New build - spec check required.

fo_tbh

fo_tbh

fo_tbh

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Joined
28 Oct 2010
Posts
23
Location
Glasgow, Scotland
Looking to upgrade from my old Athlon 3500+ (yes, they still exist) to a new rig which I want to be able to handle the latest games. From reading other threads on the forum this is what I've come up with:

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

Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard

XFX ATI Radeon 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

XFX 650W XXX Edition Modular Power Supply

Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G)

LG GH22NS50 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM

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I already have two HDD's which I intend to keep and this will all be going in my Antec Ninehundred case.

Any recommendations or changes you would make on the above?

Does anybody have any idea if the products I've picked will fit into my case?

Will the 650w PSU be enough to handle that system? From the product reviews I'm under the impression it will.

I was stuck between the XFX Radeon and the MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 OC Twin FrozR which is £5 more but overclocked. I went with the XFX due to reviews saying it is easier to flash to 6970. Am I wrong here?

I know some of the products I've chosen are out of stock at the moment but I'm not worried about that for now.

Cheers
 
Asus ATI Radeon HD 6950 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

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

Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive

MSI P67A-C45 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION **

Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G)

LG GH22NS70 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM

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The above is what I'm sitting at now after reading about etc. Also, the PSU I'm going for is the XFX 650W Modular Edition PSU and this is mainly due to its price from a comepetitor. This is not the XXX edition which is on OCUK. Can anyone advise if the non-XXX edition will be suffice for the above setup?

Also does anybody know about all this fitting into my Antec Ninehundred case? I'm assuming it all should since my ram isn't anything fancy, no massive CPU cooler as I'll be using the retail one and the cooler on the gfx doesn't seem massive.

I also opted for the M4 SSD over the Agility 3 due to reading about the M4 being much more reliable.

Any advise is greatly appreciated.
 
GTX560Ti.

The high overclocks you can attain can be close to a HD6970 in performance.

Much better choice as cheaper, and if the HD6950 doesn't flash it's a slower :p
 
@fo_tbh After readying a detailed article there is a list of games including man popular titles using DX 11 that suffer from a 1gbvram limt. However the 560 is a stronger card and the vram issue depends on what resoultion are you running at?
 
David Koh said:
@fo_tbh After readying a detailed article there is a list of games including man popular titles using DX 11 that suffer from a 1gbvram limt. However the 560 is a stronger card and the vram issue depends on what resoultion are you running at?
Click to expand...

Atm I'm running at 1280x1024 on a 19" LCD...
 
At the above resolution would it make more sense to get the 560, or should I get the 6950 for the extra ram if I can afford it?
 
I would say go for the 560 over the 6950 but I prefer nVidia always have.

Since you are going for a SSD have you thought about getting a Z68 board which can use the SSD as cache for another HDD?

Stoner81.
 
fo_tbh said:
Atm I'm running at 1280x1024 on a 19" LCD...
Click to expand...

Wow! I'd say lose the SSD and put that money towards a new monitor. Any super cheap 1080p is going to be a million times better than what you're playing on now. There's not a lot of point IMO spending ~£170 on graphics if you're only playing on a 1280x monitor.
 
Stoner81 said:
I would say go for the 560 over the 6950 but I prefer nVidia always have.

Since you are going for a SSD have you thought about getting a Z68 board which can use the SSD as cache for another HDD?

Stoner81.
Click to expand...

I did read about that caching method the Z68 boards can do, but I'm not fussed about SLI/x-fire hence going for a board with one pci-e 16x slot.

I was also under the impression if I'm going to use my SSD as a windows boot drive only, with applications on it I use often as well, then there wasn't any benefit to having the SSD used as cache? :S
 
Pete.Dakota said:
Wow! I'd say lose the SSD and put that money towards a new monitor. Any super cheap 1080p is going to be a million times better than what you're playing on now. There's not a lot of point IMO spending ~£170 on graphics if you're only playing on a 1280x monitor.
Click to expand...

Bah - I was afraid of something like this. I really want the speeds of the SSD, but like you say is there any point in upgrading unless I'm willing to get a new monitor also... maybe not
 
fo_tbh said:
Bah - I was afraid of something like this. I really want the speeds of the SSD, but like you say is there any point in upgrading unless I'm willing to get a new monitor also... maybe not
Click to expand...

Both SSD and a new monitor will be amazing upgrades and you'll never regret either. But seeing as you're going for a gaming rig, the monitor is more important.
 
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