• Building my first PC - please give suggestions for improvements/critique on my build
    15 replies, posted
Hey all. Building my first ever computer in less than a week's time, ordering parts in a day or two. I need some confirmation to make sure everything's compatible, possible suggestions to improve my build, etc. My budget is [B]£700[/B] maximum. I want to stick to an Intel-based build. Something major I want checked is if my [B][I]Wizard Wi20A [/I][/B]case which is a full sized tower case can support my new motherboard. If one of you guys in-the-know can confirm that for me, I've been unable to find it out on the internet... perhaps you could do a better job than me. [B][U]My current build:[/U][/B] ______________________________________________________________ PRICES ARE IN BRITISH POUNDS STERLING - [B][U]BUYING ALL PARTS[/U][/B] FROM scan.co.uk ______________________________________________________________ Case: Wizard Wi20A [B](ALREADY OWN IT)[/B] MOBO: MSI Z77A-G43 (Intel Socket 1155) - £88 CPU: Intel Core i5 3570K 3.4GHz - £170 GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB SC - £149 PSU: Corsair Enthusiast TX V2 650W - £76 RAM: 2x 4GB Corsair Vengeance @ 1600Mhz - £59 HDD: Seagate 500GB 7200RPM HDD - £40 DVD: LITE ON 24X DVD/RW [B](ALREADY OWN IT)[/B] FAN: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - £23 Windows 7 64 Bit OEM version - £72 Total Price for Gaming Rig: £684 (inclus. shipping) Thank you for your advice!
Personally, I would go with the Haswell version of that build (z87-G43 and i5-4670k). It's a little extra performance for a little extra cash, but that's up to you. That case should support the G43 or any other ATX form factor motherboard.
Thanks a lot! If anyone has any other advice for me, that'd be great, but that confirmation for my case was particularly useful (I was panicking I'd have to scrounge some money to buy a new case, haha)
[QUOTE=flayne;41641039]Personally, I would go with the Haswell version of that build (z87-G43 and i5-4670k). It's a little extra performance for a little extra cash[/QUOTE] altough the 4670 can perform better than the 3570, i disagree with you about the performance increase. the i5 3570k will already be bottlenecked by the gpu. you won't even get the best from the i5 with 2 of those 650 ti's. what i would do, is ehm, don't include windows 7 in that build (ifyouknowwhatimean) and get a 760 instead. im not sure how expensive the 760 is in British pounds, but i guess it should be around 210£. that will give you a huge performance increase.
I'm getting a 650 Ti Boost, it's a new model that came out a few months ago or so. Apparently it's able to run games such as ARMA 3 (a game I'll be playing a lot) on high/ultra settings, which is definetly what I want. Are you sure you mean that the Ti Boost is going to bottleneck my CPU?
The 650 Ti Boost isn't going to bottleneck a 4670k. Admittedly the performance impact is already negligible as far as raw FPS in typical games, but you are still going to be getting a little extra performance for a little extra payment. The 650 Ti Boost is an excellent card, but if you want to pirate windows (ifyouknowwhathemeans) and get a 760, well, it's an excellenter card. You should also keep in mind your computer is used for more than just gaming, so that's not the only thing to consider when buying.
Scrap the OS and get a GTX670
[QUOTE=maxolina;41654544]Scrap the OS and get a GTX670[/QUOTE] The 670 is $320 and gets about 2 more FPS than the 760 for $250.
For just a bit more you can grab a 7870 instead of the 650 ti boost, it's way better: [url]http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-xfx-radeon-hd-7870-core-edition-28nm-4800mhz-gddr5-gpu-1000mhz-1280-cores-2x-dvi-hdmi-2x-mini-dp[/url]
[QUOTE=flayne;41653980]The 650 Ti Boost isn't going to bottleneck a 4670k.[/QUOTE] Yes it is. Just to clarify: a bottleneck means that one of the parts can't work at it's full potential because an other part is already working 100%. In other words: your pc will be limited by the performance of the gpu. Getting a better cpu will not make the limit of the gpu higher, you will only increase the size of the bottleneck. If you want more gaming performance, you have to adress the weakest point of the computer (in your case, the gpu). every computer has a small bottleneck by 1 of its parts. the trick is to make it as minimal as possible, to get the best of all parts (and the best of the money). [QUOTE=flayne;41653980]Admittedly the performance impact is already negligible as far as raw FPS in typical games[/QUOTE] It depends on the game. Some games need less computing power to get 60 fps. If a 650 ti can handle that, a 760 won't make a difference indeed. But the 650 ti won't hit the 60 fps in most recent games, and in the games in the future. even my radeon 7950 overclocked (which is comparable to the 760) wont hit the 60 frames in all games (like metro last light, crysis 3, and probably upcoming games). [QUOTE=flayne;41653980]a 760, well, it's an excellenter card.[/QUOTE] indeed, it's a very nice high end card. [QUOTE=flayne;41653980]You should also keep in mind your computer is used for more than just gaming, so that's not the only thing to consider when buying.[/QUOTE] There won't be a big difference between the two i5's if you talk about using the computer in general. it'll only differ when you are going to render 3D animations. I don't want to mean flayne, i just want to give Par good advice.
[QUOTE=thermobaric;41660236]It depends on the game. Some games need less computing power to get 60 fps. If a 650 ti can handle that, a 760 won't make a difference indeed.[/QUOTE] Just to clarify this part: I meant the difference between Haswell and Ivy, not the 760 and 650 ti boost which is a rather large gap. To address the rest, I just think in general the newer technology is worth the slight extra cost. The benefits provided by Haswell are good enough to justify the price point in my opinion, but you do have a good point in that it won't provide much increase in gaming performance.
Thanks all for your great advice. It has helped me immensely, and being a first time builder, I'm not sure where to go with the GPU side, as you guys keep suggesting me different ones. I was thinking about spending some extra money to get the GTX 660? What are your thoughts on that, guys? The main games I'll be running are games such as the ARMA series, COD 4, GTA 4 (and 5 when it comes out), and also I'll probably do my homework/some video editing on here, but that shouldn't be a problem as absolutely [U]ANYTHING[/U] right now is better than my [B]AMD Athlon II X2 240[/B] and [B]Geforce 9500 GT[/B] combo. Please bear in mind that I don't have the money to spend on a really high end GPU (my budget is £700, and I'm already at around £650 or so with my current build, and I have no idea how I'd go about not including Windows, if you know what I'm hinting at) so I really don't think high end GPUs are an option such as the 670/680/760. Keep the suggestions coming, guys. Once again, thanks a bunch for your help.
Well it's basically just: 650 Ti Boost < 7870 < 760 Get whichever fits within your budget. I don't think the 660 is a good choice. There are just a lot of other video cards very near it in price which can offer much better performance.
I'll have a think and see if I can find enough money to buy the 760 instead. Thanks for your input guys.
Jesus christ, scrap i5 3570k and get an i5 3350p... 15% slower in multi-threading but at least you will save up considerable amount of cash to afford a noticeably better GPU.
And then you can't overclock. Besides, (s)he said that (s)he was going to get more money and purchase a 760 without cheaping out on other parts.
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