Build Advice £1,700 budget - How should I make myself poor once more?

At the moment I'm considering 2500k, Some motherboard, 16GB of Corsair 2x4GB 1.5V RAM, a single 570 2.5GB, a power supply beefy enough to run two if I decide one isn't fast enough, a 120GB SSD, Silverstone Raven RV02-W case (Not the -EW, just the -W, It's cheaper.) and an LG IPS2311P. Grand total; 1,300 odd, with free shipping. (Woot for Scan's awesomeness)

That'll give me plenty of spare change should I decide I really need more screens, or if I find that one 570 isn't cutting it and need another. Or both.

 

The above sounds good to me. You won't be disappointed with the IPS monitor . Have you decided on which SSD you are going for?

 

OCZ Agility 3, Although I'm open to other suggestions; I'd love to get my hands on something with a Sandforce controller.

I'll be entirely honest; I'm really considering putting on a special "I love me jacket" and just buying Bulldozer. Sandy Bridge feels almost like a cop-out to me, I'm still not sure why.

 

OCZ Agility 3 are very good drives indeed. My Corsair Force 3 has been working perfectly in the 3 - 4 months I've had it. I would suggest getting one, however the high performing Corsair Force GT could be an option if you want to go for the high end SSD's. It is ~£40 more than most of the mid-range one's and I'm not sure if the little extra speed in applications warrants £40 extra.

 

Just going from a WD Caviar Green as my OS drive to an SSD will be fast enough, more speed would just be Overkill.

 

Fair enough mate. What have you considered for primary storage?

 

Probably going to pull across the 1TB from my current machine. I see no reason to fix what isn't broken. I'll wait before buying any Mechanical HDD's, what with prices having more than doubled.

 

Cool .

 

On a side note; I'm thinking of going completely over the top with my CPU cooling and picking up a Thermalright Archon, Would the silence of that 140mm fan be worth it, or should I invest in something else?

 

Fair do.

Just relaying what I've read - I haven't been lucky enough to have been blessed with the presence of a 580...

 

That CPU cooler is not really over the top. If you want something over the top, get a Thermalright Silver Arrow or Noctua NH-D14, which are massive CPU coolers and you should only get one if your looking to OC your CPU to 4.5GHz +.

 

I'm saying the 570 because most people that I ask on the subject claim that the 570 can be easily OC'd to speeds where it'll match the 580. Plus it's cheaper, and it has more memory than the stock 580.

3GB 580's, on the other hand cost about as much as a 590, which is a bit OTT for an extra 1.5GB of memory, in my mind.

The fun thing with the Archon is that it'll actually fit in the RV02. With about ten mm to spare. Thank goodness for google. It's apparently a match for the Frio at full fan-speed, but remains damn near silent doing it.

 

2GB 6950 Crossfire is definitely worth considering too. Much cheaper than 2.5GB GTX570s, with nearly all the performance (with the ace scaling they get). Having run 2560x1600 for a good while now, they're well matched to it, even at stock speeds (just wish Sapphire's voltage controller was supported by Afterburner).

Plus you can get excellent cooling editions like the MSI Twin FrozR III with the 2GB VRAM. ~£210 per card.

I'd stick this on an i5 2500K-based platform (wish I could try and recommend BD, but it's futile), and find a case that you like which cools well. Silverstone's RV02 is a good bet, or an FT02 if you can stretch, or dislike the RV02's looks).

Definitely worth getting an SSD, and with the money saved from the GTX570s, you could get a larger SSD. Such as Corsair's Force 3 180GB.

I'd then have a Dell U2711, or the equivalent Hazro 27" if you don't feel like spending that much on a screen.

Having tried 3D, Eyefinity, and JANLM (just a nice large monitor), the last option wins every time. 3D and Eyefinity feel gimmicky - nice if you can, but entirely unnecessary, whereas a large screen with high res is just lovely...

Oh, and a vote here for the Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro - great big hunk of metal cooling loveliness, that's uber quiet into the bargain.

 

I've found the issue with the 27" Hazro from Scan is that it completely lacks any kind of adjustment besides backlight. I like being able to tweak the colours a screen throws at me where possible. (This is the Cheaper model i'm talking about. I don't need a 10bit screen. I can't display that anyway.)

I also don't think I need anything more than 1920X1080 at the moment, or possibly 1920x1200. Anything more will just be for extra eye-candy, and I think going to an IPS screen will sort me for Eye-candy for a while.

 

But £1300 on a PC, and a £150 screen? Do it justice! (The IPS231P is very good to be fair, but nothing on a 2711).

You can adjust colours using the video drivers (which is usually much easier than on the screen), and most calibration tools work this way. So to me at least, it's a non-issue (then again my 3007WFP only has brightness adjustment).

 

RE the 570's, they can be OC'd to get near 580 levels of performance but they dont better the 580, and of course you can also OC a 580 and out do a 570 by some margin.

I would look at the HD 6970, its near the GTX580 in terms of performance but a lot cheaper and also has a little extra ram.

 

they can be overclocked so they can beat the 580 not just get near

 

The factory overclocked 580's like the MSI lightning and Gigabyte Super Overclocked versions can be overclocked massively as well and blow any OC'd 570 out of the water. But price/performance wise 570's are excellent and so are 6970's.