Build Advice Anything Wrong With this?

Hi All,

My friend has thrown together a ring i've had a look and im happy its ok but i wanted to ask you lovely people if you can spot anything wrong with it at a glance?

Could you please give it a once over please?

http://www.scan.co.uk/savedbasket/c61df8dd92e0428587c9c23d6f8f3e5c

Edit 1 - *Note - There are 2 of everything, this is deliberate as are the 10 extention cords please ignore them

Cheers
Pub

 

The CPU and RAM seem overpowered. I'd get a Core i5 and 1600Mhz RAM and use the money saved to get a bigger SSD. Also you can get a 580 for cheaper than a 670, might be worth a look.

EDIT: With 20 posts, you can get free Scan shipping?

EDIT (again): You're using stock Intel cpu cooler?

 

Swap the SSD for a Samsung 830. Similar price. Better performance. Better reliability.
Personally I would go for a different case, but thats up to you regarding style etc.

You should get free delivery with Scan now that you've reached 20 posts here.

 

Thanks for the quick replies, I already have free shipping after attending an event with scan a couple of years back but thanks (the link was generated from my friends account)

As for the cooler, yeah he wants to go with the stock unless there are any problems that I / We can point out. Looking at it i cant see airflow being an issue with the components so it shouldnt be a problem

 

An alternative build:



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

I would say that you could get away with an i5 CPU and a lower powered psu as 850W is overkill for that set up as the 670 uses very little power (see bit-tech review)

If this rig is for mainly gaming there really isnt a need for 16gb of ram unless you are doing video editing or something similar, 8gb is more than enough for gaming.

 

You are thinking about buying an unlocked Ivybridge CPU, so will be overclocking. Ivybridge gets hot, so for any decent amount of overclocking you will want an aftermarket heatsink.

Any reason why that case and M-ATX?

 

Hi,

I'm the friend in question - thought I'd make myself an account on this forum since there is the possibility of free postage

Thoughts thus far...

This'll be a Ubuntu box mainly for games but also a little small time video editing. I'll also be fully virtualising Windows to play older DirectX games. So I thought a quad i7 would be handy for giving some cores to the VM. The RAM is already 1600Mhz as you suggested. Would you say still swap to an i5?

Any harm in that?

The Samsung SSD's seem to have much slower write speeds... also they're all on pre-order. Why is it better performance/reliability?

Few bits...
- I prefer Gigabyte boards as I barely ever have any Linux compatibility issues with them and the one I picked comes with an integrated Creative sound chip. Any reason for your board?
- Why a non Intel heatsink/fan?
- PSU is different I'm guessing so you can use those short cables?
- Have stated i5 vs i7 above - still think i5?

 

The case is down to my friends personal pref, he wanted a small case to keep out of the way.

Im not sure if my friend wants to over-clock it or not I assued he does at some point in the future because of the unlocked cpu but at the moment i think he's happy not to touch it. As for the ram, i know he uses a lot of virtual machines so ive assumed it's for that,

I'll need to ask to clarify, although he is registering for an account to post here now anyway so im sure he'll correct me / add to this thread

 

What are you hoping to run to warrant 2GB Gigabyte GTX 670, 16gb memory and 850w?
It's all fine but perhaps buffing the price a lot and probably don't need anything as strong to be a decent enough build.

 

From my discussions with him it's all for future proofing, my friend (lantiza) is waiting for a mod to alow his first post and will take over the thread

 

No such thing as future proofing, by the time you need 16gb RAM DDR4 will be out. I would be worried about putting all that in a mATX case with a stock cooler. What about a HDD? Wont you need more storage than 240gb? Also is the 3D blu ray writer just there because its up to date technology? I have a DVD writer in mine that hasnt been used in 6 months, I really dont think theres any point in having an optical drive these days unless of course you are actually going to be burning 3D Bluray movies. I think theres a lot of money to be saved or spent elsewhere here if you just take a step back and be a little more realistic.

 

You can future proof yourself in some respects. However I do agree with taking a step back and actually thinking, "Do I really need "A" or would "B" suffice. I'm all for new builds but the i5's are very powerful, do you really need the i7 ?

 

You're right, a cheap and cheerful samsung 22x dvd writer is more than adequate for something you'll probably rarely need.

 

well if you have an unlocked i5 you could get close to the stock speeds of an i7, with a decent cooler of course.

 

I'd say go down to a 2500K. You're not loosing much in performance, and it runs so much cooler. If you need to; you can step it up a little and see similar performance at lower thermals. Plus it's a damn sight cheaper.

If you seriously are working with Vms that much; 16GB is good. I'd suggest the same Corsair Vengeance 16GB that's already been thrown out there, I've got the kit myself; It's damn robust, and it'll run forever.

The case is personal choice, I'll accept that, although something like a Bitfenix Survivor or Fractal Design Arc Mini would be my reccomendations, just for the extra ease of cabling.

You do not need an 850 watt PSU for a 670 and 3570K. Not unless you're planning to somehow fit another 10 Hard-drives in there, plus a thousand fans. 600-700 Watts is plenty.

Finally; Get a bigger SSD. If you're using VMs; They'll benefit an insane amount from the faster drive, and the more storage you have the better. SSD's are cheap, go for as much as you can. The Samsung 830 SSDs are pretty much the cream of the crop right now, so it's best to grab one of those if you can.

Don't use the stock coolers. They're noisy, annoying, and tend to keep the CPU only just within thermal tolerances, even a £15 aftermarket replacement would reduce noise by absolutely loads, getting something better still, Like a Thermaltake Frio or an Antec Kuhler 920, would afford you miles of room for overclocking, should it take your fancy, both will also make very little noise at stock, only things like the BeQuiet! Dark Rock series can best those for sheer lack of noise.

Finally; If you've seriously got enough money spare; I'd advise buying more fans for whatever cases you decide upon, simply because some don't come fully kitted out, and are capable of such better cooling, even with the addition of a couple of quiet, low-rpm fans to keep air moving through them. Sometimes it's a good idea to replace existing fans, I know the Fractal Design and Bitfenix fans are of good quality, as are Corsairs new series, but most bundled casefans are a bit bargain basement.

For example; this would net better HDD performance, theoretically better overclocking, as the Asus Maximus series are nigh on the best boards out there, similar space, and less noise, in theory, as the Fractal Design cases are made for silence and good cooling. https://secure.scan.co.uk/aspnet/Shop/SavedBasket/Show.aspx?id=ec7e7c1e3fe2466d8ec35cdc31284685

To top it all off; the above build also has enough of a distance under the price of the original build for you to be able to throw another two Samsung 830 256GB's in there, should you really want to.

 

Hi Again All,

As my friend hasn't shown his face i thought I'd pop back and thank you guys for the advise. I haven’t sat down with him yet and seen what he has decided but it was all helpful...

Cheers Guys
Pub