Within the next 2-3 weeks I plan to purchase a new build. I’ve carefully considered my selections and think I am satisfied with it, but any feedback would be appreciated if there are any glaring compatibility issues I am missing or simply better product choices I should consider before pulling the trigger on it.
I don’t regularly build complete new systems so my goal is to build one that will stand up to most of what I throw at it for the next several years, and which I can keep relatively current through minor upgrades/add-ons every 2-3 years (ie: new gpu/mobo & cpu/etc.). The most taxing things I do include database design work (mostly Microsoft Access), and some gaming. Although I don’t game heavily, I love the Total War series and would like a system that can have a fighting chance of handling them on Ultra settings…(we’ll see with Rome II coming out), my last system slowed down considerably at certain points with Empire. I want to list the system specs then detail my reasoning for the selections, so I apologize for the post length, but feel free to comment on just the specs list if you don’t wish to read the entire post. That said, here are the specs, priced out on Newegg for under $1500 (not including monitor and OS)
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit
Case: Corsair Obsidian Series 550D
PSU: Corsair Enthusiast Series TX750 V2 750W
Cooling: Corsair Air Series AF140 Quiet Edition 140mm case fans x2
HD: Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAKX 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
Disc Drive: SAMSUNG Internal DVD Writer Black SATA Model SH-222BB/RSBS
MoBo: ASUS Sabertooth Z77 LGA1155 ATX Intel Motherboard
CPU: Intel Core i7-3770S 3.1 Ghz (3.9 Turbo) LGA1155 65W Quad-Core Processor
Mem: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600 SDRAM
GPU: EVGA 02G-P4-2678-KR GeForce GTX 670 FTW 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 SLI Support Video Card
Monitor: Dell UltraSharp U2412M Black IPS Panel 24" 8ms LED Backlight Widescreen LCD Monitor
Case & Cooling:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139012
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181028
This is where I usually save money on my builds (budget case and psu combo) as I tend to prioritize my budget towards performance rather than aesthetics. But I figure if I buy a quality case now it should last me through my next complete build and provide more system upgrade potential. I chose the Corsair Obsidian Series 550D as it seemed well laid out, good cable management, sleek look, and most importantly a very good balance between cooling and noise dampening. The 650DW seemed to have better cooling without the noise dampening aspects and I thought between the three preinstalled 120mm intake/exhaust fans and the two additional 140mm case fans I expect ample cooling within the case to better preserve the lifespan of the components. I chose the two additional case fans for their low noise attributes as they are only providing additional (but probably unnecessary) airflow, and although the case can accommodate more fans, I believe the motherboard cannot.
PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139021
Originally I chose the Corsair Enthusiast Series 650W PSU, but the upgrade to 750W was only an additional $30, and with 4 rather than 2 PCI-E connectors I thought it better to spend $30 more now rather than buy an entirely new PSU if I want to SLI an additional GPU in a couple of years. From what I’ve read the Corsair PSU’s are solid quality, my only concern would be if the 750W would be adequate for SLI in a couple of years and an upgraded MoBo/CPU/RAM a few years after that. Not to mention addition of more drives and other unforeseen upgrades.
Hard Drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136770
I admit, this is one of the areas where I budgeted a bit. But, I don’t download movies or music or anything for that matter any more, plus the last time I built a system 120GB drives were huge. I’ll admit I like the novelty of owning a TB drive, but for me it’s quite unnecessary. I wanted to focus on quality and speed rather than capacity, and did look at a 32MB Cache 10000 RPM 320GB Velociraptor, but it was twice the price of this one and I couldn’t justify it. So keeping quality, reliability and moderate speed in mind, this drive seemed like a reasonable choice for the price. Plus, I can always buy another hard drive, but let me know if there are any others to consider.
Disc Drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136770
Once again, budgeted here. I don’t watch movies on my computer and I’ll hardly ever use the thing since I exclusively use Flash drives now, but you kind of have to have one on occasion...such as OS installation. Chose this one over a Lite-On Drive simply because it was the cheapest I found and unlike the Lite-On drive this one listed Windows 7 Compatible. (Although I can’t imagine the Lite-On drive is not compatible at this point.)
CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116503
I wish I could wait for Haswell, but I’ve been computerless for 2 months now and I’m not waiting another 8. I’ve been back and forth between the i7-3770S and i7-3770K, but I don’t know that I’ll overclock and I’ve read Ivy Bridge is worse at heat dissipation than Sandy Bridge and not as suited for overclocking anyway. Also, if I do overclock I would need aftermarket cooling (which I considered even for the 3770S with the heat issues), but I read that voids the Intel 3-year warranty. So I figure I’ll use the stock heatsink and fan, and if it comes to that I’ll burn up the processor and let Intel replace it.
Additionally I read with the Turbo the 3770S rarely operates at baseclock speed providing comparable performance to a 3770K that isn’t overclocked. And at 65W rather than 77W, the 3770S should stay at least a little cooler. I’ve also read (and I’m sure this will be a point of contention among some enthusiasts so feel free to correct me if I’m wrong) that overclocking does provide a slight bump in performance on benchmarks, but not enough to make a significant difference in system taxing processes like new games performing sluggishly. Rather, that is remedied by CPU generational gaps, and I’d be better off just upgrading the CPU and MoBo when that becomes an issue. I’m currently favoring Ivy Bridge over Sandy Bridge because first off, it is newer, and secondly some of the new features such as PCI-E 3.0 compatibility seem very worthwhile.
And I’m favoring the i7’s over the i5’s for the Hyperthreading capabilities. I read that has very little effect on gaming overall, but games such as Total War will take advantage of it…so I was sold.
So, 3770S or 3770K? Or, what is the possibility Intel will release another Ivy Bridge Series of i7 cpu’s? I would possibly wait another month for that.
Motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131821
Although a bit pricey, quality and functionality led me to choose the Asus Sabertooth Z77 Motherboard. I was going to go with an Intel board, but the only one’s I saw on Newegg only had the Z68 chipset and PCI-E 2.0 slots. As mentioned before, I don’t plan to overclock so I don’t need the board for those features, but the addition of PCI-E 3.0 and USB 3.0 made the $30 increase seem worthwhile. Also, the design seems solid. I’m not ashamed to say I appreciate the look of the Thermal Armor across the board and the dual 35mm cooling fans seem very practical and functional. It also allows DDR3 1833 which I don’t expect to use since the Ivy Bridge cpu’s support a max of 1600, but it at least allows for the possibility down the road. I’ve owned Asus boards in the past and never had any problems, but let me know if there are any better options.
Memory:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233254
For memory I chose Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) Dual Channel DDR3 1600. For now I expect 8 GB should be more than sufficient, and I can always upgrade memory at a later point relatively cheaply. I chose Corsair because I know they make quality chips and the last thing I want to do is be set back another week having to RMA a bad RAM chip. It seemed to have good latency and timings- CAS latency of 7, timings 7-8-8-24. There was a Mushkin chip with latency of 7, timings 7-7-7-24, but I honestly don’t know how significantly that would affect performance and I know I feel confident in Corsair’s quality. Should I consider more memory or a different chip?
Graphics Card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130787
This is territory where I’ve rarely ventured and admit I know very little about. I chose the EVGA GeForce GTX 670 FTW because I’ve heard very good things about EVGA in terms of warranty, service, quality and I like the option of their Step-up program. I want to buy a card that will chew up anything I throw at it…hopefully for a while, and then when it starts to become outdated I can boost my gpu performance life by trying out an SLI configuration. I’m looking for a reasonable balance between price and performance (I just can’t justify $1000 for a gpu), and this one seemed to provide the best bang for the buck. From what I’ve read, performance-wise, the 670 series seemed to benchmark slightly below the 680’s, but they retail $100 less. And their performance seems to be leaps and bounds above any of the lesser series. So, like I said, this is foreign territory for me. This card seemed to be the best EVGA 670 available, but please let me know if I should consider another brand or EVGA card and what would make their performance and quality a more reasonable buy.
Monitor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824260047
I wanted to make the jump to a 27” monitor, and many are within my price range, but keeping sheer quality in mind I really don’t think I can beat this deal. I probably wouldn’t buy a TN panel, and the 27” MPV’s are more expensive many of which are around $400. But to get a 24” Dell IPS for $300, I really think the sacrifice of size is worth the benefit of quality and price. I also liked that this one had a 16:10 aspect ratio rather than 16:9. I expect this one will last me until the price of high quality 27” or 30” monitors comes down.
There it is! Thank you for taking a look at the specs and any constructive feedback would be greatly appreciated. And I just wanted to express that previous technical and comparative posts on this site have been very helpful to me while making my selections, so thank you for that as well.
I don’t regularly build complete new systems so my goal is to build one that will stand up to most of what I throw at it for the next several years, and which I can keep relatively current through minor upgrades/add-ons every 2-3 years (ie: new gpu/mobo & cpu/etc.). The most taxing things I do include database design work (mostly Microsoft Access), and some gaming. Although I don’t game heavily, I love the Total War series and would like a system that can have a fighting chance of handling them on Ultra settings…(we’ll see with Rome II coming out), my last system slowed down considerably at certain points with Empire. I want to list the system specs then detail my reasoning for the selections, so I apologize for the post length, but feel free to comment on just the specs list if you don’t wish to read the entire post. That said, here are the specs, priced out on Newegg for under $1500 (not including monitor and OS)
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit
Case: Corsair Obsidian Series 550D
PSU: Corsair Enthusiast Series TX750 V2 750W
Cooling: Corsair Air Series AF140 Quiet Edition 140mm case fans x2
HD: Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAKX 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
Disc Drive: SAMSUNG Internal DVD Writer Black SATA Model SH-222BB/RSBS
MoBo: ASUS Sabertooth Z77 LGA1155 ATX Intel Motherboard
CPU: Intel Core i7-3770S 3.1 Ghz (3.9 Turbo) LGA1155 65W Quad-Core Processor
Mem: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600 SDRAM
GPU: EVGA 02G-P4-2678-KR GeForce GTX 670 FTW 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 SLI Support Video Card
Monitor: Dell UltraSharp U2412M Black IPS Panel 24" 8ms LED Backlight Widescreen LCD Monitor
Case & Cooling:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139012
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181028
This is where I usually save money on my builds (budget case and psu combo) as I tend to prioritize my budget towards performance rather than aesthetics. But I figure if I buy a quality case now it should last me through my next complete build and provide more system upgrade potential. I chose the Corsair Obsidian Series 550D as it seemed well laid out, good cable management, sleek look, and most importantly a very good balance between cooling and noise dampening. The 650DW seemed to have better cooling without the noise dampening aspects and I thought between the three preinstalled 120mm intake/exhaust fans and the two additional 140mm case fans I expect ample cooling within the case to better preserve the lifespan of the components. I chose the two additional case fans for their low noise attributes as they are only providing additional (but probably unnecessary) airflow, and although the case can accommodate more fans, I believe the motherboard cannot.
PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139021
Originally I chose the Corsair Enthusiast Series 650W PSU, but the upgrade to 750W was only an additional $30, and with 4 rather than 2 PCI-E connectors I thought it better to spend $30 more now rather than buy an entirely new PSU if I want to SLI an additional GPU in a couple of years. From what I’ve read the Corsair PSU’s are solid quality, my only concern would be if the 750W would be adequate for SLI in a couple of years and an upgraded MoBo/CPU/RAM a few years after that. Not to mention addition of more drives and other unforeseen upgrades.
Hard Drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136770
I admit, this is one of the areas where I budgeted a bit. But, I don’t download movies or music or anything for that matter any more, plus the last time I built a system 120GB drives were huge. I’ll admit I like the novelty of owning a TB drive, but for me it’s quite unnecessary. I wanted to focus on quality and speed rather than capacity, and did look at a 32MB Cache 10000 RPM 320GB Velociraptor, but it was twice the price of this one and I couldn’t justify it. So keeping quality, reliability and moderate speed in mind, this drive seemed like a reasonable choice for the price. Plus, I can always buy another hard drive, but let me know if there are any others to consider.
Disc Drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136770
Once again, budgeted here. I don’t watch movies on my computer and I’ll hardly ever use the thing since I exclusively use Flash drives now, but you kind of have to have one on occasion...such as OS installation. Chose this one over a Lite-On Drive simply because it was the cheapest I found and unlike the Lite-On drive this one listed Windows 7 Compatible. (Although I can’t imagine the Lite-On drive is not compatible at this point.)
CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116503
I wish I could wait for Haswell, but I’ve been computerless for 2 months now and I’m not waiting another 8. I’ve been back and forth between the i7-3770S and i7-3770K, but I don’t know that I’ll overclock and I’ve read Ivy Bridge is worse at heat dissipation than Sandy Bridge and not as suited for overclocking anyway. Also, if I do overclock I would need aftermarket cooling (which I considered even for the 3770S with the heat issues), but I read that voids the Intel 3-year warranty. So I figure I’ll use the stock heatsink and fan, and if it comes to that I’ll burn up the processor and let Intel replace it.
Additionally I read with the Turbo the 3770S rarely operates at baseclock speed providing comparable performance to a 3770K that isn’t overclocked. And at 65W rather than 77W, the 3770S should stay at least a little cooler. I’ve also read (and I’m sure this will be a point of contention among some enthusiasts so feel free to correct me if I’m wrong) that overclocking does provide a slight bump in performance on benchmarks, but not enough to make a significant difference in system taxing processes like new games performing sluggishly. Rather, that is remedied by CPU generational gaps, and I’d be better off just upgrading the CPU and MoBo when that becomes an issue. I’m currently favoring Ivy Bridge over Sandy Bridge because first off, it is newer, and secondly some of the new features such as PCI-E 3.0 compatibility seem very worthwhile.
And I’m favoring the i7’s over the i5’s for the Hyperthreading capabilities. I read that has very little effect on gaming overall, but games such as Total War will take advantage of it…so I was sold.
So, 3770S or 3770K? Or, what is the possibility Intel will release another Ivy Bridge Series of i7 cpu’s? I would possibly wait another month for that.
Motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131821
Although a bit pricey, quality and functionality led me to choose the Asus Sabertooth Z77 Motherboard. I was going to go with an Intel board, but the only one’s I saw on Newegg only had the Z68 chipset and PCI-E 2.0 slots. As mentioned before, I don’t plan to overclock so I don’t need the board for those features, but the addition of PCI-E 3.0 and USB 3.0 made the $30 increase seem worthwhile. Also, the design seems solid. I’m not ashamed to say I appreciate the look of the Thermal Armor across the board and the dual 35mm cooling fans seem very practical and functional. It also allows DDR3 1833 which I don’t expect to use since the Ivy Bridge cpu’s support a max of 1600, but it at least allows for the possibility down the road. I’ve owned Asus boards in the past and never had any problems, but let me know if there are any better options.
Memory:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233254
For memory I chose Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) Dual Channel DDR3 1600. For now I expect 8 GB should be more than sufficient, and I can always upgrade memory at a later point relatively cheaply. I chose Corsair because I know they make quality chips and the last thing I want to do is be set back another week having to RMA a bad RAM chip. It seemed to have good latency and timings- CAS latency of 7, timings 7-8-8-24. There was a Mushkin chip with latency of 7, timings 7-7-7-24, but I honestly don’t know how significantly that would affect performance and I know I feel confident in Corsair’s quality. Should I consider more memory or a different chip?
Graphics Card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130787
This is territory where I’ve rarely ventured and admit I know very little about. I chose the EVGA GeForce GTX 670 FTW because I’ve heard very good things about EVGA in terms of warranty, service, quality and I like the option of their Step-up program. I want to buy a card that will chew up anything I throw at it…hopefully for a while, and then when it starts to become outdated I can boost my gpu performance life by trying out an SLI configuration. I’m looking for a reasonable balance between price and performance (I just can’t justify $1000 for a gpu), and this one seemed to provide the best bang for the buck. From what I’ve read, performance-wise, the 670 series seemed to benchmark slightly below the 680’s, but they retail $100 less. And their performance seems to be leaps and bounds above any of the lesser series. So, like I said, this is foreign territory for me. This card seemed to be the best EVGA 670 available, but please let me know if I should consider another brand or EVGA card and what would make their performance and quality a more reasonable buy.
Monitor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824260047
I wanted to make the jump to a 27” monitor, and many are within my price range, but keeping sheer quality in mind I really don’t think I can beat this deal. I probably wouldn’t buy a TN panel, and the 27” MPV’s are more expensive many of which are around $400. But to get a 24” Dell IPS for $300, I really think the sacrifice of size is worth the benefit of quality and price. I also liked that this one had a 16:10 aspect ratio rather than 16:9. I expect this one will last me until the price of high quality 27” or 30” monitors comes down.
There it is! Thank you for taking a look at the specs and any constructive feedback would be greatly appreciated. And I just wanted to express that previous technical and comparative posts on this site have been very helpful to me while making my selections, so thank you for that as well.