New build- advice

[benwallace23]

Hey guys,

So I am planning to build a pc, this will be my first time however i am fairly knowledgeable on these things and am really looking forward to it!

Would love a bit of advice on the parts I have chosen, whether i have made any huge errors or something.

I live in the Uk, and want a pc to do some gaming (BF3, GTA IV etc), as well as a bit of audio work and video editing. Budget is about £650.

Intel i5 2500k (oc'd to 4.0-4.5)
Zalman CNPS 10x Extreme
Asrock Fatal1ty P67 Performance
8gb Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz (2x4gb)
AMD Radeon HD 6870
CM storm enforcer case
CM 650w GX PSU
Seagate Barracuda 350gb HDD 7200rpm
Sony optiarc 24x
Red cold cathode

Any suggestions would be great as you can tell im going for a red and black build, but may be flexible to save money! Thanks in advance

 

[g-unit1111]

That's a decent build but it's not that very well balanced. For £650 here's what I would get:

Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 - £67.79
PSU: Corsair Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 - £77.58
Motherboard: Asus P8H77-V LE - £76.52
CPU: 3.1GHz Intel Core i3-2100 - £92.56
RAM: 8GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz 1.5V - £42.96
HD: 1TB Seagate Barracuda ST - £68.52
Optical: Sony DVD Burner - £16.06
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 - £184.54

Total: £636.72

This build gets you a far better CPU and motherboard and a way better video card.

 

[azeem40]

If you don't plan on OCing, get the XFX 550W.

 

[blazorthon]

The i3 is not better than an i5. For this build, it might be the better choice, but it is not a better CPU. The 7850 most certainly is a much better video card than the 6870 and I would recommend it myself for this build, but unlike azeem40, I'd not go with a weaker PSU. The 7850 has huge overclocking headroom, although the i3 might not deal with it when overclocked very well and the i3 can't be overclocked much at all, so it can't be overclocked enough to make up the difference.

A faster CPU might be a better idea. Either way. It depends on how much OP wants to get out of this build and for how long OP wants this build to last.

 

[azeem40]

I think it was a typo.

 

[benwallace23]

Thanks for the advice guys. I appreciate the hd6870 is probably bottle necking the system gaming wise a bit at the moment, however I am not a really serious gamer. From what I see the hd6870 will play most games now on medium-high settings, which is just fine for me. I would rather have a powerful CPU and just have to upgrade the graphics card in a few years if I want to play the latest games. What do you think?

 

[blazorthon]

Thanks for the advice guys. I appreciate the hd6870 is probably bottle necking the system gaming wise a bit at the moment, however I am not a really serious gamer. From what I see the hd6870 will play most games now on medium-high settings, which is just fine for me. I would rather have a powerful CPU and just have to upgrade the graphics card in a few years if I want to play the latest games. What do you think?

Honestly, I'd recommend a Radeon 7770 over a 6870. The most highly factory overclocked 7770s can trade blows with the 6870 in stock performance and can beat it in overclocking performance all while using far less power and being much quieter. It would also be cheaper, despite having no disadvantages. You could even throw in a second 7770 in a few years as your graphics upgrade and due to the 7770 have ~100% CF scaling instead of the 6870's ~70-75% scaling, it would truly beat the 6870 by a large margin for this. The 7770 also has a much less stutter-prone and otherwise optimized CF than CF used with VLIW5 GPUs such as the 6870's GPU.

About the idea of strong CPU upgrade graphics later, yes, that is a good way. It's how I would do it because a CPU is both more difficult to replace and more expensive because unlike video cards, you can't just throw a second CPU in for an upgrade when they're a little older and thus probably cheaper than when you bought the first one.

 

[benwallace23]

thanks for your advice, really appreciate it. I think i am going to do something fairly similar to what you suggested but instead get a sapphire radeon hd 6850 2gb... these are fairly similar to the 6770 however the 2gb vram means the headroom for overclocking is HUGE.. people are completely beasting these way above 6870 levels- similar to the 6770. As for the CPU, it seems to be the sensible thing to do as the 2500k is just so good thanks again

 

[blazorthon]

thanks for your advice, really appreciate it. I think i am going to do something fairly similar to what you suggested but instead get a sapphire radeon hd 6850 2gb... these are fairly similar to the 6770 however the 2gb vram means the headroom for overclocking is HUGE.. people are completely beasting these way above 6870 levels- similar to the 6770. As for the CPU, it seems to be the sensible thing to do as the 2500k is just so good thanks again

There is a 7770 2GB if you're interested... It should still beat the 6850 (and 6850 2GB) in overclocking. Having 2GB does not improve their overclocking performance, but it improves longevity (up to a point) by letting the memory capacity not be a bottle-neck should games in the future use more than 1GB of VRAM in settings relevant to your computer.

Also, you're welcome; I'm glad to help.

EDIT: A reason for a 2GB card to overclock better than a 1GB would simply be this: It is a non-reference card if it has more VRAM than the reference card, so it might simply be built better. IE better VRM, better-binned VRAM and GPUs, etc. etc. Regardless, like I sid, there is a 7770 2GB if you want 2GB of VRAM.

 

[g-unit1111]

I think it was a typo.

Yeah that was a typo - this gets you a far more balanced system as opposed to having the CPU more powerful than the GPU.