Full New System Build

[GrantWoodUK]

Hi Guys,

I was just looking to get some last minute tips/advice on the current build I plan on making within the next 1-3weeks, maybe a few additional pieces (better case fans, good quality braided cables e.t.c)

Money is not all that much of an issue but around the same price of the current build would be preferable.

The plan at the moment is the following:

Case - Cosmos 2 - £309

MoBo - Asus Rampage 4 Extreme - £320

CPU - I7 3930k - £452

CPU Cooler - Corsair H100 - £85

Memory - GSkill Ripjawz Z Series 16GB - £80

GPU - EVGA GTX 680 - £430

PSU - Corsair TX850 - £100

HDD - WD 1TB Caviar Black - £100

SSD - Samsung 830 64GB - £83

Sound - Creative Labs X-FT Titanium with I/O Drive - £137

OS - Win7 Pro 64bit OEM - £100

Optical - Samsung 12x BR Reader + Lightscribe Software - £60

Thermal - Arctic Silver 5 - £3.50

The rig is going to be mainly Gaming related with some O/C in there, and the sound card is predominantly for the new Razer Tiamat 7.1 Headset and a new Surround System when I get them.

Any and all advice would be much appreciated.

Kind Regards,

GrantWoodUK

 

[Rastalovich]

Personally, I'd not go down the x79 route for a rig that's main intention is gaming.

If someone is looking to dump a load of cash on a new build, I'm telling them to wait a week or 2 for a 77 build.

Nit-picking at other items, and keeping in mind cash isn't a 'big deal', more than 64g for the SSD, no more than 8G memory - and a really good CL9, a BR Writer should be closer to the £60 mark than we think (although I understand the argument of who the heck writes them).

The current rig you have outlined is by no means a bad choice for gaming. It's just that, imo, the x79 setups tend towards cpu/memory/workstation and take away from graphics, when it comes to allocating resources. Heck an old 775 setup with 2x 680s in it will play games better, and cost less.

 

[GrantWoodUK]

Hi Rastalovich,

Do you believe that the X77 Ivy Brdige stuff will be more future proof in the long run than the current X79 stuff, or are you saying wait based on the cost difference?

I was looking at possibly going for the Samsung 830 256GB/512GB SSD and completely getting rid of the HDD for now, as my current disk usage never really exceeds the 200GB mark as I have external storage devices for that.

Any recommendations for the 8GB ram? I chose the G-Skill stuff based off a TomsHardware article, but I also hear the Mushkin Redline stuff is pretty good.

I think i'll stick with the Blue Ray Reader with DVD and CD writing capabilites because I really do not see myself/ have anything which would require me to write to Blue Ray.

My initial thought itself was to go with the standard 2600k/AsRock z68 mobo/8GB Vengeance/Crucial M4/560ti 448 combo everyone knows and loves for gaming, I just felt having something more future proof will help me to expand and keep upgrading in the future (the only real problem being getting started with the costs) and if more future proofing means looking out for the X77 stuff then I'm sure I could also hold out

Regards,

GrantWoodUK

 

[Rastalovich]

Over a forum, I really don't like saying 'buy this exact product' cos it's not my cash.

If you're happy with the expense of a 256/512g SSD, then go for it. The faster read/write the better. Keep in mind a 1tb regular driver isn't really that expensive on the grand scale of things, so you could get one 'just in case'.

The Ivy-Birdie is a decent thing to wait for, it's just too close to dismiss right now. It proposes to tick all the boxes. Performance of the z68 plus.

x79... isn't going to have the pci3.0 graphics platform of the z68/z77, although it does use the lanes for drive access - handy for the workstation, not so much for the gamer.

Fair enough on the optical.

Specific memory ? I'm a Corsair fan, that's just personal pref. Heard nothing but good about GSkill and Mushkin.

 

[mrDMxtreme]

well if you want another opinion i would actually say go for the x79 platform IF you are not worried about the cash because it WILL still be faster and more 'future' proof then SB or IB. But with that said it does depend on your budget and it does depend on what resolution you will be playing at. so i will outline what I personally think your best choices would be:

Firstly i would have to recomend that you buy either an Intel 520 SSD (however big you want) or a m4, this is because they are THE most reliable, and i can personally tell you its annoying to have ur ssd cause a bsod every few weeks((dam ocz, i made a big mistake trying to save money on that dum ssd). and about performance, if you want more speed just get two smaller ssd's and put them in raid 0.

Now for RAM, as mentioned corsair, gskill, mushkin and kingston all have good ram, pick fast dims that look nice

and 8gb is enough, but with x79 having 4 or 8 slots you can go with 16gb (which is overkill, but again if price doesn't matter, its 'future proofing' in a sense that if u one day want to do video editing you can.

and with the psu, its personal preference but i'd saw go with the AX series from corsiar, or an enermax. also with the TIM its personal preference again, but i'd use the noctua nt-h1

the rest looks good, unless u want to water cool everything(just saying)

Now the important part about a gaming rig, the GPU, there are two main paths: single display or triple display.

for single display:

-do whatever it takes and put two 680's in there, and u got future proofing (i'm assuming ur gaming at more then 1080p with ur budget, so this is good for a large screen, 1 680 is fine for a 1080p screen)

for triple display (you can pick nvidia or amd):

-amd - get two 7970's and done

-nvidia - either wait a while until they make non-ref 680's with 4gb of memory and then buy 2 of them or

- get 2 gtx 580 3gb (the 580 are a little slower, but you are going to want that extra gig of vram with really high resolutions)

there's my opinion

 

[simsimma4]

I agree with the above, i was thinking of waiting for ivy-bridge, but knowing the fact that that was going to be the last chip available for the 1155 socket and only being slightly faster than current SB and SB-e (lower end i7 3820) i decided not to wait.

There would not have been any upgrade path from ivy-bridge. SB-e socket 2011 however was newer and there are rumours that the new IB-e would be socket 2011. So thats why x79 sold it for me, it had current solid performance. I decided to go for the SB-e i7 3820 purely because it was comparable to the current SB 2700k, but was actually cheaper!!

so the way i saw it was the lower end SB-e was on par with the top end current SB, and given the new IB was only approx 10-15% faster than the SB, i knew the next gen IB-e would be even better and a viable upgrade path in a years time.

 

[GrantWoodUK]

Hi guys,

Thank you for all of your responses. I'm thinking of sticking the the X79 build then, possibly swapping out the PSU for the AX series from Corsair (Which I was looking at anyway)

I think Ill stick with the single reference GTX 680 as (for the short time being) it is going to be on a new 32" Smart 3D TV I bought running at 1920x1080, yet I will be replacing with a proper monitor setup when I work out a better space arrangement in which I could chuck a few monitors on and an extra GPU in.

I know the Crucial M4's quite well, yet my choice was based on a review I read about current market SSD's and it seemed to be rated slightly higher than then M4 GB for GB.

My only other real thought when choosing the case, was that I have always been a fan of the HAF X, and when the Storm Trooper was released I was adimment I wanted to get that. Then I saw TTL's video on the Cosmos 2 and it just blew me away (even though it is £200 more!) so I am still undecided on which case I should choose :S

Other than that I am grateful for your opinions and Ill bare it all in mind when I get my build started.

Thanks.