New build gaming PC

[Munkeh111]

So I am building a computer for the first time to replace my laptop, primarily for gaming at 1080p

I will be buying this within the next month

The budget is a max of £1700, but this includes EVERYTHING as I am moving from a laptop.

I am in the UK, so my favoured website is amazon.co.uk

The current line-up that I am planning

Processor: Intel i5-3570k ~ £175

Graphics card: Nvidia 670. I haven't decided which one to get, but I am thinking of the ASUS Top or the EVGA, but am open to any suggestions
ASUS ~ £350

I can't find the EVGA 670 FTW at amazon, but it should be similarly priced

Motherboard: ASUS Sabertooth Z77 ~ £180

Ram: 8 or 16GB. ~ £40 or £80. I haven't decided on exactly which, beyond using the Corsair brand, I don't know if having 2 or 4 sticks matters either

Storage : Samsung 128GB ~ £120
WD 1TB Caviar Black HDD ~ £80


Case: Sharkoon Tauron ATX Midi Tower ~ £80

Power supply: Corsair 650W power supply

Monitor: ASUS PA238Q x 2 (I won't do multiscreen gaming though) ~ 2 x £205

I also need a keyboard and mouse, but I don't have anything in mind

Total: £1555

The main concerns I have are:

Which 670 to buy
Whether it is a good enough motherboard

I also have plans to upgrade the system to add a second graphics card, so I want to be sure that the system has enough headroom for me to do that without having to replace too much other than adding a better heatsink to the CPU

Thanks for any help

 

[TheBigTroll]

1: get the gigabyte one or the asus directcu2 versions of a 670. they have bettter coolers than the ftw

2:sabertooth is overpriced. get something cheap like a asrock z77 extreme4 or a gigabyte z77xx-ud5h

3:just get a plain 2x4gb kit like crucial ballistix sport. if you are interested in overclocking memory, the samsiung modules are the best

4:get a case like a 600t or a 500r to suit your high end build

5:get a xfx xxx 750w power supply instead. it is more efficent and semi-modular for only a little more

6:get a cooler like a hyper 212 evo. just remember to get low profile ram like the set i recommended so that it will fit. corsair vengeance doesnt fit

 

[g-unit1111]

That's a pretty decent build to start with but I definitely agree about the case and cooler. However I would advise against overclocking your RAM as if you push the voltage too far it can fry your whole build, and you don't want to spend £1600 on components, and then have it fry on you.

Try something like this:

Case: Antec 1100 - £89.94
PSU: XFX Pro Series 750W - £75.30
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H - £104.12
CPU: 3.4GHz Intel Core i5-3570K - £179.22
Cooler: Noctua NH-U9B - £43.07
RAM: 8GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz 1.5V - £43.34
SSD: 128GB OCZ Vertex 4 - £106.00
HD: 1TB Western Digital 7200 RPM - £93.37
Optical: LG Blu Ray Burner - £66.23
Video Card: EVGA Geforce GTX 670 - £328.40
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium - £71.64
Monitor: 24" Viewsonic VA2448-LED LED (Backlit) Monitor, 1920x1080, 5ms, 300cd/m², 10000000:1, Black, Full HD - £138.29

Total: £1,355.70

That gives you a little bit of breathing room for some nice peripherals and anything else you want to get.

 

[Munkeh111]

Thanks for the tips; I will take some more looks at the graphics cards

So there is no need for more than 8GB RAM?

As for the cases, the case I chose was primarily on the looks, I am quite keen to have something that looks a bit silly, but if it comprimises the performance, then I guess it isn't really worth it

 

[TheBigTroll]

samsung dimms are very good according to these people

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147096

 

[azeem40]

Samsung DIMMs can be OCed without upping the voltage.

 

[g-unit1111]

Thanks for the tips; I will take some more looks at the graphics cards

So there is no need for more than 8GB RAM?

As for the cases, the case I chose was primarily on the looks, I am quite keen to have something that looks a bit silly, but if it comprimises the performance, then I guess it isn't really worth it

That's a decent case for sure but I'd rather have something that provides for better airflow and gives you a bit of breathing room for installing motherboards, GPUs, and makes adding or removing drives easier.

On a gaming build - you don't need more than 8GB RAM.

 

[Munkeh111]

That's a pretty decent build to start with but I definitely agree about the case and cooler. However I would advise against overclocking your RAM as if you push the voltage too far it can fry your whole build, and you don't want to spend £1600 on components, and then have it fry on you.

Try something like this:

Case: Antec 1100 - £89.94
PSU: XFX Pro Series 750W - £75.30
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H - £104.12
CPU: 3.4GHz Intel Core i5-3570K - £179.22
Cooler: Noctua NH-U9B - £43.07
RAM: 8GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz 1.5V - £43.34
SSD: 128GB OCZ Vertex 4 - £106.00
HD: 1TB Western Digital 7200 RPM - £93.37
Optical: LG Blu Ray Burner - £66.23
Video Card: EVGA Geforce GTX 670 - £328.40
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium - £71.64
Monitor: 24" Viewsonic VA2448-LED LED (Backlit) Monitor, 1920x1080, 5ms, 300cd/m², 10000000:1, Black, Full HD - £138.29

Total: £1,355.70
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/20984-9-read-first
That gives you a little bit of breathing room for some nice peripherals and anything else you want to get.

Would this build be enough to add a second card in SLI?

 

[g-unit1111]

Would this build be enough to add a second card in SLI?

Yes - the motherboard has 1 x PCI Gen 3 lane operating in x16 and 1 x PCI 2.0 x 16 lane so you should be able to add a second 670 without losing any speed.

 

[Munkeh111]

Yes - the motherboard has 1 x PCI Gen 3 lane operating in x16 and 1 x PCI 2.0 x 16 lane so you should be able to add a second 670 without losing any speed.

I was mostly worried about the power supply, I have been trying a few calculators and they suggest 850W would be best

 

[Why_Me]

So I am building a computer for the first time to replace my laptop, primarily for gaming at 1080p

I will be buying this within the next month

The budget is a max of £1700, but this includes EVERYTHING as I am moving from a laptop.

I am in the UK, so my favoured website is amazon.co.uk

The current line-up that I am planning

Processor: Intel i5-3570k ~ £175

Graphics card: Nvidia 670. I haven't decided which one to get, but I am thinking of the ASUS Top or the EVGA, but am open to any suggestions
ASUS ~ £350

I can't find the EVGA 670 FTW at amazon, but it should be similarly priced

Motherboard: ASUS Sabertooth Z77 ~ £180

Ram: 8 or 16GB. ~ £40 or £80. I haven't decided on exactly which, beyond using the Corsair brand, I don't know if having 2 or 4 sticks matters either

Storage : Samsung 128GB ~ £120
WD 1TB Caviar Black HDD ~ £80


Case: Sharkoon Tauron ATX Midi Tower ~ £80

Power supply: Corsair 650W power supply

Monitor: ASUS PA238Q x 2 (I won't do multiscreen gaming though) ~ 2 x £205

I also need a keyboard and mouse, but I don't have anything in mind

Total: £1555

The main concerns I have are:

Which 670 to buy
Whether it is a good enough motherboard

I also have plans to upgrade the system to add a second graphics card, so I want to be sure that the system has enough headroom for me to do that without having to replace too much other than adding a better heatsink to the CPU

Thanks for any help

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/348671-31-gaming-%C2-1500 <------ Check my build out on this thread. It's right in your price range and has everything your looking for.

 

[g-unit1111]

I was mostly worried about the power supply, I have been trying a few calculators and they suggest 850W would be best

No - the 670 uses half the power that its' predecessors did - 2 x 670 will be able to run on a 750W PSU without problems from what I've been told.

 

[TheBigTroll]

PSU calculators are not very accurate. they are still not as good as humans

 

[Munkeh111]

Thanks for all the advice

So I think I am basically going to go with g-units111's build

But, I still want the Sabertooth motherboard, mostly on aesthetic grounds, also because I really hate dust and thirdly because it is designed to ensure that PCI slots aren't blocked with double slot cards (like the 670) as I might add a wi-fi card or tv tuner there, so I want to keep my options open

Also, I think I will go for the ASUS 670 as every review for it seems to be brilliant

I also want a really good monitor, so I am perfectly happy to pay extra for the ASUS as opposed to the View Sonic

 

[g-unit1111]

Thanks for all the advice

So I think I am basically going to go with g-units111's build

But, I still want the Sabertooth motherboard, mostly on aesthetic grounds, also because I really hate dust and thirdly because it is designed to ensure that PCI slots aren't blocked with double slot cards (like the 670) as I might add a wi-fi card or tv tuner there, so I want to keep my options open

Also, I think I will go for the ASUS 670 as every review for it seems to be brilliant

I also want a really good monitor, so I am perfectly happy to pay extra for the ASUS as opposed to the View Sonic

The problem with the Asus design is that it takes up 3 PCI slots as opposed to EVGA's two which will make SLI'ing the cards incredibly difficult.

I'm not the biggest fan of the design of the Sabertooth with the plastic covers on everything - it won't help with dust factors or anything of that nature.

 

[TheBigTroll]

the asus 670 directcu2 uses dual slot like all the other cards. their directcu2 3 slot is employed on the 680

 

[Munkeh111]

So how important is the fan? Is that actually for the CPU or for the general temperature of the system?

 

[Munkeh111]

Actually I think I am now fairly settled on the build

i5-3570k £175
ASUS 670 - £350
ASUS Sabertooth - £175
Corsair low profile RAM - £40
OCZ 128GB SSD - £100
WD 1TB Black Caviar HDD - £90
HX 750 - £110 (I think this one is modular...)

The things I haven't decided on is the case, the main ones that I am thinking of are:

Corsair 500R
NZXT Phantom 410
Sharkoon Tauron

I understand that the Corsair is the sensible choice, but I do quite like the look of the phantom and from what I have read won't damage performance very much

I am discounting the 600T as it only has 1 USB 3.0 port and I would rather have 3

I also don't really understand whether or not an extra CPU cooler is needed

 

[TheBigTroll]

the CPU cooler is totally necessary if you plan on overclocking later on. a nice cheap one is the hyper 212 evo but the one that g-unit1111 recommended is more quiet

 

[Munkeh111]

Okay, I think I will wait until I add a second graphics card just to keep things simple for my first build

 

[TheBigTroll]

ok