Hey all, First post here, and sorry to say it's ended up being a Build advice thread. Sorry about that hehe Anyways what I'm looking for is a completely new build (nothing coming from old PC bar the mouse and keyboard, and I already have the OS as well, and the monitor will be on a separate budget possibly) for gaming with a budget of around £1000 to spend. I will be building it myself, and I should mention whilst I've considered overclocking etc, I honestly have no idea on how to go about it so lets just say its not a priority atm. I would also like to have the option of keeping it upgrade friendly with the possibility of adding a second GFX card at a later date. I've included what I've thought about so far, but would greatly appreciate any extra feedback and changes if you think its worth. In particular I would like some feedback on my Mobo, Memory, PSU and Case choice. ie - I've heard the case can suffer from a "hoover" effect and becomes infested with dust due to a lack of dust filters. I'd also like anyone's suggestion for a good CPU cooler as well So here's what I have atm: CPU: Intel Core i5 750 £163.99 Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P55-UD5 Intel P55 £122.99 RAM: G.Skill Ripjaw 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 £99.99 HDD: Samsung F3 1TB £62.99 GFX: Asus ATI Radeon HD 5850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express £224.99 PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro 700w Silent SLI Certified Modular £72.99 Case: Coolermaster HAF 932 Case £109.99 Total = £857.94 Any help/suggestions greatly appreciated
I'd say stick to the HAF 932, i love mine personally. Those R2's are everywhere, I feel they're becoming the new Cosmos... Question, are you planning to watercool at any point? As the HAF is made for it. You WILL need some kind of dust filter though...
HAF is expensive and tbh If you want a HAF 932 I'd get a HAF 922, and they're engines for dust, the R2 is quieter, less aggressively styled and more modernized, if a case is everywhere its everywhere for a reason
The HAF is a very good case, just the lack of dust filters is a little annoying, but not too bad. And it's the same price, or cheaper, when it comes with all of it's fans but the R2 NEEDs additional ones, and for the same level of silent cooling you'd need expensive 120's to achieve this with the R2. And he must have picked the HAf for a reason, some people love just the glow And if i was going to go for a 'smart' looking case it'd be a ATCS 840, as it is a beauty
I would suggest the Antec 902, its amazing with great airflow. You will also want to get a CPU cooler and I would suggest the Gelid Tranquillo. In terms of the "hoover" effect the Antec has dust filters which stop that sort of thing happening (most decent cases will). The antec is more expensive than the R2 BUT to make the fractal R2 decent you need to buy some more fans effecting the cost. I would also say you can downgrade the PSU, the one you have is slightly overkill how about going for the Antec TruePower T650W its reliable and saves some money for you. Another reccomendation is that you change the motherboard for the gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2. My reason for suggesting that is because its the one I use and its great, and overclocks well. (Its also cheaper). The final suggestion isnt so important and that is upgrading the graphics card to the 5870 got the budget and you wont be dissapointed
You don't NEED the sort of cooling the HAF has, its overkill tbh, as for the ATCS, it comes in at £150+, and the Antec 902 is decent but again not at all worth the premium, I really don't see any problem with the R2
Well the only reason I picked the 932 was due to a couple of good recomendations and the fact that it has a LOT of space for extra cooling, 2 x 5850s or so when I eventually go for both. Altho come to think of if im not even sure the mobo I speccd would handle that hehe. Any suggestions for a mobo capable of 2 x 5850 would be apprecaited. But yeah on the case, I am quite open to suggestions...I dont want to purcahse a case and then come summer when I hit the upgrade trail find that I need another case coz I ran out of space Thanks for all the suggestions so far
The mobo you specced in your original post should be able to handle it. Nicely spaced PCI ports allowing for cool running cards, and CrossFire is defnitly supported by the Lynnfield chipset. I think Lynnfield has less PCI lanes than it's bigger brother though, so you might have to run both the cards in x8 instead of x16 mode, but it won't make a difference. (I could be wrong, it's been a while since I read the first review of i5 )
+1, if its between the HAF and the 1200 I'd go for the 1200, its got dust filters, an anodised black interior, better design and pretty much equal cooling to the HAF, and its fairly quiet AFAIK
The 902 has 8 PCI brackets even though its a smaller case than the 1200 which only has 7 due to the two exhaust fans. The 902 has all your cooling ready with fan control & filters. The only extra to add would be a side window fan.
So the only thing that decides it is watercooling really, the HAF can mount 1x360mm and 2x240mm Rads while the 1200 can mount 2x240mm and possibly a 340mm Rad with modding? Oh and i think the bit tech guys should do a proper revirew of this case, as they haven't and I think it deserves one, doubly so seeing as this gets one! http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cases/2009/01/22/lian-li-pc-888/1
Nope - We're not bringing Watercooling into it when its not necessary - Here's my list Antec 1200 > Define R2 > HAF 922 > HAF 932 > Antec 902 If you can spare the cash go for the 1200, otherwise the R2 will do you, It seems some people are obsessed with fans and seen to have discerned a correlation with the number of fans and the size of their e-peen I don't see the point, the 5850 isn't exactly a weak card and you can always get another and CF them, and the peformance effect of an SSD on your computer is something you'll notice all the time not just in a few games at a few resolutions, what sort of games would you be playing? EDIT: I just remembered a CPC issue I re-read not to long ago (yes, I'm that sad) but if I remember the HAF 932 failed the 1 hour stress test, so tbh its airflow isn't as legendary as people seem to think and as for adding fans, the R2 doesn't NEED fans but if want some you can invest £20 on 2 silent fans and it still comes in at a price below the HAF 932 EDIT(2): Get out... NOW! The Cosmos S is better as far as water cooling is concerned as is the Antec 1200
I love flame wars. And to be honest, getting a case is like getting a house, advice helps, but your the one who has to live with it. @Moyo2k where in Surrey do you come form?
Edge of Ashford, why And your point about the house thing is valid, if you buy the HAF 932 expect to be living in a vacuum
And why would it be when it's key selling point is silence, then again even the CM 690 IIs cooling wasn't that great, to most cases you buy you'll end up adding 1 or 2 more fans, that's why they include mounts and why I mentioned something about silent fans
