the XFX is out of stock along with pretty all decent PSU on Ocuk.

 

[snips86x]

OP has gone for the 840 Pro which is better than the 830.

hmm...ok!

I keep seeing conflicting information, but I'll accept it!

 

[honosuseri]

hmm...ok!

I keep seeing conflicting information, but I'll accept it!

standard 840 < 830 < 840 Pro. I like the 830 as it's great bang for buck as we like to say.

The OP knows his stuff just wants confirmation I guess. The patriot RAM is tall if he wants to add another 16GB kit he will need a CLC cooler, I used the kingston as it's the same price\colour and will easily fit under a good air cooler (which i included). If he wants to use more than 16GB of RAM he needs a Pro OS but I'm sure he already knows that

 

[Steviepunk]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

I'll upgrade on the PSU, and if the 1600Mhz RAM doesn't impact the ability to overclock (compared to using the 1866) then I'll go for the low profile stuff as well.

For the cooler though, are there any good CLC coolers that would be suitable, even if a bit more expensive? I quite liked the ideal of a CLC - looks much nicer in the case than a big heat sink and fan IMO. Had considered the Corsair H60, but had seen a lot of people complaining about the noise of the pump - while you have to take everything you read on the internet with a pinch of salt, I didn't see anything like that for the Antec one.

That Shinobi windowed case is only available in Black - after discussion with the GF, a white case is required! The 'core' model has a windowed one if white, but it doesn't have any fans or the mesh strips on it, so probably as well just adding extra fans to my order.

 

[Steviepunk]

I've made a few adjustments to my spec.

Dropped the Shinobi case, did some more reading and it looks like it isn't very good for cooling (not a problem when running stock, but looks like it could get a little hot when overclocking due to the solid front panel restricting airflow). Have gone for the NZXT Phantom 410 which seems to be good on cooling and quite quiet (and to my surprise, the GF actually prefers it to the other options I considered - CM 690 II and the Corsair 500R)

PSU upgrade to allow going Crossfire at a later date.

Sticking with the CLC cooler for now, appears to be able to handle what I'll be doing and I prefer it aesthetically to a big heat sink cooler. Stuck with the low profile memory in case I need to change later.

Unfortunately I've been too slow and missed the sale price on the GD65 On the bright side, the 840 Pro, the case and the 3TB HDD are all down


YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE FARCRY3, Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs & 20% off MOH Warfighter PC Games £259.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £259.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) £189.98
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT256M4SSD2) £164.99
1 x MSI Z77A-GD65 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £159.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 3TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST3000DM001) £97.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £94.99
1 x NZXT Phantom 410 Enthusiast Midi Tower Case - White £89.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C10D3B1K2/16G) £71.99
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 620 CPU Watercooler (Socket Intel LGA 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AMD AM2 / AM3 / AM2+ / AM3+) £55.98
1 x Pioneer BDC-207DBK 8x BluRay ROM / DVDRW SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (OEM) £51.98
1 x OcUK Value Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter (HDMINIDP-DVI) £8.99
Total : £1,523.35 (includes shipping : £13.75).




Will probably get ordering later tonight, so if anyone has any last minute advise, I'm happy to listen - particularly if anyone has advise on the CLC, the options do seem limited, either this, the Corsair the Zalman - didn't see anything about he Zalmans and the Corsairs seem to have some noise issues (not sure if the newer ones still have the pump issues or not)

Will probably pop in a few blue power cables to fit the colour scheme, though with this case, maybe white ones would be better...
And I'll actually try and keep the cables tidy this time around (not something I usually bother about) and get some photos up once done!