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Help on a rig

R

Rageful

n00b
Joined
Apr 3, 2012
Messages
11
Addressing the 10 posting criteria:
Hey all I'm building a PC for competitive (e-sport leagues) gaming and for music editing, planning on using ComputerPlanet for it, I know it's kind of cheating but it is convienient. I live in the UK. well I have yet to get any parts (they will build and send it) but I would really appreciate help. I don't intend to OC it and the monitor will be 1900x1200, 23''. I plan on ordering this Friday if possible as my current one is dying. No parts will be re used and I am getting an OS with it.

(Really not a hardware guy myself :/)

Case: NZXT Phantom Enthusiast /or/ Cooler Master Storm Enforcer
CPU: i5 2500k
CPU heatsink: Corsair A50 / Arcitic cooler 7 / Arctic cooler 13
RAM: Corsair 16GB PC3-12800 1600 MHz (4x4GB)
Graphics: 2GB Point of View GTX 560 Ti Ultra Charged, 4224MHz GDDR5, GPU 911MHz, Shader 1822MHz, DVI/HDMI /or/ ATI Radeon HD 6970 - 2 GB (XFX)
Mobo: Asus P8Z68-V LX (Intel Z68)
PSU: Cooler Master 750W PSU
Hard drive #1: 90GB OCZ Agility 3 SSD SATA-III, Read 525MB/s, Write 500MB/s - Silent
Hard drive #2: 1 TB (1000 GB) SATA-III HDD 7200 RPM 32MB

(Because on my current pc these are so bad/ non existant I plan to get):

Sound card: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 (PCI)
Networking: Edimax Wireless LAN 300Mbps (PCI-E)
Monitor: 23" HD LED Widescreen TFT - Black - 5 MS
Optical drive: Samsung 22x DVD Re-Writer/Reader /- RW- Black - (SATA) (not that bothered with blue ray don't watch dvd's)
Speakers: Logitech X-140 2.0 Stereo Speakers - Black
Keyboard: Razer blackwidow (any other mechanical suggestions would be awesome)

Any help would be greatly appreciated :) it's currently at

System Total (Ex Vat): £1,189.12
Vat: £ 237.82
Grand Total Inc Vat: £1,426.95

I think realistically £1,250 Ex Vat is my budget :),

Thanks all

Link to current build: http://www.computerplanet.co.uk/custom-pc-quote.php?id=167152
 
1) Since you're not overclocking, don't bother with the 2500K: You can drop down to the Core i5 2400 and get the same stock performance.
2) Ditch the PSU because it's of extremely low quality. Go for the Corsair TX650 V2 650W PSU.
3) Ditch the SSD as it's also of low quality. Go for the Crucial M4 64GB or Crucial M4 128GB if you want a reliable SSD.
4) Go for the HD 6970 2GB or the HD 7870 if it's the same price.
5) Out of the three heatsink choices, I'd go with the Corsair A50
6) Can you list the EXACT RAM you're going with?

So no chance of you waiting another month or so for Intel's new CPUs to come out?
 
Give us an indication as to which games you'll play most often on your system. That information will help us determine whether or not the GTX 560 Ti is enough for your needs. (Does Computer Planet sell the 448 Core version of the GTX 560 Ti?)

Since you're not overclocking, there is no need for the i5-2500K or the third-party CPU cooler. You can replace the i5-2500K with the i4-2400 (and stick with the stock Intel HSF) with no noticeable performance loss, as most games are still largely GPU-dependent. Additionally, you only need an 8GB dual-channel (2x4GB) DDR3 1333 kit for RAM. That should be considerably cheaper than the 4x4GB set you're considering.

Please tell us which features you need on your motherboard. It's the only one of the ten sticky questions that you didn't sufficiently answer. With Ivy Bridge just around the corner, you may want to consider looking for a "GEN3" board that has PCI Express 3.0 support (when used with an Ivy Bridge processor, which has the PCI-E controller embedded within).

The SSD and power supply are bad choices for the money. On the SSD front, we recommend either the Crucial M4 or the Samsung 830 series SSDs. Try to grab a 128GB model, if you can afford one. As for the PSU, go for one of the Antec HCG or Corsair TX/HX V2 series.

What's the brand and model of the hard drive? Do you have a link to the wireless adapter you're considering?

Audigy SE? I don't believe that it will provide a significant improvement on the sound over the onboard audio chip. And Logitech speakers? How serious are you about your music?

Stick with Windows 7 Home Premium for the operating system. There's no need for you to go with Professional or Ultimate.
 
Well on the overclocking side I'm not really sure if I will or won't yet, still running on a pentium dual core with awful cooling so never thought about it.

The idea of going for 16gb ram rather than 8gb was it is only £25 more and it kinda future proofs the system?

Motherboard I really don't know about as I said this will be my first custom rig :/

The hard drive: http://www.computerplanet.co.uk/products/1-tb-1000-gb-sata-iii-hdd-7200-rpm-32mb-16519.html no bran listed at all o_e

Sound: I am not really planning on using the speakers at all, and definitly not for any editing. I use one of my headsets most of the time.

Games: Tribes:Ascend, Gw2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive are the ones I will be playing at a high level so really need to handle well, the SSD is mainly for Gw2 loading, which do make a big differance.

In theory I could wait another month but my computer is just starting to fail at everything if it can hold out I can try and wait I suppose....

No comments on the choice of the two cases?
 
Rageful said:
Well on the overclocking side I'm not really sure if I will or won't yet, still running on a pentium dual core with awful cooling so never thought about it.
Click to expand...
Well time for you to figure whether or you're gonna OC or not. If overclocking, go for the 2500K. If not overclocking, go for the 2400.
Rageful said:
The idea of going for 16gb ram rather than 8gb was it is only £25 more and it kinda future proofs the system?
Click to expand...
RAM is cheap and if you can afford to get it, go for 16GB of RAM.
Rageful said:
The hard drive: http://www.computerplanet.co.uk/products/1-tb-1000-gb-sata-iii-hdd-7200-rpm-32mb-16519.html no bran listed at all o_e
Click to expand...
Hmm, specs matches that of this Seagate drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148697

It's an ok drive.

Rageful said:
No comments on the choice of the two cases?
Click to expand...
The Phantom is the better case as it's roomier and has better cable management.
 
If you are competitive gaming be sure to get a quality NIC card like a Intel EXPI9301CT £24. The Realtek 8111E LAN included on most budget motherboards is garbage.
 
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HI guys and thanks for all your help so far :)

I'm kind of wondering which graphics card people would recomend in general not just out of the selection I had in the sort of up to £250 cards? the 6970 is at £220 (I know I can clock the 6950 up)
(It's not that necessary but I'd like to max out Battlefield 3 if possible for that sort of price)

I think I'm going with the OC so will take 2500k

Is there any point looking at a corsair vengance 8gb over the 16gb? or looking at the 16gb vengance for a bit more?

Is this PSU any better?: http://www.computerplanet.co.uk/products/corsair-700w-gaming-psu-low-noise-2079778.html

On the hard drive side, 1 TB Seagate ST31000524AS Barracuda SATA-III 7200RPM, 32MB Cache, 8.5ms is listed as being £10 more than the one with no brand name so it's slightly confusing :/

In the same sort of price range of the Mobo they offer:
Asus P8Z68-V LX (Intel Z68)
Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3 (Intel Z68)
Gigabyte GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 (Intel Z68)
Asus P8H67-M PRO (Intel H67) - VGA
I really don't know anything about this part, but have the asus so went for the P8Z68-V LX so advice here would be really helpful :/

of the Crucial M4 and the Samsung 830 series SSD's is there much differance between the two?

Thanks for your help guys I am a complete moron at this, would order the parts and do it myself but don't feel very comfortable doing it, I am fine getting graphics cards from other places and installing myself but installing a processor I really wouldn't be comfortable with...
 
GPU wise, see if the HD 7870 is within that budget. Otherwise, the HD 6970 2GB is a good choice.

That PSU is better than the Coolermaster GX750 but it's not a good buy IMO. The Corsair TX650 V2 650W is of higher quality and offers more power on the +12V rail IIRC.

The RAM you've already selected is apparently 1.5V so you should be fine with that.

Mobo wise, stick with your original Asus choice.

SSD wise, stick with the Crucial as it has the slightly longer track record.
 
The problem is CP don't offer that PSU, you also can't buy one without a PSU. Which wouldn't be a problem if I knew what I was doing really :/

The PSU selection is also really limited off them (GS600, 700, 800 & a large amount of cooler master ones)

Could this rig run with the GS600?

I might go for the 7870 but I've been hearing a lot of "nvida drivers are better" and a fair few problems with radeon's from friends with them.

Which version of it would you suggest? Sapphire, XFX, VTX3D, Asus, Gigabyte all come up on dabs for about £80 more than the 6970

The crucial M4 probably pushes this slightly out of my budget, is it that significantly better than the OCz? (If I get the 6970 over the 7870 I can get the 128gb crucial m4)
 
Go for the GS700 or GS800 then.

Nvidia tends to have slightly better drivers and are a bit more on the ball with them. However the problem is if you're playing BF3 or Skyrim as current Nvidia cards only have 1GB to 1.5GB of VRAM whereas many AMD cards tends to have 2GB of VRAM. BF3 and Skyrim can use up a lot of VRAM if you crank up the settings or textures.

Go for Asus, Gigabyte, or MSI. Like I said, the HD 6970 is a good choice. Yes the Crucial M4 is that much better than the OCZ. So much better to the point that I'd recommend you drop the GPU down tot he HD 6970 to fit the Crucial. The OCZ is just not that good.
 
Well they are offering an OC'd 570 to 2.5gb
http://www.computerplanet.co.uk/products/nvidia-geforce-gtx-570-oc-2.5-gb-pov-pci-e-2090461.html would that change anything?

They also have a 2GB 560 TI as I linked earlier
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti - 2 GB - (PALIT) (PCI-E)
http://www.computerplanet.co.uk/products/nvidia-geforce-gtx-570-oc-2.5-gb-pov-pci-e-2090461.html

Would you still suggest the 6970 over it? The 560 is £40 cheaper amd the 570 £2, I might be being an idiot but I can't work out why it seems to have higher specs but I know specs aren't everything

Also the 6970 is at £220 for this version http://www.computerplanet.co.uk/pro...includes-battlefield-3-game-free-2073319.html is it better to look around for a sapphire version?

Thanks for the help should be ordering everything on friday :D
 
Rageful said:
Would you still suggest the 6970 over it? The 560 is £40 cheaper amd the 570 £2, I might be being an idiot but I can't work out why it seems to have higher specs but I know specs aren't everything
Click to expand...
Definitely not the GTX 560 TI but the 570 is a fine choice if it's £2 more.

Rageful said:
is it better to look around for a sapphire version?
Click to expand...

Never. Stick with XFX
 
What Danny said, the 570 is the better deal and stay clear from Sapphire.
 
Will I need to consider extra cooling for the 570 OC? I hear a lot of problems with it and it's £2.50 less, has 752Mhz core clock and 480 cores, 2.5GB Memory clock 3300Mhz Vram according to the specs

The 6970 has 880Mhz and 1536 cores but only 2GB vram memory clock 5500Mhz, I know this is just product specs but surely according to this the 6970 is a better choice? Been looking for reviews of the 570 online but only finding for the "beast 2.5gb" :/ planning on ordering tonight so really need help here :/

6970: http://www.computerplanet.co.uk/pro...includes-battlefield-3-game-free-2073319.html
570: http://www.computerplanet.co.uk/products/nvidia-geforce-gtx-570-oc-2.5-gb-pov-pci-e-2090461.html
 
You cannot compare video cards from different manufacturers on specs alone. It does not tell you ANYTHING about how two cards from DIFFERENT manufacturers will perform against one another, especially considering that the two manufacturers uses different technology. Hell it doesn't even work when you're comparing cards form the same manufacturer. It's like me saying that a 3.2 Ghz Pentium D CPU is gonna be faster than the 2.6Ghz Pentium G620 because the Pentium D is clocked higher.

So again, stick with the GTX 570.

The stock cooling should be fine if you chose a solid case for the PC.
 
To be honest I decided to change what I was doing a little, dropped computer planet and going to get some help from a tech to build it myself... (And I think I can get better for cheaper)

Looking at now:
i5 2500k
A50 cooling
Not sure about graphics card, considering 570 or 6970 but it's quite pricey :/. The 570 is much cheaper but it's started not 2.5GB version as well... Which manufactorer would I want for the 570? The only one I know of that I can't see there is point of view...
Corsair TX 650W V2
Crucial M4 128GB
Seagate 1TB Barracuda SATA 6Gb/s 64MB 7200RPM Hard
Windows home premium 64 bit
Intel Gigabit CT Desktop PCI Express Network Adapter
Asus P8Z68-V LX S1155 Intel Z68 DDR3 ATX
Corsair Vengeance 8GB blue (could upgrade to 16 not sure, 8 is £40, 16 is £73 so it might be worth it now)
Asus VS238H 23" Full HD LED Monitor - HDMI/DVI-D/VGA
Case: Cooler Master Storm Enforcer OR NZXT phantom enthusiast (Phantom case is great but it's quite a bit more expensive)

£1,081.38 (with 6970, before case as not sure between the two, and 8GB ram not 16GB)
£3.99 delivery
 
In that case:
  • Drop the A50 and go for the Coolermaster Hyper 212+ HSF instead.
  • GPU wise, if you can't find the GTX 570 2560MB for around the same price as the HD 6970, then go for the HD 6970 2GB or the HD 7870 if you can afford it.
  • Upgrade to 16GB of RAM if you can afford to as RAM prices have been going up a little every month.
  • Drop the Intel NIC and that Asus P8Z68-V LX mobo and go for the Asus P8Z68-V/GEN3 or Asus P8Z68-V Pro/GEN3. Both of those motherboards have Intel NICs already and are of higher quality than the Asus P8Z68-V LX. They don't cost that much more than the Intel NIC + Asus P8Z68-V LX combo you were planning.
  • Case wise, of those two choices, go for the NZXT Phantom hands down. The Coolermaster Storm Enforcer is a fairly cramped case.

However, here are some other cases to check out:
$85 - Corsair Carbide Series 300R ATX Case
$100 - Corsair Carbide Series 400R ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$118 - Corsair Carbide Series 500R ATX Case
$120 - Fractal Design Define R3 Arctic White ATX Case
$120 - Fractal Design Define R3 Silver Arrow ATX Case
$125 - Fractal Design Define R3 Black Pearl ATX Case
$120 - Lian Li PC-9F ATX Case
 
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Hm thanks for those I do like the Corsair carbide 500R

But newegg's review of the NZXT phantom is so good it's hard to say no to that,

But would other versions of the phantom fit (Is the full tower necessary?) because in my mind £100+ for a case is a bit much :/ but with delivery off the Corsair it's about the same price :/
 
Rageful said:
But would other versions of the phantom fit (Is the full tower necessary?) because in my mind £100+ for a case is a bit much :/ but with delivery off the Corsair it's about the same price :/
Click to expand...
The Phantom 410 is a bit of a cramped case IMO and so not really worth buying. I'd go for the NZXT Phantom.
 
Very last question I will ask you, thanks fo much for your help saved me around £250! :D

Is this monitor worth going for: Asus VS238H 23" Full HD LED?

Currently have a lame monitor, default dell from 6 years ago xD.
 
Hey as I was ordering they sent me a message saying they are now stocking XFX HD 7870's for £20 more than the 6970.
"XFX ATI Radeon 7870 1GHz 2GB PCI-Express 3.0 HDMI Core Edition"

(£269.98)

Reckon £20 is worth it? I can't see much differance between them :D

Gigabyte version £289
Asus £279
XFX £269
Sapphire £269
VTX3d £269
xfx 6970: £249.98


Additionally they now stock 570 2560mb for £299

And the 448 core 560 for £199...

Kind of tempted to go with 7870here, what do you think is best? :l

Realistically my budget the card is around £275 :D

Oh and the very last question I will ask in this build, ty for everything is, is that 650w PSU enough with the differant cards? :D
 
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Dunno if that's suppose to be a joke but yes the HD 7870 is worth the extra money. And yes a good 650W PSU is enough for that setup.
 
Bigger problem here is the manufactorer :/ I went online and found performance tests and it just said 7870 all the way :l you said no to sapphire before but from what I find people seem to find them awesome, do I want XFX, gigabyte, ASUS, VTX3D or Sapphire? :/ I've been using PNY and PoV gforce cards up till now :/

as I said sapphire is only £10 more than the 6970, but also has one at £20 more, in fact almost all except the Gigabyte are £20 more :l
 
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Rageful said:
you said no to sapphire before but from what I find people seem to find them awesome,
Click to expand...
Thats because people have low standards. They have relatively crappy customer support and short warranties. If you have low standards, then by all means go for Sapphire
Rageful said:
do I want XFX, gigabyte, ASUS, VTX3D or Sapphire? :/ I've been using PNY and PoV gforce cards up till now :/
Click to expand...

I'd go for Asus or Gigabyte. The XFX warranty is a bit wonky for the HD 7xxx series. With that said, I'd still take an XFX over a Sapphire.
 
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