Hi all, I'm currently working out a spec for my new PC my dad is kindly buying me after graduating from uni! He technically hasn't given me a firm budget to work with, and he's told me to "buy the best", but I'm going to make sure I get a reasonably good "bang for buck" system rather than just going all out! I'm primarily going for a very cool system first and foremost, followed by quietness. I do plan on OC'ing the i5, but I'm not going to push it to it's limits. This system will mostly be used for playing games (Guild Wars 2) and streaming the gameplay on Livestream etc. This is what I have so far: CPU: Intel i5 3570k GPU: 2GB Asus DirectCU II GTX 670 (TOP/non-TOP?) Motherboard: Asus Maximus V Gene m-ATX RAM: 8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 SSD: 128GB Samsung 830 HDD: 2TB (Hitachi? Seagate? Western Digital?) PSU: 750w Antec TruePower New Case: Corsair Carbide R500 CPU Cooler: Arctic Freezer i30 (Corsair Hydro H100!?!) None of this is set in stone, so any and all recommendations are welcome. Most of the things I'm truly unsure about are in brackets. I've heard the Asus DirectCU II GTX 670 TOP version has stability issues, am I safer just going for the non-TOP version? I hear so many stories regarding all the major HDD manufacturers: WD seems to have a better rep than Hitachi and Seagate, but at twice the price for the 2TB, worth it? Is it really just a lottery on whether you get a "good drive" or not? I'm primarily going for the 750w Antec PSU because it's on sale at scan.co.uk, is it alright? Lastly, the CPU cooler. I've been mulling over it for a few days. The Hydro H100 will fit beautifully in the Carbide R500, but is it really worth blowing £100 on it, after replacing those noisy Corsair fans!? Will the Arctic Freezer do the job? Is there anything else I should consider? Thanks in advance!
SSDs have dropped so much in price it would be rude not to go for a 256GB. I bought a 128GB a few months ago when they were double the price. Wish I had more capacity now. 750w PSU might be a bit overkill but it certainly wouldn't hurt. Room for a soundcard in there? Asus Xonar DX perhaps? What about a monitor? A Dell U2711 would go nicely on that list. If your dad said "buy the best" you should do just that; 3770K, GTX 690 and so on
I currently have a Dell U2311H which I adore <3 I did look at getting a higher capacity SSD, just wasn't sure whether it was worth it! I personally left out a sound card because I just haven't really noticed much difference in sound quality whenever I've used one (I'm really not an audiophile, please don't hurt me!) I have an Asus Xonar DX in another machine, with exactly the same speakers that I use (Creative T20s) and I just haven't felt a difference between the Xonar and my Asus on-board notebook sound. Do you need a 5.1 system or a 7.1 system to really appreciate it? Or am I just missing something completely obvious? I definitely did consider an i7 3770k, not so much the GTX 690! As much as I'd like to believe I could really buy the best I could, I think my dad knows that I'm always going to be pretty conservative on what I buy.
A bigger SSD is the one thing I'd urge you to consider. It's the sort of thing you think you don't need at the time but regret a few months down the line. 128GB sounded plenty when I got mine but that damn Steam sale eats it up in no time. Soundcard is your call, I'm not an audio nazi. Features like Dolby Digital Live are useful but if you don't need them and it sounds the same as onboard then no point taking up a PCI -E slot with it. GTX 690 seems daft to me. 2 x GTX 670s perform about the same but cost hundreds less. Glad you're pleased with your Dell, I'm hoping to buy one soon.
coming straight out of UNI I would suggest a smaller more portable PC and case. mATX or even i-ATX I wish I had now but love my PC any way. check my sig. mATX and iATX are very possible Killer gaming rigs these days.
my 2 cents go m-atx - smaller is better esp for moving about if you will ever need too. also will match your dell monitor my personal opinion on case fans and cpu cooler is to get the stock stuff up and running then only if you need to order extra cooling. free scan next day delivery by being a member here and that way its the best option for me and my wallet. really think about your uses - I have built LGA1155 g620 rigs with dedicated GPUs that run most games at 1080p great. one rigs even used by an architect and hes very happy with the way it runs in CAD esp for the cost. why spend £1000 if you dont need too. majority of people spend way more then they need too. remember hardware is way ahead of software right now. more incremental upgrades could leave your with a much better system overall then spending alot of your dads money in one go and finding something is lacking. think of all the opportunity costs of spending the money ? new phone, car, bills, investment. £1000 is alot of money to blow on a pc at the end of the day.
Yeah, I'm hearing lots of people telling me to go with m-ATX, and lots of people telling me to go with ATX! I guess the jury's still out on that one! Is the stock cooler alright on the 3570k? I've generally just always stayed away from them as a rule of thumb, but I guess I can change my ways! I didn't even realize that we got free delivery with scan by being a member here, I specifically signed up to the AVforums for the scan free delivery, but if we already get it here, then fantastic! The major problem that I find with building PCs is when it comes down to streaming. It just seems ridiculously demanding. From past experience, I've found that skimping on near anything will just result in some sort of failure. I've had HDDs, GPUs, PSUs (even a motherboard if I recall!) all fail on me, so I'm just scared more than anything!!
Streaming depends on the network speed. Pretty much any PC built in this millennium can handle streamed video.
My bad, I should have made myself clearer. By streaming, I meant being the actual broadcaster, as in, using Flash Media Encoder.
If you are planning to OC the i5 then I woud suggest that the stock cooler may not be the best to have. I have the same i5 clocked to 4.2ghz and use a Hydro H60 cooler. The H100 would work nicely and is used by a few others here, but you may have issues on fitting in the double rad on a smaller cases and sugested above by some.
