Help needed to explore my build options!

M

Madsalty

New member
Good Evening,

After watching TTL's videos on youTube for probably the last 2 years and given that my laptop is starting to show signs it's unwell i thought it might now be time for a foray into the world of building a PC.

• Location? - United Kingdom
• Budget? - £600 (ish)
• Monitor, keyboard etc? - No
• Shall you be requiring an OS? - No
• What will you be using this rig for? - Casual Gaming, Audio Production and Everyday tasks
• If gaming, what resolution will you be playing at? - 1920 * 1080
• Will you be overclocking? - Would like to give it a go
• Do you need a full build or will you be reusing some old parts? - Other than the SDD my laptop's using & a storage HDD i'll be starting from Scratch

Ok. So the budget isn't massive, but it's more a ballpark figure of what i'd be comfortable with. I don't need a monster machine, but i would like something that i could tinker with. I'd love to build a water-cooled setup like my last build in 2007.

I was thinking of trying to squeeze an ivy bridge i5 setup out of my budget, but a work colleague has offered me some components.

He's currently got an I7 920, Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5, 8gb of RAM and a HD6850 lying around and i've asked him to come up with a ballpark figure of what he'd like for the bundle. Firstly, what should i be paying for the aforementioned set of components?

Secondly, would that meet my needs? I seem to think so, but i could be wrong.

I've done some shopping around and i have a rough idea what i can get for my budget, however with the vast array of options available it's much quite overwhelming. Can anybody offer me some advice?

Kind Regards,
Mad
 
welcome to OC3D

Case, Motherboard, RAM, PSU, GPU, CPU + cooler for £600 should be plently for what you want......optical drive is not really required if you can get your hands on one to borrow all the better


how would this grab you?
i5-4670K
Gigabyte Z87-D3HP
CM Hyper 212 Evo
Kingston 2x4GB 1600mhz RAM
Corsair CX600M
Powercolor PCS+ Myst 7870 (Tahiti)

£575

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1iuM9
HD 7870 (Tahiti)

EDIT: I forgot a Case :( If you went IvyBridge instead of Haswell you should have a little extra budget for the case.

Obviously shop around for cheaper deals, but this should set you up pretty good.....

If you are doing Audio Production on a high standard, then you might want a dedicated Sound card too
 
Mathius said:
welcome to OC3D

Case, Motherboard, RAM, PSU, GPU, CPU + cooler for £600 should be plently for what you want......optical drive is not really required if you can get your hands on one to borrow all the better


how would this grab you?
i5-4670K
Gigabyte Z87-D3HP
CM Hyper 212 Evo
Kingston 2x4GB 1600mhz RAM
Corsair CX600M
Powercolor PCS+ Myst 7870 (Tahiti)

£575

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1iuM9
HD 7870 (Tahiti)

EDIT: I forgot a Case :( If you went IvyBridge instead of Haswell you should have a little extra budget for the case.

Obviously shop around for cheaper deals, but this should set you up pretty good.....

If you are doing Audio Production on a high standard, then you might want a dedicated Sound card too
Click to expand...

This looks like a good list above.
Here are some more options, keep in mind that you might need to do some shopping around for different places. Also I live in the US so that's where my perspective on pricing is. To be even £600 = $915.

Assuming you have a SSD from your laptop. This is what i would purchase, i came right up to the $915 U.S. which again translates over to £600. However it may require some shopping around (I'm able to use Newegg and Micro center here).

OS: Windows 7 pro
CPU: i5-3770k (Ivy is not that much different from haswell, and can be found slightly cheaper)
RAM: 2x 4gb 1600Mhz of Corsair Vengeance/ G.skill ripjaw/ Kingston hyper-x (all are good)
Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-V LK LGA 1155 Intel Z77
GPU: Asus/ Sapphire 7870 Radion 2gb
PSU: Corsair CX600M
Case: Corsair 350D
 
Thanks guys. There's some great suggestions there. It's suprised me at what i can actually get within my budget and your suggestions have been a good starting point for understanding what's out there and what to look for.

First things first. I have both an optical drive, and a copy of Win 7 Pro so that's something i don't need to worry about.

Secondly i love the styling of the 350D. I think it's clean, stylish and has loads of potential for future water cooling so any build needs to fit (i.e. M-ATX)

With that in mind i decided to spec a similiar system myself. The theme is Blue and Black and i switched to an nVidia card as i always used to have more success with them. Plus i'm lead to believe they draw less power which in my mind matches it well with the new haswell chips?

Anyway...

I5-4670K £186.63
MSI Z87M-G43 £87.74
Kingston 8GB HyperX Blu DDR3 1600MHz £49.75
350D £80.98
Corsair GS 600W £65.52
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Windforce 2X £153.19
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO £24.99

Total £648.80

Does that seem like a good rig?
 
Madsalty said:
Thanks guys. There's some great suggestions there. It's suprised me at what i can actually get within my budget and your suggestions have been a good starting point for understanding what's out there and what to look for.

First things first. I have both an optical drive, and a copy of Win 7 Pro so that's something i don't need to worry about.

Secondly i love the styling of the 350D. I think it's clean, stylish and has loads of potential for future water cooling so any build needs to fit (i.e. M-ATX)

With that in mind i decided to spec a similiar system myself. The theme is Blue and Black and i switched to an nVidia card as i always used to have more success with them. Plus i'm lead to believe they draw less power which in my mind matches it well with the new haswell chips?

Anyway...

I5-4670K £186.63
MSI Z87M-G43 £87.74
Kingston 8GB HyperX Blu DDR3 1600MHz £49.75
350D £80.98
Corsair GS 600W £65.52
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Windforce 2X £153.19
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO £24.99

Total £648.80

Does that seem like a good rig?
Click to expand...

seems fine, i'd go for a different GPU though

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials...Card+[AX7870+2GBD5-2DHPPV3E]+?productId=54322
 
You can't take out your ssd from your laptop and put it in a new build. Your laptop is most likely using OEM Windows and it will not allow you to change motherboards unless its the same model number. That should create a huge problem on the budget if that's what your laptop is running if that is what you plan on doing.
 
NeverBackDown said:
You can't take out your ssd from your laptop and put it in a new build. Your laptop is most likely using OEM Windows and it will not allow you to change motherboards unless its the same model number. That should create a huge problem on the budget if that's what your laptop is running if that is what you plan on doing.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the concern, however don't panic. I didn't make it clear that i installed the SSD in my laptop as sortof a "refresh" to keep it usable while i decided what i wanted to do PC wise in the knowledge that it would migrate to anything i built later. I also have a non OEM copy of Win 7 that i'll transfer over / re-install on new hardware when i decommission my laptop.
 
What about Used?

Ok,

So here's a twist in the tale.

One of my work colleagues has just upgraded to Haswell and as such his old rig is up for grabs.

He's offering me:

i7 920
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5
12 GB Corsair Dominator RAM
HD6870

for £200

That seems an attractive prospect in my book. I'm sure the system will provide enough performance. Quite frankly i don't really find my 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo particularly slow and whilst i'd need to rethink the case, perhaps the FT02? It could potentially give me scope within my budget to have some fun and build a simple water-cooling loop?

If i build a quality system around a good used bundle, experiment / have some fun with watercooling (without the risk of breaking a new haswell bundle). It should mean that when the need / funds arise i'll have a good base to upgrade from?
 
If you're going to be doing audio work then I would get yourself a decent soundcard like a asus d2x or something similar :) I would go for that old rig if you can, just make sure everything works before money changes hands :)
 
Right,

Thanks for the advice.

Used hardware purchased.

My colleague is also throwing in a whole array of cables & and aftermarket CPU cooler.

And once I've acquired the components i shall make a build log.


Questions:


In order to future proof is a 650w power supply adequate? I believe CPUs/GPUs are getting more efficient anyway...Also is it worth spending the extra to get a Gold rated model?

Is the Silverstone FT02 a decent case? I really like the way the MoBo is rotated 90deg...
 
Madsalty said:
Right,

Thanks for the advice.

Used hardware purchased.

My colleague is also throwing in a whole array of cables & and aftermarket CPU cooler.

And once I've acquired the components i shall make a build log.


Questions:


In order to future proof is a 650w power supply adequate? I believe CPUs/GPUs are getting more efficient anyway...Also is it worth spending the extra to get a Gold rated model?

Is the Silverstone FT02 a decent case? I really like the way the MoBo is rotated 90deg...
Click to expand...

650w is plenty tbh if your going for ivy or haswell in the near future dependant on model you can get bronze rated psu i.e seasonic/corsair

about the case yes it is decent can also get some interesting watercooling loops in them too :D but i think its too expensive for what it is.. personally you can get a corsair case what does just as good if not better for almost
half the price...
 
Fractal Design,Corsair,Nzxt, and a few other companies(depending on the person) make solid cases. I personally use Fractal Design and recommend them to everyone(sort of a fanboy i guess) but i only do so because the cases are very high quality. Silverstone makes good cases but most are to expensive for what you get as said above.
 
Madsalty said:
Ok,

So here's a twist in the tale.

One of my work colleagues has just upgraded to Haswell and as such his old rig is up for grabs.

He's offering me:

i7 920
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5
12 GB Corsair Dominator RAM
HD6870

for £200

That seems an attractive prospect in my book. I'm sure the system will provide enough performance. Quite frankly i don't really find my 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo particularly slow and whilst i'd need to rethink the case, perhaps the FT02? It could potentially give me scope within my budget to have some fun and build a simple water-cooling loop?

If i build a quality system around a good used bundle, experiment / have some fun with watercooling (without the risk of breaking a new haswell bundle). It should mean that when the need / funds arise i'll have a good base to upgrade from?
Click to expand...

That seems like a killer deal!! Assuming he took care of it. As others have stated an upgraded sound card would be a nice addition.

I always recommend buy a very good quality PSU and case! This is because they will be in your rig the longest and migrate to new rigs in the future, usually. They also both can allow for expansion of whatever rig you're using.
That being said a 600w is plenty of power, but will you ever plan on doing SLI or Crossfire? If so you might look into a 750W-850W size-ish, that is if budget allows.

One thing you might ask him is how long he's had it and if he OC'd the 920. They are fairly resilient chips and can handle it, but if the as a cruddy cooler on it then i'm not sure how much time it has left in it. Also depending on what cooler it has you might look into the Swifttech H220 or Corsair H100i.
 
loglog said:
That seems like a killer deal!! Assuming he took care of it. As others have stated an upgraded sound card would be a nice addition.

I always recommend buy a very good quality PSU and case! This is because they will be in your rig the longest and migrate to new rigs in the future, usually. They also both can allow for expansion of whatever rig you're using.
That being said a 600w is plenty of power, but will you ever plan on doing SLI or Crossfire? If so you might look into a 750W-850W size-ish, that is if budget allows.

One thing you might ask him is how long he's had it and if he OC'd the 920. They are fairly resilient chips and can handle it, but if the as a cruddy cooler on it then i'm not sure how much time it has left in it. Also depending on what cooler it has you might look into the Swifttech H220 or Corsair H100i.
Click to expand...

Hi, i have no doubt my colleague took care of the rig. It's spent its life as a Hackintosh and was bought 2-3 years ago when Sandybridge was just coming into fruition. The stock cooler was replaced with a "large aftermarket cooler" that he's throwing in as the stock cooler was too noisey.

Interestingly i know the virtues of a good case. Back in 2000 i got my first PC and Advent (something). That case is still in use, by my dad, at my family home. It's an absolute tank, made of thick steel and it'll no doubt soldier on for a good while to come and i'm keen to do the same again. I've been lead to believe that Silverstone cases are very well made, and i like the quirky 90deg motherboard position of the FT02. I've also toyed with the idea of a Lian Li as they're meant to be made of good materials?

However based on the suggestions of the chaps here i've been investigating NZXT and Fractal Designs. I really like the look of the NZXT H630 Silent Ultra case, but that doesn't seem to be available. (Looks clean and tidy, plus tonnes of upgrade options in the future)

With regards to PSUs i'm tempted at some point to pick up a cheap 6870 and crossfire them. Purely because i've never ran a pair of cards before! Hence, given the excellent value of my bundle, i'm contemplating going for something with a little more juice? Perhaps the:

Corsair Professional Series HX 850w or HX 750w?

Any more PSU suggestions?

Any more Case Suggestions?

Thank you for everybodies continued advice.
 
Xfire 6870s? Better off getting a single more powerful card and many of us here will recommend that as well. A 650watt would be able to power that fine. Seasonic/Corsair/Kingwin/and Silverstone are all quality brands.

Case depends on the functions you require. Since you want to watercool(according to your first post) then it depends on what exactly you plan to watercool.
 
NeverBackDown said:
Xfire 6870s? Better off getting a single more powerful card and many of us here will recommend that as well. A 650watt would be able to power that fine. Seasonic/Corsair/Kingwin/and Silverstone are all quality brands.

Case depends on the functions you require. Since you want to watercool(according to your first post) then it depends on what exactly you plan to watercool.
Click to expand...

I suspected it might be a bit of a lost cause running two HD6870's

I definitely want to do a proper water cooling loop at some point. CPU and GPU. I watercooled my second ever build in about 2006/7 and i remember it being a lot of fun, just uni and other things meant that lugging a laptop around was MUCH easier for everything!
 
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