1st Build, I think I've done most of the work

MattOD

Hi Guys nd gals,

For weeks now I've been reading up and getting advice and I think I'm nearly there.

I've added the below in case it helps, budget doesn't include the Monitor,

1. What is your budget? €1000

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming, Internet.

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? Yes, 144hz, 1ms, 1080p or higher

5a. If yes, what size do you need. Would love a 27" but I think the above only comes in a 24", could be wrong.

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future?

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? Keyboard + Mouse

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? New to this but would like to try.

8. How can you pay? Credit Card/Paypal

9. When are you purchasing? within 4 weeks

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? Dublin


This is the build so far:

Tower :
Cooler Master CM Storm Enforcer (SGC-1000-KWN1) €72.57 ( Already have this )

Motherboard:
ASRock Z77 Extreme 4 €123.89
Probably wait for the ASRock Z87 motherboards to be available and check reviews and prices.

CPU:
Intel Core i5-3570K €205.99
Probably wait for the Haswell series CPUs (4670k) to be available and check reviews and prices.

CPU Cooler :
Coolermaster Seidon 120M, 120*27mm radiator, PWM 600~2400 RPM(RL-S12M-24PK-R1) €53.99 ( Not sure about this one ).

Graphics Card
EVGA GeForce GTX 660 SUPERCLOCKED 2GB ( Got this off my bro )

Memory:
G.Skill 8GB (2 x 4GB) Ripjaws-X DDR3 PC3-12800 1600MHz CL9 F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL €59.14 (Willing to change if it'll help)

PSU :
Corsair 750W Enthusiast Series TX750 Modular Power Supply CP-9020040-UK €116.55

Drives:
Samsung 120GB 840 Series SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Solid State Drive MZ-7PD128BW €81.99 ( Not interested in the PRO version or increasing the size )

WD 1TB CAVIAR BLUE 64MB 7200RPM 3.5" D WD10EALX €58.36

Keyboard:
Cooler Master Trigger Gaming Keyboard ( Blue Key ) SGK-6000-GKCL1 €99.90

Mouse:
Cooler Master Inferno Gaming Mouse SGM-4000-KLLN1-GP €39.46

If I can improve any of the above w/o breaking the bank let me know.

Looking for advice, Windows 7 or 8? Also Monitors with above spec, edging towards Asus.

Any help is appreciated, over to you

tuxy

You could easily save some money and get the exact same performance.
A system like that won't need more then a 450 watt PSU even if you are overclocking.

The motherboard you picked supports Dual GPUs. You are paying extra for this even though you probably will not use it. A cheaper motherboard will give you the same performance.

BloodBath

Might as well throw a second 660 in there. A 500w psu would be plenty for 2 of them. Get a 650-700w though if you think you might go with 2 high end cards in the future. The faster ram is only €2 more so you might as well.

Item|Price
Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155|€205.99
ASRock Z77 Extreme4, Sockel 1155, ATX|€123.89
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Intel/AMD|€29.83
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Windforce 2X, 2GB GDDR5, 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort|€172.19
8GB-Kit G.Skill Sniper PC3-14900U CL9-10-9-28|€61.70
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 7 500W|€53.71
Samsung SSD 840 120GB SATA 6Gb/s|€81.99
WD Caviar Blue 1TB 6Gb's|€58.36
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€806.65

MattOD

tuxy wrote: »

You could easily save some money and get the exact same performance.
A system like that won't need more then a 450 watt PSU even if you are overclocking.

The motherboard you picked supports Dual GPUs. You are paying extra for this even though you probably will not use it. A cheaper motherboard will give you the same performance.

Hi, I was actually thinking of getting another 660 SC in a month or so, how much power would 2 draw, I keep reading different figures.

That was the reason for that MOBO and the PSU although I think it still might be too high.

I'm sure I read somewhere not to use the full amount ob the PSU, any idea what headroom your supposed to allow?

BloodBath

Most power figures are full system power measuring power draw from the wall. Depending on the power supply this would change the results a lot. Even the most efficient psus draw more power than the system actually uses.

I would say overclocked both cards use 150w max and the cpu overclocked around 100w with the rest of the system using no more than 50w. It would be extremely rare that all 3 would be at 100% utilisation though. I'd say average gaming consumption would be around 400w so a 500w should have you covered.

The cards only use a single 6 pin connection. Top end cards use 2 x 8 pins or 1 x 8 and 1 x 6.

MattOD

BloodBath wrote: »

Might as well throw a second 660 in there. A 500w psu would be plenty for 2 of them. Get a 650-700w though if you think you might go with 2 high end cards in the future. The faster ram is only €2 more so you might as well.

Item|Price
Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155|€205.99
ASRock Z77 Extreme4, Sockel 1155, ATX|€123.89
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Intel/AMD|€29.83
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Windforce 2X, 2GB GDDR5, 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort|€172.19
8GB-Kit G.Skill Sniper PC3-14900U CL9-10-9-28|€61.70
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 7 500W|€53.71
Samsung SSD 840 120GB SATA 6Gb/s|€81.99
WD Caviar Blue 1TB 6Gb's|€58.36
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€806.65

Cheers for the heads up on the better RAM, kept reading that anything above 1600mhz was just sales talk and of no benefit, suppose there's no harm getting it thought.

Cheers.

BloodBath

There's not much benefit in games but it's €2 in the difference so you might as well.

MattOD

[QUOTE=
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - Intel/AMD|€29.83[/QUOTE]

I should be able to get the Cooler listed on my spec for around €25-€30 through work, which is better, the above or the one I listed?

mad turnip

I have a question. why must the monitor be 144Hz have you got some kind of super eyes? How old are you? I'm presuming 18-21 but if your much older refresh rates like these will have no effect on you just seems so specific I hadn't even relised monitors came in this refresh rate.

BloodBath

The cooler you listed is overkill for a 3570k. The 212 evo has one of the best price/performance ratios and will allow overclocks in the 4.5ghz region.

I meant to mention the monitor as well. Unless you are doing competitive gaming in a game where you can actually get a frame rate to match 120hz or 144hz by turning the graphics down then it seems like a waste. At max game settings even with 2 x 660's you won't be getting near 120 frames per second in most games.

Have you considered a 1440p Korean monitor? There's a lot of good ones and one of the Qnix ones is supposed to overclock to around 120hz for around €300 delivered + customs charges. Check out the Yamakasi catleap monitor club thread.

2 x 660's should pull 60 fps solidly in most games maxed at 1440p.

MattOD

BloodBath wrote: »

The cooler you listed is overkill for a 3570k. The 212 evo has one of the best price/performance ratios and will allow overclocks in the 4.5ghz region..

Is the cooler I had still an overkill if I wait and go with a Haswell series CPU (4670k)?

I meant to mention the monitor as well. Unless you are doing competitive gaming in a game where you can actually get a frame rate to match 120hz or 144hz by turning the graphics down then it seems like a waste. At max game settings even with 2 x 660's you won't be getting near 120 frames per second in most games.

New to all this, didn't realise the FPS needed to be that high to benefit from a monitor with hz rates of 120 -144.

I play mainly FPS, I wanna get into Arma 3 / DayZ, what are the types of monitors I need to look for?
Input lag I believe is one of the most important factors for gaming, do I base my decision on that, res? TN / IPS ? Hz? Head is wrecked choosing the monitor grrr

I read about the Catleap Monitors on here but wasn't sure if was good for gaming or not.

I would like a 27" monitor though, that's the only thing I do know

mad turnip

MattOD wrote: »

Is the cooler I had still an overkill if I wait and go with a Haswell series CPU (4670k)?


New to all this, didn't realise the FPS needed to be that high to benefit from a monitor with hz rates of 120 -144.

I play mainly FPS, I wanna get into Arma 3 / DayZ, what are the types of monitors I need to look for?
Input lag I believe is one of the most important factors for gaming, do I base my decision on that, res? TN / IPS ? Hz? Head is wrecked choosing the monitor grrr

I read about the Catleap Monitors on here but wasn't sure if was good for gaming or not.

I would like a 27" monitor though, that's the only thing I do know

I think someone has been whispering sweet nothings in your ear about monitors. Anything 60Hz should be fine (60 fps is high enough for most gamers) . So check the monitor can do 1080p and has a 60Hz refresh rate and you should be fine. I use a 28" monitor and its pretty ****ing huge I wouldn't really recommend it but whenever I talk to people they always insist that its better than a 24" or whatever.

tuxy

mad turnip wrote: »

I think someone has been whispering sweet nothings in your ear about monitors anything 60Hz should be fine (60 fps is high enough for most gamers) . So check the monitor can do 1080p and has a 60Hz refresh rate and you should be fine. I use a 28" monitor and its pretty ****ing huge I wouldn't really recommend it but whenever I talk to people they always insist that its better than a 24" or whatever.

If you have a system that can get will over 60 fps then it's actually fairly easy to see the difference in fast paced games when using a 120hz monitor.

I would definitely go for a 24" monitor over a 28" if they were both 1080p. The smaller monitor will look sharper at the same res. You can actually see individual pixels at normal viewing distance on large monitors 27"+ when the res is only 1080p

BloodBath

That's it. You lose pixel density as you increase size. If going 27" you should really go 1440p and you will have the power for it with 2 x 660's.

Is the cooler I had still an overkill if I wait and go with a Haswell series CPU (4670k)?

I haven't read the reviews yet but they do seem to be hotter.

MattOD

So at the moment it's looking like either of the below if I SLI 2 x GTX 660 SC's.

24" 120hz 1080p
or
27" Korean 120hz(overclocked) 1440p 6ms response time, is that ok for gaming or too high now that there's 1-2ms monitors?

Would there be a noticeable difference between a 1ms and 6ms monitor when used for gaming?

Do you know if the Korean monitor is compatible with the 660 SC's? Tried googling it bit can't seem to find an answer.

BloodBath

Do you think you would notice the difference of five 1 hundreds of a second? 6 ms is fine for gaming.

You need a dual link dvi for 1440p which the 660 has. 2 on each card afaik.

mad turnip

MattOD wrote: »

So at the moment it's looking like either of the below if I SLI 2 x GTX 660 SC's.

24" 120hz 1080p
or
27" Korean 120hz(overclocked) 1440p 6ms response time, is that ok for gaming or too high now that there's 1-2ms monitors?

Would there be a noticeable difference between a 1ms and 6ms monitor when used for gaming?

Do you know if the Korean monitor is compatible with the 660 SC's? Tried googling it bit can't seem to find an answer.

If I was you, I would choose the 24" 120Hz for the sole purpose that a 27" screen requires quite a large desk if your even considering this you should be posting your playing area with measurements as you don't want to be playing an FPS and it looking like a tennis match with you looking left and right.

You seem quite inexperienced and 1440p on 120Hz is a bit overkill for your first build considering you seem to have no idea what both results look like. If you've spent most of your time gaming on systems with low-medium specs even this build will be a huge increase.

marco_polo

I have a very shallow desk and find my 24" Dell bordering on too large at times, so I definately wouldn't go larger unless you can put a nice bit of space between yourself and it.

MattOD

24" it is then so, cheers for your advice.

You're right I am extremely inexperienced with PC's, have always played on consoles from the very 1st PS( no thinking there, just handed everything on a plate), 1st ever computer was a Commodore 16 that'll give you an idea how old I am and how technology has passed me by.

I'm used to playing the PS3 on a 50" from 8ft away, so I can see why a 24" from 2-3ft away is fine.
Thanks again.

BloodBath

It's still possible to use the pc on the 50" as well and use a ps3 or xbox pad.

Gumbi

That's just an insane price, really. I won't/can't believe it until I have confirmation from someone here or something. You could slap on a 100 quid to that price and it would be a fair price. Payday isn't for 3 weeks, o I'd get that card right now

BloodBath

Yeah if it was a mistake they would surely have fixed it by now. I don't know.

This is a good 24" screen for the money. The stand isn't the best but the screen is excellent.

http://www.hardwareversand.de/60+cm+%2824%29+/74649/LG+24EA53VQ.article

MattOD

BloodBath wrote: »

Yeah if it was a mistake they would surely have fixed it by now. I don't know.

This is a good 24" screen for the money. The stand isn't the best but the screen is excellent.

http://www.hardwareversand.de/60+cm+%2824%29+/74649/LG+24EA53VQ.article

Nice 1 blood bath, that price seems to be right, similar price to the below.

http://www.dcbgroup.com/products/Monitors/Other-Monitors/LG/LG-24EA53VQ-P-LED-monitor-24-1920-x-1080-?prodid=258778

Gonna stop thinking about all of this until the new mobo's and CPU's have been reviewed and priced, I should be able to get them at a decent price through a supplier I use in the UK.

Was reading up on the GTX 770 and it seems unreal, the supplier I use are selling the EVGA GeForce GTX 770 Superclocked 2GB @ £299 ( ex vat ) and the MSI NVIDIA GTX 770 LIGHTNING 1150MHz 7010MHz 2048MB for £301 (ex vat ), gonna try and get it at cost

Been planning the build on and off for 2 months, now all the new releases are here it might have just gone up in smoke all depends what he'll give them to me for.

Cheers for your help, might be back with a revised build in a week or so and see what you guys think.

Thanks again