First Custom Rig

[UFN]

I have never built a custom computer from the ground up, having only ever owned the most basic models of ready made computers (and by basic I mean the £300 budget PC's from DELL), I've only ever upgraded a GPU and a PSU and even then the upgrades were minimal at best; I think it's about time such a middle-class nerd tragedy came to an end.

I've back and forthed with a more computer savvy friend (I am unfortunately very, very new to the nitty gritty of technical details) and this is the current rig that has been settled on...but he is but one person offering one opinion and I definitely think that consulting some more tech wizards is the way forward before properly settling on what i'm going to build. What better place to do that than here?

The rig is going to be primarily for gaming with some odd film rendering/folding thrown in for good measure.

My budget is ~£1,300 and this will be built around Christmas/New Year

- i7 2600k 3.4GHz CPU, 8mb cache

- GTX 570 (which version I should go with probably needs a topic all to itself as the more I research the less sure I am of which to buy)

- 8gb (2x4gb) of Low profile Corsair Vengeance RAM @1600Mhz (Leaning towards the low voltage version for overclocking headroom)

- Asus P8Z68-V PRO Z68 Socket 1155 8 Channel HD Audio ATX Motherboard

- Western Digital 2TB 3.5" SATA-III 6Gb/s Caviar Black Hard Drive 7200RPM 64MB Cache (I dont know anything about RAID so atm this is just a basic HDD choice)

- Corsair Professional Series AX850 850W Modular PSU 80plus Gold Certified

- LG W2361V-PF Full HD TFT LCD 23" HDMI Gaming monitor

- Windows 7 home premium

- All housed in a NZXT Phantom (Black) Full Tower Case

And thats what I've managed to come up with so far! I don't plan on building a new rig for a LONG time after this one (my wallet would weep openly) so this is a rig to carry me far into the future. That being said I have tried to give the rig headroom to be upgraded in small increments such as replacing the stock cooler for the CPU (so I can OC it above 4GHz), adding in an SLI and possibly (though unlikely) doubling the RAM from 8gb to 16gb (though that would be a pointless gesture at this point)

Any and all suggestions, critiques or advice are very welcome! I only ask that you explain why for any changes you would make as I'm learning about all this as I go along

Thank you for your time!

(also I hope this is the right place! sorry if a mod has to move it)

 

[kilobravo]

Christmas/new year,its far far away in pc/hardware terms,there will be many changes in cpu,mobo,gpu.SSD will drop in price in a short time.

But you have done your homework.If you were buying the hardware now,its some nice specs you found.

I would waite a couple of months to spec a system

 

[sheroo]

Yep 3 months is a long time in pc hardware. There are a couple of things looming on the horizon, such as bulldozer and sandy-bridge 22nm.

I have the NZXT Phantom, it not a bad case but there are better. The CM HAF series are well respected around here, and the Bitfenix Shinobi is getting its moment in the limelight atm. Tom is doing alot of vids with it, and he wouldn't bother building with it if he didn't rate it.

 

[ruthless_villain]

the phantom is the spawn of the devil its evil, it tried to break itself buy anything else imo corsair 650d us similiar and looks nicer imo, if not there is the haf 932/haf x the cm 690ii even the 600t

 

[UFN]

One of the main reasons I chose the Phantom is that I'm truly tired of rectangle towers but I'm not looking for something uber aggressive looking; the phantom is, IMO, a great balance between the striking and the subtle. It doesn't harm things that it offers good features and decent cooling too!

But if you have any suggestions for a tower that isn't a rectangle (but that isn't OTT either) I am very happy to hear them!

I do appreciate that im speccing this system pretty early but I'm putting that down to unbridled excitement xP also, unless there is some massive surprise in the industry, or someone makes a good argument for change

, I doubt these specs will change.

I'm keeping an eye on the radeon 7000 series, but I would like to go with nVidia in this build. Im sure I read somewhere that nVidia's next generation won't be released until Q1-2 2012.

Sandy bridge E is tempting but my budget only allows for the entry level which, AFAIK, has a locked multiplier and an OC'd 2600k will trump it. Ivy bridge is too far away and I don't want to be forever waiting for the next big thing. Bulldozer will be interesting but AMD will really have to pull out something special to turn me away from sandy bridge.

Obviously I will be keeping an eagle eye out for new developments though =]

 

[ruthless_villain]

One of the main reasons I chose the Phantom is that I'm truly tired of rectangle towers but I'm not looking for something uber aggressive looking; the phantom is, IMO, a great balance between the striking and the subtle. It doesn't harm things that it offers good features and decent cooling too!

But if you have any suggestions for a tower that isn't a rectangle (but that isn't OTT either) I am very happy to hear them!

I do appreciate that im speccing this system pretty early but I'm putting that down to unbridled excitement xP also, unless there is some massive surprise in the industry, or someone makes a good argument for change

, I doubt these specs will change.

I'm keeping an eye on the radeon 7000 series, but I would like to go with nVidia in this build. Im sure I read somewhere that nVidia's next generation won't be released until Q1-2 2012.

Sandy bridge E is tempting but my budget only allows for the entry level which, AFAIK, has a locked multiplier and an OC'd 2600k will trump it. Ivy bridge is too far away and I don't want to be forever waiting for the next big thing. Bulldozer will be interesting but AMD will really have to pull out something special to turn me away from sandy bridge.

Obviously I will be keeping an eagle eye out for new developments though =]

corsair 600t its kinda curvy

 

[AdrianD2]

Why are so many people getting the Phantom lately? I wanted to get it, not anymore...

 

[ruthless_villain]

Why are so many people getting the Phantom lately? I wanted to get it, not anymore...

because its cheap and a full tower

 

[Scoob]

Hi,

For what is primarily a gamer I'd get the 2500k over the 2600k - this is what I did. My friend when for the 2600k and we're even on the overclocking results so far, but it seems to have taken him a lot more effort to get stable. Initially he had to disable Hyper Threading to get any degree of stability, but he's refined things now.

A GTX 570 is a good choice for up to 1920x1200 gaming - it's what I've got, well TWO now. Tom recently reviewed a GTX 570 from KFA, check out the review, it's a well priced card with a great cooler. Adding a 2nd will just work.

Motherboard is perfect, though Im biased because it's what I got

PSU is good and will easily allow you to SLI a 2nd 570 at some point, FYI I'm using the Corsair HX750w for my setup, that's a 2500k @ 4.6 and 2x GTX 570 @ 850 core. I feel I am pushing it with only a 750w PSU, but these Corsair units are very good and mine doesn't appear to be struggling at all - it's still cool and quiet and the fan doesn't really ramp up under load.

I think you're wise to keep your specs flexible as new things are always just around the corner. Possibly the 7000 series will turn out to be a must buy at release, luckily you have the time to decide, though I don't think you'd be disappointed by a KFA 570 or two

Keep us posted!

Scoob.

 

[Lollipop]

The Phantom (imo) is just bad, please get another case

And get the 2500k, you won't really notice a difference and if you want THE BEST 570 get MSI's Twin Frozr III

 

[Grizzly]

The phantom is a good case, but if I was buying again I'd go with the RV02 although that limits water cooling possibilities if you wanted to do that in the future.

It's unlikely you'll need the 2600k so if you find yourself getting closer and closer to that budget I recommend you downgrade to a 2500k.

Any 570 with an after market cooler would likely do.

The only other motherboard I'd look at in that price range is the UD4, or the GENE-Z if you don't mind M-ATX. But the one you've chosen also looks OK.

Hope this helps a bit.

 

[FunkyMonkey90]

If I was you I'd wait a few months to spec a PC as the new Intel and AMD processors come out soon and also the new Nvidia GPUs are coming shortly IIRC.

As for the Phantom I have owned mine for almost a year now and have never had any problems with it, IMO I think it's a fantastic case and is very well designed. But a case is mainly a personal preference as to what you prefer and like the look of.

 

[JesseLactin]

I've read about problems with the 570's VRM. The cards blew up while benching (I think one blew up while at stock). If you get one, make sure it's a non stock one with better VRMs.

 

[Scoob]

Hi,

I'd not heard about problems with 570's. I've got one of the first reference design ones by Palit - basically the cheapest one I could get at the time, which was soon after launch. It's still going strong (now in SLI with a newer Inno3D card) and has been OC'd up to 925mhz on the core @ 1.1v - no problems so far!

Cheers,

Scoob.

 

[JesseLactin]

Hi,

I'd not heard about problems with 570's. I've got one of the first reference design ones by Palit - basically the cheapest one I could get at the time, which was soon after launch. It's still going strong (now in SLI with a newer Inno3D card) and has been OC'd up to 925mhz on the core @ 1.1v - no problems so far!

Cheers,

Scoob.

I found a link to the 570's VRM exploding

570 DO explode

Scoob, you should be good. Plait's cards have 8 phases (6 GPU, 2 memory)

Here is a quote from the site

[font="verdana, geneva, lucida,"]Originally Posted by bleda76[/font][font="verdana, geneva, lucida,"]-Gainward 570 Phantom, Gainward 570 GS Goes Like Hell, Palit 570 Sonic Platinum all have 8 phase VRMs (6 GPU and 2 memory). Same amount with the GTX 580. All these cards have identical PCB since they belong to the same graphics card manufacturer group

http://images.bit-te....phantom-1b.jpg

- Asus GTX570 DirectCU II also has 8 phase VRMs (6 GPU and 2 memory)

http://www.techpower....ages/front.jpg

Don't go above 1.1V and [/font][font="verdana, geneva, lucida,"]don't disable OCP/power limiting, you should be fine. Temps don't mean anything with the 570s. (one guy had his on water and it still blew)[/font]

 

[Stryker64]

So much stuff is coming out from now until December I would just wait. There's Bulldozer, the 7xxx series of GPU from AMD, and maybe the next gen Nvidia.

 

[JesseLactin]

So much stuff is coming out from now until December I would just wait. There's Bulldozer, the 7xxx series of GPU from AMD, and maybe the next gen Nvidia.

Sounds like good advice for everyone. I was planning to build a new rig around Christmas / my birthday (it's 8 days after Christmas). I stopped basically once I saw LGA 2011's announcement. BD's release will also kill the prices for 1155 CPUs. New cases are right around the corner too. Cosmos II FTW (and maybe the CM Storm Trooper).

 

[UFN]

Thank you all for the Advice and suggestions =] I know I am speccing this way too early but I find its never a bad thing to write thing's down in pencil before you write them down in pen

Plus it's giving me a lot of time to learn about this alien stuff (Mobo's still confuse the pants off me) whilst getting advice from seasoned vets

As per your advice, and after looking around, I agree that I do not need a 2600k and will be downgrading to the 2500k.

I've also had a re-think about my motherboard and properly researched the z68 chipset, which was originally suggested by my friend, and I've decided to instead go with a p67 chipset. I originally wanted the z68 chipset because my friend explained its power-saving ability to switch from integrated graphics to dedicated graphics dependant on power usage, but i've read some reviews of this feature and it doesn't seem to work as well, or as reliably, as I would have expected and since i'm not going to be using the z68's other touted feature (the SSD thingy) It's simply not worth the extra coin. Suggestions for p67 mobo's within the £100-£150 price range?

I'm also downgrading my 2TB HDD to a 1TB HDD, effectively halving the cost of that as well (I don't think I could fill 2TB even if I tried to).

This has potentially freed up a bunch of money from my budget (close to £150).

Roughly £100~ of that I intend to, instead of throw at the CPU, throw at the GPU; evolving my 570 into a 580 and hoping that the EVGA Classified 580 comes out soon so I can read some reviews because that thing looks beastly (maybe not Mars II beastly but...hey i'm not made of money trees). BUT I'm unsure as to whether this upgrade is worth it.

This leaves roughly £50 (give or take) to toss at another part of the system. Suggestions?

 

[UFN]

Sorry for the double post! Better than starting a new topic though

It's been roughly a month since I joined this great forum and since I posted the potential specs a number of them have changed and, bar a surprise of biblical proportions happening within the next 2 months within the tech industry, I think my new specs will probably stay as they are until the system is built. So tell me what you think!

(i've also included real world prices so you can see where all the budget goes)

i5 2500k - £165.75

Asus P67 Sabertooth, Revision 3, Motherboard - £154.67

50mm Sabertooth Assist fan - £10

Corsair Vengeance 8Gb DDR3 1866Mhz (2x4Gb) CL9 Kit - £58.47

Asus GTX580 Matrix Platinum edition (ROG) - £397.97

2x WD Caviar Black 500 GB Internal hard drive 600 MBps 7200 rpm - £83.40

Corsair AX850 Gold Certified PSU - £142.34

NZXT Phantom Black Full Tower Case (version 2) - £104.38

Corsair H100 Closed loop CPU Cooler - £82.60

DVD SATA Optical Drive - £15

Acer V243HAObd 24" HD Ready Monitor DVI 1920x1080 2ms - £129.98

Total - £1,417.67

 

[PEXON]

Save some money on your GPU, get a Noctua cooler, just get one 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 HDD and upgrade that monitor!