New highish end Gaming Machine

BKtje

1. What is your budget? €2000ish

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming (Pretty much everything)

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Yes

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? No

5. Do you need a monitor? No

5b. Native Resolution: 1680x1050. May upgrade in the future though if I decide it is warranted.

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? Wireless card

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Yes

8. How can you pay? All but will be purchasing from inside Switzerland so will have to source myself.

9. When are you purchasing? Under a month.

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? Won't need any help.

=========================================

I've already done some research and have a possible build ready. Just looking on any advice/changes people would suggest.
The site that I've sourced all these products from is Swiss and therefore in french/german/italian so I'll link to component sites and will place the price in Euro ( converted from Swiss Franc). Many prices seem to be slightly lower than that available in the EU.

1. Asus Sabertooth LGA 1155 ~ €181
2. Intel i7 3770K ~ €281
3. Corsair H100l ~ €104
4. FSP Auru Gold 700w ~ €100
5. Gigabyte GTX 680 ~ €438
6. Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 2x8GB DDR3 1866MHZ ~ €108
7. Samsung SSD 830 256GB ~ €156
8. Western Digital Caviar Green 2tb 7200rpm 8.9ms ~ €99
9. Asus PCE N53 ~ €37
10. Asus Blue Ray reader / DVD RW ~ €66
11. Coolermaster HAF X ~ €149
12. Windows 7 Home premium 64bit ~ €95

Which gives me CHF 2200 or about €1820.

I could trade down to an EVGA 670 GTX for about €100 less. I know both cards are overkill for my monitors resolution but I want to future proof a little for a possible new monitor in the future and against upgrades for a good few years. Maybe the 670GTX would give me more bang for buck in my case? Thoughts?

I plan to overclock the CPU to around 4.6ghz which shouldn't be a problem. I am however slightly less comfortable overclocking memory which is why I didn't go for the 2133mhz stuff and only 1866mhz. The mobo handles 1600mhz RAM so I should safely be able to overclock it to the 1866mhz i imagine. Once again any thoughts?

The case as well was picked with minimal research done but it seems quite decent. Once more, thoughts?


Thanks for any input you guys can provide

Monotype

I'd swap the 3770K for a 3570K - gains are non-existent for games.

Kind of an expensive motherboard - are you thinking of SLI?

I mean, it's considerably more expensive than something like this:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-157-GL&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517
and the gains of having RAM that much faster might not be as good as putting funds elsewhere.
Even if you want the higher speed, it's still expensive relative to the other brands:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-163-CR&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1387
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-136-GL&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1387
By the way, you're not really overclocking the memory if that's the speed that it will say that it does. Maybe that's the cheapest RAM that you see available to you, but it does seem unnecessarily expensive.

Just make sure that it's the latest WD green that you get. I think there's two, possibly three, versions around.

Wireless is not advisable for a desktop - Have you considered homeplugs?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-PA411KIT-AV500-Powerline-Adapter/dp/B0084Y9N3O/
(amazon.co.uk are out of stock, but you can still select them from the list on the right - well I suppose that's not relevant for Switzerland and you'll have to source your own).

I think that you should get windows 7 professional as you are looking at large amounts of RAM, even though it's doubtful you'll find the need to upgrade from that.

Finally, you need a new monitor.
The catleap (see the catleap thread) is a good one to go for if you want a cheap IPS 27'', but I think that you could go with something like the U2412M instead?

BKtje

Monotype wrote: »

I'd swap the 3770K for a 3570K - gains are non-existent for games.

Cheers, done.

Kind of an expensive motherboard - are you thinking of SLI?

Did some research and it came down to this board and a gigabyte one. Seeing as the gigabyte board wasn't available anywhere I checked I decided on the slightly more expensive Asus. I don't plan to SLI any time soon but would like the option down the line when one EVGA 670 GTX FTW (which I have decided to go with) is no longer enough.

I mean, it's considerably more expensive than something like this:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-157-GL&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517
and the gains of having RAM that much faster might not be as good as putting funds elsewhere.
Even if you want the higher speed, it's still expensive relative to the other brands:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-163-CR&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1387
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-136-GL&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1387
By the way, you're not really overclocking the memory if that's the speed that it will say that it does. Maybe that's the cheapest RAM that you see available to you, but it does seem unnecessarily expensive.

Ram seems to be incredibly expensive here. Those corsair dominators are over €160 for instance. This seems to continue across all memory lines and marks.

Just make sure that it's the latest WD green that you get. I think there's two, possibly three, versions around.

Ok, cheers though not sure how to check that. Would you have any recommendations. I just need it for storage really and it was one of the cheaper ones.

Wireless is not advisable for a desktop - Have you considered homeplugs?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-PA411KIT-AV500-Powerline-Adapter/dp/B0084Y9N3O/
(amazon.co.uk are out of stock, but you can still select them from the list on the right - well I suppose that's not relevant for Switzerland and you'll have to source your own).

Awesome! Was looking for something like this before! Thanks! Amazon will usually dispatch to switzerland so will grab them!

I think that you should get windows 7 professional as you are looking at large amounts of RAM, even though it's doubtful you'll find the need to upgrade from that.

I'll stick with 7 home premium for now. I have a year offer for a €10 upgrade to windows 8 which can handle more if I decide to install more. Didn't realise home premium had the 16gb limit though! I want to try 8 at some point but since I love 7 I didn't want to risk it yet.

Finally, you need a new monitor.
The catleap (see the catleap thread) is a good one to go for if you want a cheap IPS 27'', but I think that you could go with something like the U2412M instead?

Thanks, will check that out as well and for all your advice!

Monotype

What about ordering from memoryc?
It says €74 for this 16GB when I select Switzerland. I assume that doesn't have VAT as its considerably lower than selecting Ireland. Even with potential import duties, it should still work out cheaper. Are there trade agreements with Switzerland and the EU? Anyway, surely they wouldn't charge above 25% which would still be reasonable.
http://www.memoryc.com/computermemory/ddr3ram/16gbgskill1866mhzpc314900dualchannelkitripjawsx.html

Or cheaper again for 1600MHz RAM, no heatsinks.
http://www.memoryc.com/computermemory/ddr3ram/16gbgskillpc312800ntseries1600mhzdualkit.html

I think WD20EZRX is the latest 2TB green. If you want to pay a little more, the new WD Reds are similar but have a longer warranty, a bit faster and more durable.

BKtje

Vat is 8% which will be (usually unless it slips through) applied when it arrives along with a 20chf admin charge which would make the price difference negligible. Are they much better than the ones I linked to? (the ripjaws).


I found the WD20EZRX for only a few euro more so will grab that!

Thanks again.

Monotype

Probably much the same as the RAM you linked earlier. Timings are slightly higher so they would be ever so slightly slower. You could adjust this yourself to match and the RAM would probably be capable of it.

You don't need 16GB for gaming at all to be fair. Even intensive games hardly hit 4GB.

BKtje

Yeah I know 16gb is overkill at the moment but 8gb is only a tenner less so... Weird ass Swiss prices.

BKtje

It has arrived and has been assembled without any problems (except that I bought a PCI wireless card instead of PCI-e, doh).

From power up to windows being ready to use is 17 seconds. Never seen anything like it

Thanks again for your help!

ED E

There would rarely be a need to use a PCI-E wireless card. PCI-E is for high bandwidth things like GPUs.

AlanS181824

BKtje wrote: »

It has arrived and has been assembled without any problems (except that I bought a PCI wireless card instead of PCI-e, doh).

From power up to windows being ready to use is 17 seconds. Never seen anything like it

Thanks again for your help!

Could you maybe do some videos? I'd love to see this beast in action :P

smileyj1987

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-148-MS

This is very good value because it has a good cooler and 6 free games !

BKtje

ED E wrote: »

There would rarely be a need to use a PCI-E wireless card. PCI-E is for high bandwidth things like GPUs.

I do realise this but my mobo doesn't come with any PCI slots. Went out and bought a powerline starter kit today so that should sort that out.

AlanS181824 wrote: »

Could you maybe do some videos? I'd love to see this beast in action :P

Videos? Of what? I haven't overclocked it yet (haven't had time) but hope to get around to it next week so can see about doing something like that after.

smileyj1987 wrote: »

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-148-MS

This is very good value because it has a good cooler and 6 free games !

I agree with you but i've already finished building the machine

smileyj1987

BKtje wrote: »

I agree with you but i've already finished building the machine

Ahwell it always the way ! Have fun with your new machine . Oh and pics are a must

BKtje

Will see what I can do once I get all the empty boxes cleared away