New gaming build. Spec suggestions please

[Overrated]

I’ve been considering a new build for a while now and during the recent price drop I purchased 2 Asus HD 7970 Matrix Platinum’s. I now need a build to go with them.

Now I know these cards are 3 slots wide, which will limit my options, so I am keen to get some advice around this.

Working around these cards, I want the build to be as small and quiet as possible whilst ensuring good airflow. I’m quite big on aesthetics, and prefer minimalistic to flashy or colourful designs.

Budget of £1000-£1200 for just the tower excluding the graphics cards of course. This is not a hard limit, but I would like to stick with it unless it compromises the quality of the build.

Thanks in advance.

 

[teppic]

With two 3 slot cards in Crossfire you're going to need a spacious case, something small will be no good. I'd recommend this case, replacing the stock fans with quieter ones (e.g. the three 120mm intake fans with two quiet 140mm ones).

YOUR BASKET
1 x Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case - Black £113.99
Total : £124.49 (includes shipping : £8.75).

 

[Fulax]

'Small' went out of the window when you bought those cards, I'm afraid. How would you feel about this case:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case - Black £113.99
Total : £124.49 (includes shipping : £8.75).



[edit] Beaten to it -.-

 

[Overrated]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I understand small isn't really an option, I just meant I would like to keep it as small relative to the cards as possible. So perhaps keeping it within midi tower size. Is this feasible?

Also, looking for some full build suggestions as well.

 

[teppic]

You need a spacious case because there'll be little room between the two cards and between each with the CPU and PSU. The Carbide isn't very tall, it's just wider than usual, and is perfectly suited to your kind of set up.

Here's a full spec, without the replacement fans:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £275.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-OC Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £167.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £149.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case - Black £113.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £103.99
1 x XFX Pro 850W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £89.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (PV38G240C0K) £79.99
Total : £996.02 (includes shipping : £11.75).



The AIO water cooler might be a bit noisy if you want as quiet a system as possible, but large air coolers may sit against the first graphics card.

Alternative with a high end air cooler instead:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £275.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £149.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £131.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case - Black £113.99
1 x XFX Pro 850W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £89.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (PV38G240C0K) £79.99
1 x BeQuiet Dark Rock Pro 2 CPU Cooler £61.99
Total : £917.42 (includes shipping : £11.25).

 

[Overrated]

Thanks Teppic. They both look like good builds, I can see why suggested that case.

If the H100i provides significantly better cooling I think I can compromise on the noise - how much louder is it?

I have just amended the original post to indicate a £1000-£1200 budget. If you had a bit more to play with would you change anything?

Cheers.

 

[teppic]

The stock H100 fans are noisy, but those can be replaced. Because of the vents you'll hear the pump though, and some people are disappointed with that sound. A high end air cooler like the one I picked is basically silent unless at full load, and is even then very quiet.

With extra money I'd replace the case fans with quieter ones (you might also want to add a little understated colour, since the case has a window). Since the PSU is kept around the back, the cables aren't really a problem, but you could get a modular PSU instead. You've already got the best CPU listed and have two extremely high end GPUs. People might suggest fancier SSDs, but I don't think it's worth it for something you'd only notice in benchmarks.

 

[mickyflinn]

This is the way i would go to take full advantage of the the extra pci lanes and ram bandwith provided by this platform.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel 4820K 3.70GHz (Ivybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail (BX80633I74820K) £254.99
1 x Gigabyte X79-UD3 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £163.99
1 x GeIL EVO Veloce Hot-Rod Red 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Quad Channel Kit (GEV316GB1866C10QC) £99.95
Total : £530.33 (includes shipping : £9.50).

 

[teppic]

I wouldn't go for a 4820K - it's not as good as a 4770K, and the X79 platform is older. With two graphics cards you don't really need the extra PCI-E lanes (8x8x PCI-E 3.0 is fine).

 

[Overrated]

Thanks for all the help guys.

As I understand it, the 4770k would be faster at the same clock speeds but the X79 platform offers 16x16x and quad channel ram. Would the inherently faster CPU outweigh the other benefits?

A question for Teppic - I notice you specced different motherboards for the two different builds, was there a specific reason for this?

 

[teppic]

Thanks for all the help guys.

As I understand it, the 4770k would be faster at the same clock speeds but the X79 platform offers 16x16x and quad channel ram. Would the inherently faster CPU outweigh the other benefits?

A question for Teppic - I notice you specced different motherboards for the two different builds, was there a specific reason for this?

You're right that X79 allows 16x16x, but the gain is very minimal over 8x8x and not worth worrying about. X79 is good though for 3 or 4 cards running together.

There was a reason, yes. The D3H board has a slot between the CPU socket and the 16x PCI-E slot, which leaves room for a large air cooler.

 

[Overrated]

Finalising my build now. Could I get a quick spec check?

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus Z87 MAXIMUS VI EXTREME Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £319.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £259.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £143.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (PV316G240C0K) £137.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 850W Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (0-761345-06225-1) £119.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case - Black £114.95
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £103.99
Total : £1,214.39 (includes shipping : £11.25).



The motherboard is an ongoing debate. Leaning towards the EXTREME at the moment for the good feature set and better spacing between the two Matrix's.

 

[kefan77]

you can get decent boards for <£200.

spend that money eg. on better PSU

don't you need some HDD storage apart from that SSD?

 

[Ethermaster]

Hello ....... I will pop by and spec you when I get home

 

[Overrated]

I ideally wanted a board which would give optimum spacing between the two Matrix Platinums, and would like the colours to match as well (a little vanity never hurt!), open to suggestions though. I already have HDDs I added to a previous build last year.

Thanks Ethermaster, looking forward to it.

 

[Ethermaster]

Here we go I would get an Corsair Vengeance Pro Red 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C9 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit when I could as well to complete the effect.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £259.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £179.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £143.99
1 x Antec High Current Pro 750W Modular '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply £129.95
1 x Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case - Black £114.95
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £103.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Pro Silver 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C9 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (CMY8GX3M2B2133C9) £89.99
1 x Corsair SP120 Quiet Series High Pressure Low Noise - Dual Pack (CO-9050006-WW) £25.99
2 x Corsair AF120 Quiet Edition Low Noise High Airflow - Dual Pack (CO-9050002-WW) £19.99 (£39.98)
1 x Corsair Fan, SP120 PWM High Pressure Fan 4 pin, Single Pack (CO-9050013-WW) £14.99
1 x NZXT CB-LED10-WT 12x White LED Sleeve - 1m £9.98
1 x BitFenix Alchemy 24-Pin ATX Extension 30cm - sleeved black/red/black £7.49
1 x BitFenix Alchemy SATA 6GB/s braided cable 30cm - Red £5.99
4 x BitFenix 8-Pin PCIe Extension 45cm - sleeved black/red/black £5.95 (£23.80)
1 x BitFenix Alchemy 8-Pin EPS12V Extension 45cm - sleeved black/red/black £4.99
2 x BitFenix Alchemy Molex to 3pin x3 Fan adaptor 7V 20cm - Red £4.99 (£9.98)
1 x BitFenix Alchemy Internal Audio Extension Adaptor 30cm - Red £4.49
4 x BitFenix Alchemy 2pin I/O extension 30cm - Red £3.95 (£15.80)
Total : £1,200.43 (includes shipping : £11.75).



With the red kit your have something that looked like this