£800-900 Rig, any suggestions?

[PASHINATOR]

Hello,
This is probably a common question, but i have a good idea of what i want my build to be:

CASE: NZXT Phantom 410 (Red) £80
PSU: OCZ Modular 600w (SLI Capable) £65
MOBO: ASUS M5A99X EVO £100
CPU: AMD FX-8350 £150
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1366Mhz (2x4GB) £45
HDD: 2TB SATA III £65
DVD: Generic £20
GPU: About that later \/

If you guys could help me slim down the price or recommend a better alternative for a component please tell me so i can consider it.

GPU
I am quite unsure what i should get, i want nvidia. There are so many GPU configurations out there, i could get a GTX 580 or a GTX 670? or maybe sli two GTX 660 (non ti).
What is essential for me is

1. my monitor is 1440x900, thats all so it shouldnt be a problem

2. CRYSIS 3!!!, I would like to play at max settings

3. future proof, i want vram because now games are needing more of it and i want to be able to play 2013 and 2014 games on it without an upgrade.

4. Microstutter, if SLI has too much microstutter then forget about SLI.

So yeah thats all.

I will be using this system for the next 4-5 years before upgrading some stuff.
Please let me know of any possible bottlenecks.

 

[properbuilds]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£161.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£101.98 @ Dabs)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£38.91 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£52.88 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£95.99 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB Video Card (£229.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: NZXT Phantom 410 (Red) ATX Mid Tower Case (£96.08 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Power Supply: Corsair Enthusiast 650W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£65.98 @ Dabs)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer (£14.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £883.78
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

 

[casper1973]

Going off those parts I'm assuming a budget of around £700-£800?

Main point - Don't go with the FX-8350. An i5-3570k will dominate it in gaming performance for only £10 more.

SLI - Don't go there. I only ever suggest SLI as an upgrade option (unless building an extreme-machine!). Almost every time you are better just spending more on a single GPU than buying 2 cheaper ones. It also eliminates any potential problems like micro-stutter and compatibility problems. Plus it uses less power so you can get a cheaper PSU!

The GTX670 will handle Crysis 3 quite easily on Maximum settings with the monitor you have. If you are concerned about vRAM then consider this 3GB GTX660ti - http://www.scan.co.uk/products/3gb-gigabyte-gtx-660-ti-overclocked-28nm-pcie-30-(x16)-6008mhz-gddr5-gpu-1032mhz-boost-1111mhz-cores
Assuming you don't massively upgrade your monitor resolution it will handle most games on Maximum settings at a good FPS.

Also on the subject of vRAM... If you put 2x 2GB cards in SLI you still only have 2GB of vRAM; not 4GB as many people expect.

 

[PASHINATOR]

I have heard all about the microstutter before so no worries there, i will stick with a single gpu. I think i will get the gtx 670, however i have the option of a gtx 580, it the extra bus width worth getting an older card? also if you recommend an i5 3570k, what pcie3.0 mobo would go nicely with it?
However i see that the fx-8350 performs very well in crysis 3, also i am pretty firm with the 8350 so is there anyhting else that i should change?
thanks for the replies, any more input from others is appreciated.

 

[properbuilds]

Hi, if you want a 670 gtx, you can get it with 900£.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£161.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£101.98 @ Dabs)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£38.91 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£63.59 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Plextor M5S Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£79.98 @ Novatech)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card (£301.36 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case (£59.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£48.17 @ Aria PC)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer (£14.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £895.95
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

 

[PASHINATOR]

Hi properbuilds, i used the site you used and got this

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor (£143.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus M5A99X EVO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£91.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair XMS 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£31.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£63.59 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card (£314.98 @ Amazon UK)
Case: NZXT Phantom 410 (Red) ATX Mid Tower Case (£96.08 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Power Supply: OCZ ZT 650W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply (£71.99 @ Dabs)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£12.85 @ Aria PC)
Total: £852.45
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-05 22:51 GMT+0000)

In my opinion, its a great spec and if i were going to buy amd only i think this would suitable, Dont you?

 

[properbuilds]

Hi, the i5-3570k is a better cpu for gaming, you have in there a single channel ram, you don't need a 650W psu, the xfx is very popular for a reason, it's cheap and of quality, the internal parts are from seasonic

 

[casper1973]

Don't need to worry about PCI 3.0 as a GTX 670 comes nowhere near saturating the bandwidth of PCI 2.0 (ie. it will make no difference at all, even with 2 in SLI).

I don't believe there is a single GPU on the market that can fully saturate a PCI 2.0 lane - PCI 3.0 is for teh futurerz


Your AMD build there looks perfectly ok I still believe the i5-3570k to be better in general as a lot of games aren't well optimised for more than 4 cores. Conveniently for you, Crysis 3 is well optimised for multi-threading so the FX-8350 will do great.

 

[PASHINATOR]

Ok,
The PSU i wanted is modular so thats why i chose it, do you think the one i chose will have enough amperage for the 670?
Yeah i think i will stick with the AMD 8350, and get a 4GB GTX 670, is the board i chose good for future upgrades? maybe possible SLI in 2-3 years?

 

[properbuilds]

Hi, the 670 gtx 4GB isn't a good choice, that psu isn't as good as the xfx, and for sli, it's recommended 700W, the i5-3570k is a better cpu, you don't see any high end build with amd cpus :lol:
Here's a tip :

The FX-8350 gets lower min fps than an i5-3550.
There's also a lot of reviews showing the i5-3570k is a better cpu for gaming.
Now, why i think the 4GB on the 670 gtx is useless, read this : http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/01/08/asus_geforce_gtx_670_directcu_ii_4gb_gpu_review/10



If you want it for sli, i recommend the xfx 750W semi modular.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£161.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£101.98 @ Dabs)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£38.91 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£63.59 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card (£301.36 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case (£59.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£82.44 @ Aria PC)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer (£14.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £850.24
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)


If you don't, i still recommend my first one with sdd, a 800£-900£ build should have a ssd

 

[PASHINATOR]

Ok, you have convinced me to intel.

I looked around the internet and found great prices on some stuff so here
CPU: £243 Intel i7 3770k
MB: £102 Asrock z77 extreme 4
RAM: £30 2x4gb corsair 1600mhz
HDD: £64 2TB
CASE: £78 NZXT Phantom Gunmetal
GPU: £285 PNY GTX 670
PSU: £70 Corsair CXM 750w semi modular
DVD: £15 Generic

GRAND TOTAL £887

I know seasonic is the best at the moment in PSU but i couldnt miss such a deal on a cxm 750.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[properbuilds]

Hi, the cx isn't such a good unit, but it will do, but i rather get the xfx, the cx is a cwt psu, the xfx is a seasonic one.
I recommend the 670 gigabyte windforce 3 over the pny, it has the 680 gtx reference pcb and a great cooling system(3 fans, and not loud ones).
You don't need the i7 for gaming, the i5-3570k will do the trick.