Medium Budget Gaming build

Nope but I remember Seib mentioning something like this - I never found a place to get the keys from until now. You sir are awesome!
 
This 7950 looks like a decent alternative to a 670 for about £80 less.

It will be about 10% slower than the MSI 670 PE at stock but this hasn't really got a overclock on it and I know there are a few hundred MHz left to play with. What do you guys reckon?

I've ordered the case, mobo, RAM, CPU and cooler - all still on super specials.
 
As I've owned both the 670 and 7950 - I can say they are both very good cards - and while overclocked, both will max out 60fps on pretty much any game.
I suffered from massive cap whine on mine though - but only got rid of it because the cooler was too loud (reference version)
 
Yea I've had cap whine issues with mine once I started overvolting (but this seems to have gone since I put watercooling on them).

Just to be sure I ran a quick game of BF3, 64 player Caspain Border on Ultra at 1080p. I ran with my usual turbo'd 3570K @ 4.4GHz and a single 7950 clocked to 1060/1575 on stock volts (which is similar to what I will do for him). This is what I recorded:

UGK1w.png


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I think that's a goer really. Will be fine for anything he is likely to throw at it.
 
The BeQuiet! PSUs are actually made by Silverstone, aren't they (or they share the same OEM manufacturer)? Pretty sure I read that somewhere.

Probably going to get crucified for this but hey-ho. Have you considered, if you're trying to save money, going for a FX 4100 CPU? All I know is that with a single 7850 (@800MHz) with that chip at 4Ghz, it's run everything I've thrown at it with more than playable framerates at max settings and resolution. Tried Skyrim, Deus Ex: HR... don't have any of the usual benchmark games to try it, in fairness. Got over 2000 in Unigene Heaven, though.

You know... if you're looking to save money, just... I'll be hiding over there somewhere.
 
Well you are right but his budget is plenty to throw in a 3570K. If it was more like £600 then I'd be looking at an AMD or i3 solution with a 7850.

Yea I get confused about PSU branding too. I think there's a list on here somewhere but I'm not sure how up to date it is. In any case there's a nice deal on a corsair cx500 v2. It's got 408w on the 12v rail which will be plenty for this setup. The sleeving is nice too and although it's not modular I'll be basically using all the cables anyway. Doesn't give room for expansion but for a single card setup like this it's basically perfect.
 
Kanped said:
The BeQuiet! PSUs are actually made by Silverstone, aren't they (or they share the same OEM manufacturer)? Pretty sure I read that somewhere.
Click to expand...

It probably is - I'm not doubting the quality of the BeQuiet! PSUs - I just personally couldnt go without a fully modular psu now - so I'd still be choosing the silverstone over the bequiet just for that
 
Yea I'm using a semi at the moment for my rig but I'll be defo getting a fully modular when I replace it. Would be nice to not have cables hanging around in the back. Having said that this corsair builder will make for a nice build. In fact this is going to be neater than mine lol (water cooling and fan cables everywhere!). I'll probably make a build log for this one because I can see it being a really nice and clean build.

Aria have dispatched the stuff now. I made some slight changes to the final specs based on what deals they had on at the time:

Case: AeroCool Sixth Element (White)
Mobo: MSI Z77A-GD55
CPU: 3570K
Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro
RAM: GeiL Black Dragon 8GB 2133MHz (was only ~£4 more than the 1600MHz)
SSD: Crucial m4 128GB w/2.5" bracket
HDD: 500GB Western Digital Caviar Blue (he didn't want much space and this is very reliable)
GPU: PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD 7950 OC
PSU: 500W Corsair Builder Series 500CX V2

Other: 2x Startech.com 5.25" to 3.5" adapters from Amazon (he didn't need an optical so I'm going to mount the SSD/HDD in the optical bay and remove the two 3.5" bays).

I got most of it on super specials which means that by the time I've delivered it to him it's going to be well under the £1100 I'd quoted. Happy days!

I guess that's it until it all arrives next week. Thanks for your help guys - it's nice having second, third and fourth opinions. Much appreciated!
 
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Seems like a really solid build for a great price, considering the GPU. Only thing I'd change if it was for me is the case (fan mounts on the window and it looks kinda 'bumpy' for my tastes but that's all personal preference and your man knows what he wants). Really hope you do a build log, I'd like to see this all come together.

EDIT: Oh, when you get the Dark Rock; is the logo on the top-plate just a sticker that you can easily remove and is it viable to paint the caps on the plate?
 
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I think the logo is actually formed on the plate judging by the images I've seen. I'm not exactly sure what is possible with it - I was hoping I'd have a choice of orientation but I don't really know.

I can't wait to build this pc. I think the case looks gorgeous, although the windowed fan grills would be the one thing I'd change, but having said that they actually fit in well enough with the design for me. I won't be putting fans on those grills by the way.

I'm also looking forwards to playing with the GPU - by all accounts it's good looking cooler with a good quality feel to it and performs very well too. The price is awesome - I remember when these came out at like £300+!
 
Master&Puppet said:
Yea I'm using a semi at the moment for my rig but I'll be defo getting a fully modular when I replace it. Would be nice to not have cables hanging around in the back. Having said that this corsair builder will make for a nice build. In fact this is going to be neater than mine lol (water cooling and fan cables everywhere!). I'll probably make a build log for this one because I can see it being a really nice and clean build.

Aria have dispatched the stuff now. I made some slight changes to the final specs based on what deals they had on at the time:

Case: AeroCool Sixth Element (White)
Mobo: MSI Z77A-GD55
CPU: 3570K
Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro
RAM: GeiL Black Dragon 8GB 2133MHz (was only ~£4 more than the 1600MHz)
SSD: Crucial m4 128GB w/2.5" bracket
HDD: 500GB Western Digital Caviar Blue (he didn't want much space and this is very reliable)
GPU: PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD 7950 OC
PSU: 500W Corsair Builder Series 500CX V2

Other: 2x Startech.com 5.25" to 3.5" adapters from Amazon (he didn't need an optical so I'm going to mount the SSD/HDD in the optical bay and remove the two 3.5" bays).

I got most of it on super specials which means that by the time I've delivered it to him it's going to be well under the £1100 I'd quoted. Happy days!

I guess that's it until it all arrives next week. Thanks for your help guys - it's nice having second, third and fourth opinions. Much appreciated!
Click to expand...
Looked up on Aria how the hell is that RAM so cheap? Decent latencies and 1.5v for that price is an amazing deal.
 
Master&Puppet said:
I think the logo is actually formed on the plate judging by the images I've seen. I'm not exactly sure what is possible with it - I was hoping I'd have a choice of orientation but I don't really know.
Click to expand...

I remember TTL on the original Dark Rock Pro (not version 2) had an OC3D sticker over where the logo was but they might have changed it for v2 (it does look formed on the metal to me, too). I was hoping to do something similar with my little hornet logo over there <. Guess I could dremel/sand it if it really comes to that. Let us know when you get it, sure. Have fun!
 
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