Sanity check my build please!

[masto]

Hi,

I'm looking at building a desktop, primarily for playing Diablo 3 (and a bit of Skyrim) as my HD3000 based laptop is just not up to the job. This will be my first desktop in a good few years, so I'm a bit out of the loop.

I've got a keyboard, decent mouse and speakers and a few HDDs lying around (not that I'm going to need much storage space initially), but need everything else. After reading this forum for a week or so, I've come up with the below spec, and would appreciate comments and suggestions.

I'm trying to stick to a budget of £1200, but have chosen components that would allow me to, for example, add a second graphics card in the future if I needed to.

I'd like to stick with an nvidia card, as I'll most likely end up running Linux on this machine too (I'd prefer to wait for the 660 cards to come out, but ideally want this built and running before the 15th of May!).

I wanted a 550D case, but they're now out of stock. The Fractal was my initial choice, but that was out of stock until I checked today...

I'm not sure about the 256GB SSD. I could drop that to 128 and get a better graphics card and stay within budget I suppose... I'm just used to a laptop with a large SSD at the moment, and the 256 is so damn cheap at the moment. I don't mind going with a lesser graphics card for now, and upgrading in a while, so long as I can run D3 maxed and Skryim at decent quality at 1080p with the 448 (which shouldn't be an issue, from what I've read). I'm used to Skyrim on the PS3, so anything is going to be better than what I have at the moment!

Comments appreciated.

Thanks!

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560Ti "448 Edition" WindForce 3x OC 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £179.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT256M4SSD2) £178.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £139.99
1 x Iiyama ProLite E2409HDS 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £124.99
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX750M High Performance 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020003-UK) £86.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.98
1 x Fractal Design Arc Midi Tower Case - Black £74.99
1 x Kingston HyperX RED Limited Edition 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3B1RK2/8GX) £35.99
1 x Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £22.20
1 x LG GH22NS90 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
1 x OcUK Value 300Mbps NWP300E Wireless-N PCI Express Adapter £13.98
Total : £1,161.18 (includes shipping : £20.10).

 

[masto]

That does look very good indeed.

Are the HDD's you have lying around SATA?

Yup. They're SATA 2 / 3Gb, but only 500GB. Enough to get by for a while though. I can't see myself using more than the 256GB in the short term though.

 

[masto]

And so the spec-creep starts

7970 vs 560Ti

Cheers for your alternative basket. That's definitely a major jump in performance, graphics wise, and has got me thinking (again). That PSU is out of stock, but was my original choice. Any idea how long these things normally take to become available again? I'm not sure I want to go with an ASRock MB though...

Well the 128Gb version is under £100, still a great price per GB.

True. And 128GB is enough for my immediate requirements.

Assuming I drop down the SSD to 128GB and go for that 7970, could you recommend a Z77 motherboard without SLI/crossfire support, plus an appropriately sized PSU? Would a 550 be enough to run this plus 1 or 2 mechanical drives? (If I go for a 7970 I'd need to shave some £s off somewhere to get close to the budget...)

Spend more on the GPU. You're building a gaming machine, so this is the most important component.

If you want to stick with Nvidia, then Danewesley's basket with a 580 (or wait a few weeks for the 670's) would be a more sensible option imo.

Yup - makes perfect sense. I can probably live with AMD as the stuff I do under Linux doesn't really need a high performance card, and any gaming will be done under Windows, naturally.

Cheers!

 

[masto]

Thanks to everyone for their comments. I'm struggling to decide between a 7850 or the 7970. Part of me thinks the 7970 would be overkill when I'll be spending most of my time playing D3, and using a single monitor... maybe getting the 7850 for now until the new nvidia cards are out, as Idleman suggests, is a better plan... I'll sleep on it.

I've updated the basket to that listed below, and bumped up the monitor to an IPS panel (I have a U2311 already but the wife nicked it and won't give it back). Comes in under budget too...

YOUR BASKET
1 x Dell UltraSharp U2412M 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Midnight Grey £227.99
1 x MSI HD 7850 Twin Frozr III OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards £209.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £113.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £94.99
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX750M High Performance 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020003-UK) £86.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.98
1 x Fractal Design Define R3 Midi Tower Case - Black Pearl £69.98
1 x Corsair Vengeance Blue Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9B) £43.99
1 x Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £22.20
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
1 x OcUK Value 300Mbps NWP300E Wireless-N PCI Express Adapter £13.98
Total : £1,188.70 (includes shipping : £22.20).

 

[masto]

Trigger pulled. Upped the PSU to the one Ollie1132 suggested. Thanks for the help, guys!

Will have to wait for the 7850, but that's ok... still 12 days to the D3 launch.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Dell UltraSharp U2412M 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Midnight Grey £227.99
1 x MSI HD 7850 Twin Frozr III OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards £209.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £113.99
1 x Corsair Professional Series AX650 High Performance 650W Modular '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply (CP-9020006-UK) £109.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £94.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.98
1 x Fractal Design Define R3 Midi Tower Case - Black Pearl £69.98
1 x Corsair Vengeance Blue Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9B) £43.99
1 x Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £22.20
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
1 x OcUK Value 300Mbps NWP300E Wireless-N PCI Express Adapter £13.98
Total : £1,211.70 (includes shipping : £22.20).

 

[masto]

This just arrived in my inbox...

"Your order from Overclockers is out for delivery today by your DPD driver and is due to be delivered between 14:46-15:46."

Guess what I'll be doing this afternoon?

Really great service from OCUK on this - I contacted them on Friday morning after my order had been sitting in the warehouse queue for a day, and they kindly split the 7850 onto a second order so I could get the rest of the components today (bumped me to Sat delivery for free too!). Very impressed with the service. Thanks again, 5UB!

 

[masto]

Very nice. Don`t forget, plenty of pics.

Yup... will get the camera primed!

I've been wondering about cooling and fan alignment in the R3. The CPU cooler would normally blow towards the rear, but I'm wondering if it wouldn't be better having it blowing up to the top vents (and adding a couple of slow 140mm exhaust fans there). Anyone have any comments on that idea? My only concern would be that the CPU cooler might end up sucking warm air from the GPU instead of air coming in from the front of the case. Anyway, I'll mount it in the traditional way first (don't have the 140mm fans yet). I can always move it later on.

Another question on the A50 cooler: do I use the thermal paste it comes with, or some Arctic Silver 5 that has been sitting in my drawer for the last two years?

 

[masto]

Well, it's all been put together and appears to be working...

Unpacked, I had this little lot (including Haribo!):

Put the PSU in place (I was impressed with the braided cables and general packaging):

Motherboard set up (cooler was way bigger than I expected!):

And everything in place (spot what's missing):

The cabling needs some tidying on the rear side. I just wanted it closing up to test it. I've got the two case fans attached to the controller that came with the R3, but am tempted to connect them to the motherboard instead as fiddling with the knob on the back of the case is a bit of a nuisance.

It's currently silent when idling, and the noise is bearable when under load. All in all, I'm happy with things so far.

I ended up doing the thin three lines of paste on the heatsink. Not sure if I have enough on there though. It's idling around 26C at 1.6Ghz at the moment.


I've ran a couple of quick 10 minute Prime runs. How do the temperatures look?

@3.6:

@4.0:

I was a bit worried about the case being damaged on arrival, after reading some horror stories on the net. Thankfully, it was all delivered in pristine condition.

Now to do some more setup, and mess around with some basic overclocking while I wait for my graphics card to arrive.

 

[masto]

Well, I've removed the fan controller and plugged the two case fans into the headers on the motherboard. Oddly, it's dropped the average temperatures by a degree or two. Maybe it's the thermal compound maturing (does it still require a bedding in period? It's been a while since I did any of this).

Another 10 minute Prime run at 4.0Ghz: