New build €1000

sink · 13-03-2011 5:15pm #1

Looking at building a new gaming system and could do with some help selecting components. I'm aiming for €1000-1200.

My previous PC was very loud and it's something I want to avoid this time.

Thinking about a i5 2500k and a 460GTX SLi system. Are the recall issues with the new intel processors sorted yet?

I currently have a 24" 1920x1200, but thinking about trading it for 3 1080p monitors for a surround monitor setup so it has to have some grunt (monitors not to be included above budget).

Whats the best to go for in this price range? All advice appreciated.

Monotype · 13-03-2011 6:01pm

If you got an ATI card, you could* do three monitors with the one card.

Do you need an OS?

*Well,... capable, but as for running smoothly, that would depend on the card and the games.

sink · 13-03-2011 6:38pm

Monotype wrote: »

If you got an ATI card, you could* do three monitors with the one card.

Do you need an OS?

*Well,... capable, but as for running smoothly, that would depend on the card and the games.

I have a spare Windows 7 Licence so don't need OS.

I've heard that the 460GTX in SLi is as fast as at 580GTX but is cheaper so that's why I was going with that. There is no single card solution from AMD that would be as fast, the closest is the HD 6970.

IrishMetalhead · 13-03-2011 6:42pm

aye but the problem with the 460gtx is that it's massively power hungry which will require a fairly expensive psu to run them in sli not to meantion that it dosn't support tessellation.

sink · 13-03-2011 6:52pm

What would you recommend?

IrishMetalhead · 13-03-2011 6:55pm

either a gtx570, hd6970 or if your rich enough a 580gtx and buy a dual gpu board so a possible sli or crossfire upgrade would be possible

IrishMetalhead · 13-03-2011 7:00pm

forgot to ask would you be looking for an ssd with this build?

edit: also what kind of case would you be looking for?

line6 · 13-03-2011 7:01pm

i would recommend a solid state hard drive but i'm not a gamer - would be interested to know gamers thoughts on this though

IrishMetalhead · 13-03-2011 7:04pm

ssd's are great but the only advantage they give you on games is load time plus not to meantion the size of games these days so you would need a fairly large one to install games onto it so as for myself i'm not to pushed on ssd's at all unless they come massivly down in price

IrishMetalhead · 13-03-2011 7:17pm

sink · 13-03-2011 7:23pm

Unfortunately I don't have money to burn so a GTX 580 would be out of reach, say i went for a GTX 570 with a i5 2500 K, I suppose I would be looking for a H67 chipset mobo, any recommendations? And also what speed DDR3 would be best?

Yeah SSD would interest me but it's not a must. Depends on how much I have left.

I would be looking at a Mid-tower ATX case, as quiet as possible. I like the clean minimalist look of Lian-Li or Antec Performance One cases.

sink · 13-03-2011 7:26pm

Yeah that looks good, but would it be better to go for a GTX 570 with a SSD, or a GTX 580 without?

IrishMetalhead · 13-03-2011 7:27pm

check the post above you sink

it has a p67 board with the chipset problem fixed and all

IrishMetalhead · 13-03-2011 7:28pm

up to yourself mate
me personally i don't see the advantges an ssd would give you in games other than faster level load times

sink · 13-03-2011 7:29pm

I have a 500GB hard drive left over from my old Games PC which I never managed to fill so I can use that.

IrishMetalhead · 13-03-2011 7:32pm

the decision is 100% on you man but if you are gonna get an ssd make sure you get a crucial c300 sata3 drive there the fasted consumer ssd's currnetly out

sink · 14-03-2011 1:27am

Having done a bit of research I found the HD 6950 in CrossFire to be significantly faster than the GTX 580 and GTX 560 ti SLi, but at a similar price so decided to go with that. Went with a better PSU since i'm going dual cards, plus it's modular for better cable management.

Went with 8GB ram aswell as I do a bit of photoshop with RAW files and you can never have too much ram for that.

Decided to hold off on a SSD as 64GB is too small and the Crucial C300 128GB is a whopping €198.25. I have a 500GB drive spare and that will do for the time being.

I'm thinking about adding some extra fans to that case as i'm worried that a dual card setup might be a bit hot for just two fans. It can take an extra 3 140mm (2 top, 1 side) fans and 1 extra 120mm in front. Anyone have any recommendations for good quiet fans?

Also added a Blu-ray instead of DVD.

CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K - €181.72
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=41224&agid=1617

CPU Cooler: Corsair A70 - €33.05
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=38536&agid=669

Motherboard: Asus P8P67 B3 Rev. - €125.29
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=43845&agid=1601

RAM: 4GB Corsair XMS3 1600MHz x 2 - €74.30
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=28068&agid=1193

Graphics Card: 2X HIS Radeon HD 6950 CF - €409.98
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=43021&agid=1004

Case: Fractal Define R3 - €89.65
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=36379&agid=631

PSU: Corsair Professional Series HX750W - €122.22
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=28060&agid=1630

Disc Drive: Samsung SH-B123L DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM / BD-ROM drive - €52.72
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=39700&agid=856

Shipping €30

Total - €1118.93

IrishMetalhead · 14-03-2011 1:32am

just looked up that mobo and found some ****ty news the second pci-e slot is only wired for 4x so it wouldn't be a good idea to do crossfire with it =/

sink · 14-03-2011 1:44am

IrishMetalhead wrote: »

just looked up that mobo and found some ****ty news the second pci-e slot is only wired for 4x so it wouldn't be a good idea to do crossfire with it =/

Oh yeah, good catch, this ones only €12 dearer and appears to have 2 PCIe x16 slots and it's corssfire certified. It'll be in stock in one week.

MSI P67A-GD55 (B3) - motherboard - ATX - iP67 - €137.05
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=43884&agid=1601

IrishMetalhead · 14-03-2011 2:10am

so now we play the waiting game...

sink · 14-03-2011 3:48pm

After a bit more research I think I'm going to go with the HD 6950 2gb instead of the 1gb as the 2gb will be much better for a crossfire & eyefinity setup and is only €20 more.

MSI R6950-2PM2D2GD5 - €223.41
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=41905&agid=1165

Apparently you can also flash the bios to make it into a 6970, has anyone had any experience doing this?

IrishMetalhead · 14-03-2011 3:56pm

you can but i wouldn't, people have already fried there video ram doing so after a few weeks of flashing it

murphthesmurf · 15-03-2011 1:57pm

I read a review yesterday of the scaling of sli and crossfire on Tomshardware. They used 2x6950's to test, and they scaled very well, nearly 100% improvement in some games over a single card.
Do a little research, as you may not need 4gig of gpu ram for what your planning. An Eyefinity setup is ideal for what you wanna do.
Also get a Thermaltake Frio cpu cooler, excelent cooler, and nice and quiet.
The case suggested by Irishmetalhead is really good (Fractal design R3), very quiet with very good cooling. Def get the extra fans for a crossfire setup up though. Have a read of this to find a good quiet fan - http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cooling/2009/10/09/whats-the-best-supersize-case-fan/1
A c300 ssd would top it off nice if you can stretch to it.

IrishMetalhead · 15-03-2011 2:06pm

aye the frio is amazing best air cooler out there but one problem hwvs dosn't stock it =/
so the only closest to it is the A70

Hank Scorpio · 15-03-2011 2:13pm

IrishMetalhead wrote: »

aye but the problem with the 460gtx is that it's massively power hungry which will require a fairly expensive psu to run them in sli not to meantion that it dosn't support tessellation.

Eh? I have the 460s. They are dx11 cards, not power hungry at all and they do support tessellation...

IrishMetalhead · 15-03-2011 2:29pm

there power hungry i comparison to amd's 5000 and 6000 series and nvidia's 500 series because they run much hotter but there still a hall alot more efficiant than dx9 and 10 cards thats for sure
didn't know they suport tessellation tbh because i heard off another source that only the 6000 and 500 series suports it guess they were wrong >.<

Hank Scorpio · 15-03-2011 2:37pm

IrishMetalhead wrote: »

there power hungry i comparison to amd's 5000 and 6000 series and nvidia's 500 series because they run much hotter but there still a hall alot more efficiant than dx9 and 10 cards thats for sure
didn't know they suport tessellation tbh because i heard off another source that only the 6000 and 500 series suports it guess they were wrong >.<

460s were praised for low power consumption and temps, i can overclock from 675mhz to 920mhz main core and never exceed 65c, this is whats on more or less a 600w psu in sli

470s and 480s run alot hotter

Anyway not to derail the thread, OP is definately better off getting a new card than a 460 at this time, even if I love my 460s :pac:

sink · 15-03-2011 3:18pm

murphthesmurf wrote: »

I read a review yesterday of the scaling of sli and crossfire on Tomshardware. They used 2x6950's to test, and they scaled very well, nearly 100% improvement in some games over a single card.
Do a little research, as you may not need 4gig of gpu ram for what your planning. An Eyefinity setup is ideal for what you wanna do.
Also get a Thermaltake Frio cpu cooler, excelent cooler, and nice and quiet.
The case suggested by Irishmetalhead is really good (Fractal design R3), very quiet with very good cooling. Def get the extra fans for a crossfire setup up though. Have a read of this to find a good quiet fan - http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cooling/2009/10/09/whats-the-best-supersize-case-fan/1
A c300 ssd would top it off nice if you can stretch to it.

Yeah I read that too.

I also read somewhere that in a CF or SLI setup only the memory of the primary card is used and that's why 2GB will be alot better in CF than 1GB.

Hank Scorpio · 15-03-2011 3:35pm

sink wrote: »

Yeah I read that too.

I also read somewhere that in a CF or SLI setup only the memory of the primary card is used and that's why 2GB will be alot better in CF than 1GB.

I thought the effective memory for both cards becomes the smaller memory, thats definately the case for clock speed anyway.

Edit: Kinda misunderstood what you said. Before i went sli i read alot about this, what most people were saying was even with 2 GB cards in SLI you dont get 4GB overall, the cards take turns processing using there own memory. 2GB + 2GB in CF will definately be better if thats the case, obviously!

sink · 15-03-2011 3:52pm

I was going to put one of these in the front sucking in air

Noiseblocker BlackSilent Pro Fan PL2 - 120mm - €11.34
http://www3.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=29614&agid=42

and one of these either in the side panel adjacent to the graphics cards or at the top extracting air. Dunno which would be best.

Noiseblocker BlackSilent Pro Fan PK2 - 140mm - €13.48
http://www3.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=29623&agid=42

murphthesmurf · 15-03-2011 6:00pm

To be honest, for a cf setup i'd fill all the fan slots, just to be on the safe side. You can never have too much cooling, and with decent fans in the case you have chosen it should still stay quiet. The extra cooling will come in handy if you start oc'ing too.

sink · 15-03-2011 6:05pm

nuxxx wrote: »

I thought the effective memory for both cards becomes the smaller memory, thats definately the case for clock speed anyway.

Edit: Kinda misunderstood what you said. Before i went sli i read alot about this, what most people were saying was even with 2 GB cards in SLI you dont get 4GB overall, the cards take turns processing using there own memory. 2GB + 2GB in CF will definately be better if thats the case, obviously!

It sounds like a raid 1 array, with the memory mirrored in both.

sink · 16-03-2011 2:41pm

Going to get 3 of these

BenQ G2420HDBE - LCD display - TFT - 24" - €146.88
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=40489&agid=367

It seems to have positive reviews on amazon.de
http://www.amazon.de/BenQ-G2420HDBE-WideScreen-Monitor-Kontrastverh%C3%A4ltnis/dp/B002SNBIZI

IrishMetalhead · 16-03-2011 3:40pm

make sure your bying 3 dvi cables and a active displayport to dvi adapter (make sure it's active not passive) if your going to run eyefinity

sink · 16-03-2011 3:46pm

IrishMetalhead wrote: »

make sure your bying 3 dvi cables and a active displayport to dvi adapter (make sure it's active not passive) if your going to run eyefinity

Since i'm going crossfire, I shouldn't need the adapter, should I?

IrishMetalhead · 16-03-2011 3:50pm

you do because you have to use the display port to run the primary monitor and since the benq dosn't have a display port input (luckily it dosn't because monitor that do are expensive) your gonna have to use the adapter and i'm pretty sure you need to use a dvi-d dual link cable with it aswell as the adapters only come like that am i right there?
not sure on the last bit but you defo have to use display port sp the adapter is needed

sink · 16-03-2011 4:16pm

IrishMetalhead wrote: »

you do because you have to use the display port to run the primary monitor and since the benq dosn't have a display port input (luckily it dosn't because monitor that do are expensive) your gonna have to use the adapter and i'm pretty sure you need to use a dvi-d dual link cable with it aswell as the adapters only come like that am i right there?
not sure on the last bit but you defo have to use display port sp the adapter is needed

Ok thanks. Looks like this will do the job and it only needs a single link DVI-D.

HIS DisplayPort to Single Link-DVI Eyefinity Adapter - €20.99
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=38608&agid=1340

IrishMetalhead · 16-03-2011 4:28pm

grand job so but what dvi cables you gonig with?
just going to buy them from your local pc shop?

sink · 16-03-2011 4:31pm

IrishMetalhead wrote: »

grand job so but what dvi cables you gonig with?
just going to buy them from your local pc shop?

I have two already so I just need a third.

LogiLink DVI cable - 3 m - €6.99
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=40710&agid=1315

IrishMetalhead · 16-03-2011 4:52pm

dvi-d dual link cable with a nice lenght for under €7 not bad at all i must say

sink · 20-03-2011 6:54pm

Ok so I just placed my order this afternoon. This what I finally settled on.

Case: FRACTAL DESIGN DEFINE R3 Black Pearl - €91.69
Case Fans: Noiseblocker BlackSilent Pro PL2 120mm x1, PK2 140mm x3 - €51.92
PSU: Corsair 750HX 750W - €122.22
Motherboard: MSI P67A-GD55 (B3) - €135.24
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K - €181.11
Heatsink: Corsair A70 - €33.03
GPU: MSI Radeon HD 6950 2GB x2 - €430.28
RAM: Corsair XMS3 DDR3 PC1600 CL8 4GB kit x2 - €88.28
SSD: Crucial RealSSD C300 128GB - €196.74

Total: - €1,330.51

I ended up dropping the blu-ray as I have been given a DVD+/- RW SATA drive for free (my old drives were IDE), and tbh I don't know when I would actually use it. Instead I plunged for the SSD, it's expensive but it would be a shame to leave a kick ass system without an SSD. I also have a 500GB HDD left over from my last PC that will do for local file storage. I have a HTPC with 4TB of space for storing my music & films.

I also ordered

Monitor: BenQ G2420HDBE, 24" 1080p - €146.88 x3 - €440.64
HIS DisplayPort to Single Link-DVI Eyefinity Adapter - €20.99

Total: €461.63

Cheap monitors but I've read many reviews and watched some videos of them in action and I think they're good enough for me. I'm going to set up one initially and see if I'm happy with it before unboxing all of them. If i'm unhappy I'll return them. I have an old 24" Dell monitor that i'm keeping round as backup for the time being. Really looking forward to play BF:BC2 in eyefinity. :cool:

Grand Total: - €1792.14

I already own

Keyboard: Razer Tarantula
Mouse: Razer Copperhead
Speakers: Altec Lansing ADA995 THX 5.1

I will be selling the speakers in the near future and purchasing a wireless surround THX headset when it's eventually released. Specifically the Creative Sound Blaster Tactic 3D Omega. It will be released sometime in April/May and I expect it to be about €180-200.

I'm as excited as a fat kid in a sweet shop, I can't wait for it arrive.

Hank Scorpio · 20-03-2011 7:52pm

Looks like an awesome build, good luck with it!

IrishMetalhead · 20-03-2011 8:03pm

be sure to give us a look at this set-up when it's all done

sink · 20-03-2011 8:13pm

IrishMetalhead wrote: »

be sure to give us a look at this set-up when it's all done

Yeah I'll give y'all a looksee.

BigEejit · 20-03-2011 8:30pm

I have a question, will a 750watt psu be able to drive all that?, a i5 2500k is going to get overclocked and so will use significantly more than 95watts under load. http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/Intel_i7_2600K_i5_2500K/12.html
That page is showing the total system power usage, not sure if that includes a modern gaming graphics card.

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159
http://tpucdn.com/articles/159/images/power.jpg
Two 6950'd under load will also suck a lot of juice, more so if modded and overclocked. A modded 6950 takes 200 watts on its own.

The reason I ask is because I have an 3 year old 600Watt OCZ and it could not drive a i7 2600k, 4 sticks of ram, a few disks including 2 ssd's and a 6950. I am waiting now for a delivery of a 850Watt corsair or possibly a xfx (seasonic) because I plan on getting another 6950 and fancy a spot of overclocking (once my noctua turns up)

sink · 20-03-2011 8:39pm

BigEejit wrote: »

I have a question, will a 750watt psu be able to drive all that?, a i5 2500k is going to get overclocked and so will use significantly more than 95watts under load. http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/Intel_i7_2600K_i5_2500K/12.html
That page is showing the total system power usage, not sure if that includes a modern gaming graphics card.

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159
http://tpucdn.com/articles/159/images/power.jpg
Two 6950'd under load will also suck a lot of juice, more so if modded and overclocked. A modded 6950 takes 200 watts on its own.

The reason I ask is because I have an 3 year old 600Watt OCZ and it could not drive a i7-2600k, 4 sticks of ram, a few disks including 2 ssd's and a 6950. I am waiting now for a delivery of a 850Watt corsair or possibly a xfx (seasonic) because I plan on getting another 6950 and fancy a spot of overclocking (once my noctua turns up)

Yeah it should. I've see a Corsair HX 850W PSU supply a OC i7-980 ex, GTX 580 SLi system with a clear overhead of 200W. The HD 6950 draws significantly less power (219W vs 293W) under load source. People often massively overestimate their power requirements, better than underestimating it I guess.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2gZ8er-3cs

IrishMetalhead · 20-03-2011 8:41pm

750watts is more than enough just as long as your not running high voltage ram and loads of internal devices but in your case your running a 2600k and a few drives then you may need the extra power so going with a 850wtt wasn't a bad idea because it will keep you on the safe side

BigEejit · 20-03-2011 9:18pm

Yeah, the 600 watt psu I have just cant cut it ..... running with a 8400GS atm

so I can install windows etc, luckily my old 4870 has 4 leds on the back near the two pcie inputs which showed that a 12v rail drooped, no such leds on the 6950. Thought it would be ok seeing as it powered a q6600 (mild overclock) and the same 4870 before.

After doing some research I'm going for a single 12V rail 850watt psu. My CPU will be taking 200watts under full load, 2 6950's take about 200 each as well. After that there are 4 hard drives and 4 mushkin dimm's and whatever the p67 chipset uses to share the remaining 250 watts. I have the same case as the youtube video, with the power supply in the bottom there is not enough room for a third graphics card. The P8P67 has a Intel network port and decent sound so the only additional card I may get would be a tuner

By the way, Asus P8P67 Pro B3 has a heap of problems, hopefully new bios out today addresses some of them.

(hehe, the spell checker in Chrome suggested Ass or Anus as correct spelling of Asus..... earlier today I agreed with both suggestions)

sink · 25-03-2011 4:48pm

Ok so I placed the order last Sunday, went to the bank Monday and filled out the transfer form and the money left my account on Wednesday. I still haven't heard from them and the status of my order on the website has not been updated. I sent them an email this morning to check if they received my money and they have not replied. Getting a little worried the bank made a mistake with the transfer.

IrishMetalhead · 26-03-2011 3:23am

irish banks are going to do what they do best, hold your money needlessly so they can gather the intrest off it but don't worry it should go through soon enough it's just some cases where the transfer takes awhile (espiecally with boi and aib) give it till wednesday and if nothing has happended then it's time to kick some bank manager's behind

Headshot · 26-03-2011 3:58am

Sink get the logitech G930, can't recommend them enough

New build €1000

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