Hi all, I'm thinking about the following (subset of a) build: CPU: i7 2600K (£276.70) CPU Cooling: Corsair H70 (£75.24) Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 (£142.40) RAM: 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair Vengeance DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600) CAS 9-9-9-24 (£106.94) GPU: EVGA 1536MB GeForce GTX 580 (£503.50) PSU: Corsair CMPSU-750HXUK HX 750W (£110.10) SSD: OCZ 60GB Vertex 2E (£96.72) SSD Adaptor: Akasa AK-MX010 Dual 2.5" (2x9.5mm) SSD/HDD 3.5" Bay Mounting Module (£5.87) HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB (£69.35) Case: Corsair Obsidian 700D (£159.58) Total: £1,546.40 Some points/questions: * I already have a keyboard, mouse, set of speakers and DVD/RW drive that will suffice for now. * For a monitor, I'm looking at a U2410, but it's not in my price range at the moment. Do you think it's worth saving for it or is a U2311H just as good? * The system it's replacing is now 6 years old (I know) and I'm wondering if SB is worth it. Normally I'm not an early adopter but I've been waiting a long time for this and the power consumption aspects are really selling it to me. Thoughts? * Will it all work together, and are the components I've picked sensible? I've just noticed that I have a lot in common with this build, so hopefully it's OK. I also took the CPU price from that thread, because currently Scan says "call for price" -- I'm assuming (?) this will be rectified come Monday (hopefully...). Thanks as always guys, happy new year, lunaris
That build looks fine as long as you're within you're within your budget. Some people might say to get a samsung instead of a WD, but since you have the SSD for your OS I don't think the HDD's going to matter. Unless you have a reason for getting the drive bay adapter (I don't see why, an SSD doesn't vibrate or make noise b/c there's no moving parts ), I don't think you need to buy an extra one. According to here the 120GB version of the OCZ drive you're going to get comes with a 2.5" to 3.5" bay adapter. Another question, do you really need an H70? Are you going to overclock it a bunch? and even if you are why can't an H50+an extra fan do it? Why can't you just get a cheaper air cooler? Keep in mind that while it's not true water cooling, the H70 uses liquid medium cooling and it costs extra for it. Unless you're going to make use of that, you can save money and get an H50 or even a good air cooler and receive the same performance. I'm not knowledgeable with monitors and I can't help you with that sorry . Make sure your DVD drive doesn't connect via an old ATA interface and you'll be fine. If your system is 6 years old already and you're either experiencing frustration because of its lack of power or you're worried that a system that old might start to break soon then it seems reasonable to me that you should get a new computer. Even if you just think it's time to get a new one, then now is a good time to do it. Since it's been 6 years if you don't break the cycle now you may find yourself trapped in the "ah I'll wait for that next more powerful thing that everyone's talking about to come out" spiral, and you'll never get a new computer. If you're perfectly happy with your machine for what you do with it, you have no worries about the parts going boom, your friends aren't teasing you about your old clunker, and you don't actually have that much money to blow on a new SB system then I'd think twice before getting a new one. oh yes also, get a sound card if you can
I don't know, what you want to do with your PC ofc, but I'd say that you could aswell go for the i5-2500k instead and save some 100 bucks. Maybe even downgrade the GPU to a GTX 570 and you'll have another 200 bucks. The 300 bucks more could invested in the monitor then. The difference between i7-2600k + 580GTX and the i5-2500k + 570GTX isn't that huge that it would be anywhere worth the 300 bucks imho.
I'd also invest some of that saved cash on a larger SSD, 60gb will go in a flash, Win7 64 with all patches and stuff kills 22gb even with page file and hibernate disabled.
Bigger SSD and why not go for a Samsung F3 instead, it's about £30 cheaper than the WD Caviar, It can't be that much faster surely? Especially if you already have an SSD
Despite being SATA 6gb/s, that caviar will not be any faster than a Samsung F3 yet it's a lot more expensive.
Hi guys, Thanks for the replies; they're really helpful. In the end I think that I'm going to stick with the 2600K (something about my personality just won't settle for the 2500K ) but I've changed the following: * I've chosen a Samsung F3 as suggested. * I've upgraded the SSD to 120GB. * I've downgraded the GPU to a 570. I'm going to wait a few weeks for my next paycheck to buy the U2410. Until then I'll be blasting away on a 17" LCD (which the 570 should be OK with...). In the future I want two U2410s, perhaps an SLI setup and full W/C. But that's for later Thanks again for all the awesome responses! lunaris
Quick note on lunaris' last post - he mentions in the future he may extend to an SLI setup which would be dual 570s on the Corsair 750HX. I have the exact same PSU and am about to buy a 570 with the plan of buying another down the road when they are cheaper and the single GPU isn't cutting it. I'm thinking of replacing my PSU with a 850HX with this in mind. I did a bit or research and found this article and it seems it would be safe if you didn't overclock the cards but it's expensive kit to replace for a blonde moment. Something to think about lunaris!
Well said there. Not much gain from a 2600K compared to a 2500K. If you overclock it the cpu then you really wouldn't notice a thing. As for the GTX 570 v 580 - again if you overclock the GPU you won't notice much difference. I have a GTX 470 and it's overclocked. When I play BFBC2 or Crysis I get the same performance as or even better than a stock-GTX 570 Spend the money on water-cooling if you must spend it all.
