New Gaming Rig Advice

khazbee

khazbee

khazbee

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Joined
18 Apr 2007
Posts
3
So the time has finally come after 5 long years of battling with the missus, I have permission to buy a new PC :)

I don't want to build it myself, I just want it to arrive and not have to mess about (I once cracked a CPU whilst applying a heatsink so I'm a bit scarred).

I have a budget of approximately £1700.

One thing to note is I can't run higher resolutions than 1680x1050 (unless I upgrade the monitor) so an SLI or Xfire setup probably wouldn't benefit me and I don't really care about more than 60fps (I can't see a difference beyond 60fps). This rig is purely for playing games, nothing serious.

I'd like something quiet although I can tolerate noisy fans/gpu etc as I play with headphones a lot of the time.

I played around with the configurator and had something pretty decent but when it came to PSU's the 850w and 1200w models were out of stock and I didn't have much choice when it came to GFX cards (4 of the 7 were out of stock and I would like a Sapphire 7950 3GB ideally)

I am utterly clueless about motherboards so any advice there's appreciated, I have quite a few external peripherals such as USB HDD's and like to charge phones via USB while I work.

I came up with the following for £1480 but bear in mind that's not got a decent GFX card or PSU, please feel to edit/amend/advise as you see fit.

Specification
OcUK Tech Labs - Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced Big Tower Case - Noise Dampened

Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail

Stage 3: Overclock of CPU - 20% Overclock (Proceesor speed x1.20)

Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2)

Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard

Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI316G160C9K)

MSI HD 5450 1024MB GDDR5 Low Profile PCI-Express Graphics Card

Samsung 250GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD250BW)

Seagate Barracuda 3TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST3000DM001) HDD

Pioneer BDR-207EBK 12x BluRay RW / 16x DVD±RW 128GB - Retail

Corsair 2013 Edition Gamer Series GS 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020063-UK)

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-Bit - OEM (FQC-04649)

Full Cable Management

OcUK Tech Labs - Zaward Golf III Fan 120mm

Standard Build Systems - Approximately 5-7 working days
 
I'd say upgrade to a Z79 Motherboard, a GTX-670 or HD7950 and a modular power supply at about 800W (for example, a Corsair AX860W 'Pro Plus Platinum").

Also, are you sure you need that much storage? A 2TB HDD should be enough - with an SSD still of course.
 
I played around with the configurator a lot and didn't really like the choices I was looking at (GFX cards and memory in particular) so have press ganged a pal into helping me build the following

Sapphire HD 7970 VAPOR-X GHZ 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express

Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail

Asus Z77 Sabertooth Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard

Samsung 250GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD250BW)

Cooler Master HAF X Gaming Tower Case - Black (RC-942)

Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI316G186C0K)

Pioneer BDR-S07XLT 12x BluRay / 16x DVD±RW 50GB Drive - Black (Retail)

Corsair Hydro H80i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler

Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD

Corsair Enthusiast Series TX 850W V2 High Performance '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply

I get a 7970 3GB over a 7950 2GB and 1833mhz memory plus water cooling and a Blu Ray/DVDRW for less money although it will still need over clocking and I doubt the cable management will be anything like as good as the guys at OC would put together but it's a considerable saving (£300 plus).
 
You don't need a sabertooth the ud5h or ud3h for thst matter are great boards.

3570k is perfect.

Id get a 7950 (they are all 3gb) best bang for buck..

That case isn't my cup of tea, but its a personal choice.

All the rest looks good.
 
Given your budget and relative prices these days I'd at least give some thought to upgrading your monitor, if you're gonna be spending that much on a PC then might as well take advantage of the hardware in my opinion and go full HD
 
hawkhench said:
Given your budget and relative prices these days I'd at least give some thought to upgrading your monitor, if you're gonna be spending that much on a PC then might as well take advantage of the hardware in my opinion and go full HD
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Fully agree, £1700 is absolutely loads, especially for just a gaming rig and would be wasted without a monitor upgrade.

khazbee said:
I get a 7970 3GB over a 7950 2GB and 1833mhz memory plus water cooling and a Blu Ray/DVDRW for less money although it will still need over clocking and I doubt the cable management will be anything like as good as the guys at OC would put together but it's a considerable saving (£300 plus).
Click to expand...

I think putting together a build would be a great choice, especially if you have someone to help you. I would lose the H80i, i see a lot of threads these days on their hxxi breaking or being unreliable. They perform as well as mid to high end air cooler's but cost more and are often louder. I think you would be better off with a decent air cooler.

As for cable management, the guy's at OCuk are god's for what they do but achieving tidy cable look is easy with the right case. Find a case you like with a generous enough space behind the motherboard mounting plate and you can just keep all your cable's in the back of your case out of sight and only pull just enough length of cable through for your stuff. Most review's of cases will mention how much space there is for cable management, i suggest you find a case you like the look of and just Google a review until you find one that suits your needs.
 
Avenged7Fold said:
Fully agree, £1700 is absolutely loads, especially for just a gaming rig and would be wasted without a monitor upgrade.



I think putting together a build would be a great choice, especially if you have someone to help you. I would lose the H80i, i see a lot of threads these days on their hxxi breaking or being unreliable. They perform as well as mid to high end air cooler's but cost more and are often louder. I think you would be better off with a decent air cooler.

As for cable management, the guy's at OCuk are god's for what they do but achieving tidy cable look is easy with the right case. Find a case you like with a generous enough space behind the motherboard mounting plate and you can just keep all your cable's in the back of your case out of sight and only pull just enough length of cable through for your stuff. Most review's of cases will mention how much space there is for cable management, i suggest you find a case you like the look of and just Google a review until you find one that suits your needs.
Click to expand...

building it yourself is fun and a new skill that loads of family members and friends will take advantage of, so good times..

actually the H80i is better than all high end air cooler but not by far.. They are worth the money but there are issues with pumps and noise, also the fans are louder than the retail sp120's for some unknown reason. Though a lot of people have had no issues (my h50 wasn't too bad :))

If you want an aircooler id suggest the d14,k2 or tc14pe.. I have the d14 myself and I love it, would have had a k2 if my case was bigger though. The performance of these 3 is pretty similar..
 
Doomedspeed said:
building it yourself is fun and a new skill that loads of family members and friends will take advantage of, so good times..

actually the H80i is better than all high end air cooler but not by far.. They are worth the money but there are issues with pumps and noise, also the fans are louder than the retail sp120's for some unknown reason. Though a lot of people have had no issues (my h50 wasn't too bad :))

If you want an aircooler id suggest the d14,k2 or tc14pe.. I have the d14 myself and I love it, would have had a k2 if my case was bigger though. The performance of these 3 is pretty similar..
Click to expand...

The Prolimatech Megahalem and Genesis are good shouts too as the Alpenfohn K2 mount doom won't allow you to use high profile RAM so bear that in mind.
 
NathWraith said:
The Prolimatech Megahalem and Genesis are good shouts too as the Alpenfohn K2 mount doom won't allow you to use high profile RAM so bear that in mind.
Click to expand...

Good shout.

I was eyeing up the megahalem's too..

Unfortunatly i wasn't quick enough and it had sold out by the time i came round to buy one..

They sell quickly.
 
i got a megahalem in my bundle, it's a great cooler, all black tower scrapper it looks like but keeps the cpu really cool, so happy with it and OC as they pre built and OC'ed it for me :)

nice spec and great looking system once built btw khazbee, hope it all goes well for you
 
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