Around £750 build

[Prian]

Hey guys, I have just put this build together as I have been given permission to build a rig using christmas money.
This is what I have put together, I already have a 128gb OCZ octane SSD which I don't plan on replacing, A good keyboard/mouse and 2 screens, so all I need is the PC itself.

Case: Bitfenix Shinobi, Black with side window
CPU: Intel Core i5 3570k
Cooler: Corsair H60
Motherboard: MSI Z77A-G45 Z77
Ram: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1866Mhz
PSU:Corsair GS 700W Gaming Series PSU
Storage: Seagate 2TB BARRACUDA
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 3GB Superclocked+ (only around £180 on their website)

I would appreciate any feedback especially on the PSU and GPU as im not entirely sure on the reliability of the powersupply, I have always heard great things about corsair PSU's but I have seen the odd bad review about this specific one. The situation with the GPU is that I am set on getting a GTX660 but I'm not entirely sure I need a 3gb card.

EDIT: My creative fatal1ty headset just broke too, do you have any recommendations for a new headset used for just gaming priced at around £30?

Thank you for having a look

Prian

 

[MadMarc]

Looks like a nice rig, I'd only do some small changes:

Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
Ram: not sure if 1866 makes a big difference over 1600
PSU: 600W are easily enough for this rig
GPU: For 1080p gaming you don't need 3GB, maybe try to squeeze in a 660ti or 7950

 

[Prian]

Hey thanks for the quick response.
Chaniging the ram would save me about £5 and the power supply would save me about £10 by going for the next corsair one.

I was thinking about potentially going for SLI in the future hence just the 660, would it be wise to just go for a lower wattage power supply and getting a 660ti?
My budget is actually higher than £750 but I would like to leave some spare for when I'm back at uni.

how much of an increase in performance is there from the 660 to the 660ti, is it worth the extra £35ish? I guess it makes it more future proof. My current pc(core 2 duo E7500, Geforce 9800gt) has lasted me about 4 years with the only upgrade being an ssd, I was hoping for this to last longer

 

[Dilzo999]

Don't go for the 660 at 3gb. You can get a decent 7870 for around the same if you look at other retailers.

 

[rossi94]

Safe the money on the ram and go for 1600 mhz, everything higher makes just differences, if you're benchmarking.

 

[MadMarc]

Hey thanks for the quick response.
Chaniging the ram would save me about £5 and the power supply would save me about £10 by going for the next corsair one.

I was thinking about potentially going for SLI in the future hence just the 660, would it be wise to just go for a lower wattage power supply and getting a 660ti?
My budget is actually higher than £750 but I would like to leave some spare for when I'm back at uni.

how much of an increase in performance is there from the 660 to the 660ti, is it worth the extra £35ish? I guess it makes it more future proof. My current pc(core 2 duo E7500, Geforce 9800gt) has lasted me about 4 years with the only upgrade being an ssd, I was hoping for this to last longer

Imo it's worth getting the 660ti over the 660, it's about 20% faster.
I'd rather get a better single card than two midrange cards in SLI, with the money you'd save from my suggested PSU, RAM and cpu cooler you could get a 660ti or a 7950.

 

[WillSK]

Def get a 660ti over the regular 660. Or a 7950 even!

 

[Bang]

Plantronics makes some nice gaming headsets.
I would opt for a WD HDD over Seagate. Also, I would get the Corsair H80i rather than the H60, but thats just me.

 

[T345]

If I were you I would go for a Tahiti 7870, 7950 performance, £190 on Aria's website.
H60 is not very good value, get a similarly priced air cooler, for same or better performance, or a cheaper one like the Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo.
A great headset is the Plantronics Gamecom 380, which you can find for around £20 if you shop around. I would change the motherboard to the Gigabyte Z77X-D3H which is a great motherboard.
-Bakht
EDIT: Gigabyte have an UK RMA base

 

[seumasbeathan]

Don't get a 660 or a 660ti, 7950 all the way xD Btw dont gu for the Gigabyte board like the guy above says, the G45 is a better board

 

[tg31270]

Don't go with the h60, some air coolers are better than that
do NOT go with the Hyper 212 evo because it's f*in loud!
Be quit or even noctua are better plus the bequiet have some class to them

 

[Hitch]

I'm all for the 7950. Squeeze it in!

 

[seumasbeathan]

Dont listen to tg31270, I know people that have the 212 and it is not loud at all, for the price it is a cracking little cooler

 

[Hitch]

Dont listen to tg31270, I know people that have the 212 and it is not loud at all, for the price it is a cracking little cooler

I've heard good and bad things about the 212, so I think to completely disregard his advice would be a little unfair. One presumes it's a slight lottery with those coolers, although the majority of reviews tend to say it's a great runner at great price.

 

[T345]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7870 XT 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £199.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £105.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) £72.98
1 x BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Windowed Case - Black £59.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 600w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020060-UK) £56.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £35.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £26.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £752.89 (includes shipping : FREE).


Obviously if you shop around there will be better prices

 

[tg31270]

Dont listen to tg31270, I know people that have the 212 and it is not loud at all, for the price it is a cracking little cooler

Correction of what I meant : Performance wise it is a mid range cooler but my friend's is pretty noisy

As long as a cooler makes your cpu stay (stock speeds) at 30`C at idle when are doing anything intensive then it's good. However if you are into silence or (not extreme but 4,8 Ghz or more)0 overclocking, then I would personally consider another cooler.
maybe not ALL hyper 212's are loud but by my experience the only Hyper 212 I have seen is not LOUD but to much for a silence freak.

 

[Windspeed36]

Correction of what I meant : Performance wise it is a mid range cooler but my friend's is pretty noisy

As long as a cooler makes your cpu stay (stock speeds) at 30`C at idle when are doing anything intensive then it's good. However if you are into silence or (not extreme but 4,8 Ghz or more)0 overclocking, then I would personally consider another cooler.
maybe not ALL hyper 212's are loud but by my experience the only Hyper 212 I have seen is not LOUD but to much for a silence freak.

It's not so much the cooler then but rather the fans installed.

 

[Bang]

You could just use the stock cooler and not OC too hard until you can save up and get the LCS that everyone wants: Corsair H100i. Everything else seems kind of fail beside it.

 

[T345]

You could just use the stock cooler and not OC too hard until you can save up and get the LCS that everyone wants: Corsair H100i. Everything else seems kind of fail beside it.

The H100i, I don't really like it, for a bit more you can get a custom loop that outperforms it.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-040-OE&groupid=962&catid=1532&subcat=
h100i testing vs the v6 kit

3960x @ 4.5GHz @ 1.35v

H100i on max fan 81'c
H100i on medium fan 84'c
H100i on low fan 88'c

OcUK V6 on max fan 74'c
OcUK V6 on medium fan 78'c
OcUK V6 on low fan 82'c

 

[Bang]

That custom loop is about an extra $100 in Australia. Worth it? Pretty much, yes. It just means saving for longer to be able to get it (at least in my case.)