Is this build any good?

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DancinHobo

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Mar 21, 2013
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Hi, I'm looking to build my first computer, I'm on a budget of £500. I already have an AMD 7850. I was just wondering if this build looked good?

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£146.34 @ Aria PC) Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver Ceramique 2 Tri-Linear 2.7g Thermal Paste (£2.61 @ Amazon UK) Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V LK ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£99.99 @ Amazon UK) Memory: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£32.70 @ Dabs) Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£40.18 @ Dabs) Case: Zalman Z5 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case (£39.98 @ Novatech) Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply (£34.15 @ Aria PC) Optical Drive: Samsung SH-222BB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£12.22 @ Dabs) Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£68.04 @ CCL Computers) Total: £476.21

I don't plan on overclocking but I may go down the crossfire route later on. Any thoughts?
One of the main thoughts I had was whether I needed to a different motherboard because I didn't intend to overclock.
 
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ubercake


That Asus board P8Z77-V LK offers 2 8-lane PCIe 3.0 x16 slots when used for Crossfire. This is equivalent to the bandwidth of 2 16-lane...
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ikes9711

ikes9711

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Nov 15, 2012
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Are you including a gpu in this build? If you want to go the crossfire route later on you are going to need a better psu. 430W is not going to cut it. I would recommend 750W if you are sure that you will be going crossfire. Also if you are going to go with a locked frequency processor I would recommend getting a MB with a H77 chipset.
 
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MauveCloud

MauveCloud

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May 7, 2010
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I don't see an aftermarket cpu cooler in there, so why get thermal compound separately?



You're forgetting that H77 motherboards usually don't support crossfire or sli.
 
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ikes9711

ikes9711

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H77 boards don't support sli since both slots must be running at 8x speed but crossfire isn't limited by the speed of the slot.
 
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ubercake

ubercake

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Oct 28, 2009
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Good catch. So at that, the power requirement would still stand for being crossfire-ready. I see two generations of crossfire on that platform; possibly a third. The PSU I listed will accommodate any crossfire setup even if they increase the power requirement at some point for GPU as well as additional disks, fans, beefier processors for a future platform change, etc... A good PSU is something you can bring with you from build to build.
 
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DancinHobo

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Mar 21, 2013
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Cheers guys,
I naively added the thermal paste in because I was under the impression that I would need apply it myself, although I'm now guessing that the stock cooler comes with it already applied to it?

ubercake cheers for the PSU suggestion I will definitely be adding it instead of the 430W.

ikes I was under the impression that I would need two PCIe lanes running at x8 to get a good crossfire result?
As an alternative board suggestion is the ASRock H77 Pro4/MvP any good? http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?cat=Specifications&Model=H77 Pro4/MVP
or am I just best off with the Asus board?
 
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zooted

zooted

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Yes the stock cooler has pre applied thermal paste, it is a non k series so your overclocking is limited.

For crossfire 7850's you could get away with 650 if its a quality unit but it may be wiser to get a 750 for cushion room.

8x,8x is the bare minimum for crossfire I know a year or two ago this wasn't a significant botteneck but to honest I'm not sure how that has changed from previous generations.
 
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ubercake

ubercake

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Oct 28, 2009
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That Asus board P8Z77-V LK offers 2 8-lane PCIe 3.0 x16 slots when used for Crossfire. This is equivalent to the bandwidth of 2 16-lane PCIe 2.0 x16 slots. This Asus motherboard is more than adequate for any type of crossfire setup. I'd stick with it.
 
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