New Gaming Build

Chalex4

Chalex4

Chalex4

Associate
Joined
13 Dec 2007
Posts
283
Location
Oxford
The system in my sig is showing it's age, so rather than just a measly GFX upgrade, I've decided to go full out on a new system :D.

I will be salvaging this stuff from my current one:
  1. Antec NeoPower 650W Blue (Manual)
  2. X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty
  3. 2 x Samsung HD501LJ (500GB)
  4. 1 x Samsung HD103UJ (1TB)
I also already have a spare Windows licence. My budget is £1k absolute max, but I'd like to make savings wherever possible. If I can get something just as decent for £800/900, that'd be ideal. So far I've got:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 Windforce 3X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £349.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x OCZ Agility 3 240GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-240G) £139.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard with FREE BOOGIE BUG XXL GAMING MOUSE MAT £129.98
1 x Fractal Design Define R4 Midi Tower Case - Black Pearl £89.99
1 x Patriot Viper Xtreme 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Quad Channel Kit (PXQ316G1600LLQK) £71.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
Total : £1,000.52 (includes shipping : £10.50).



I've been out of the system building scene for a while, so don't hate if I've got for silly choices :).

In terms of overclocking, I'm never going to be the person to spend days and days fine tuning things, but I do like the idea of some "casual boosting". As such, I tried to spec a decent cooler, but I really have no idea. I didn't want to add on too much cost. Does the UD3H work well for overclocking too? The only other thing I'm slightly wary of is keeping my 5 year old PSU (stated above). I guess I'd be okay with buying a new one, just to be safe.

I went for the Fractal Design case because I'm after something a bit more understated this time around. Considered the mATX route too for ease of portability, but in the end thought it'd be a bit tight on the inside, so went for ATX instead.

Any help would be appreciated!
 
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What's the benefit of that SSD? Looks to be more expensive, with very similar specs.

Yeah good point with the RAM, but as I tend to keep a machine for 4/5 years, I thought I'd rather just to do the upgrade now rather than later :).
 
The Sandforce based drives (the controller the OCZ drives use) are pretty poor at dealing already compressed data due to the way the controller works, where as the Samsung can pretty much read/write both compressed/uncompressed data at max speed. I would also say the Samsung is more reliable, earlier firmwire versions of the Sandforce drives were a complete mess, although recently it seems to be a lot better now thanks to firmwire updates. And you also get 16gb extra space ;).
 
Great explanation, cheers. Makes a lot of sense. So that gives:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 Windforce 3X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £349.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC256N/EU) £173.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard with FREE BOOGIE BUG XXL GAMING MOUSE MAT £129.98
1 x Fractal Design Define R4 Midi Tower Case - Black Pearl £89.99
1 x Patriot Viper Xtreme 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Quad Channel Kit (PXQ316G1600LLQK) £71.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
Total : £1,034.52 (includes shipping : £10.50).



A little over budget though, but am not really sure where I could save.
 
Assuming you get free delivery, that knocks the price to £1,024.02. Can't see where else we can drop the price, it looks like a pretty good solid build with matching parts in terms of colour ;).
 
It's a good cooler but I've used the Gelid myself on a couple of builds, and these were for people who didn't have time doing hours of testing for the best overclock. So I just usually leave the CPU voltage on auto and bring the speed up to 4ghz, and that seems very stable with good temps.
 
Ah okay. Just noticed that the Samsung SSD says it's a 'Notebook/Apple series'. Would that work? Another variation, adding in new PSU, smaller SSD and different GFX (specs seem the same?):

YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £329.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard with FREE BOOGIE BUG XXL GAMING MOUSE MAT £129.98
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX850M High Performance 850W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020004-UK) £113.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC128D/EU) £89.99
1 x Fractal Design Define R4 Midi Tower Case - Black Pearl £89.99
1 x Patriot Viper Xtreme 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Quad Channel Kit (PXQ316G1600LLQK) £71.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
Total : £1,045.40 (includes shipping : £11.25).



I probably would actually need the 256GB for all my programs though, now I think about it.
 
you're probably not gonna be able to fit those ram under the heatsink

the gpu and psu are fine choices, cant go too much wrong
 
Good shout! Have adjusted:

YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £329.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC256N/EU) £173.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard with FREE BOOGIE BUG XXL GAMING MOUSE MAT £129.98
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML16GX3M2A1600C10) £99.95
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX 750W V2 High Performance '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CMPSU-750TXV2UK) £94.99
1 x Fractal Design Define R4 Midi Tower Case - Black Pearl £89.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
Total : £1,137.47 (includes shipping : £10.50).



Still about £100 more than I'd like though. Any ideas where to cut cost, without much/any performance impact? (already changed to 750W, which I think is fine?)
 
Is there any reason I'd particularly want that stulid? I was under the impression that full modular was better.

Also, had a quick look at the mobo power connector from my Antec Neopower 650W. Is it missing a pin? Is powering my PC just fine.

wp0001511.jpg


EDIT: On a second look, there's also no cable going into that socket. Any idea if one required by the Z77?
 
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Fully modular is best, your absolutely right.

The TX750 V2 you have in the basket isnt either of them, its complete non-modular.
 
Gotcha. Missed that somehow!

YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £329.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC256N/EU) £173.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard with FREE BOOGIE BUG XXL GAMING MOUSE MAT £129.98
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML16GX3M2A1600C10) £99.95
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX750M High Performance 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020003-UK) £94.99
1 x Fractal Design Define R4 Midi Tower Case - Black Pearl £89.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
Total : £1,137.47 (includes shipping : £10.50).



Any ideas anyone has to cut a couple of bob off the build? I'm stumped.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £329.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC256N/EU) £173.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML16GX3M2A1600C10) £99.95
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX750M High Performance 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020003-UK) £94.99
1 x Fractal Design Define R4 Midi Tower Case - Black Pearl £89.99
1 x Zalman CNPS10X Extreme CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/775/1155/1156/1366) £26.99
Total : £1,122.37 (includes shipping : £11.25).

 
The only way I can see to drop down the price is drop the SSD to the 128gb version, which is £90 hence saving you around £80. You can then buy another one at a later date for £90 or so, so you don't lose out too much.

Another option is dropping to 8gb RAM and the Z77X-D3h, which would offer slightly less savings than the SSD drop.
 
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