Build questions

[Goretog]

Sorry about making another post but my other one was getting a bit confusing with my edits lol

I've been looking around and come up with the following in regards to a new rig i think would be good.

All feedback and suggestions (as well as if anything isn't compatible) is always welcome, and like i said before i am a Nvidia guy at heart but any info on this card as I've heard good things and about the drivers for these cards would be great too.

MoBo: Asus P8Z77-V LX - £92.09 (price includes shipping)
http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/-b-NEW...LX-57p1297.htm

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K S1155 3.4GHz 6MB - £175.99
http://www.dabs.com/products/intel-c...5-3570k&src=16

RAM: Corsair Vengeance Blue 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B) - £51.29
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=43953

GPU: Sapphire Technology ATI Radeon 7870 1050MHz 2GB PCI-Express 3.0 HDMI OC - £262.99
http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/1191...hz-editio.html

HDD: Samsung F3 HD103SJ 1TB internal Hard Drive SATAII 32MB Cache 7200RPM - £70.50
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-HD10.../dp/B002MQC0P8

PSU: Corsair Memory TX650 V2 650W ATX Enthusiast Series - £70.98
http://www.dabs.com/products/corsair...fs=50113&src=3

Case: CoolerMaster CM-690 II Lite Pure Black - No PSU- £72.14
http://www.advancetec.co.uk/cgi-bin/...%23a0122#a0122

OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium w/SP1 - 1 PC - OEM - DVD - 64-bit - English - £69.99
http://www.dabs.com/products/microso...lish-7J00.html

DVD Drive - 22x DVD±RW DL S-ATA - £16.19
http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/22x-DV...ATA-84p347.htm

Budget - £800.00
Total Rig Cost - £882.16 *UPDATED*

EDIT - All VAT and Shipping costs are included in the above build

I have a monitor, keyboard and mouse.

Thanks in advance Goretog

Edit: Thanks for all the help looks like i found the rig for my budget, just a couple more questions...

Will i have any trouble with cooling?
Will i have to buy any extra cables (i have a HD TV i use currently)
Would i have any problems in putting it together myself (wife worries as she wouldn't want me blowing up *her* new rig)

[chaud]

Get the 2500k. Get the 7850, as it overclocks almost as well. Get the TX650 PSU, the one you picked is bad. Use edit instead of posting again. Don't make new threads.

[Drakoes]

Looks fine, although I would recommend buying some of the stuff elsewhere to save a lot of money, since you definitely seem to be paying a lot more for those parts. In the end, we should be able to make a lot of savings. First, for the CPU, consider this site: http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...roductId=49755

so that's -£10 (you forgot to include VAT from advancetec, it actually cost £175 if you double check)

As for the HD7870, I found a cheaper one here, which is still of the Sapphire brand: http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/1191...hz-editio.html

that's another -£50

As for the HDD, you've selected the 'wrong' Samsung F3 model. The faster and most popular one by enthusiasts and everyone alike one is actually this cheaper one, costing £69 - why pay more for a slower one that it even costs much more http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-HD10.../dp/B002MQC0P8

another further -£22

I've also found Windows 7 64bit + SP1 from our first, very reputed site that I linked for a much cheaper price: http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Softw...ource=googleps

That's another -£55

Oh and lastly, here's a better PSU, which you shouldn't cheap out on as it is the most important part of any gaming PC: http://www.dabs.com/products/corsair...fs=50113&src=3

Total savings without changing anything but putting in a much higher quality PSU = -£132~
£889.06 - £127 + £10 = £762

With such a big saving that I have worked out, you could even stretch a bit for a NVIDIA GTX 670 if you so desire But that's up to you of course, and I think this will definitely be an amazing rig in terms of pricing now that we've narrowed it down the budget.

[Goretog]

Thanks so much for the feedback, i know a bit about computers but complete noob when it comes to buying the bits and finding cheap prices =P

I'll update the original post to reflect the changes and that 670 does sound temping ^^

I also don't mind changing parts for the equivalent or better cheaper alternatives

Edit: after changing those parts it still came upto just over £800 but still a big saving Drakoes thanks =)

[Drakoes]

Great, well there's not a whole lot you could change now since everything looks very solid, and for that price, it's very easily worth above £1000 if this was a prebuilt system in a shop. We more or less have the latest and best of the best for £800 in terms of performance. Some people will want to step down to older i5-2500k to save like £20 in the UK, but I personally would just stay with that i5-3570k CPU you chose, since we're not that over the budget anymore, and well, why not since the difference isn't that big.

We've also found a very good deal on the HD7870, so I wouldn't really change that unless you'd be willing to spend like £80 more on the GTX 670, which as I said, is up to you (it is faster, but the HD7870 will be more than enough for almost all games atm, assuming you run a single monitor).

You could save another £15 by switching to the 'Lite' version of your case: http://www.advancetec.co.uk/cgi-bin/...%23a0122#a0122

The differences aren't big, its like just 1 less top fan which shouldn't be too much of a problem. The advanced and lite ones are *roughly* the same anyway (based on the same design as you can see) and you won't be missing out on anything too noticeable.

Also, here are some Corsair memory which are equally as good (or if not better) than the Kingston ones, yet still a little bit cheaper: http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=43953

Other than that, for this budget, this PC is definitely rocking.

[Goretog]

*Updated orginal post with more changes added a DVD drive as i forgot ^^*

[Drakoes]

*Updated orginal post with more changes added a DVD drive as i forgot ^^*

With regards to cooling, you'll definitely want to buy a separate CPU cooler if you're going to overclock the CPU. Apart from that, your GPU and everything else inside should be fine - the HD7870 will run at low temps due to its custom cooler from Sapphire and things like the RAM and motherboard don't really overheat nowadays. If you do plan on overclocking the CPU though, then I would recommend this cooler for your budget: http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=47248 (if you're considering even higher overclocks, then you'll need a better cooler, but with this one, it'll be capable of 4.2Ghz).

So basically, the latest gen intel CPUs are very easy to OC, but I wouldn't trust the stock cooler that comes with the CPU to cool it, as it is just really crappy. I'm not saying it won't work and that you must replace it, but I personally wouldn't want to use that on a such a good PC. Then, there's always that opportunity in the future that you can overclock a bit more safely, knowing that the temps will be under control. I pressume you're not fond in overclocking though, but even if you're not going to do that, then you should be able to get away with running without an aftermarket cooler, but as I would advise against it, especially in this hot weather, so once again, your call on whether or not you want a CPU cooler

As for any cables that you may need, I think you'll probably just need a HDMI cable or something, so it's nothing too special. You will get all the needed SATA cables to connect your hard hard drive and DVD-RW as it will be a part of the motherboard's accessories, so don't worry about that.

As for building the PC, it is actually not that difficult if you read up and educate yourself thoroughly. We've already done the first step, and this is knowing what components to buy, and they are more or less the best ones for your budget. Just have some patience, go slowly, make sure you ground yourself and just don't rush it, afterall, this is £800. There's a lot of instructional Youtube videos out there that show people how to build a PC from scratch, and in particular, here are some of the best ones that I'd like you to check out:

Newegg TV
part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_56kyib-Ls
part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxaVB...feature=relmfu

PCWizKid
part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y8T8QAsDZs
part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rND_LSux61M
part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2k0i...feature=relmfu

Alternatively, you could also pay an expert or a PC shop to build it altogether, but you can easily do it yourself if you study and follow those videos well, as it really isn't too difficult On a sidenote, but I've had like 5 friends who weren't 'hardware literate' and haven't had a custom PC built before, and I went through step-by-step in how to install everything through Skype - good thing they all owned a laptop so they got to follow me in real-time, hah.

[Goretog]

Cool beans! Yeah not that interested in OC atm but will consider getting that cooler with this stupid hot weather ect

Again thanks for all you help now to sort out getting it all to me ^^

Regards Goretog

[Drakoes]

Cool beans! Yeah not that interested in OC atm but will consider getting that cooler with this stupid hot weather ect

Again thanks for all you help now to sort out getting it all to me ^^

Regards Goretog

Cool, so be sure to understand and take in those instructional videos slowly and you'll be fine, along with saving £50-£100~ of something like labor cost for others to do it.

[Goretog]

Do you know if that fan has that thermal paste stuff on it or do i have to apply it?

[Drakoes]

The majority of CPU coolers come with a tube of thermal paste and you'll need to apply it on your own - again, there's a lot of nice videos on youtube that show you how to do it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRRWbQUqW1Y

[hapylol]

Goreteg,

I would advise against buying an aftermarket cooler if you do not plan on OC. The stock cooler is perfectly capable of cooling the CPU. If you decide you want to OC in the future you can look into coolers at that time. Some aftermarket coolers are difficult to install if you are new and it would just add complexity to the situation that you don't need. You also run the risk of applying the thermal paste incorrectly and having issues with the CPU working.

The stock coolers that come with the CPU's actually have the thermal paste already applied and are very simple to install.

[Goretog]

Ok gonna stick with stock cooler for PSU, not gonna OC tbh (as far as i can tell this machien build will run almost everything really good as is)

Again TY too all for the info and help in lowering price, once i get it all sorted (might take a couple weeks or more) i'll post a pic of it.

[Goretog]

Was looking at my build again and notice some price changes so went ahead and did this

http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/9r2B
Total - £916.46 (assume that doesn't include shipping)

What you lot think? (as you can see it's over my original budget by a little now but that would mean a little longer saving thats all ^^)

Also (just cause my wife is worried i'll mess something up) what you think to this?

http://www.palicomp.co.uk/gaming-pcs.../prod_324.html
(using a TV atm would like a PC monitor so this comes with one)

Total - £729.49 (includes shipping ect but before any changes)

Changes to Pre-Build above - Ram increased to 8gig, P8Z77 MoBo, 1TB (1000GB) SATA3 - 6Gb/s, 7200 RPM & 32MB Cache, Removed sound system, Mouse/Keyboard, Pack Of 2 x Case Fans Silent & Powerful, Highly Recommended To Reduce Overall System Temperture & Prolong Life Of PC.

Total after changes made - £839.49 (includes shipping ect)

Questions about the Pre-Built PC

Is the case any good?
Is there enough cooling?
Thoughts on the 6670 1GB card.

And of course any changes, info or suggestions are always welcome =)

Regards Goretog

EDIT - Thought i should add in i'm running 1080p single screen

[hapylol]

"which is an awesome graphics cards for multimedia use and light gaming"

Direct from their website that the GPU sucks.

Go with your pcpartpicker and after you build it and it runs, your wife will itching to get a piece of you

[Deleted]

I'd definetly recommend adding an SSD instead of a normal HDD. The harddisk is currently the bottle-neck in most systems, and personally I got a pretty big performance increase after switching to SSD.
They are more expensive but imo worth it - I'd probably go for an Intel 520 240gb - it's around £200 (I think - calculating currency-exchange loosely :P). Intel has some cashback offer to most european countries atm (buy the disk from a normal reseller, mail the receipt to Intel and get some cash back).

[Drakoes]

Urgh, you're still paying a massive difference for that pre-built one, and that GPU is horrendous. That HD6770 is for those who are really on a budget and it would be a waste for it to go with such a powerful CPU, I would stay clear from that. As for the case, it doesn't really matter because for the most part, if it wouldn't fit all the parts in that prebuilt one, then that 'palicomp' company probably has incompetent staff.

I would still get all the parts bought separately and assemble it. As I said, study and follow those thorough videos I linked slowly and you'll be perfectly fine. For a PC that is prebuilt with specs like those, it will easily cost over £1000.

[Goretog]

Yeah checked out pre-built comp's with (as close as pos) the "DIY" build i was looking at and it always came over £1000 (some close to £1150 lol)

The GPU is always an upgradeable feature (hell i'll drop the monitor if i needed too but it's only another £60 and then we are heading in same price range as my original build so whats the point) but saying that i'm heading towards the "DIY" method, now just to hope for some awesome deals ^^

On another note, god that pcpartpicker site don't seem to find all the "cheap" prices for what your after.

SUMMARY

It would appear that our work (well mainly yours Drakoes ^^) on the original build in the first post is what i will be going with, now to work on the wife worrying about me blowing the house up ^^

And one more thing, whats the equivalent Nvidia card for what i'm looking at buying now? (just want to see em side by side ^^)

Regards Goretog

[hapylol]

snip
And one more thing, whats the equivalent Nvidia card for what i'm looking at buying now? (just want to see em side by side ^^)

Regards Goretog

I wouldn't recommend an equivalent Nvidia card to the 7870(it would be the 580) simply due to the fact that it would be old gen stuff.

If you can afford it I would highly recommend looking at the 670's.

7870 vs 670

[Drakoes]

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...roductId=49839

This is an absolutely amazing price for a GTX 670 in the UK which is a good upgrade over the HD7870 just for your insight, but it will cost a lot more. The HD7870 should still be more than enough though, but it's up to you. Also, the case we chose is £12 less than the original one (£60 not £72).

Also, I've found a better price on the CPU again, and it includes free delivery (price wars ftl) http://www.ebuyer.com/367824-intel-c...m8063701211800

Same for the RAM: http://www.ebuyer.com/274413-corsair...8gx3m2a1600c9r

That should be a total of £11~ saving