Happy new Year all, To celebrate the new year I'm contemplating a significant system upgrade. It's almost a complete re-build, but I can re-use some of my existing components. Here's my current build: ASUS STRIKER II EXTREME 790i Intel Q6600 Quadcore CPU THERMALRIGHT Ultra-120 eXtreme (+ 2 x 120mm Noctua) 2 x XFX 1GB GTX280 XT 640MHz (@ factory settings) in SLI Corsair TwinX 4GB DDR3 1333 (@ stock + auto timings / voltage) SAMSUNG SATA2 HD103UJ 1000GB SAMSUNG HD501LJ 500GB Pioneer BDC-202BK 5x BluRom Silverstone TJ07B CORSAIR 1000W CMPSU-1000HX TP-Link TL-WN722N Logitech S510 Remote, Keyboard, Mouse Creative Labs Gigaworks S750 3 x Benq G2222HDL Windows 7 64-bit I've had some stability problems (link) with my current rig that have never quite gone away over the 5 or so years I've had it. Also I've not been able to enjoy NVIDIA Surround as the TJ07 is actually quite a weak air cooling case and the GTX280's run hot, and eventuallt lead to 100C Temps and major instability! I bought the TJ07 planning to do some water cooling, but in the end I couldn't be bothered with the hassle, so it probably has to go. Shame because it's a nice case and cost a small fortune. So my requirements of the new rig are mainly gaming, standard internet / office use and movies. I'd like an i7 to future proof though I'm sure some may argue an i5 should be enough. I'll be gaming at 5760x1080 in 2D for now, but I haven't ruled out going 3D in the future. Ideally I'd like to keep the budget <£1200. Rather than ask you guys to do all the work for me, I've had a go spec'ing a system upgrade, but I've been out of the magazines, forums and PC building scene for a while, so I'd appreciate some views and suggestions. Here's what I thought: Purchase Intel Core i7 3770,1155, Ivy Bridge, Quad Core, 3.4GHz, 5 GT/s DMI, 650MHz GPU, 8MB Smart Cache, 34x Ratio, 77W, Retail £229.40 MSI Z77 MPower, Intel Z77, S 1155, DDR3, SATA III - 6Gb/s, RAID, PCIe 3.0, DPort/HDMI, ATX £135.32 4GB EVGA GTX 680 Cheesecake, 28nm, PCIe 3.0 (x16), 6008MHz GDDR5, GPU 1084MHz, Boost 1150MHz, + Backplate +Free Games £443.62 SilverStone Raven RV02B-W v1.7 Matte Black Mid/Large Tower Case with AP181 Fan w/o PSU £109.22 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Jet Black, PC3-19200 (2400), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 10-12-12-31, XMP, 1.65V £61.50 256GB OCZ Vertex 4, 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s, Indilinx Everest 2, MLC-Flash, Read 560MB/s, Write 510MB/s, 120k IOPS Max. £164.70 Arctic Cooling Freezer i30 CPU DT 4 Heat Pipe Cooler with 120mm Silent Fan for Intel Socket LGA 2011/1155/1156 £27.96 Reuse SAMSUNG SATA2 HD103UJ 1000GB SAMSUNG HD501LJ 500GB Pioneer BDC-202BK 5x BluRom CORSAIR 1000W CMPSU-1000HX TP-Link TL-WN722N (if required) Logitech S510 Remote, Keyboard, Mouse Creative Labs Gigaworks S750 3 x Benq G2222HDL Windows 7 64-bit Re-home ASUS STRIKER II EXTREME 790i Intel Q6600 Quadcore CPU THERMALRIGHT Ultra-120 eXtreme (+ 2 x 120mm Noctua) 2 x XFX 1GB GTX280 XT 640MHz (@ factory settings) in SLI Corsair TwinX 4GB DDR3 1333 (@ stock + auto timings / voltage) Silverstone TJ07B This list is pretty much bang on budget, although the mobo is on pre-order and if I bought elsewhere would push my budget slightly over (not a big deal). I'd like a 690 but not sure I need it or can justify the extra £300-£400. right now; I could always upgrade or SLI in the future if games become too demanding. Your thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated. Would people be tempted to wait a few months for Intel Maxwell and NVIDIA 7XX? Thanks.
Don't do this. As I've allways said, the attitude of 'waiting for the new stuff to come out' never works, you just want to wait for the newer and newer stuff to come out. Example: AMD 7970 comes out- I'll wait and see what Nvidia can come up with GTX 680 comes out- Oooh but AMD 8000 series is only 6 months away. Lets wait for that. My advise: buy the best you can afford now, don't look back, and it'll last you 3 years. then you won't have done any dillydallying. I hate people that dillydally.
8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Jet Black, PC3-19200 (2400), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 10-12-12-31, XMP, 1.65V £61.50 1.65V memory --> 1.5-1.55V. If you keep a PC that long why not go for 16GB? THERMALRIGHT Ultra-120 eXtreme (+ 2 x 120mm Noctua) Can't you buy an upgrade kit for LGA1156/1155? Seems a great cooler that would go to waste. Intel Core i7 3770,1155, Ivy Bridge, Quad Core, 3.4GHz, 5 GT/s DMI, 650MHz GPU, 8MB Smart Cache, 34x Ratio, 77W, Retail £229.40 You're missing a K. And another ROG board : http://rog.asus.com/motherboard/formula/maximus-v-formula/ - comes with WiFi built in, plus the best built-in sound on the market since you don't use a sound card.
Ok, thanks for the replies. I looked into memory a bit further and noticed the correlation between speed and voltage. Is there a reason to lean towards lower voltage slower RAM over higher voltage faster RAM (stability / heat)? If so perhaps Corsair Memory Vengeance Performance 16GB DDR3 1866 MHz CAS 9-10-9-27 Dual Channel Desktop at £73.39 is a better buy (only £12 more for an extra 8Gb but also a bit slower)? I struggled to find an upgrade kit for LGA1156/1155 stocked anywhere. A few older forum posts (not bit-tech) hinted towards an American based company but even they seem to have no stock and it would probably cost as much as a new cooler to get it here. I've emailed Thermalright to see what they say. Thanks for highlighting there is a difference between the 3770 and 3770K. I though i was paying £30 for only an extra 0.1GHz but alas I'm paying to be able to OC. I did see the other ROG boards but have slightly fallen out of love with ASUS as I speculate the stability issues I've had might be my mobo. Lots of people seem to have had issues with my current board. The V-Formula appears to attract average to good reviews but I can't find many with bad words to say about the MPower, although there are fewer reviews. Am I missing a benefit of the ASUS over the MSI, or is ASUS just generally preferred? Does anyone think I could choose a better case for around £100 or is the RV02B-W a good call? I looked at the RV03 but the 02 has better cooling. I'd like an elegant case and have no need for a window (appreciate the RV02B-W does but I can't find a windowless version). Thanks
Great build. I have nothing to suggest! Only thing I would change is the motherboard because I don't personally like MSI's customer service rep. But that's personal. Nice and future proof, not too expensive. Buy it and be happy. EDIT: I've used 1.5v 1600mhz and 1.65v 1600mhz overclocked to 1866mhz and haven't noticed a difference performance wise. As for the energy consumption I doubt it would be a lot. Also, I rock a Sabertooth 990FX. Has really great onboard audio no doubt. (Z77 version too)
is 16GB over 8GB recommendable these days? (as none of the bit systems seem to use it) How does the Sabertooth compare to the maximus V gene?
I got older asus boards - one of which runs 24/7 and has done for the last 18 months. Asus is my favourite (always makes me laugh that the only board I have in my life that isn't asus - was sold to me by you, and is not asus)
Only two things to think about 1. Even top end GPUs run pretty cool now (especially vs SLI 280s), so you could easily run a 680 in your TJ07 if you wanted to keep it 2. Maybe save some cash and go for a 3570k - you'll hardly notice the speed difference in real life.
Cheers all, maybe I will stick with the TJ07 and see how it fares with the 680. Did a couple of searches RE 3570k vs 3770k and I reckon the i7 is worth the extra investment (£70) for my purposes. In summary: Purchase i7 3770k £246.52 (eBuyer) MSI Z77 MPower £135.32 (Scan) 4GB EVGA GTX 680 Cheesecake £443.62 (Scan) 16GB (2x8GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Performance, PC3-14900 (1866) 1.5V £73.39 (Scan) 256GB OCZ Vertex 4 £164.70 (Scan) Arctic Cooling Freezer i30 £27.96 (Scan) Total £1091.51 Reuse SAMSUNG SATA2 HD103UJ 1000GB SAMSUNG HD501LJ 500GB Pioneer BDC-202BK 5x BluRom CORSAIR 1000W CMPSU-1000HX Silverstone TJ07B TP-Link TL-WN722N Logitech S510 Remote, Keyboard, Mouse Creative Labs Gigaworks S750 3 x Benq G2222HDL Windows 7 64-bit Re-home ASUS STRIKER II EXTREME 790i Intel Q6600 Quadcore CPU THERMALRIGHT Ultra-120 eXtreme (+ 2 x 120mm Noctua) 2 x XFX 1GB GTX280 XT 640MHz (@ factory settings) in SLI Corsair TwinX 4GB DDR3 1333 (@ stock + auto timings / voltage) Right, just got to call scan and find out when they'll get the MPower in stock., and try to find the other modular cables for my PSU which I think might be 200 miles away! Cheers for your input.
Thats a great future proof gaming PC. You will be happy for the next 2 years to come, thats fore sure.
