Hi, I've been agonising for the last few days over what sort of system to build and could do with some advise because I'm kind of struggling to find a middle ground between what I need versus what I want and getting the best balance of power for £.
My current rig (so you know where I'm coming from) is as follows:
Intel Q6600 oc'd to 3.0ghz
Asus P5K Premium
4gb OCZ Reaper PC2-6400
Asus GTX560Ti (not OC'd)
OCZ Agility 3 120gb SSD
Random 750gb HD
That pretty much covers off the important stuff. The processor, ram etc are all getting a bit long in the tooth now and the GPU is a long way off cutting edge but it currently does alright for what I use it for - BF3, Starcraft 2, Diablo etc but I have to cut back on some of the quality settings for newer FPS etc so I'm looking at upgrading to build a better gaming rig. I don't really do any photo or video editing although having the grunt to do it should I get the sudden urge appeals. I'm also not 100% averse to being a bit of a tackle tart - I like shiny things and to an extent bragging rights (childish I know) but I don't have money to burn.
The build I'm considering at the goes as follows:
i7 4770k
8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Pro PC3-19200 (2400)
and that's pretty much as far as I've got. Just to quickly explain my CPU choice - I know that from a gaming point of view the 4670k is better value but I kind of want the top Haswell (i want it to game well and the the whore in me wants it to benchmark well) and I figure that as games start to become more multi-threaded that the hyper threading might be useful. Also as you can tell from my existing rig I'm not exactly a regular upgrader so getting the i7 makes sense to me from a longevity point of view. Am I being daft?
The big choice for me is coming down to the motherboard. I'd pretty much decided on the Asus Maximus VI Formula but then I watched the OC3D review of the Z87 G1.Sniper. That would save me over £100 on the Formula - I'm unlikely to use the RamDisk function, they both have above average onboard sound solutions and they both overclock well - given the luck of the draw on Haswells it seems daft to worry too much about how much I can overclock in case I get a poor chip. Whilst watercooling appeals I'm unlikely to ever build a custom loop, an H100i is probably as far as I'd go so the water option on the Maximus is redundant. It seems to pretty much boil down to the fact that I like the look of the Maximus better but when it comes down to it it's going to be stuck inside a case and I'm hardly ever going to see it. What do people reckon?
GPU-wise I'm doing the build in stages - I want to get the system up and running on my 560Ti to start with and then I plan to get something along the lines of a GTX770 once my wallets recovered from the initial outlay.
I'm looking at a Dark Rock Pro 3 cooler as air seems simpler and intend to put it all in a Fractal R4 which (I think - please correct me if I'm wrong) I could put an H100i in at a later date if I change my mind about water.
What do people reckon - any obvious issues? Suggestions and advice will be gratefully received!
My current rig (so you know where I'm coming from) is as follows:
Intel Q6600 oc'd to 3.0ghz
Asus P5K Premium
4gb OCZ Reaper PC2-6400
Asus GTX560Ti (not OC'd)
OCZ Agility 3 120gb SSD
Random 750gb HD
That pretty much covers off the important stuff. The processor, ram etc are all getting a bit long in the tooth now and the GPU is a long way off cutting edge but it currently does alright for what I use it for - BF3, Starcraft 2, Diablo etc but I have to cut back on some of the quality settings for newer FPS etc so I'm looking at upgrading to build a better gaming rig. I don't really do any photo or video editing although having the grunt to do it should I get the sudden urge appeals. I'm also not 100% averse to being a bit of a tackle tart - I like shiny things and to an extent bragging rights (childish I know) but I don't have money to burn.
The build I'm considering at the goes as follows:
i7 4770k
8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Pro PC3-19200 (2400)
and that's pretty much as far as I've got. Just to quickly explain my CPU choice - I know that from a gaming point of view the 4670k is better value but I kind of want the top Haswell (i want it to game well and the the whore in me wants it to benchmark well) and I figure that as games start to become more multi-threaded that the hyper threading might be useful. Also as you can tell from my existing rig I'm not exactly a regular upgrader so getting the i7 makes sense to me from a longevity point of view. Am I being daft?
The big choice for me is coming down to the motherboard. I'd pretty much decided on the Asus Maximus VI Formula but then I watched the OC3D review of the Z87 G1.Sniper. That would save me over £100 on the Formula - I'm unlikely to use the RamDisk function, they both have above average onboard sound solutions and they both overclock well - given the luck of the draw on Haswells it seems daft to worry too much about how much I can overclock in case I get a poor chip. Whilst watercooling appeals I'm unlikely to ever build a custom loop, an H100i is probably as far as I'd go so the water option on the Maximus is redundant. It seems to pretty much boil down to the fact that I like the look of the Maximus better but when it comes down to it it's going to be stuck inside a case and I'm hardly ever going to see it. What do people reckon?
GPU-wise I'm doing the build in stages - I want to get the system up and running on my 560Ti to start with and then I plan to get something along the lines of a GTX770 once my wallets recovered from the initial outlay.
I'm looking at a Dark Rock Pro 3 cooler as air seems simpler and intend to put it all in a Fractal R4 which (I think - please correct me if I'm wrong) I could put an H100i in at a later date if I change my mind about water.
What do people reckon - any obvious issues? Suggestions and advice will be gratefully received!
.
