Build Advice Proposed first gaming build! Input appreciated! **BUILD UPDATED!**

Hi Guys

Having digested several hours of internet reviews, and with the help of a techy friend, this is my proposed build.

http://www.scan.co.uk/savedbasket/8b343452d65a441d8faf5b5d2bd77882

I would really appreciate any input from you guys, as I am taking a fair bit of advice from my mate regarding specific parts and after all, he's only one person so he may very well be wrong on some parts!

Thanks in advance!

 

He has picked out pretty good parts, the power supply is something you have to get right and corsair are usually pretty reliable. The only thing I would change is the ssd as the sandisk is asynchronous nand which essentially doesn't last as long as synchronous. Something like the ones below are more expensive but will last longer and be a bit quicker too:

ocz vertex 4
ocz vector
samsung 840 pro
or the samsung 830 series but that is quite rare now as it has been replaced by the 840 / 840 pro.

The other option is to upgrade to a bigger ssd as it is a pain in the backside having to decide what stays and what gets put on the hdd once it is full and 128gb is common for most mainstream pcs and judging by the rest of your basket yours will be quite high performance.

 

Thanks for the reply.

One thing that has been suggested is to shave money off the case and motherboard and get a 670 instead of the 7950.

What's people's thoughts on that? GPU's are a bit of a mystery to me!

 

The case is pretty minimum in my book. Getting lower end is where you reach a level that you will not be happy with your purchase, as Fractal Design case are really best for the bucks, and also has really nice look.

Also, you do know that your HDD that you pick is 5400RPM...
Just saying... these drive are designed for backups not general computer usage... if you use it as general computer usage your computer will feel very slow.

Of course if you get a 128/256GB SSD, where you put all your games and program and OS on it, and only put data on your W.D Green drive, then you are good to go.


Also, I am noticing that you are missing Windows. Do you already have a copy of Windows?

 

Argh. I didn't even notice that was a 5400 drive! Lol that'll be getting changes, thanks!

Yeah I have a copy of windows already so I'm sorted for an OS.

I don't really want to scrimp on anything really. Is that 7950 I've picked a decent enough card for the likes of BF3 type of games?

 

Double post!

 

Unless I'm missing something, you're spending a bit too much on the motherboard. I can't see any important features it's offering you that you cant get for a bundle less with this.

Based on your choice of CPU I'm guessing you plan to overclock. The i30 is a decent cooler, but if you plan on running at 4.5Ghz you may wish to invest in something with a bit more bulk to it. I don't know what's best for your money right now, so I'll leave those recommendations to others.

other than that the build looks rather good.

 

The 7950 will handle BF3 without breaking a sweat. assuming you aren't trying to run 3 30" monitors. IDK what monitor you are looking to use, but given your price bracket i assume it is 1920x1080 or less, so if anything the 7950 is over-kill, but that just means you won't need to replace it for a while.

What are you planning with the wifi adapter? I hope you don't plan to spend almost a thousand on this box and then hook up over wireless.

 

On the ASUS one:
- No eSATA
- Waaaaay too few USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports
- No dual BIOS/UEFI recovery
- doesn't look as good
- no debug LED indicator
- no 90 degree SATA port
- terrible location of SATA port
- only 6 power phase.
- Gigabyte has higher quality components, ASUS only has the solid capacitor on its side.

The only upside on the ASUS board (in terms of features): is that it has the ability to instant boot into Windows 8 (requires a GOP ready graphic card)
Gigabyte board has a reputation of having the computer boot slowly. While they got better, it's still slow compared to ASUS and select ASRock boards.

 

I admit that the gigabyte board has more features, but I hardly find the asus board lacking.

- I've never needed an eSATA port in my life, nothing uses them.
- look at the bottom of the board just below the 3rd PCI slot, the board has a ton of headers, 1 3.0 and 3 2.0's, and they include PCI slot hook-ups for all of them, though presumably the case has some 3.0 ports in front that can be hooked up. I don't think 10 2.0 ports and 4 3.0 ports is too few.
- solid point about the BIOS, but it doesn't seem like a feature worth paying the premium for, it just doesn't come up much if you're not benching.
- ditto for the debug LED
- I have this boards Z68 equivalent, same SATA port layout, nothing wrong with it in my book, and I'm plugging in 6 drives. SATA cables are really flexible, and usually longer than necessary.
- the power system is just fine, I ran my 2500k at 5.2Ghz on air with "only" 6 phases

I'm not trying to argue that the ASUS board is superior, I just don't think any of the features the gigabyte board offers over it are worth paying for. ASUS has a great reputation for motherboards, and it's about £50 cheaper, seems like money worth saving to me.

 

eSATA is very useful if you want a super fast external HDD or SSD. I have one. Excellent for backup drive too.

As for the USB ports.. I look at the back and I count 4. 2x USB 2.0 and 2x USB 3.0. If it means installing so much USB PCI bracket or need to buy extra... not worth the trouble to be honest.. at least to me.

The dual BIOS/UEFI thing from Gigabyte is in the case you update the BIOS/UEFI it screws up (which is not a rare thing), it will recover it from the backup chip, if your system doesn't POST anymore. This saves you from shipping the board back to the manufacture for them to flash it, or get sent a refurbished board (sucks when your board is fairly new).

Gigabyte boards are always more expensive, but they do deliver on warranty and well to be honest, over the top high build quality.

 

I can see where eSATA would be helpful, but most people don't use external drives enough to really justify it. Some do, but unless he has a specific intention to get a eSATA drive i don't think it's really part of the equation.

you are simply missing 2 USB 2.0 ports, there's a pair on the far left next to the PS/2 and another pair next to the 3.0 ports. it has exactly as many USB ports as the Gigabyte board, albeit with fewer 3.0 ports, but 4 ports is plenty for a standard that hasn't caught on at all yet.

Dual BIOS is a nice feature, but it only comes up as often as your BIOS update fails, which may not be rare, but it isn't exactly common, I have personally never seen a bios update fail. it's a feature I consider valuable, but it isn't worth £50.

The point I'm trying to make here isn't that ASUS makes better boards than Gigabyte (though I do have some brand loyalty to them, that's why I suggested to board I did). I'm saying that he can get a perfectly good board for £50 less. There are gigabyte brand boards in the exact same price bracket as the board I linked to, I chose the ASUS board because I have had nothing but good experiences with them, and its rated as one of the best in its price range. If SpyderBombz wants to save £50 you won't find any reasonable person saying the ASUS board is a bad idea. If he likes the features the Gigabyte board offers and is willing to pay for them, then he should get it.

 

Yeah I'll be using a 22" display at 1920x1080 for the foreseeable future, but I want to future proof as much as possible, hence going for a powerful card.

The wifi adaptor is just for daily browsing etc. Ill be gaming over a wire, but because of where the computer will be located in relation to the router, and also given that there will be three small children running around, it's not practical for me to wire it all the time. Ill not have time to game when they're awake anyway....!

 

Also, the main appeal of that motherboard was the resettable bios and debug. If there's any other with this feature people would recommend I'm open to suggestions!

 

I agree that the motherboard is a bit expensive. Personally I can't justify paying £50 for a resettable BIOS (though YMMV). What about the GA-Z77-D3H or the GA-Z77X-D3H? Asus offers a 2-year warranty while Gigabyte offers 3 years, so reliability is not an issue.

Grab low-profile RAM to avoid any issues with CPU coolers.

Check out the Seasonic G series. You can get the G-550 for £70. It's an 80 Plus Gold unit so it has better efficiency.

Other than that, looks pretty good.

 

USB 3.0 hasn't caught on yet? Erm, sorry but you're wrong.

Just because a lot of people have perfectly working USB 2.0 drives and haven't replaced them doesn't mean that USB 3.0 hasn't 'caught on'.

It's certainly caught on with manufacturers of hardware and purchases of new hardware... which is kind of everyone really.

 

Well, I don't want to get into a silly debate over the precise meaning of "Caught on" but in my eyes, when I go to the local tech shop and look at an entire aisle of USB drives while seeing less than a dozen 3.0 devices I would say it hasn't "caught on" yet. It's the new standard for sure, but it still represents a very small percentage of the things you are likely to plug into a computer right now. This time next year it will probably be quite a bit more popular, but even then 4 ports should be plenty, it's not like you need to connect your mouse, keyboard, and mic to 3.0 ports.

@SpyderBombz: the 7950 is one of the beefier cards on the market, it should run games beautifully for a good while.

If I were building a new rig right now at the same price point as yours I would get a cheaper board and dump the money saved into a better SSD or PSU. But that's me, if you think the dual bios is worth it, that's a reasonable call. Just realize that the dual bios is protection against something that is far from common, and the debug indicators are only going to help when something breaks.

 

I guess the desire for the dual bios comes from my paranoia as a first time builder! Can I ask what boards you would suggest I look at? Cheers!

 

What would you guys say about this motherboard? I've heard some good things about Asrock and this seems to fit the bill nicely.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asro...1155-ddr3-sata-iii-6gb-s-d-sub-dvi-d-hdmi-atx

Oh, and I definately agree, change for the low profile RAM, it will save a lot of headaches later.

 

I have an ASRock B75 board in one system and it's excellent, but I've never heard of anyone who has an ASRock Z77 board.