€1100 Gaming PC Advice

Heretofore

Hi all.
Am looking to get back into PC gaming after years away on console. I have put together a build i am happy enough with (below) but was wondering if i could get your advise on any improvements etc. Also are all my parts compatible? Thanks in advance.

1. What is your budget? €1100

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming (latest games with a bit of future proofing)

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Yes, want to try windows 8

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

5. Do you need a monitor? No, am going to an lcd tv for the time being, until i have enough funds for a decent monitor.

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? cd/dvd drive

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Eventually yes

8. How can you pay? Bank Transfer/Credit Card

9. When are you purchasing? Within a month

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? Carlow but would like to go it alone with a bit of online help

Item|Price
Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155|€209.08
ASRock Z77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€87.14
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz CL9|€35.93
BitFenix Shinobi Midi-Tower GERMANY Edition - black/red/gold, ohne Netzteil|€53.91
EVGA GeForce GTX 670 FTW, 2048MB DDR5, PCI-Express|€355.94
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W|€54.03
WD Caviar Green 1TB, SATA 6Gb/s (WD10EZRX)|€67.03
SanDisk SSD 128GB S-ATA 600|€79.00
LG GH24NS bare schwarz|€20.00
Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit (SB-Version)|€86.09
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1067.14

Genghiz Cohen

The Samsung 830 would be the SSD of choice around these parts, why did you pick the SanDisk?

Windows 8, brave

If you want to overclock soon you may as well throw a cooler in there.

I'm in Carlow town if you need help.

Eboggles

Grab this HD7950 instead, once you overclock it it goes toe-to-toe with a Gigabyte Super Overclock Overclocked GTX 680.

Also, get the Samsung 830 128GB SSD instead.

A quick question on Windows 8; do you like it? Windows 7 would still give you the exact same gaming performance (If not better) and doesn't suffer from Metro.

Heretofore

ScanDisk purely just to keep the price down, have you heard bad things? I'll prob pick up a cooler at a later stage when i look into it more. Any opinions on the mobo?

Heretofore

No i have no idea about windows 8, just said id throw it in there and have a look. Anybody have any hands on time with it? How does the HD7950 perform prior to over clocking?

marco_polo

Since there are a few models available for around the the same money I'd get a HD 7970 instead

It will outperform a GTX 670 in most games, especially if you are looking at adding something like a 1440p monitor later on.

EDIT: As Eboggles suggests if you are willing to overclock there is a strong case to be made for a HD7950 as well as they start from under €300. Just make sure it is a model with once of the better coolers like the HIS ICEQ, Sapphire Vapour X or MIS Twin Frozer etc.

http://lb.hardwareversand.de/3072+MB/65384/HIS+HD+7950+IceQ+Boost+Clock+GDDR5+3072MB+DVI+HDMI+2xMiniDP.article

http://lb.hardwareversand.de/3072+MB/67817/Sapphire+Vapor-X+Radeon+HD+7950+OC+Boost%2C+3GB+GDDR5%2C+Full+Retail.article

http://lb.hardwareversand.de/3072+MB/59897/MSI+R7950+Twin+Frozr+3GD5+V2+OC%2C+3072MB+DDR5%2C+PCI-Express.article

EDIT 2: Just read some OC reviews for the Club 3D 7950 Royal King :eek:, get that instead if you go for a HD 7950

Heretofore

Hopefully i will be adding a 1440p monitor sooner rather than later alright. Its seems that AMD is more popular a choice then (is that the general consensus on here?). Thanks for the advice, i will read up on both advised cards tonight.

Heretofore

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

The Samsung 830 would be the SSD of choice around these parts, why did you pick the SanDisk?

Windows 8, brave

If you want to overclock soon you may as well throw a cooler in there.

I'm in Carlow town if you need help.

Thanks Genghiz, going to do a bit more reading up on parts first before ordering as im kinda a noob on these things. If im stuck i'll shout

Heretofore

Okay ive decided to go with the build above but with the Club 3D 7950 Royal King (thanks for the advice), looks like i'll be overclocking the gpu straight off the bat though, are the fans on the Royal King sufficient or will i require a cooler (or is this only for cpu overclocking?), if so can anybody recommend a fan?

marco_polo

Heretofore wrote: »

Okay ive decided to go with the build above but with the Club 3D 7950 Royal King (thanks for the advice), looks like i'll be overclocking the gpu straight off the bat though, are the fans on the Royal King sufficient or will i require a cooler (or is this only for cpu overclocking?), if so can anybody recommend a fan?

No need the one on it seems excellent, this is the review that I read after I saw Eboggles suggestion that made me cross out all my ones.

Heretofore

Great, thanks Marco, yeah that review changed my mind too! Also am now going with the ASRock Z77 Extreme4 with the money i have saved on the Graphics card, either that or swapping the sandisk ssd for the Samsung 830 as Genghiz and Eboggles have suggested.

platinums

Good Build might use it for myself.

Heretofore

What is the smallest case form factor i could comfortably fit the above in? Space being a bit of an issue. I can still do the Shinobi but something smaller would be better if possible

marco_polo

Heretofore wrote: »

What is the smallest case form factor i could comfortably fit the above in? Space being a bit of an issue. I can still do the Shinobi but something smaller would be better if possible

The Shinobi is a fairly standard size midi ATX tower, you could certainly change the motherboard and case to mATX and comfortably fit everything in (be it a mATX tower or cube).

If you are feeling adventurous could even squeeze it all it into a top quality mITX case, but that would required careful study of the board, cooler size, GPU length, case layout etc to make sure it will all fit together and that the case will be avble to keep everything reasonably cool. If you were to go down this route the smallest I would go is probably the BitFenix Prodigy

Of course the smaller the form factor the more you lose in terms of ports, drive bays etc. If it were me, for a gaming PC (that you have said you might overclock) I would stick with mAtx tower or cube at the very least, unless you really really have to go smaller.

Heretofore

marco_polo wrote: »

The Shinobi is a fairly standard size midi ATX tower, you could certainly change the motherboard and case to mATX and comfortably fit everything in (be it a mATX tower or cube).

If you are feeling adventurous could even squeeze it all it into a top quality mITX case, but that would required careful study of the board, cooler size, GPU length, case layout etc to make sure it will all fit together and that the case will be avble to keep everything reasonably cool. If you were to go down this route the smallest I would go is probably the BitFenix Prodigy

Of course the smaller the form factor the more you lose in terms of ports, drive bays etc. If it were me, for a gaming PC (that you have said you might overclock) I would stick with mAtx tower or cube at the very least, unless you really really have to go smaller.

Thanks Marco, taking that into account i will stick with the Shinobi. Ordering today at some stage so thanks for the help all! Stay tuned for my next thread "Christ on a bike what did i get myself into and how do i fit all this together?'

Genghiz Cohen

For €20 HWVS will put it together for you.
Add this to your basket.

Heretofore

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

For €20 HWVS will put it together for you.
Add this to your basket.

Would you recommend it? I like the idea of putting it together myself but have no experience at PC building, decent at fixing other electrical items though so not a complete noob. I have watched and read a few 'how to build guides' and it seems straight forward enough, i just dont want to f things up. What do you advise?

Genghiz Cohen

I would recommend doing it yourself. After you see for yourself how easy it is you'll be amazed you were ever worried.

Heretofore

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

For €20 HWVS will put it together for you.
Add this to your basket.

Cheers Genghiz, thats exactly what i wanted to hear.
One final question: decided to throw in a wireless card just in case, what is you opinion on this: http://lb.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=42568&agid=271

Just notice we both use Terry Pratchett user names