Building new PC, please advise

[Seiz]

I wasn't talking just wow but games in general...

[Grym]

Thanks for the responds guys.

I am looking to keep this PC for long, and planning to pretty much have all future games tuned to max settings where possible. The game I am in most concern with is FFXIV, for I know that game do need a monster of a PC to run, although when ver2 come out the optimisation might be a little better.

There are another build I can use, this build is only £1900 but with some difference:

Case: CoolerMaster HAF 912 Plus Case 2x Front USB 2.0 & Front Audio
M/Board: ASUS P8Z77-V PRO: 4x Rear USB3.0/2.0: 4x USB2.0: Built In Wireless N::
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7 3770K Quad Core 4x 3.5GHz 8MB Cache (8 Threads) TurboBoost Upto 3.9GHz
PSU: CoolerMaster 1000W Silent Pro M1000 Modular PSU
Cooling: Corsair H60 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
RAM: Corsair XMS3 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600MHz
1st HD: Corsair Force 3 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive SATA 3 550MB/s Read 510MB/s Write
2nd HD: 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3
3rd HD: 1TB 7200RPM SATA 3
1st CD: 22x DVD RW Black SATA
2nd CD: Internal Blu-ray Disc/DVD/CD Combo Drive
Graphics: 2 x nVidia GeForce GTX 660Ti 2GB in SLi Mode
OS: Microsoft Windows® 7 Professional 64-bit


The site I use is www.powerc.com

May be you can also advice on a build that you think is good? However I do want it to be a reasonably powerful PC, budget around £2000?

[Furiex]

Thanks for the responds guys.

I am looking to keep this PC for long, and planning to pretty much have all future games tuned to max settings where possible. The game I am in most concern with is FFXIV, for I know that game do need a monster of a PC to run, although when ver2 come out the optimisation might be a little better.

There are another build I can use, this build is only £1900 but with some difference:

Case: CoolerMaster HAF 912 Plus Case 2x Front USB 2.0 & Front Audio
M/Board: ASUS P8Z77-V PRO: 4x Rear USB3.0/2.0: 4x USB2.0: Built In Wireless N::
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7 3770K Quad Core 4x 3.5GHz 8MB Cache (8 Threads) TurboBoost Upto 3.9GHz
PSU: CoolerMaster 1000W Silent Pro M1000 Modular PSU
Cooling: Corsair H60 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
RAM: Corsair XMS3 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600MHz
1st HD: Corsair Force 3 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive SATA 3 550MB/s Read 510MB/s Write
2nd HD: 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3
3rd HD: 1TB 7200RPM SATA 3
1st CD: 22x DVD RW Black SATA
2nd CD: Internal Blu-ray Disc/DVD/CD Combo Drive
Graphics: 2 x nVidia GeForce GTX 660Ti 2GB in SLi Mode
OS: Microsoft Windows® 7 Professional 64-bit


The site I use is www.powerc.com

May be you can also advice on a build that you think is good? However I do want it to be a reasonably powerful PC, budget around £2000?

a i7 3770k really isnt worth the extra 100 bucks the i5 3570k is a way better deal. Specially for just gaming.

I like ASUS for mobo's but if I throw out a suggestion it would be a Asus Maximus V Formula, Good value, best audio quality. Sweet looking, just good value

PSU is overkill...spend that money elsewhere

RAM's good, but id say downgrade the overkill PSU and try to find a higher MHZ ram...well worth it

Dont really understand why you want 3 harddrives unless you plan on running the two harddrives in raid, but if not a 1tb Western digital black is way better value, getting a 500gb and a 1tb makes no sense to me at all...

SSD is good, id recomend a kingston hyperX or a Samsung

2 CD drives? me=clueless lol

SLI 660's doesnt really do much, a 680....WAY better value(or even a 670), will out perform SLI 660ti's, less power consumption, and id recomend getting the 4gb version, specially after the crysis 3 specs...thats where our games are going so the 4gb version would be a little better value in the long run.


And a little more on the CPU... a I7 is cool, but since all youve said you were doing is gaming, for more point playing FFXIV, a i7 is in my eyes (my opinion, no flaming) is useless. Ive built all my buddys, that were in your shoes, Oh its my first build a i7 is best and i need the best no matter what. But the i5 is way better value, in BF3 at max settings youll see like a 2-3 fps decress, so you in essence are paying 100 extra bucks (US dollar) for a 3-5% boost in performance. Makes no sense.

[Skarsguard]

Thanks for the responds guys.

I am looking to keep this PC for long, and planning to pretty much have all future games tuned to max settings where possible. The game I am in most concern with is FFXIV, for I know that game do need a monster of a PC to run, although when ver2 come out the optimisation might be a little better.

There are another build I can use, this build is only £1900 but with some difference:

Case: CoolerMaster HAF 912 Plus Case 2x Front USB 2.0 & Front Audio
M/Board: ASUS P8Z77-V PRO: 4x Rear USB3.0/2.0: 4x USB2.0: Built In Wireless N::
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7 3770K Quad Core 4x 3.5GHz 8MB Cache (8 Threads) TurboBoost Upto 3.9GHz
PSU: CoolerMaster 1000W Silent Pro M1000 Modular PSU
Cooling: Corsair H60 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
RAM: Corsair XMS3 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600MHz
1st HD: Corsair Force 3 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive SATA 3 550MB/s Read 510MB/s Write
2nd HD: 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3
3rd HD: 1TB 7200RPM SATA 3
1st CD: 22x DVD RW Black SATA
2nd CD: Internal Blu-ray Disc/DVD/CD Combo Drive
Graphics: 2 x nVidia GeForce GTX 660Ti 2GB in SLi Mode
OS: Microsoft Windows® 7 Professional 64-bit


The site I use is www.powerc.com

May be you can also advice on a build that you think is good? However I do want it to be a reasonably powerful PC, budget around £2000?

I mean it will be a beast of a computer but idk your throwing money away I think on some stuff like the 3 storage spaces (do you really need 1.75 TB's)?, the 1000 watt PSU but looking at the site I guess they're building it for you because all I could see was coolermaster PSU's and I wouldn't buy a coolermaster PSU.

[Demec]

Ditch that 500gb hdd and win 7 and use the money to buy 240gb+ SSD instead 120gb and 2133mhz+ memory.

[Grym]

Problem is I am building on the site, and they do not have a 2133 HHz RAM option.

The reason why I have 3 HD is, I have always been told by a friend that did Computer Science (about 10 years ago?) that you should try to seperate your drives, 1 for programs and such, and one for files. Since then I always have had 2 seperate drives for them, and then SSD, was also told to only put your OS and may be something that you use frequent on it, hence the 3 drives, 1 for OS (and probably put the games on it), 1 for all the programs and such, and 3rd drives purely for files.

2 CD drives, I was thinking using the main DVD drives for all the installing game crap and such on it, the Blu-Ray one probably mainly be for watching Blu-Ray movies.

Dump the Win7? But I will need an OS and I was told Win8 is a no go at the moment.

As for the 660 Ti SLi vs 680, I read up a few review on it and all of them said the 660 Ti SLi would be way better than the 680? And if I do that the site I was building it from (www.powerc.com) said if I SLi I would need a 1000W, a single card only 700W, since I went for 660 Ti SLi it requires me to go for the 1000W PSU.

As for brands and such, I have very limited choice as I can only choose what the website has available. If you have a look at the website you will see what I have available to choose from.

[Lemmiwink]

If you need a 700W PSU for a 660ti then you better tell them not to install the PSU cus it's crap and you don't want it. A 700W PSU will run that system with 2 660ti's in SLI without sweating.

Don't buy 2133MHZ ram. Waste of money. Buy a better motherboard and clock the RAM up to 2133MHZ as buying it is just e-peen. (Yes, e-peen is the reason for my RAM and that it was on sale.)

You should absolutely consider a 240+GB SSD as 120GB is used quite quickly. It's a good investment and has a lower price per GB.

[Deleted]

Have you checked other sites? This one has very limited choices. Also ignore the Win 7, 2133MHz RAM comment please.

The Blu-Ray drive reads DVDs as well. Change to something like this following build (again if you can ONLY use that site)

iBUILD™ Intel i5 Gaming Custom PC
£1274.75 inc VAT
CoolerMaster HAF 912 Plus Case 2x Front USB 2.0 & Front Audio
CoolerMaster 700W Silent Pro M700 Modular PSU
ASUS P8Z77-V LX : 2x Rear USB3.0: 4x Rear USB2.0:
Intel® Core™ i5 3570K Quad Core 4x 3.4GHz 6MB Cache (4 Threads) TurboBoost
Upto 3.8GHz
Corsair H60 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler - *QUIET PC*
Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz
Corsair Force 3 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive SATA 3 550MB/s Read 510MB/s Write
1TB 7200RPM SATA 3
Internal Blu-ray Disc/DVD/CD Combo Drive
Microsoft Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
nVidia GeForce GTX 670 2GB

You use one SSD for main drive which should contain at least your OS, there is enough room for all your programs and quite a few games (I picked 240GB since you didn't seem to be hurting for money with that budget). Use the HDD to storage media (movies, music, pictures etc.)

1 good GPU is preferred and at 1080p (1920x1080) one monitor the GTX 670 is more than capable.

---------- Post added 2012-12-30 at 10:02 PM ----------

Take a look at some of these from Aria.co.uk instead maybe?

Gladiator Decimator i5-3570K - £1425

• Pre-installed Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit SP1
• Overclocking: Intel i5 professionally Overclocked up to 4.60GHz*
• 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ (Ivy Bridge) i5-3570K 6MB Cache Quad-Core Processor
• be quiet! Dark Rock PRO 2 Dual Fan Quiet CPU Cooler
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 2048MB GDDR5 Graphics - Supports DirectX 11
• 16GB Corsair Vengeance LP (4x4096) 1600MHz DDR3 Dual-Channel Memory (32GB Max)
• 256GB Crucial m4 2.5" SATA 6GB/s (SATA III) Solid State Hard Drive
• 3TB (7200rpm) SATA 6GB/s (SATA III) Hard Drive
• GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UP4-TH Intel Z77 Socket 1155 DDR3 PCI-Express Motherboard w/ SATA 6G, USB 3.0 & 2x Thunderbolt - SLI Ready
• 750W Corsair Builder Series 750CX 80PLUS Bronze Power Supply - SLI Ready
• Corsair Carbide 500R Black Midi Tower Gaming Case
• DVD +/- RW Drive w/ m-Disk Support

Gladiator Night Hawk i5-3570K - £1203

• Pre-installed Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit SP1
• Overclocking: Intel i5 professionally Overclocked up to 4.50GHz*
• 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ (Ivy Bridge) i5-3570K 6MB Cache Quad-Core Processor
• be quiet! Dark Rock 2 Quiet CPU Cooler
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2048MB GDDR5 Graphics - Supports DirectX 11
• 8GB Corsair Vengeance LP (2x4096) 1600MHz DDR3 Dual-Channel Memory (32GB Max)
• 256GB Crucial m4 2.5" SATA 6GB/s (SATA III) Solid State Hard Drive
• 2TB (7200rpm) SATA 6GB/s (SATA III) Hard Drive
• GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 Socket 1155 DDR3 PCI-Express Motherboard w/ SATA 6G & USB 3.0 - SLI Ready
• 750W Corsair Builder Series 750CX 80PLUS Bronze Power Supply - SLI Ready
• Corsair Carbide 400R Black Midi Tower Gaming Case
• DVD +/- RW Drive w/ m-Disk Support

Or lastly something that you can configure even more like this from Overclockers.co.uk:

i5-3570k GTX670 build - £1360

[Grym]

The Aria.co.uk one looks good, I will check into their delivery time and such.

But they only have 670? Wouldn't a 680 be better?

[Deleted]

The Aria.co.uk one looks good, I will check into their delivery time and such.

But they only have 670? Wouldn't a 680 be better?

Only by ~5-10% max, doesn't really justify the extra cost in my opinion, especially considering the 670 can max most of everything.

[Grym]

it is way under the budget so I can afford to throw some extra bits here and there XD Shame they are all pre-set system so I cannot just say upgrade this bit and that bit. But the next one up to the one you mentioned will be a i7 again.

---------- Post added 2012-12-30 at 09:56 PM ----------

Also the Overclocker link doesn't save what have you chosen, could you list the item you chose in that one?

[Deleted]

it is way under the budget so I can afford to throw some extra bits here and there XD Shame they are all pre-set system so I cannot just say upgrade this bit and that bit. But the next one up to the one you mentioned will be a i7 again.

---------- Post added 2012-12-30 at 09:56 PM ----------

Also the Overclocker link doesn't save what have you chosen, could you list the item you chose in that one?

Hmm I see it when I click it but either way it should be this:

Specification
	Corsair Carbide 500R Midi Tower Case - Black
	Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM
	Alpenfohn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler
	MSI Z77A-GD55 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
	TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
	KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
	Samsung 250GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic
	Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM
	OcUK 24x DVD+RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM
	OnBoard Sound Card
	Corsair TX 650 V2 Bronze PSU
	Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
	BitFenix Alchemy Premium Modding LED Strip - Connect White 30cm
	Fully Cable Managed
	OcUK Tech Labs - Zaward Golf III Fan 120mm
	Op Out of FREE Software

It's your money, if you feel better spending it on a "higher end" system of their (from Aria) go right ahead. I'm just showing you what you can get that will perform very well and has room for future upgrades. The price versus the performance gain going from this to i7/680 etc. isn't worth it in my opinion. The choice is yours though.

[Grym]

Didnt go for any of the overclock option?

---------- Post added 2012-12-30 at 10:22 PM ----------

Also, is Win7 Pro not worth it? I remember back in Win2000 the Pro version was stable like hell and never had issue, just wondering if there is actually much difference between the home prem and pro version

[Deleted]

Premium vs Pro

Premium/Pro comparison

If you think you need any of the added feature then go right ahead, it's not like the price difference is that much.

You can easily overclock on your own, you can probably use their 1 click tuning to get 4.2-4.3GHz easily but if you feel more comfortable paying them to do it then go right ahead The area systems are overclocked afaik.

[Grym]

Ah OK, Home Prem edition it is.

I won't trust myself to clock or touch anything, hence I am going to website and have it built for me XD

[Deleted]

Yeah that's fine, I left all those options up to you. You can add LED's, "bling", extra software etc. on your own

[Grym]

Is it safe to just clock it tho? I am tempted with the clock 20% option, but not sure if it will make it unstable and crash often and such

---------- Post added 2012-12-30 at 10:44 PM ----------

Also:

On Overclockers, the difference between 670 and 680 is like £300.

On Powerc, the difference between 670 and 680 is like £90?

[Deleted]

Yes it's quite safe. They test the system before sending it to you.

Yeah I have no idea why they're adding £300 + O_o ~90 sounds about right. They also charge more for a 660ti which doesn't make sense.

[Grym]

I might go with something like this in the end, any advice?

CoolerMaster HAFX Gaming Case
CoolerMaster 700W Silent Pro M700 Modular PSU
ASUS P8Z77-V LX
Intel® Core™ i5 3570K Quad Core 4x 3.4GHz 6MB Cache (4 Threads) TurboBoost Upto 3.8GHz
Corsair H60 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
Corsair Force 3 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive SATA 3
2TB 7200RPM SATA 3
Internal Blu-ray Disc/DVD/CD Combo Drive
Microsoft Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
nVidia GeForce GTX 680 2GB
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio

[Deleted]

Nope it seems fine, you already know my opinion on the GTX680. ASUS P8Z77-V LX has no support for SLI, not a big deal I just wanted you to be aware of it. You don't really need a sound card unless you plan on getting some nice speakers or quality headphones ($100+).