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Theophany

Theophany

Theophany

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Joined
1 Sep 2010
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So I've got the building itch again, any suggestions for the following rig? Ideally, I'm budgeting for £2,500 which must include a 27-30" monitor, have a decent amount of overclocking head room (hence unlocked CPU and reference board GFX).

I'm a bit torn between the 7950 and the 580GTX and from what I've seen nVidia has a slight edge in performance, but I'm reluctant to buy a £350 2010 card that is going to be superseded around Q2.

All suggestions and reasons why are muy appreciado!

4vd1XbvD
 
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mickyflinn said:
Any reason for such a large ssd?
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I love speed :)

Surveyor said:
A slightly higher clock speed but that's irrelevant when you start overclocking.

2MB of extra L3 cache and hyperthreading, both of which make very little difference to gaming.
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What say you if I went socket 2011 instead, to have a tri-card and Ivybridge upgrade path he future?

mrrad1951 said:
I got the same board not gen 3 though, you need a PCIe sound card which goes on the lowest slot...you could get a cheaper case and psu and then a nice sound card , ive been waiting for these to come back in stock.. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-005-AS&groupid=701&catid=11&subcat= I'm also getting good results with this cooler http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-005-AN&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395
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I did look at a higher end sound card and I could afford it by ignoring my budget (not much of an issue if I'm honest), there were some nice looking Asus cards around the £80-90 mark. If I'm honest though, having had a Corsair case in the past there's no way I'd go with any other case now (aside from an Akasa Eclipse, ofc).
 
Surveyor said:
Ivy Bridge is S1155 the same as Sandy Bridge.

S2011 is Sandy Bridge-E and is a whole different ball game.

The cheapest processor currently available at OcUK is the hex core i7-3930K at ~£450 though a cheaper quad core is due.
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If I gave you between £2500-2700 to spend on a rig, what would you build, inclusive of the monitor requirement.
 
[WU-TANG]GZA;21246198 said:
EDIT: I lie, I would probably get a 120Hz monitor but you've expressed a strong interest in higher resolutions so I went for the DELL.

Great screen
Loads of storage
Huge SSD
Two of the fastest cards available.
Loads of RAM
Blu ray
All in a great big case
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I hadn't really thought of Xfire before, will definitely give it some consideration though. I'm being won over by the i5 argument too.

Socrates470BC said:
I know you said that you like Corsair, but if you get either the Graphite Series or the Carbide Series with the mesh side panel and the huge intake fan, you have to remember that these cases do not have a side filter and you will be drawing in lots of dust.

A number of people have already been asking about Demciflex dust filters.
It is a pity that such great looking cases do not have a dust filter.

The downside to the Obsidian appears to be that air flow is not great.

If these little niggles don't bother you too much then, I really like the Corsair 500R, on the other hand the Coolermaster 690 II advanced is also a nice case.
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I did not know about that on the graphites and carbides, thanks for the heads up. My last case was an obsidian 650D, the all round air flow wasn't anywhere near as good as say a CM HAF case, for sure, but I guess for me it comes down to a case of what have you used and liked the most. For me, Corsair cases always felt a lot more premium than competitors :)

[WU-TANG]GZA;21246934 said:
But whatever you do OP - don't waste your money on 2011 for gaming:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=443
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That's quite startling, will definitely look in to that in more detail.
 
Ok, so had another go, firmed it up a bit, taken on board some of the suggestions you've been kind enough to provide :)

Apologies for the ham-fisted image dump, I'm one an iPad so finesse is not really an option...

Moved up to a 30" screen, the higher resolution is a big draw for me and with 3GB GDDR it shouldn't make the 7950 sweat too much. Though I am toying with the idea of either 2x7950s or a single 7970.

Also beefed up the CPU cooler and added a few Akasa Vipers to push some serious air through the rad fins. They will definitely be hooked up to the case's PWM controller, I am well aware of the racket they make ;)

Also toned down the SSD extravagance, 512GB is overkill and the Corsair has higher read/write speeds, is cheaper than the Crucial M4 equivalent and the best firmware comes preloaded.

Oh and 650D. I just adore working in that case.

Any suggestions before I whack it on plastic?

XEhccG4g
 
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