I'm Constructing a ~£1100 system, is there anything worth upgrading/downgrading?

[justoliver]

Hi there!

This is my first build and I have taken some advice from a PC enthusiast (my brother; I was wondering if there were any components that I have listed as part of my system that are worth changing? I am looking to keep my system at around the £1100 mark, so I do need to be (slightly) price conscious! The components list (thus far) is as follows:

-Cooler Master HAF XB Tower(you won't change my mind on this one, I LOVE it!)
-Asus Z87-PRO Motherboard
-Intel Core i5 4670K Quad Core CPU
-Gigabyte 7970 3GB AMD Radeon Graphics Card
-Corsair CMZ8GX3M2X2133C9R Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 2133 Mhz RAM
-Corsair Builder Series CXM 750W Modular 80 PLUS Bronze PSU
-Samsung 840 Series 120GB SSD
-LG Optical Drive (Basic)
-Western Digital 1TB Caviar Blue HDD
-Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler
-Cooler Master MegaFlow 200mm Case Fan

Also if there is anything else that I will need for my build that I might not know about, then please feel free to enlighten me!

I am also looking for a sub-£160, 23-24" monitor, so any suggestions on that would be awesome!

I have had some advice from a colleague suggesting that I should invest more in my motherboard; what do you think? Do try to suggest an even number of downgrades and upgrades, as I am trying to keep it around the same total

Thanks guys!

 

[sam_p_lay]

I'd recommend this for the monitor:

http://www.ebuyer.com/291443-iiyama-prolite-x2377hds-23-ips-panel-led-hdmi-monitor-x2377hds

Surprising how fast you can reach £1100! I would have thought there would be the capacity there to step up to a GTX770. Also I'd grab a Seasonic or XFX power supply for quality / reliability. Corsair are known for good PSUs, but more the TX/HX models than the Builder series. Also, not a big deal but I wouldn't user an LG writer. I'd stick to Samsung or ASUS for that.

 

[electricfirebolt]

Upgrade your SSD and HDD

 

[justoliver]

I'd recommend this for the monitor:

http://www.ebuyer.com/291443-iiyama-prolite-x2377hds-23-ips-panel-led-hdmi-monitor-x2377hds

Surprising how fast you can reach £1100! I would have thought there would be the capacity there to step up to a GTX770. Also I'd grab a Seasonic or XFX power supply for quality / reliability. Corsair are known for good PSUs, but more the TX/HX models than the Builder series. Also, not a big deal but I wouldn't user an LG writer. I'd stick to Samsung or ASUS for that.

Thanks a bunch! is the ATI vs Nvidia not just a preference thing? What are the benefits of spending the extra £30-40?

My PSU is already coming in at £80ish. What could I go for at around that price?

The monitor rocks, I've heard you can't really argue with Iiyama

Regarding the optical drive - It's likely that I won't even use it after installing Windows!

Thanks again,

Oliver

 

[justoliver]

Upgrade your SSD and HDD

What would you suggest? Anything I might be able to downgrade to accommodate the increase?

 

[sam_p_lay]

Real-world performance differences are almost non-existent between modern SSDs:

http://techreport.com/review/24969/ocz-vertex-450-solid-state-drive-reviewed/9

The Samsung 840 will do absolutely fine. Best to choose by price, capacity and reliability. Samsung have a very strong track record for reliable SSDs.

 

[sam_p_lay]

I'd recommend this for the monitor:

http://www.ebuyer.com/291443-iiyama-prolite-x2377hds-23-ips-panel-led-hdmi-monitor-x2377hds

Surprising how fast you can reach £1100! I would have thought there would be the capacity there to step up to a GTX770. Also I'd grab a Seasonic or XFX power supply for quality / reliability. Corsair are known for good PSUs, but more the TX/HX models than the Builder series. Also, not a big deal but I wouldn't user an LG writer. I'd stick to Samsung or ASUS for that.

Thanks a bunch! is the ATI vs Nvidia not just a preference thing? What are the benefits of spending the extra £30-40?

My PSU is already coming in at £80ish. What could I go for at around that price?

The monitor rocks, I've heard you can't really argue with Iiyama

Regarding the optical drive - It's likely that I won't even use it after installing Windows!

Thanks again,

Oliver

Pleasure The benefits:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_770/27.html

Not just faster either, it's quieter too.

And £80 is ample for a quality XFX PSU. Iiyama are indeed quality - they need to work on their marketing / advertising! They used to be well-known and highly-regarded (at least in Britain) but other brands have a lot more attention now. And I'm only recommending a different optical drive for burning discs reliably and not making coasters - if you're not gonna burn discs that then it doesn't really matter

 

[electricfirebolt]

I'd recommend this for the monitor:

http://www.ebuyer.com/291443-iiyama-prolite-x2377hds-23-ips-panel-led-hdmi-monitor-x2377hds

Surprising how fast you can reach £1100! I would have thought there would be the capacity there to step up to a GTX770. Also I'd grab a Seasonic or XFX power supply for quality / reliability. Corsair are known for good PSUs, but more the TX/HX models than the Builder series. Also, not a big deal but I wouldn't user an LG writer. I'd stick to Samsung or ASUS for that.

Thanks a bunch! is the ATI vs Nvidia not just a preference thing? What are the benefits of spending the extra £30-40?

My PSU is already coming in at £80ish. What could I go for at around that price?

The monitor rocks, I've heard you can't really argue with Iiyama

Regarding the optical drive - It's likely that I won't even use it after installing Windows!

Thanks again,

Oliver

Pleasure The benefits:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_770/27.html

Not just faster either, it's quieter too.

And £80 is ample for a quality XFX PSU. Iiyama are indeed quality - they need to work on their marketing / advertising! They used to be well-known and highly-regarded (at least in Britain) but other brands have a lot more attention now. And I'm only recommending a different optical drive for burning discs reliably and not making coasters - if you're not gonna burn discs that then it doesn't really matter

AMD GPU's tend to over-clock better than Nvidia cards if your into over-clocking, I use a SilverStone PSU, I have been using it for the past 6 months and Its probably been among the best investments in my rig. Very stable and reliable.

 

[justoliver]

Real-world performance differences are almost non-existent between modern SSDs:

http://techreport.com/review/24969/ocz-vertex-450-solid-state-drive-reviewed/9

The Samsung 840 will do absolutely fine. Best to choose by price, capacity and reliability. Samsung have a very strong track record for reliable SSDs.

I've heard this said; I'm not usually one for having much stuff anyway, I'll only usually keep my OS and a few key games on there. My media can sit on the HDD as only have about 40gb of music.

Thanks for the response.

 

[electricfirebolt]

Real-world performance differences are almost non-existent between modern SSDs:

http://techreport.com/review/24969/ocz-vertex-450-solid-state-drive-reviewed/9

The Samsung 840 will do absolutely fine. Best to choose by price, capacity and reliability. Samsung have a very strong track record for reliable SSDs.

I've heard this said; I'm not usually one for having much stuff anyway, I'll only usually keep my OS and a few key games on there. My media can sit on the HDD as only have about 40gb of music.

Thanks for the response.

Well... I've managed to fill a 120GB SSD up to 110GB, A 2TB HDD up to 1.5TB and a 500GB HDD up to 480GB o.e

 

[justoliver]

AMD GPU's tend to over-clock better than Nvidia cards if your into over-clocking, I use a SilverStone PSU, I have been using it for the past 6 months and Its probably been among the best investments in my rig. Very stable and reliable.

As you might have guessed im not a hardcore hardware enthusiast, and I am unlikely to be overclocking any time soon! But thanks for the advice; certainly something to consider. Regarding the PSU, I'm gonna have a long hard think!

 

[sam_p_lay]

That's exactly the right way to use an SSD+HDD setup. Performance-critical stuff on the SSD (also important documents just for safety) and storage on HDD. I'm using an 80GB SSD and would like a little more capacity. My brother uses a 120GB and wishes it had more capacity. I've spoken to many people on here with 250GB drives that wish they had more capacity. You'll probably always want more than you have unless you get into ridiculously expensive drives.

As for the PSU, I won't say Silverstone are a bad option but they're not all good. Silverstone sell re-badged units from Solytech, Enhance and Seasonic. The ones to go for are the SP-Sxxx models, SP-SxxxM models and SP-SS models.

 

[electricfirebolt]

That's exactly the right way to use an SSD+HDD setup. Performance-critical stuff on the SSD (also important documents just for safety) and storage on HDD. I'm using an 80GB SSD and would like a little more capacity. My brother uses a 120GB and wishes it had more capacity. I've spoken to many people on here with 250GB drives that wish they had more capacity. You'll probably always want more than you have unless you get into ridiculously expensive drives.

As for the PSU, I won't say Silverstone are a bad option but they're not all good. Silverstone sell re-badged units from Solytech, Enhance and Seasonic. The ones to go for are the SP-Sxxx models, SP-SxxxM models and SP-SS models.

I'm using a SilverStone Strider, It's brilliant.

 

[sam_p_lay]

I had a Thermaltake PSU that lived for 6 months and then died. You need a bit more than 6 months to be able to say a PSU is reliable for the long run.

 

[electricfirebolt]

Well, I've had PSU in another desktop before my newest rig for about 8 months before moving it to my newest rig and has been in my new rig for 6 months. Its the most reliable PSU I have had, 1500W of pure power that I got because of allowing the ability in the future to go crossfire/sli as my motherboard supports triple dual slot graphics cards.

My second PSU brand id recommend is the Antec High Current Gamer which is also a very stable power supply and I had that in an older rig for about 1.5 Years.

 

[justoliver]

So to update:

Cooler Master HAF XB Tower(you won't change my mind on this one, I LOVE it!) Still rocks!
-Asus Z87-PRO Motherboard Consider upgrading?
-Intel Core i5 4670K Quad Core CPU No comment?
-Gigabyte 7970 3GB AMD Radeon Graphics Card Consider nvidia alternative?
-Corsair CMZ8GX3M2X2133C9R Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 2133 Mhz RAM No comment?
-Corsair Builder Series CXM 750W Modular 80 PLUS Bronze PSU
Not recommended, go for something more reliable at the same price.
-Samsung 840 Series 120GB SSD Not fantastic, but not worth changing at this level.
-LG Optical Drive (Basic) Consider an Asus alternative?
-Western Digital 1TB Caviar Blue HDD Again, not ideal, but not worth changing unless using to run games.
-Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler No comment as yet?
-Cooler Master MegaFlow 200mm Case Fan No comment as yet?

Also a fantastic recommendation for a monitor!

Thanks for the feedback so far; keep it coming!

 

[sam_p_lay]

Actually, the 840 IS fantastic. I've recommended them many times as an excellent option for the money And I'd strongly recommend a GTX770. Nowhere near as noisy as the 7970 and comfortably faster. Optical could also be Samsung. Consider lack of comments a good thing because those are good choices ;-)

 

[Zynch]

I have a similar budget for my build; http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1jGwV
I went for a micro sized gaming machine, so far so good.