Budget gaming build, Maximum 1000pound

[Sammjoey]

Hello,

and thank you to anyone who reads this and possibly helps me

I have considering building a gaming rig for a while now,

and i want to get great gaming proformance at a low/mid budget

(i know doesn´t everyone). The parts i´ve consider so far are:

Intel Core i5 2500k 3.3ghz and porbably will be overclocking it to 4.5 or maybe 4.7/8

Asus P8Z68-V PRO

Corsair vengeance LP 8gb (2x4gb) and at a later date upgrade to 16gb.

XFX HD Radeon 6970

BitFenix Shinobi windowed

(which i´m planning to spray the mesh panels and the logo green,

then have purple cathods and purple LED fans)

Samsung Blu-ray combo drive

Seagate barracuda 1tb 7200rpm

I´m not sure what to do with the CPU cooler and the PSU as i would like to

eventualy run 2 6970´s in crossfire, and for the CPU cooler i´m just not

sure at all as i´ve seen lots of reviews but it has left me baffled as for what

to get, so some help on them 2parts would be nice.

 

[yassarikhan786]

Noctua NH-D14 is still the top dog in the CPU cooling world. The Havik 140, Silver Arrow and the Phantek coolers are not far off though.

PSU wise some of the best companies are Corsair, Seasonic, Enermax and BeQuiet.

 

[JackyBoy]

I have always made builds with corsair psus, deffo recommend them. Also might be worth holding back before buying gpus as ces is this week and hopefully nvidia will be announcing their next lot. So that means younger be able to pick up a next gen or at least a current gen much cheaper.

 

[Sammjoey]

I have always made builds with corsair psus, deffo recommend them. Also might be worth holding back before buying gpus as ces is this week and hopefully nvidia will be announcing their next lot. So that means younger be able to pick up a next gen or at least a current gen much cheaper.

Yeah i´m not building it yet i´m still saving about %60 percent there so possibly by the time i do buy the build ivybirdge maybe out aswell as the 7970 cards

I went for the 6970 and picked that out a while ago as i was going to get a 560ti 2gb from evga, then realised for an extra 30pound i could get the 6970 which is alot better proformance wise and comes with battlefield 3 (a 30pound i was guna spend anyway).

 

[Sammjoey]

Noctua NH-D14 is still the top dog in the CPU cooling world. The Havik 140, Silver Arrow and the Phantek coolers are not far off though.

PSU wise some of the best companies are Corsair, Seasonic, Enermax and BeQuiet.

Will a NH-D14 fit in a bitfenix shinobi case?

Also i´m having a green interior with purple LED´s and neons so i´m not sure it´ll fit the colour scheme so much.

Additionaly i´m only planning on spending at the most prohaps 50pound on the CPU cooler.

 

[sheroo]

Will a NH-D14 fit in a bitfenix shinobi case?

Also i´m having a green interior with purple LED´s and neons so i´m not sure it´ll fit the colour scheme so much.

Additionaly i´m only planning on spending at the most prohaps 50pound on the CPU cooler.

The NH-D14 buggers up any colour scheme.

 

[Sammjoey]

The NH-D14 buggers up any colour scheme.

True true, the colours on it remind me of a pod racer from Star Wars: The Phantom menace.

 

[SieB]

The Havick 120mm cooler is coming soon as well which is supposed to be cheaper and have better performance than the Havik 140 which brings it level with the D14.

Also the D14 will fit in any case that has a 120mm or 140mm fan in the back

 

[yassarikhan786]

Will a NH-D14 fit in a bitfenix shinobi case?

Also i´m having a green interior with purple LED´s and neons so i´m not sure it´ll fit the colour scheme so much.

Additionaly i´m only planning on spending at the most prohaps 50pound on the CPU cooler.

It should be fine seeing that the shinobi has a rear 120mm fan.

 

[Sammjoey]

It should be fine seeing that the shinobi has a rear 120mm fan.

The Havick 120mm cooler is coming soon as well which is supposed to be cheaper and have better performance than the Havik 140 which brings it level with the D14.

Also the D14 will fit in any case that has a 120mm or 140mm fan in the back

Okay, what Ram would you say will fit under it? i do want to eventualy use all 4 slots.

 

[S_I_N]

I noted in ur first post you said you were going to oc to 4.5 and perhaps 4.7/8 if your just wanting to run 16gb of mem for the hell of it then get a 2x8Gb kit and be done with it. If you populate all 4 mem slots it can hamper ur oc. Meaning you may have to redo it and not get the same results. It just the way its always been use all slots and oc's suffer. Check out alot of the record benches they use 2 only and alot of times only 1 stick of ram. simply because its easier to make it work with only one stick.

But in reality 8Gb of ram will do fine for gaming you'll see no benefit from 16Gb unless your doing alot of rendering and if thats the case get the 2600k vs the 2500k as the extra threads will also benefit you

 

[Sammjoey]

I noted in ur first post you said you were going to oc to 4.5 and perhaps 4.7/8 if your just wanting to run 16gb of mem for the hell of it then get a 2x8Gb kit and be done with it. If you populate all 4 mem slots it can hamper ur oc. Meaning you may have to redo it and not get the same results. It just the way its always been use all slots and oc's suffer. Check out alot of the record benches they use 2 only and alot of times only 1 stick of ram. simply because its easier to make it work with only one stick.

But in reality 8Gb of ram will do fine for gaming you'll see no benefit from 16Gb unless your doing alot of rendering and if thats the case get the 2600k vs the 2500k as the extra threads will also benefit you

Alright fair enough then, 8gb dims are bloody expensive aswell. I shouldn´t be doing much rendering (for now atleast that is). So now i think about it i will stick to 2x4gb.

Aside that, what do you recommend? that will fit under a D14.

Aswell can you change the fans on a D14?

 

[yassarikhan786]

Any low profile ram should be good. G.Skill RipJaws, Corsair Vengeance LP, Kingston Hyper X, Mushkin radioactive are all low profile and will fit under the D14.

 

[Sammjoey]

Any low profile ram should be good. G.Skill RipJaws, Corsair Vengeance LP, Kingston Hyper X, Mushkin radioactive are all low profile and will fit under the D14.

Alright thanks, i just noticed you recommend a D14, yet you have a CM 212?

 

[S_I_N]

Alright fair enough then, 8gb dims are bloody expensive aswell. I shouldn´t be doing much rendering (for now atleast that is). So now i think about it i will stick to 2x4gb.

Aside that, what do you recommend? that will fit under a D14.

Aswell can you change the fans on a D14?

most ram will fit under it with the exception of the high heat spreader models I use G Skill Sniper and they fit very well under it. As do the Ripjaws and Ripjaws X from G Skill

yes you can change the fans on a D-14 any 120mm x 25mm fan should work. I put my CM Sickle Flows on mine after breaking the Noctua ones trying to disassemble them for painting

 

[Sammjoey]

most ram will fit under it with the exception of the high heat spreader models I use G Skill Sniper and they fit very well under it. As do the Ripjaws and Ripjaws X from G Skill

yes you can change the fans on a D-14 any 120mm x 25mm fan should work. I put my CM Sickle Flows on mine after breaking the Noctua ones trying to disassemble them for painting

Ah that sucks, i may replace them with the purple LED fans i´m getting but then it may over purple the rig, and with the Shinobi´s side window you porbably wouldn´t see any of the D14 anyway.

 

[yassarikhan786]

Alright thanks, i just noticed you recommend a D14, yet you have a CM 212?

That's because it's the best CPU cooler out there and many people here on OC3D will say the same. I don't have LP RAM (stupid of me, I know) so I was limited in what coolers I could use. In future builds I will only be using LP RAM and my cooler of choice will be the D14, unless I either decide to water cool or better air coolers come out. The Havik 140 is also a really good cooler so that is an option as well if you don't like the looks of the D14.

 

[8bitbreed]

Alright fair enough then, 8gb dims are bloody expensive aswell. I shouldn´t be doing much rendering (for now atleast that is). So now i think about it i will stick to 2x4gb.

Aside that, what do you recommend? that will fit under a D14.

Aswell can you change the fans on a D14?

http://www.ebuyer.com/264750-g-skil...mory-kit-cl9-9-9-9-24-1-5v-f3-12800cl9d-8gbxl

or

http://www.ebuyer.com/274061-g-skil...kit-cl11-11-11-11-30-1-5v-f3-17000cl11d-8gbxl

SB loves 2133 memory.

 

[wassupdoc]

System specs look great, I would recommend the coolermaster V-8 as I have one, easy to install, does a great job of cooling and looks sweet, although obv. the NHD-14 trounces it but imho looks awful

For a power supply, check out ebuyer as they are doing some pretty good deals on the OCZ Gold range Full Modular PSU's (the good OCZ ones

). The HD7*** series are already on scan but if you go on the OC3D homepage and read the leaked Keplar results, you will see reason to wait

 

[Sammjoey]

System specs look great, I would recommend the coolermaster V-8 as I have one, easy to install, does a great job of cooling and looks sweet, although obv. the NHD-14 trounces it but imho looks awful

For a power supply, check out ebuyer as they are doing some pretty good deals on the OCZ Gold range Full Modular PSU's (the good OCZ ones

). The HD7*** series are already on scan but if you go on the OC3D homepage and read the leaked Keplar results, you will see reason to wait

Alright, well i have 1070 pounds current and it looks like i´m going

Bitfenix shinobi windowed germany edition (don´t have to bother with the hassle of getting the red mesh panels and spraying the logo or another side window)

asus maximus IV gene-z

intel core i5 2500k

Be quiet dark rock advanced

g.skills ripjaws 2x4gb

xfx hd radeon 6970

seagate barracuda 1tb 7200 rpm hdd

xfx 750w pro power supply

with bitfenix specter pro red fans (2x 120mm and 2x 140mm)

also some sharkoon 12" red cathodes.