New PC Build Check Please

robbieshanks · 5 Sep 2011 at 15:47

Hi all, I've been asked to build a new PC for a work colleague for some gaming, fast movie encoding a plus and relatively future proof for the next few years. This is what I've come up with:

Intel Core i5 2500K
Asus P8Z68-V PRO
XFX 550W Core PSU
4GB XMS3 Classic 1600
1TB Samsung F3
Antec 300 Case
1GB XFX HD6870
Samsung SH-S222 DVD writer

Any thoughts on the chosen components?

Will the MB be compatible with Ivy Bridge?

I'd originally included a Hyper 212+ Cooler but he has said he is not too worried about overclocking initially (I've picked the 2500K as I intend to talk him into this later!)

Is there a safe overclock for this system with the stock cooler? I'm sure I remember reading 3.8GHz would be safe enough but I don't want to risk damaging anything.

Zynck · 5 Sep 2011 at 15:57

Hey there

This is actually my first post on the forums so you'll probably want to look for better advice than mine haha, but I was looking towards building a similar build to yours and looked around for what kind of overclock I could expect with the stock cooler.

I was surprised by this

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/...-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/3

Specifically where the author wrote:

These chips overclock very well. Both my Core i5-2500K and Core i7-2600K hit ~4.4GHz, fully stable, using the stock low-profile cooler.

However most builders would frown upon this and would recommend a third-party cooler for overclocking at those sorts of values.

Also I believe I recall reading that the Ivy Bridge will use the 1155 socket, or that it will at least be compatible with it, if such is true, then your motherboard will support it.

Edit: Scratch that! Found the article and it seems you'll need a new board after all

The Ivy Bridge 22nm story gets even better. The new chip is socket LGA 1155 and it is socket compatible with the existing Sandy Bridge processors and Sugar Bay 2011 platform. Unfortunately we are quite sure that Cougar point PCH chipset of Sandy Bridge won’t support the new 22nm Ivy Bridge.

We are afraid that you will still need a new board. Even the Panther point PCH chipset is pin compatible with Cougar Point chipset of Sandy Bridge, but again this might help board manufactures to make boards faster, but end users will need to buy a new board.

robbieshanks · 5 Sep 2011 at 16:15

Oh well, my personal feeling is that an i5 2500k might well be future proof enough and if we add a cooler later on down the line he can overclock to keep the system running quickly.

Any strong arguments for making sure there is future compatibility with Ivy Bridge?

If I'm not going to get an MB with Ivy Bridge compatibility would it be better to save money and go for a cheaper P67 board?

fowler002 · 5 Sep 2011 at 16:28

hmm I see stulid et all haven't shown up leaving new membrs to speculate

whats the budget? and do you need an os?

if you're wanting to do video encoding then you would better off with the i2600/k(tho £70+ more).

can't say if your chosen mb can handle ivy bridge or not but if you want future proofing then maybe look at this, or this or this these support pci-3.0 which needs ivy bridge(sandy bridge doesn't have the controller), the gigabyte boards need a bios update while the asrock has the support out of the box.

even if not ocing would say its best to get a cooler as lower temps and dependent on cooler lower noice, something like this

psu this or if you want it to possible xfire in future then this

don't know if 8gb ram maybe be more suitable for the video encoding.

Zynck said:
Edit: Scratch that! Found the article and it seems you'll need a new board after all

how old is the article you found on this? things move very quickly.

robbieshanks · 5 Sep 2011 at 16:34

Cool, thanks for the options. Budget is £850 including system, OS and 24" monitor.

Any reason why the Antec PSU rather than XFX? The reason for my choosing XFX was that it was a Seasonic unit...

I've seen the ASUS P8Z68-V PRO motherboard and i5 2500K chip bundled for around £290 elsewhere and thought that was good value hence my original choice. I've also got to make room in the budget for a card reader and internel wireless PCI card.

I love speccing PCs but it's so easy to get muddled! :eek:

fowler002 · 5 Sep 2011 at 16:43

wasn't sure about the xfx, if its seasonic then its fine. might want to compare the rails etc tho just to make sure. think the 650w might be a good idea for the extra £10 as it give you room to go xfire with another 6870 and room for overclocking, better new gen graphics card etc.

if you want to make it future proof as possible then would be an idea to look at the gen3 motherboards, currently asrock and msi have a few that support it out of the box and gigabyte have recently announced with a bios upgrade theirs will support it nothing from asus thus far as far as I aware

RJC · 5 Sep 2011 at 16:50

come up with the below:

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
OcUK ATI Radeon 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE DIRT3 & Deus Ex PC Games £194.99
(£162.49) £194.99
(£162.49)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £161.99
(£134.99) £161.99
(£134.99)
Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £154.98
(£129.15) £154.98
(£129.15)
BenQ G2420HDBL 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £149.99
(£124.99) £149.99
(£124.99)
Antec TruePower New Modular 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £71.99
(£59.99) £71.99
(£59.99)
Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
(£57.00) £68.40
(£57.00)
Options applied to the above product:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £44.99
(£37.49) £44.99
(£37.49)
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £44.99
(£37.49) £44.99
(£37.49)
Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
(£21.66) £25.99
(£21.66)
Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £23.99
(£19.99) £23.99
(£19.99)
Samsung SH-S222AL/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
(£14.16) £16.99
(£14.16)
Sub Total : £799.40
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £20.10
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £163.90
Total : £983.40

robbieshanks · 5 Sep 2011 at 16:59

Looks like a nice system but definitely breaks the budget! I think the 6870 will be fine for his gaming needs (he's not an enthusiast so I don't think his Crysis 2 FPS keep him awake at night.

)

I'm also loathe to give him a PSU above 550W as I really don't think he'll ever need to do massive overclocking or crossfire.

Apart from that it looks pretty good - I've heard great things about the ASROCK Z68 board. Is there ever any need to go for a SATA 3 hard drive? I thought it was just a gimmick to extract an extra £10 from unwary buyers. Happy to be proven wrong though!

RJC · 5 Sep 2011 at 17:02

The drive is part of the software bundle, though I go with the 1TB drive.

The 650w is modular and a reasonable price so does offer some future expansion if your friend wishes to.

Zynck · 5 Sep 2011 at 17:09

Personally I would save money on the motherboard.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-368-GI
Might be an option.

I believe it can overclock well if you ever want some extra juice from the processor down the line, and it also has another pci-e slot (running at 8x) for another 6870 if he wants some extra graphics power - although as you mentioned, he probably won't do any of this, so I think there's definately some money to be saved on the mobo here.

how old is the article you found on this? things move very quickly.

http://www.fudzilla.com/processors/item/21621-ivy-bridge-22nm-sticks-with-socket-1155

From earlier this year, so you're absolutely right, things might have changed by now!

robbieshanks · 5 Sep 2011 at 17:17

I looked into that Gigabyte motherboard when I started speccing. I was a bit concerned about some of the things being said about the quality of these boards and then decided I liked the sound of the user friendly BIOS and other perks such as Bluetooth in the ASUS board. I do plan on putting a very mild overclock on the processor (surely it would be rude not to...). Thinking about 3.8GHz max.

I haven't found anything definitive about whether this is possible with stock cooler. I'm hoping that with the cooling in the Antec 300 case this should be reachable on stock with acceptable temps under load.

Zynck · 5 Sep 2011 at 17:24

I'm hoping that you can at least reach around 3.8Ghz on a stock cooler! I'll continue looking around to try and read other people's attempts at it (besides the one from the article I posted) and I'll what I can find.

However if you are worried, you could always look into the Gelid Tranquillo, the Hyper 212 or a similar, affordable heatsink fan to be able to reach 3.8Ghz more than safely, or even bump it to 4.2-4.5 or so. I would also look around to check whether the 3rd party heatsink fan you may choose comes with pre-applied thermal paste, if not, then it goes without saying you should invest in some!