Please rate my build (suggestions welcome)

Vadersoul

Vadersoul

Vadersoul

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27 Nov 2011
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106
The goals for my build


Max Budget : £1300
Activity : 99.5% gaming, remainder general use
Overclocking : I plan to tweak the CPU a bit and try for over 4Ghz, ideally 4.5Ghz

I have the advantage of being able to get the majority of parts through trade so the current build shown below retails at about £1140 or so but I can get that down to £1000 buying through trade.

This gives me a good £300 within my budget so if there is something I have not thought of or a mistake I have made, now is the time to make changes before I get married to this build.

I am not keen on buying parts for the sake of it. Yes I can afford a 580, no I dont want one because for a 10-15% performance, the 50% cost increase from a 6970 just doesnt make me smile, id rather bank the extra and do a GPU upgrade in the future.

Please take the time to review my build and let me know if there is anything you would suggest changing.

Thanks

v@D3r$0u7


[CPU] --- Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail [BX80623I52500K]

[MOBO] --- Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard [GA-Z68AP-D3]

[RAM] --- Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX)

[HD #1 (OS/Games)] --- Corsair Force Series 3 120GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (CSSD-F120GB3-BK) [CSSD-F120GB3-BK]

[HD #2 (Minor Programs/Storage)] --- Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) [ST500DM002]

[DVD] --- Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM [SH-S222AB/BEBE]

[H/SINK] --- Xigmatek Achilles S1284C
[CASE] --- Cooler Master HAF 912 Plus Case - Black
[PSU] --- OcUK Swift 650W V2 Silent Power Supply
[MONITOR] --- AOC E2795VH 27" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black
[MOUSE] --- Std Mouse
[KEYBOARD] --- Std Keyboard
[CONTROLLER] --- Microsoft Xbox Controller
[SPEAKER] --- Creative A40 2.0 Speakers (51MF1640AA001)
[HEADPHONES] --- Generic Headphones
[AUDIO] --- Onboard Sound
[NETWORK] --- TP-Link 150Mbps Wireless-N-Lite USB Adapter (TL-WN721N)
[GPU] --- PowerColor HD6970 2GB GDDD5 (AX6970 2GBD5-2DH)
 
Thank you

I took a look at that PSU at the time.
The PSU I have my eyes on is £27, this one is £66... for the extra £39, id trust that it is better but not knowing enough about PSUs I am stuck as to what that might be... can you help explain?

Also - is the rest of my build fairly thought out or would you have any other suggestions

My current concern just lies in
a) Getting a case big enough for the 6970, the above case is pretty much the biggest midi case for depth without spending much much more
b) What to do with equipping fans.. I havent done a build in around 8 years, a lot has changed and whilst I am caught up, it seems cooling is very important and with a case like this I am unsure if just fitting simple case fans in the available slots + the heat sink cooler I have planned is enough or if I need a certain type of fan.
 
Never skimp on the PSU, the overclockers one is ok for the very cheap budget builds not for a higher end pc like yours.

The case should be large enough for the GPU, link below shows the case with a 5870 which I believe is around 11" ~ and the 6970 is around the same.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cases/2010/09/27/cooler-master-haf-912-plus-review/3

On the fan front I am not 100% sure, you could see how you get on with stock fans, the cooler specced will be fine for the 2500k.
 
You are right about not skimping - the last thing I want is issues from a poor PSU.

The HAF looks good indeed as the last thing I wanted was to have to squeeze in the parts against the HDD bays as some other case / long gpus scream at not having enough room but this seems the deepest of a lot of cases on the market, plus it looks cool - like something one would see on the set of BSG!

Cooling wise, the specs say

- Front Cooling: 1x 200 mm (19 dB(A), 700 RPM, Red LED) or 2 x 120mm fans (optional)
(so here I would install a 200mm fan)
- Top Cooling: 1x 200 mm or 2 x 120mm fans (optional)
(so here I would install a 200mm fan)
- Rear Cooling: 1x 120 mm (17 dB(A), 1.200 RPM)
(already fitted)
- Side Cooling: 1x 140 / 120 mm (Optional)
(so here I would install a 120mm fan)

So thats 1 x 120mm fan and 2 x 200mm fans
The Coolermaster 120s are only £3 and the 200mm fans are only £12 so for the 3 extra fans (making 4 in the case, 1 on the heatsink, 3 on the GPU) 8 fans seems a lot and sinc ethe ambient temp here in the good ol' uk is never too high I dont think I need to worry too much about overheating in this build
 
Youve got it wrong bud, the HafX already has a 200MM in the front, a 200MM in the roof.

This case does not need any extra fans at all.
 
even better! - thanks again

I struggled to find the difference between the haf 912 and the haf 912+, perhaps it was the fan.

All I then need to do is make sure that the airflow is setup to flow the heat out of the fan correctly. One thing I remember a friend telling me is that lots of fans does not always equal heat dissapation. If you dont do it correctly you could as easily blow the hot air to a core component rather than out of the case.

Quite chuffed with this rig now, has everything I need it to have and aside from tweaking a few of the peripherals like a gaming mouse, nice enough headphones etc - the basic build is set and Im around 18% under budget which is very good.
 
Ah so the plus is just window dressing - nice
Well considering I cant get the vanilla through trade but can get the PLUS and it works out cheaper in comparison, ill stick with the PLUS especially if that is the difference.

I never got into the case modding + bench enthusiast crowd.
I like good PCs, ill spend money I can afford to build one but unlike those that mod vehicles, PC mods will rarely see another soul other than the builder. Sure, lights are pretty but if you are the one that will see them most of the time, is it that important decoration worth the effort?

I know some people enjoy it, its more fun for them than showing it off...


Thank you for your help, now all I need to do is find a way to fill that gap in my budget as I have budgeted to spend this money and would like to find a way to improve this build but think I have got the best value out of it and anything else would be overkill or upgrading just for a stronger bench score.
 
Yep, apart from making sure you get the PSU mentioned BY RJC, your sorted.

You are happy that the motherboard your looking at is good for single GFX cards only? I know it says Crossfire, but it does this at 16X/4X instead of the better 8X/8X of more expensive boards.
 
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Ah so if I want to crossfire I need something that supports at least 2 8x slots.. I didnt notice that on this one.

Makes sense and here while it says it has Xfire support, it is assuming you would install 2 very small GPUs or you would mix and match them as whilst possible, would cause issues with performance no doubt.

Thats a tuff choice.
Something tells me that by the time this rig becomes unsustainable (ie the performance drops so much that im running at medium settings on games all the time) I would be fine to just swap it out with a better GPU, dual GPUs just seem quite buggy from reports and whilst not always, you wouldnt want it to happen to you.

Xfire is a good idea in principal but in reality, it would just be simpler for the manufacturers of the boards to define a double slot on the board as the Xfire slot and then manufacturers build a single card that goes into both slots

Yeah so i think ill stick with a single GPU as if I ask myself if I can afford £250 in 2-3 (or whenever) years time, the answer is yes
 
In 2-3 years time, the current GFX cards will be made to look very slow. You also would need a stronger PSU also, something like 750W for Crossfire 6970's
 
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Not heard of the CPU cooler you've chosen, the gelid tranqilo seems to be the one to choose if you plan on overclocking to 4.5/4.6ghz, 4.8+ you want a better cooler tho not sure if the chosen motherboard does 4.8+
 
Yeah,

I sat down last night thinking on this and asked... what upgrades will I do in the future?

If gaming comes leaps and bounds, RAM might be an option otherwise 8GB is plenty for a long while

I cant see GFX cards getting much better and whilst people say this all the time, there has in my eyes been a steady shift in the typical Moores Law concept of electronic item costs due to the economy and card manufacturers are no doubt getting less people buying their cards and as a result spending more time with longer releases in updating them... its just my opinion of course

With that in mind, I can see a GFX upgrade needed in about 2-3 years time where my performance will run adequate on High or Medium but Ultra will be out of reach

IB is due out soon so a CPU upgrade could easily be in the works sooner than 2-3 years

That being said, if my argument is either to Xfire or not, Xfire just isnt there in its compatability with games and its issues are still alarmingly common. Whilst I would hope Xfire will improve in the future, the argument would be more that the hardware needs work so it wouldnt matter if next gen mobos have better xfire support, my current mobo would be out of reach of those.

With that in mind, I have resigned myself to build a ninja PC with adequate breathing room and then upgrade my GPU, CPU and RAM as needed. I have budgeted a 2 year space for upgrades and a 5 year space for a new build.

It might be unreasonable but thats what ill shoot for an Xfire is 100% ruled out now so this mobo should be fine
 
fowler002 said:
Not heard of the CPU cooler you've chosen, the gelid tranqilo seems to be the one to choose if you plan on overclocking to 4.5/4.6ghz, 4.8+ you want a better cooler tho not sure if the chosen motherboard does 4.8+
Click to expand...

Fowler

Surprised you havent heard of it... I would have just typed the details into google to spy the information rather than just come in and suggest what you think is right regardless.

Xigmatek Achilles S1284C : http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1773/xigmatek_achilles_s1284c_cpu_cooler/index.html

its basically a simple heatsink + fan option that doesnt need a forklift to be installed

When it comes to OC, I know it wont shield me from the upper limits of OCing heat but where I sit right now its 15 degrees so I dont reckon ambient is a concern for me and inside ill keep it heavily ventilated with a good stock of fans.

If i run into trouble I would go beefier than the Tranquilo which is just the Achilles with a bigger sink... id rather go D14/Silver Arrow than just bump the size of the heatsink a little

If my build wont accomodate the Achilles, it certainly will make mince meat of the Tranquilo
 
That Xigmatex looks to do a great job, The Sandybridge range of chips also run cooler tahn previous gen, the rated TDP of a i5 2500K is only 95watts.
 
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