Thoughts on this spec

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3 Apr 2013
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10
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Somerset
Hi Guys

I've been out of the game for quite a few years now and looking at getting a new machine sorted. I've spent a bit of time reading up on various things but I'm after some opinions/reassurance.

I will use the machine for daily tasks and gaming. Some photo editing. I did start to get into OC'ing and wouldn't mind dipping my toe in the water.

I have a case, keyboard, mouse, optical drive and monitor.
I also have a large NAS so don't really need local storage.

HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795QC3G2M) with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £251.99
Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £173.99
Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
Samsung 128GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD128BW) ** Cask Back Promo ** £109.99
Corsair Hydro H110 280mm High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM3) (CW-9060014-WW) £94.99
Corsair 2013 Edition Gamer Series GS 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020063-UK) £66.95
Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI38G160C9K) £49.99

Total inc postage £872.89

My questions.
1. Is it worth spending the little extra for an i7-3770k? I don't plan on upgrading this for 2-3 years.

2. Is it worth going for extra RAM. 16GB instead of the 8GB. I don't have a problem upgrading this at a later date if 8GB will be enough for now.

3. I'm looking at a simple water cooled system. Is there a better system than the corsair I have selected for a similar price?

4. Is the power supply going to be up to the job of running everything I have mentioned above. I assume if I were to Xfire/SLi in the future I would probably need something bigger.

Open to suggestions on everything. If there are some parts that would be worth changing to others I would look at this.

Thanks in advance.

Sean
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £259.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x MSI Z77 MPower Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 ATX Motherboard with FREE F1 RC Car & MSI HDD Enclosure £149.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD128BW) ** Cask Back Promo ** £109.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £99.98
1 x Corsair Hydro H110 280mm High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM3) (CW-9060014-WW) £94.99
1 x Avexir MPower Yellow Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CM) £40.00
Total : £947.53 (includes shipping : £10.50).



Little more cash however.......

The mobo includes wifi and bluetooth with some other nice freebies thrown in. The retail CPU has a longer warranty for not much more same for the GPU. PSU is a rebranded seasonic and has enough juice to Xfire the 7950 if you wanted to. Are you sure your case can mount the 280mm radiator?
 
the Samsung SSDs are on Deal of the week at moment i would look at the 250gb or the 256gb especially for the price and also cheaper with the cashback offer from samsung as well
 
I'm not impressed with Samsung as I noticed they upped the price of the 250GB model then started a cashback promotion
 
The mobo includes wifi and bluetooth with some other nice freebies thrown in. The retail CPU has a longer warranty for not much more same for the GPU. PSU is a rebranded seasonic and has enough juice to Xfire the 7950 if you wanted to. Are you sure your case can mount the 280mm radiator?

I'm not sure I need the Bluetooth or Wifi. Is there any other reason to spend the extra dollar on a MSI board? An RC car would be fun mind.

I have a Corsair Carbide 200r that I got free new so plan on using it. It has some mounting points on top for 2 140mm fans so thought it should mount up ok. Only thing I can see being an issue with this is how close it will be to the motherboard. Worse case I would cut my losses and sell it on and get one which is only 140mm and mount this to the back or attach it on the outside of the case on top. Mounted on the same holes but outside if that makes sense. I would probably need to extend the lines. At which point it may just be easier to go custom.

the Samsung SSDs are on Deal of the week at moment i would look at the 250gb or the 256gb especially for the price and also cheaper with the cashback offer from samsung as well

Yeah I did see the Samsung's are on offer but don't really need the extra local storage.

I'm not impressed with Samsung as I noticed they upped the price of the 250GB model then started a cashback promotion

Unfortunately I think that's common practice.

Is it worth getting an i7 over an i5? Or more Ram now?

Thanks for the feedback so far chaps.
 
Just placed my order. :D

Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor
Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7970 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
Samsung 128GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic
XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply
Corsair Hydro H110 280mm High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM3)
Avexir MPower Yellow Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit

Thanks for your help people.
 
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