New Haswell build advice

Borealis · 2 Oct 2013 at 20:46

I've finally got round to building a replacement for my current PC. It's main uses will be a combination of gaming and CAD, but nothing too serious. I found a brand new unopened SATA DVD-RW in my collection of spares, so at least I shouldn't be needing to buy an optical drive.

So the spec I came up with was this:

Processor: Intel Core i5-4670K

Heatsink: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z87-HD3 Intel Z87

RAM: TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 16GB 1600MHz

Graphics Card: HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5

SSD: Samsung 250GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic

Additional Storage: WD 1TB Caviar Blue

Power Supply: Corsair 2013 Edition Gamer Series GS 600W

Cases:

Xigmatek Asgard Pro

or

BitFenix Merc Beta

This lot comes to about £900. I'm not looking at OCing at the moment, but I do like my machines to run as cool as possible.

I reckon the 600W PSU should be able to cope with the 7950, but would it be safer if I went for a 650W instead?

Both of these cases ought to fit a 7950, but are they any good? I know it's possibly a stupid question, but I've had varied experiences with cases - my current case is a dreadful beige box full of sharp corners!

Any suggestions would be much appreciated. My budget is around £800-1000 so there is some flexibility, but I'd like to try and keep costs down if possible.

RJC · 2 Oct 2013 at 20:51

Done a slight remod:

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795QC3G2M) **FREE SHIPPING** £185.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £145.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD316G2133HC11ADC01) £129.95
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £49.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler £29.99
Total : £924.86 (includes shipping : FREE).

tamzzy · 2 Oct 2013 at 22:16

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795QC3G2M) **FREE SHIPPING** £185.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £145.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV316G213C1K) £129.95
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x Seasonic G series 550w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £79.99
1 x Zalman Z9 USB 3.0 Midi Tower Case - Black £54.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £49.99
Total : £936.88 (includes shipping : FREE).

colour matched to black+blue.
the heatsink is free with the motherboard (but the fan's led is red...haha)

Borealis · 2 Oct 2013 at 22:30

Thanks for the suggestions. For another £25 I'm effectively getting a much better package.

I did consider the i7 4770K, but would I really make use of it? I don't really do much heavy-duty rendering and all my games are run at 1280x1024 on a good quality 17" monitor due to desk-size constraints so I don't think there's much point in having the i7.

hakank68 · 2 Oct 2013 at 23:15

+1 id go with the samsung evo ssd aswell as the patriot ram

Borealis · 3 Oct 2013 at 13:12

Thanks for all the comments. I'm definitely going to go with the samsung evo ssd as it's only £4 more

Depending on the size of the CPU cooler, I may need to get low profile RAM as the Black Mamba might be a touch on the tall side.

If the Gigabyte motherboard comes with the free cooler, I'll probably use that and save £30 for now. I can always upgrade the cooler at a later stage if I want to get something better.