New PC - Critique my build.
Discussion
After 8 years of good service, it's finally time to retire my old PC.
I already have a retail copy of windows 7, a cracking monitor, mouse and keyboard. And I'll farm the old PC for as many useful bits as possible.
So, budget. I want this system to be quick for years to come, so my budget is £1200. As I'll be buying this through my business I'd prefer to buy all the components from one place.
After visiting overclockers I have come up with this. What do the PH masses think? Any glaring omissions, is it too heavily weighted to one area? I'd like to be able to game for at least 2 years with the card I have selected.
I already have a retail copy of windows 7, a cracking monitor, mouse and keyboard. And I'll farm the old PC for as many useful bits as possible.
So, budget. I want this system to be quick for years to come, so my budget is £1200. As I'll be buying this through my business I'd prefer to buy all the components from one place.
After visiting overclockers I have come up with this. What do the PH masses think? Any glaring omissions, is it too heavily weighted to one area? I'd like to be able to game for at least 2 years with the card I have selected.
Probably not, although I would like the option to burn a few movies from time to time.
However it's probably not necessary now with mkv/mp4's getting as good as they are now.
I might just chop that off and get a reader to save a few quid.
Also, it's been a few years since I've done much PC building, do new cases come with fans? Or will I have to steal one off the old PC?
However it's probably not necessary now with mkv/mp4's getting as good as they are now.
I might just chop that off and get a reader to save a few quid.
Also, it's been a few years since I've done much PC building, do new cases come with fans? Or will I have to steal one off the old PC?
tim2100 said:
Gaming won't need 16gb, 8gb should be fine, also with four sticks you may reduce possible overclock speeds. Plus no real need to get the high speed RAM.
ETA The heat sink will likely have thermal compound already on it.
I should have said, I will be using CAD packages with 3D modelling and Photoshop, so for the price difference I'll stick with 16GB. Good thinking on the heatsink, I never knew that.ETA The heat sink will likely have thermal compound already on it.
Mandat said:
Have a look at the new 4th generation i7 processors (Haswell). I've just bought an i7-4770 for less than your propsoed Ivybridge i7.
I usually use ebuyer for my computer bits.
Looks like it's a different socket, that would change the motherboard as well, just read a quick review on it, doesn't seem to offer much greater speeds, but if the motherboards were comparable between the two and the cost was similar, I could be interested.I usually use ebuyer for my computer bits.
Meoricin said:
If you can free up more budget for the GPU, I would - the 7850 is decent now, but it's not going to last for another year or so on higher settings. I'd be looking for a £250~ budget for a GPU to last.
Already saved a few quid on swapping out the blu-ray writer for a reader, and there is a few quid left in the budget, what would you recommend? It's been yonks since I last looked at graphics cards in any sort of detail.Silverbullet767 said:
Noted, the last thing I want is something that looks like an extra on transformers, or something that a 12 year old would have in his bedroom. I guess I'm in the minority for wanting something a little more discreet! Again, I'd be open to suggestions.
No, I absolutely agree with you. It's probably one of the main reasons I have no PC at all at the moment.Silverbullet767 said:
Already saved a few quid on swapping out the blu-ray writer for a reader, and there is a few quid left in the budget, what would you recommend? It's been yonks since I last looked at graphics cards in any sort of detail.
Consider a 7950 or GTX 670, both should be available for around that price, and are a fair step up from the 7850.Or if you're willing to wait, the GTX 760 is supposed to be out in the next week or so, so give a little time for benchmarks and price to emerge, and weigh that up against the above pair.
I find Tomshardware to be a good reference for performance/price comparisons on GPUs - they release a 'value for money' chart every month or so, and there is a rough hierarchy of cards based on their benchmarking at the end of it.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-graphics-card...
You could also free up more budget by using a decent air cooler rather than the H60 (the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo is the usual budget choice, and will outperform the H60 for less than half the price).
As mentioned above, the 2011 socket is somewhat pointless (as well as being outdated), you'd be better off using one of the newer processors - you should be able to get an overclockable i7 for the same price as the one you've selected, and 1155 motherboards look to be cheaper than 2011 as well. Even Haswell (the newest generation) are comparably priced to the 2011 socket, and will outperform them.
Consider the 2700k if you're willing to play with overclocking a bit, or if not, the 4770 looks like a good bet. You'd need to pick a new motherboard as well to match whichever you chose.
Meoricin said:
Silverbullet767 said:
Already saved a few quid on swapping out the blu-ray writer for a reader, and there is a few quid left in the budget, what would you recommend? It's been yonks since I last looked at graphics cards in any sort of detail.
Consider a 7950 or GTX 670, both should be available for around that price, and are a fair step up from the 7850.Or if you're willing to wait, the GTX 760 is supposed to be out in the next week or so, so give a little time for benchmarks and price to emerge, and weigh that up against the above pair.
I find Tomshardware to be a good reference for performance/price comparisons on GPUs - they release a 'value for money' chart every month or so, and there is a rough hierarchy of cards based on their benchmarking at the end of it.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-graphics-card...
You could also free up more budget by using a decent air cooler rather than the H60 (the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo is the usual budget choice, and will outperform the H60 for less than half the price).
As mentioned above, the 2011 socket is somewhat pointless (as well as being outdated), you'd be better off using one of the newer processors - you should be able to get an overclockable i7 for the same price as the one you've selected, and 1155 motherboards look to be cheaper than 2011 as well. Even Haswell (the newest generation) are comparably priced to the 2011 socket, and will outperform them.
Consider the 2700k if you're willing to play with overclocking a bit, or if not, the 4770 looks like a good bet. You'd need to pick a new motherboard as well to match whichever you chose.
On the graphics card front, I am in no rush, waiting a week or 2 won't hurt.
On the case front I found this for £20 more than the case I selected which boasts great airflow, and more importantly is still discreet.
http://www.ebuyer.com/351501-corsair-carbide-300r-...
V8A*ndy said:
Agree about the case but I don't currently know what's out there that looks good and is actually quiet.
Some cases are way too loud and resonate terribly.
I take it you have a couple of big hard drives. Always useful to chuck in there.
Yeah, I have TB's of the buggers already, so no worries there. Last count I think I was up to 8TB.Some cases are way too loud and resonate terribly.
I take it you have a couple of big hard drives. Always useful to chuck in there.
Silverbullet767 said:
tim2100 said:
Gaming won't need 16gb, 8gb should be fine, also with four sticks you may reduce possible overclock speeds. Plus no real need to get the high speed RAM.
ETA The heat sink will likely have thermal compound already on it.
I should have said, I will be using CAD packages with 3D modelling and Photoshop, so for the price difference I'll stick with 16GB. Good thinking on the heatsink, I never knew that.ETA The heat sink will likely have thermal compound already on it.
FlossyThePig said:
You are getting a motherboard which can take up to 64GB and you plan to use half the slots for 16GB. What is the real world performance advantage of using 4x4GB dimms over 2x8GB dimms?
I was under the impression that 4X4 would be cheaper than 2X8.It'll be highly unlikely I'll run out of slots though. 16GB should be fine for a good few years.
I've just put together what I would do if I were building a gaming PC with your budget. (Well, it isn't - but it is what I would do if I weren't a watercooling/aesthetic w
e)
Personally I'd have a larger case than this - but this is an inoffensive one with decent airflow, and I'd also do without an optical drive altogether.
Only real problem with this is that the Noctua stuff is all out of stock at the moment. I also didn't really look at motherboard spec, so if you need particulars in terms of SATA/USB/Audio, then look around the similar options to find what you need.
e)Personally I'd have a larger case than this - but this is an inoffensive one with decent airflow, and I'd also do without an optical drive altogether.
Only real problem with this is that the Noctua stuff is all out of stock at the moment. I also didn't really look at motherboard spec, so if you need particulars in terms of SATA/USB/Audio, then look around the similar options to find what you need.
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