New rig - Advice would be greatly Welcomed!

[Ozydious]

Hey guys,

Firstly, I'm new here... so hi!

I'm not great at writing these things so let me just get to the point; The rig I have at the moment is pretty good... no complaints really, but I would like something new. I was inspired after the Bitfenix Prodigy was reviewed by TTL and I realised that it would be really cool to have a new rig for the next Insomnia.

Anyway, I'm not too sure on the specs, and I would like to reduce the cost of the rig but I have literally no clue about these things, my knowledge as far as hardware is concerned is somewhat limited and I largely go on the advice of one of my friends (also on this forum). Here are the specs I'm thinking of:

Bitfenix Prodigy

Intel i53570k

Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe

8Gb Mushkin Enhanced Blackline Frostbyte (single module)

Gigabyte WindForce Radeon HD 7850 OC 2048Mb GDDR5 PCI-Express

Crucial M4 7mm 64Gb SSD

Already have a 1Tb HDD from my current rig which I'll be putting into the new one (hopefully)

No idea about PSU - they all look the same to me

Corsair Hydro Series H100

That's about it I guess....

So yeah, any advice would be very welcomed as I am pretty much clueless... I've picked these parts based on my very feeble knowledge. Thanks for the help!

- Oz

 

[seumasbeathan]

I would really not recommend using 1 8gb module

 

[seumasbeathan]

I would really not recommend using 1 8gb module

And from looking at your current specs really the only thing that needs upgraded is the graphics card, ditch the cpu and mobo and get a 670

 

[WillSK]

I would really not recommend using 1 8gb module

+1 Ram is generally good value nowadays may as well go for 16GB if you can. Or stick with 2 4gb modules

 

[Josh Weston]

Sounds like a solid build to me. An AX650 should be a good choice for this rig.

 

[Ozydious]

I would really not recommend using 1 8gb module

I would really not recommend using 1 8gb module

Just out of curiosity, what's wrong with one module? Was thinking that it would leave the other DIMM slot open for when I want to upgrade at some point.

 

[alicarve]

I'm building a similar build except I will be getting 2x4gb corsair vengeance lp white ram and using an old gtx460.

PSU wise i would advise a modular one due to the small case something like corsairs ax650

 

[Ozydious]

And from looking at your current specs really the only thing that needs upgraded is the graphics card, ditch the cpu and mobo and get a 670

sorry about the double quote earlier, it keeps on doing that for some reason...

Anyway, that would be a lot cheaper but I bought the rig off of a mate earlier in the year and it would just be nice to build one from scratch this time, especially with Insomnia coming up soon.

 

[Jadarite]

You can only use the H100 if your not going to fit an optical drive other wise use the H80 or better yet use a noctua NH-D14 and as your only going to be using one graphics card i would suggest that you get a gtx670 over clocked that way all you will need is a corsair AX650 psu, hope this is of some help to you

Oh and 8GB of Crucial Tactical Tracer 1600MHz ram (BLT2CP4G3D1608DT2TXOBCEU)

 

[Ozydious]

You can only use the H100 if your not going to fit an optical drive other wise use the H80 or better yet use a noctua NH-D14 and as your only going to be using one graphics card i would suggest that you get a gtx670 over clocked that way all you will need is a corsair AX650, hope this is of some help to you

I don't really want an optical drive to be fair. I mean I hardly use my current one as it is apart from the occasional game; and I have an external one for when there is absolutely no other option. But it might be worth going for the H80 anyway, then I can always add an optical drive later if I changed my mind. I'll definitely give that card a look, thanks! Out of interest, these cards won't power 3 screens properly by themselves will they?

 

[Ozydious]

Sounds like a solid build to me. An AX650 should be a good choice for this rig.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I was really hoping to spend a lot less on a PSU - somewhere in the region of about £60 is roughly within my budget

 

[Josh Weston]

To be honest, for a LAN rig, I think the 7850 is just perfect. The performance per £ is great, and it's enough for playing pretty much everything.

 

[PetrolHead247]

To be honest, for a LAN rig, I think the 7850 is just perfect. The performance per £ is great, and it's enough for playing pretty much everything.

This, the 7950 is a great little card. Get 2x4GB of RAM and your good to go

EDIT: Just realised there's no PSU. Seeing as your going with an ITX build a modular power supply will be a godsend, a non-modular unit will be a nightmare. Something like a HX650 or a Be Quiet E9-CM 580W would be awesome

 

[wotevajjjj]

Just out of curiosity, what's wrong with one module? Was thinking that it would leave the other DIMM slot open for when I want to upgrade at some point.

If u only use 1 stick your ram is only single channel. IB cpu really benefit from good ram so you really need double channel to get all the bandwidth

 

[Jadarite]

I don't really want an optical drive to be fair. I mean I hardly use my current one as it is apart from the occasional game; and I have an external one for when there is absolutely no other option. But it might be worth going for the H80 anyway, then I can always add an optical drive later if I changed my mind. I'll definitely give that card a look, thanks! Out of interest, these cards won't power 3 screens properly by themselves will they?

The 670's can run 3 monitors but you can only watch one monitor in 3d or three monitors in 2d and with the 670 you will be able to use pci-e 3.0 as you planing to get a 3570K

 

[Ozydious]

If u only use 1 stick your ram is only single channel. IB cpu really benefit from good ram so you really need double channel to get all the bandwidth

Thanks man, makes sense now. I don't think I'll go the whole hog and go for 16Gb, seems like overkill to me. I'll probably end up getting the same ram but in 2 modules.

 

[Ozydious]

The 670's can run 3 monitors but you can only watch one monitor in 3d or three monitors in 2d and with the 670 you will be able to use pci-e 3.0 as you planing to get a 3570K

But what about frame rates? Don't they drop significantly?

 

[Ozydious]

This, the 7950 is a great little card. Get 2x4GB of RAM and your good to go

EDIT: Just realised there's no PSU. Seeing as your going with an ITX build a modular power supply will be a godsend, a non-modular unit will be a nightmare. Something like a HX650 or a Be Quiet E9-CM 580W would be awesome

Thanks man, but aren't those PSUs like over £100? Isn't there something cheaper that I could get away with?

 

[Ozydious]

To be honest, for a LAN rig, I think the 7850 is just perfect. The performance per £ is great, and it's enough for playing pretty much everything.

Exactly how I feel man, My 5770 does the job as it is, I kind of feel that the 7850 might even be overkill... But then again, the quality of games is increasing quite rapidly and I would like something which could last me a little while. Shame mITX won't support dual graphics cards, otherwise I'd definitely be doing some crossfire/SLI.

 

[PetrolHead247]

Thanks man, but aren't those PSUs like over £100? Isn't there something cheaper that I could get away with?

The Be Quiet is £70 and is a great unit. Remember, never skimp out on a PSU, if you do you'll regret it in the future when it goes 'pop' and takes the rest of your components with it