Gaming build £1300/$2000

[gti69]

My current build is going to my dad so cant salvage anything off it
E6600 2.4ghz oc'd to 3ghz stock fan
Asus COMMANDO P965
Asus 320mb 8800GTS
OCZ 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz
Hiper 530W
Viewsonic VX922 19"
Antec 900


I would like to max out crysis at 1080 as a guide to what im looking for with this build and to keep it as quiet as possible, my PSU is the loudest component in my build right now, would like to remedy this in new build.
What i've come up with so far is:

Dell Ultrasharp U2311H 23" Widescreen LCD Monitor £264.36
Intel Core i5 760 2.80GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £157.99
Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4 Intel P55 £150
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 470 £235
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM £44
Corsair Dominator 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel £79.89
OCZ StealthXStream 2 600W Power Supply £52.98
Corsair H50-1 High-Performance CPU Watercooler £60
Sony Optiarc AD-7241S £20
Corsair H50-1 High-Performance CPU Watercooler
Coolermaster CM-690 II £81

=£1166.56

I built my last PC myself but never touched water cooling, that H50 looks pretty damn good if i don't have to mess about with reservoirs/maintenance etc. is it truly no maintenance? Is there much difference with the H70?
In regards to the case im not fussed over looks, I'm going for quiet and not too pricey.
What's the quietest PSU I can get that would support 470 Sli?

 

[gkay09]

^ I doubt that Dell would be a good choice for a gaming monitor because of the 8ms Response time...I maybe wrong though...

As for the rest of the parts,
Mobo - Why go with the P55A-UD4 if you cant go SLI(That PSU cant handle 2x GTX 470s) ?
So either change the PSU or you could get a cheaper mobo...
Also with that Gigabyte when going SLI, you cannot use USB3.0, if you do, then it would cripple the graphics card speed...
So if you want SLI as well as USB3.0, then the ASUS P7P55D-E Pro is the better option
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/194854
But if you dont care about USB3.0/ SATA 6GB/s, then this is a very good option
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172654

PSU - If you want to go GTX 470 SLI, then Corsair 750TX would be the best option...

CPU Cooler - Big air coolers, perform better than small water coolers for less...
Get the CM Hyper 212+/ Scythe Mugen 2 Rev.B

 

[tom thumb]

I built my last PC myself but never touched water cooling, that H50 looks pretty damn good if i don't have to mess about with reservoirs/maintenance etc. is it truly no maintenance?

For what I know about the H50, yes, it is no maintenance, but it doesn't actually do that well. It's considered the low-end of water cooling solutions and is outperformed by many air coolers.

If I were you I'd instead get an air cooler that is meant for i7s and is also compatible on a socket 1156 mobo.

What's the quietest PSU I can get that would support 470 Sli?

Hands down quietest PSUs are the X-series from seasonic. Fully modular, 4 6-pin pci-e connectors (for your 2 470s), gold-rated efficiency, huge warranty, and best of all the fan is adjusted to spin according to how much power is being used. Less than 300W or so and it will turn off. Downside is that it costs a lot more. I paid 170CAD - which is £107

also, get a different monitor. You are paying a lot for something that (at first glance) appears mediocre. You could get away with paying about half of that for a decent 23" or 24" acer.

 

[dragon5677]

i guess a corsair psu would be better. you can also go for 2x470s or 2x460 or 2x5850.
i would have gone for the 5850 as they have throughly proven themselves.
and yeah sandy bridge is about to come you should consider waiting

 

[coldsleep]

also, get a different monitor. You are paying a lot for something that (at first glance) appears mediocre. You could get away with paying about half of that for a decent 23" or 24" acer.

The Dell Ultrasharps are IPS monitors, which, depending on your intended usage will be either much better, or no different from a TN monitor. Just for gaming, a TN monitor is probably fine, and will cost less. If there's any graphic/web design planned, the IPS monitor is probably the way to go. However, the Dell Ultrasharp series is generally considered among the better and more affordable IPS monitors. Additionally, they do have a lot more adjustment options than most entry-level TN monitors, so if you're interested in a monitor with tilt, pivot, etc. it could be worthwhile to pay a little extra.

As far as the 8ms response time, this article leads me to believe that it's not really that important. (Link is to a MaximumPC article, but links to the real research embedded in it.)

 

[gti69]

Thanks for the replys.

According to this http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_u2311h.htm and other reviews i've looked at the Dell monitor is actually one of the best IPS based screens in regards to responsiveness and i'd really rather get an IPS then cheap TN panel again.

Yeah i was hoping you could recommend a good quiet PSU but i didnt know you couldnt use USB 3 and a SLi setup at the same time thanks for the heads up! How can i tell which motherboards will do this?

With the water cooler my main concern is noise rather than overclock ability, although im hoping to pull the 750 to near the 4ghz mark.

i wouldn't mind paying that for the seasonic if its 750w and quiet, ill look it up thanks

 

[coldsleep]

It's really only the Gigabyte motherboards that messed up the USB 3.0/SATA 6.0 Gb/s implementation. The Asus P7P55D-E Pro is the socket 1156 motherboard to get, in my opinion.

Check www.jonnyguru.com and www.silentpcreview.com for reviews/recommendations on power supplies. Seasonic is a quality brand, and the 750W unit should be pretty quiet.

 

[tom thumb]

It's really only the Gigabyte motherboards that messed up the USB 3.0/SATA 6.0 Gb/s implementation.

That is true, but it would only make a difference if gti69 intends to use USB 3.0 or SATA 6. I don't see any mention of ssds, so I'd say it comes down to if USB 3.0 will be at all needed.

 

[coldsleep]

I was attempting to point out that the problem is pretty much only with the one manufacturer, as gti69 was looking for info on how to avoid motherboards with that problem.

 

[infernox_01]

heres a HD5850 for £204.99.

http://www.overclock.co.uk/product/Asus-1024MB-GDDR5-ATI-Radeon-HD5850-Dual-DVI-HDMI-DisplayPort,-PCI-E-Retail_20616.html

this xfx 650w power supply has the 4 pci-e cables that you need. not sure how quiet it is as the reviews dont mention it.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/191826

 

[Silvune]

Do you want a quiet system or just a quiet PSU? If you want a quiet system then there are a lot of bad choices there. If you want a quiet PSU, most high end/high quality ones are, but there's no point worrying about it if you're going to have a noisy graphics card.

The H50 is not a strong choice for a quiet CPU cooler.

For a quiet case I'd suggest looking at the Fractal Design Refine R2/R3 or Antec P183/P193 - you could get the Antec CP-850 with either of those two Antec cases and that will be very quiet upto ~700W load. Probably quieter than the Seasonic X-750, unfortunately not as efficient and comes in an uncommon form-factor.

 

[gti69]

Sorry about the late reply.

What if i switched coolers to the Noctua NH-D14, that seems to be fairly quiet? is there any problems with the size? it looks massive and i was worried about it blocking off things on the mb.

I could only find the seasonic x 750 which i don't think would be enough for sli but i came up with this if anyone knows about it
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/850w-Seasonic-S12D-850-DC-to-DC-Ultimate-Gaming-PSU-with-88-Silver-Eff-Super-Silent-ATX-EPS-12V

I'm really stuck on the case, the looks don't matter to me just the noise factor and enough clearance for large graphics cards but every one i look at has reviews pointing out flaws.
are there any more suggestions on this front?

 

[obsidian86]

its enough for sli 470's but not 480's

 

[Silvune]

Have you considered the Thermalright MUX-120 for a CPU cooler?
There is a possibility that a fan installed on the Noctua NH-D14 would overhang such that you couldn't install memory with tall heatspreaders, like Dominators have. Altho yesterday I was skimming through another forum (looking for something else) and I think someone had zero problems with Ripjaws (altho I don't believe that their heatspreaders are as tall as on Dominators). Obviously if you could install your memory in the slots furthest away from the CPU then it would be fine.

For the same price as that Seasonic S12D you can have the XFX 850W Black Edition 80Plus Silver, Modular PSU, which has the advantage of having a larger fan and modularity.
However yes the Seasonic X-750 would be perfectly able to SLI to two 470s.

Check out some Silverstone cases, they're high quality.

The Zalman MS1000HS2 might also interest you.

You might also consider buying a case that you like that has enough room for your components and then replace all the fans with really quiet ones, or put the existing ones on a fan controller to make sure they don't spin too fast and make a lot of noise in consequence.

A good site to buy quiet parts from: http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products

 

[gti69]

Looking at the specs of the thermalright cooler its double the noise at 23.5dba against the noctuas 12.6dba and it gives less airflow. if i could find some ram or get confirmation the ripjaws are clear of the noctua id still go for that.

The review on johnnyguru of that xfx PSU is really good, funnily enough he opened it up and said the insides were a seasonic s12d! still that review has more or less persuaded me to go for that. thanks

The fractal r3 is meant to be coming out in 2 days i suppose i could hang on for a review of that.



thanks for all the help ill keep checking out the suggestions

 

[Silvune]

The R2 and the R3 look really similar to me, I think the changes made to the R2 in the R3 will be pretty minor.

I forgot that those two PSUs were the same design.