$3000 build

[angaddev]

Hi guys, I am a noob at building PCs and I wanted to upgrade mine. I have saved for a long time and I need some advice before I decide to spend all that money. This will include two monitors.

Approximate Purchase Date: this weekend or next weekend

Budget Range: $3,000-$3,100

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming ( I play Skyrim, FSX, WoW, BF3 and others)

Parts Not Required: Keyboard, mouse, 1x HDD ( I do want to get an SSD and another HDD though, and the current one is a WD Caviar Green 500GB)

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: scan.co.uk , aria.co.uk , and ebuyer.com (UK Site) are all ok

Country: United K. (Britain)

Parts Preferences: by brand or type : I would like to have dual monitors. I would also like an Intel CPu and probs the new 7970. I like the looks of the Tt LEvel 10 GT case

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080 X2

Additional Comments: I can't go over budget. Reminder this PC includes 2 mons.

Current parts are:

Thermaltake Level 10 GT Case
Asus P8Z68 DELUXE/GEN3 Intel Z68 Socket 1155 Motherboard
Intel I7-2600K
Noctua NH-U9B SE2 Dual Fan Quiet CPU Cooler
3GB XFX Radeon HD 7970 Black with Ghost & Hydrocell
8GB G.Skill RipJawsX (1x8GB) DDR3 1333MHz 9-9-9-24 Module
OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" SATA-III Solid State Hard Drive
Seagate Barracuda XT 2TB Hard Drive
1000W XFX Pro Black Edition P1-1000-BLUK, Modular, 92% Eff', 80 PLUS Platinum
Samsung S22A300H LCD LED Full HD 21.5" HDMI Monitor (X2)
Win 7 Professional

Any and all advice is appreciated.

 

[g-unit1111]

Most of what you have looks pretty good but there's a couple of things:

8GB G.Skill RipJawsX (1x8GB) DDR3 1333MHz 9-9-9-24 Module

For a dual channel system you actually need two sticks to properly function as opposed to one - and if you're planning to max out the RAM to 32GB it's kind of pointless at this point as most 8GB chips haven't been tested with all motherboards yet. When buying a motherboard you always want to check the manufacturer's QVL (qualified vendor list) when buying RAM to see what they've tested and works with it.

Thermaltake Level 10 GT Case

This case is serious overkill, for the money you're better off going with the Cooler Master Cosmos II when it's available (2 - 3 weeks tops) but you don't really need a case that fancy anyways. Try the Corsair Carbide 500R or the NZXT Phantom, those are my two favorites for higher end builds.

Intel I7-2600K

If gaming is your highest priority you don't need the 2600K, get the 2500K and invest the difference elsewhere - probably go with a better cooling system or SSD.

OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" SATA-III Solid State Hard Drive

OCZ is a pretty hit-or-miss SSD manufacturer, but this drive is definitely a miss. Go with anything else - Crucial, Plextor, Samsung, Intel, anything.

1000W XFX Pro Black Edition P1-1000-BLUK, Modular, 92% Eff', 80 PLUS Platinum

This should be a good PSU but you probably won't need a 1K watt unless you're using dual 7970's and plan to overclock. I'm in the US so I really can't help you with UK power requirements and that sort of thing - someone else will have to help you there.

 

[DelroyMonjo]

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=858&Itemid=72&limit=1&limitstart=14 overclocked Fur Mark load 289W. That's 24 Amps. You'll never get near that in gaming.

 

[slhpss]

confused about power requirements in the UK Vs. power requirements in the US... they are the same... the only difference is input voltage... 110 Vs. 220... but the power supply itself is still providing 12v 5v 3.3v to the system...

Anyways +1 to the QVL for ram and I would go for 2x4GB or 4x4GB (16GB is overkill but the 3000 dollar budget... wow...)

My case recommendation would be a Corsair Obsidian 800D... and the 2600k if you have the budget that high... why not then...

For about 600 bucks you could put a single loop water cooling system in there as well and you should still be within that 3k budget...

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Monitors/24%26quot%3B+Monitors/24%22+ASUS+VS247H+Widescreen+LED+Monitor+?productId=46308 <-- nice monitor...

Also you give the number in $$$ I just want to make sure that it's dollars and not British Pounds...

 

[g-unit1111]

My case recommendation would be a Corsair Obsidian 800D... and the 2600k if you have the budget that high... why not then...

I personally like the Carbide over the Obsidian but if you've got the $3K budget I'd recommend the Cooler Master Cosmos II:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119252

For about 600 bucks you could put a single loop water cooling system in there as well and you should still be within that 3k budget...

I don't think I would put a water cooling system in on that budget... the bad thing with water cooling is that if something goes wrong you're pretty much screwed.

Also you give the number in $$$ I just want to make sure that it's dollars and not British Pounds...

At current exchange - 3,000.00 GBP = 4,599.91 USD ( ), 3,000.00 USD = 1,956.38 GBP

 

[a4mula]

All prices in USD.

Asrock Z79 Extreme3 $215
i7-3820 $290
Fractal Design Arc Midi $100
PowerColor 6950 2GB x 3 $720
CM Silent Pro 850w $140
Corsair Vengeance 4x4GB Cas 9 1600 $90
Seagate 2TB $160
OCZ Synapse 64GB Cache SSD $155
Dell u2412m x3 $900
Asus DRW-24B $19
Noctua NH-D14 2011 $90
Win7 Home 64bit $100

Total $2979

Here's a 3 screen Eyefinity rig I've been working on for a few weeks now. The 3x 6950 destroys a single 7970 while getting rid of any microstutter problems associated with multiple gpus. You get a full 3600x1920 eyefinity (portrait) setup.

The SSD is the Synapse Cache drive which is different from a typical SSD in that you don't install anything on it. It acts as a cache for your HDD increasing the speeds of all of your most commonly used files without having to worry about optimization, write thrashing, or runaway growth.

The downside to this build is the 3820 will not be available until February. By then we should also have some more information on the 7950 which if the price/performance was right might end up instead of the 6950 2gb x3.

 

[slhpss]

^^@G-unit: cm cosmos II is also a very nice looking case... that's why I wanted to clarify... I was thinking he put it in USD since a lot of people on this site are from the US, but... then asking us to us UK sites for the parts forces us to do the conversion... He could definately do water cooling on that budget... a "typical" water cooling setup with a single GPU and single CPU can be had for 400-600 bucks and work very well... now you could go crazy and build a water cooling setup that costs more than the system itself... lol

from what I understand the i7 3820 benches = i7 2600k/2700k ... with about the same power consumption (actually slightly more), but less over clockability due to the locked multiplier.. I wouldn't recommend waiting for it especially if you plan on over-clocking... though if you're not looking to buy immediately I personally am waiting for 3570k/3770k Ivy bridges to come out...

 

[g-unit1111]

^^@G-unit: cm cosmos II is also a very nice looking case... that's why I wanted to clarify... I was thinking he put it in USD since a lot of people on this site are from the US, but... then asking us to us UK sites for the parts forces us to do the conversion... He could definately do water cooling on that budget... a "typical" water cooling setup with a single GPU and single CPU can be had for 400-600 bucks and work very well... now you could go crazy and build a water cooling setup that costs more than the system itself... lol

That's true but I'm definitely not a fan of water cooling by any means - I don't have the money to replace something if it goes wrong and if I were going to drop $3K on a PC I would be as cautious with my hardware as I possibly could.

from what I understand the i7 3820 benches = i7 2600k/2700k ... with about the same power consumption (actually slightly more), but less over clockability due to the locked multiplier.. I wouldn't recommend waiting for it especially if you plan on over-clocking... though if you're not looking to buy immediately I personally am waiting for 3570k/3770k Ivy bridges to come out...

The 3820 isn't going to be that much of an improvement and I'm not really expecting Ivy to bring anything new to the table other than PCI-e 3.0.

Asrock Z79 Extreme3 $215
i7-3820 $290
Fractal Design Arc Midi $100
PowerColor 6950 2GB x 3 $720
CM Silent Pro 850w $140
Corsair Vengeance 4x4GB Cas 9 1600 $90
Seagate 2TB $160
OCZ Synapse 64GB Cache SSD $155
Dell u2412m x3 $900
Asus DRW-24B $19
Noctua NH-D14 2011 $90
Win7 Home 64bit $100

That build looks pretty good but I have not read good things about the Silent Pro series.

 

[a4mula]

That build looks pretty good but I have not read good things about the Silent Pro series.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Cooler-Master-Silent-Pro-M-850-W-Power-Supply-Review/810/10

Good enough for HWS Silver. That's no small feat. Typically it's not a psu I'd look at with it normally being $190, but at $140 it undercuts all of the decent 850w with 3+3 pci-e connectors by at least $10 bucks.

 

[g-unit1111]

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Cooler-Master-Silent-Pro-M-850-W-Power-Supply-Review/810/10

Good enough for HWS Silver. That's no small feat. Typically it's not a psu I'd look at with it normally being $190, but at $140 it undercuts all of the decent 850w with 3+3 pci-e connectors by at least $10 bucks.

Maybe it's certain models I've been reading about. I read a couple of reviews on the 1K watt and there seemed to be nothing but problems with them (fan noise issues, dead connectors, that sort of thing).

 

[nick3232]

Don't waste your time with this guy he wants to waste money just because he wants to say he has an i7 i told him to cpu to i5 said i was a gloater said same on case and does not want to drop too what a d-bag

 

[nick3232]

he just wants to waste money on the i7 just to say he has it and you don't and mine is expensive than the i5 and brag about it do not waste time with this guy

 

[slhpss]

he just wants to waste money on the i7 just to say he has it and you don't and mine is expensive than the i5 and brag about it do not waste time with this guy

if that's the case OP should get an SB-E... grab yourself a 3960x, Asus X79 board, 16GB (4x4gb) ram, the 7970, the recommended 850W psu, a crucial m4, ODD if you want one, and jam it into whatever case you can afford when money is left over... 3000 should be plenty for that.... and you will have way more bragging rights than a 2600k

 

[angaddev]

Ok, thanks for all of ur advice. I have switched to 2x4 GB RAM Modules
http://www.ebuyer.com/264750-g-skill-8gb-2x4gb-ddr3-1600mhz-ripjawsx-memory-kit-cl9-9-9-9-24-1-5v-f3-12800cl9d-8gbxl

I don't want to waste money, I thought the 2600K was better than the 2500K.

I meant 3,000 USD, my budget in pounds is about £2000.

I am unsure about the 3-way Cfx build mentioned above...

I have heard that 2011 is only a bit better than 1155 so I will be sticking with SAndy Bridge.

I don't have space for the Cosmos! That thing is huge! Maybe I will get something like the 600T? Thanks for the advice but I need these questions answererd.

 

[angaddev]

Anyone? I am still not totallty sure

 

[inzone]

Ok, thanks for all of ur advice. I have switched to 2x4 GB RAM Modules
http://www.ebuyer.com/264750-g-skill-8gb-2x4gb-ddr3-1600mhz-ripjawsx-memory-kit-cl9-9-9-9-24-1-5v-f3-12800cl9d-8gbxl

I don't want to waste money, I thought the 2600K was better than the 2500K.

I meant 3,000 USD, my budget in pounds is about £2000.

I am unsure about the 3-way Cfx build mentioned above...

I have heard that 2011 is only a bit better than 1155 so I will be sticking with SAndy Bridge.

I don't have space for the Cosmos! That thing is huge! Maybe I will get something like the 600T? Thanks for the advice but I need these questions answererd.

I like your build and the case is one of those things that is a personal preference and if it is something that you want then you should get it as long as it doesn't interfere with any of the parts.
The difference in the 2500k and the2600k is that the 2600k has hyperthreading and you will not use that in gaming so you will be better off with the 2500k since it is cheaper.
I wouldn't get a single stick of 8gb ram I would get two 4gb sticks and the 1600mhz would be a better choice.
You should stick with the Sandy Bridge cpu's since the 2011 version is not that much better and you will have better choices for a motherboard.

 

[angaddev]

I changed to 1600 and 2 sticks already, I will pick the case but what about graphics? I only have room for 2 mons so 1x 7970 or 2x 6950/6970?

 

[inzone]

If you have the money get the 7970. If you want to end up with Crossfire you can add another later, the 7970 will play any game now with very good fps.

 

[angaddev]

I have also changed to a 2500k, still unsure abput gfx

 

[angaddev]

YEs, I can get the 7970. I just realized I have a spare 500GB SATA III HDD so I downgraded to a CAviar Black 1TB.

 

[inzone]

The 6970 is equal to a GTX 570 and a 6850 is eqwual to a GTX 560Ti and neither of them are equal to a GTX 580. The 7970 is better then a GTX 580 and gives better performance then the 580. So the one 7970 will be equal more or less to two of the 6950's or 70's so one of the 7970's will be good for quite aw while and if you need more performance you can add another later which will then give you outstanding performance in any game.

 

[angaddev]

Sorry for so many posts but what CPU cooler should I get? Noctua NH-U9B-SE2, Silver arrow or what?

 

[inzone]

How much do you want to spend on the cooler?

 

[angaddev]

Thanks inzone, I will probably buy a second 7970 when the prices stabilize a bit.

 

[angaddev]

anything, as long as it is value for money.