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New build - Photo/gaming ~€1100

  • 06-06-2013 4:02am
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,984 ✭✭✭


    My tired old machine kicked the bucket, though it was long overdue replacing anyway, and my laptop just about handles the basics, so its build time.

    1. What is your budget? ~€1100

    2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Mainly photo editing (Ps/Lr), with some moderate gaming (mainly RTS's like Starcraft/CoH, and the odd FPS on average-to-decent graphcs).

    3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Yes

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

    5. Do you need a monitor? No

    5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? [1920x1080/1440x900/etc.] 1920x1080. May upgrade by the end of the year.

    6. Do you need any of these peripherals? [Keyboard/Mouse/Wireless Card/Card Reader/Speakers/etc.] Wifi card.

    7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Not initially.

    8. How can you pay? Any.

    9. When are you purchasing? In about a month or two.

    10. If you need help building it, where are you based? Limerick, but I should be ok (famous last words).

    My thoughts were going toward a GTX660, i5, SSD and a smegload of ram. If there was room in the budget, I'd nearly go to the 670/680 for the sake of futureproofing.

    Ideas welcome. It's my first build in a good while, so I'm playing catch-up with info.


Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,299 ✭✭✭✭BloodBath


    How does this look? The Xeons are really good value if not overclocking. I did have to go with an overclocking board though for sli support but you can still overclock non overclock chips a little with these. (Not 100% if it works with xeons) This one doesn't have an igp. You can get the same one with an igp for €10 more though. It would outperform the i5 by a fair bit in photoshop anyway. It's pretty much in line with the i7 3770.

    I don't think it's possible to get a 670gtx into the build and they aren't good value imo. The 660ti's are poor value as well. A single 660 should do you for now and you can add a second one when you need the power.

    It's crazy Nvidia have a such a big pricing gap between the 660 and 660ti from 165 to 265. 660 prices came down, 660ti prices didn't.

    If you wanted to save some money and have no interest in sli you could get the asrock zh77 pro 3 which doesn't have sli support and just sell and upgrade the card in a year. 2 x 660's have around 780 gtx performance though for €300 less.

    Item|Price
    16GB-Kit G.Skill RipJaws-X PC3-10667U CL9|€104.63
    Samsung SSD 840 250GB SATA 6Gb/s|€141.99
    Seagate Barracuda 7200 2000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€80.84
    Cooltek Antiphon White, ohne Netzteil|€69.66
    be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 7 500W|€53.77
    ASRock Z77 Extreme3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€109.19
    Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Windforce 2X, 2GB GDDR5, 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort|€164.99
    TP-Link TL-WN951N, 300Mbps PCI-Adapter|€22.04
    LiteOn iHAS124-04 schwarz SATA|€16.49
    MS Windows 8 64bit (SB-Version) Englisch|€85.11
    Intel Xeon E3-1240v2, boxed, LGA1155|€235.43
    Shipping|€18.99
    Total|€1103.13


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,984 ✭✭✭NakedDex


    Looks good. Advantages of the Xeon over the i5? I hadn't even considered the Xeon series, to be honest. Any i5 alternatives I looked at were AMD, but I couldn't quite figure where the performance crossovers lay.
    Gaming-wise, how would the Xeon fair? I wouldn't be an intensive gamer anymore, but RTS's still feature heavily (not the hardest things to run) and if this new Xbox is going to be the way it claims, I may make a move back to PC.

    The plan was to get another card and SLI in the future, probably in six months time, so that board is ideal. The 670 didn't seem like a great price, but I heard good performance reports about it so I wasn't sure whether to go the 2x660 route, or get the 670 and SLI that at a later date, when the price dropped a tad.
    Would it be worth upping the PSU now, to cater for SLI later?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,983 ✭✭✭✭tuxy


    The xeon is the same as an i7 with out the integrated graphics which you wont be using anyway because of the dedicated gtx 660 card.
    It's only downside is you can't overclock like you can with the k series i5

    The gtx 670 is faster than the 660 of course. However the 660 is better value for money. You can find many benchmarks comparing them so you so you can decide if the higher end card is worth the money. There is also the newly released 770(really just a released 680) which is only slightly more expensive than the 670.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,984 ✭✭✭NakedDex


    Yeah, I wasn't sure if I was better off with one 670 now, and another in a years time, or just shove a pair of 660's into it now and probably end up paying half the cost overall. As much of a sucker as I am for the sparkly new hardware, a pair of 660's for the price of a 680 is looking more and more like the right option.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,984 ✭✭✭NakedDex


    So, I finally got around to ordering this (life got in the way, as it does). Only problem now is I somehow have ended up with an 1150 processor, and an 1155 motherboard. I realised this, in a beautiful moment of idiocy, when I went to fit the processor, so everything is open.

    I presume HV won't accept the motherboard back for a swap out to an equivalent in 1150? Or am I going to have to write it off and buy a new 1150 board?


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,299 ✭✭✭✭BloodBath


    I realised this, in a beautiful moment of idiocy,

    I love this. :) Unlucky

    I'm sure they will replace it if you email them or phone them.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,984 ✭✭✭NakedDex


    It's the best description I could think of without resorting to testing the language censoring limits. Imagine the look on my face after noticing the PCB notches on the processor were about 3mm off position...

    I shot them an email. I'm hoping they'll let me do an exchange, but I figured I'd ask if anyone had any similar-ish experiences. I'd expect them to not exchange it since it's open, really.
    Gutted now, as I'd planned a few days off to mess with the thing, and get everything downloaded on this interminably slow connection. Looks like it'll have to wait until next month. I've a rather fancy looking paperweight in the mean time.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,299 ✭✭✭✭BloodBath


    What processor and board did you get? If you don't want to wait so long maybe just order a matching board from Amazon with a 2 day Delivery and sell the other board on.

    You will lose a little money on the deal but nothing drastic and at least you will be up and running by early next week.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,984 ✭✭✭NakedDex


    Xeon 1240v3. The V2 has the 1155, and the V3 has 1150. It's the right motherboard and the wrong processor, but it'll be a lot easier to change the motherboard.

    Picking up a new one is the plan if HWV don't exchange it. I'm pretty much destroyed with work for the next month, so at this stage, time has beaten me, and it won't matter if it takes a three days or three weeks to make happen. I had a browse on Amazon for a few, and spotted a couple of options, but I'll wait to get a reply first. If I lose a few quid in the process, I'll happily write it off as an idiocy tax.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,299 ✭✭✭✭BloodBath


    You might as well keep the processor then. The newer Haswells are about 10% faster.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,984 ✭✭✭NakedDex


    Yeah that's my thinking, too. It's an unfortunate delay, but it's not all that bad in the long run. The dangerous part is that it means the case is open for an extra few weeks, which will probably result in me ordering watercooling or extra parts out of sheer idleness.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,984 ✭✭✭NakedDex


    New mobo arrived yesterday. I made a few minor changes (only major one being a H80 water cooler). It's a rocket. My net connection is pootling along at about 2Mb, so the next few days will be spent downloading and setting up before I get to test it properly.

    Thanks a lot for the help, BloodBath. I'm catching myself back up with what I've let slide the last few years.

    Next step is a decent monitor, but in the mean time, a DVI-VGA cable so I can stop using my tv. Didn't think once to check if the graphics card had VGA...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,299 ✭✭✭✭BloodBath


    What board did you get? Can you test it and let me know if it's possible to do an overclock on that xeon please. Some boards allow some overclocking on non k i5 and i7 processors but I'm not sure if it works with the xeons.

    The overclock usually allows you to go 4 bins over the max turbo speed so that would be 400mhz over the 3.7ghz turbo which would be 4.1ghz. If not you should be able to force max turbo speed on all 4 cores.


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