I've come to worry about the components that i'm placing into my new PC will be outdated by the end of the year. With the Intel Haswell with it's 4th generation of chipsets with more sockets, i'm a rather bit scared that, by the time i've bought all the stuff, i'll be locked out of the next generation. In addition, this PC (i've found) will be cheaper to build instead of purchase made as the websites which make it for you are more catered to people who just want to make a quick pc without any real thought into it. (seriously, places such as cyberpowerpc have about ten motherboards to pick from, it's rubbish). Heres the list (copied from text file): Case: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NZXT-Phan...ting_DesktopComponents_RL&hash=item1c31311056 PSU: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-TX650V2-Enthusiast-Series-Bronze/dp/B004O0P9TO DVD Drive: http://www.ebuyer.com/410560-liteon...-r-ram-sata-drive-internal-black-ihas124-19cu RAM: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Corsair-V...erComponents_MemoryRAM_JN&hash=item35c5fb6340 Processor: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Generation-i5-3570K-3-40GHz-Technology/dp/B007RUZKK6 Motherboard: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MSI-Z77A-...aptopMotherboards_CPUs_CA&hash=item33800f4349 Graphics: MSI ATi Radeon HD 6850 1GB GDRR5 Dx11 (already owned) OS: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Microsoft...ting_Software_Software_SR&hash=item3cd045c1e0 Hard drive: http://www.ebuyer.com/252858-seagate-1tb-barracuda-internal-hard-drive-st31000524as If you can find any websites that include all of this (or close enough) that can put this together, then do tell me. But do I really need to wait for the 4th gen, or will I be relatively alright?
It may be a good idea to wait for a while. Also I can't see why you'd spend that much on a case if you're making a pc on a budget when you could put that into the bank and wait for the HD7xxx series cards to fall in price a little bit, from the components you list there your graphics card is still good but will almost certainly be the weakest element of the pc, especially as that CPU seems to be a bit of a beast (although don't know too much about Intel) My graphics card is the HD6870 which is very similar and I just played through Bioshock infinite on a mostly Ultra/High settings mix at 60fps so whilst its not cutting edge its still good, but due to the stupid unoptimised nature of PC hardware you can't know how long it'll be good for. Alternatively you may also want a good Solid State Drive, it is refreshing having Windows and various other programmes boot so quickly with an SSD.
I have i5 3450- 8GB Ram and Geforce GTX 680 graphic card and I don't think it worth bothering buying and upgrading PC spec. You better off buying PS4, especially better exclusives games and gaming community. That what I'm doing next. what your budget ? Your PC case is good but the price is unnecessary because you get high quality decent PC case for lower price. Like this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sumvision-...ht_1499wt_1398 Your PSU is good and built in good quality . This is most importantly part in Gaming rig, depends on your power of CPU and GPU. DVD drive is good, You could upgrade up to Blu-ray drive like I did but it is optional If you want to watch Blu-ray Movies or Video Home Camera. RAM is good, 8GB is perfect. No need to bother of getting 16GB RAM CPU is good, you made the right choice. GPU, Your Graphic card need to upgrade in my opinion. Especially you got Intel i5 Core. Go for Geforec- Nvida Graphic card like GTX 670, I got Gainward GeForce GTX 680 Window 7 is good choice Harddrive you got is good- You could get Solid State Drive but Normal Harddrive is more reliable and Lifespan last longer. Since the PC you will be buying isn't exactly a super high end machine i would say that it should cope with the heat output. there are a couple of things you would need to double check before you went ahead and tried to put your PC in there because PCs like those tend to have custom sized components rather than the usual PC component standards, which might mean the bits you want to add wont fit. First off I'd check that the motherboard you are after will fit. the most likely scenario is that the case can only fit mATX motherboards. there's nothing wrong with this (my own case only takes up to mATX) but it would mean you couldn't buy a full ATX motherboard now and keep it for an SLI upgrade later. with your budget I doubt this is a problem. However, it could be that the case cant fit m-ATX motherboards, in which case you would have a major problem finding a cheap motherboard that fits. mATX motherboards are 244mm x 244mm with 4 expansion slots at the back of the PC and ATX motherboards are 305mm x 244mm and have 7 expansion slots at the back You would also need to make sure that the graphics card fits. Since you got for a low-mid range card this shouldn't be a problem but it would be best to make sure that the graphics card isn't so long that it clashes with something near the front of the case, usually the hard drive cages. sometimes the hard drive cages are removable which will give you some more space. If it wasn't for removable hard drive cages my friend would have been bitten by this The last thing I'd check is that the power supply will fit. I don't know what the standard ATX sizes are or the positioning of the screw holes, but it would be worth having a look around the interweb to see if it looks right on your PC. Hope it hopes
Budget? It's more of a timescale really- by the end of this year! This was where the worries came in- would my chosen parts be outdated by then? In addition, i've spotted a cheaper case which has the same amount of style that I would like my PC to have: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811345011 chops off about £30 from the other case and still has USB 3.0s- plus it does support my ATX motherboard i've picked (cheers for going into detail about that). Cheers for your help guys, Argo
as far as im concerned you cant go wrong with the RAM you listed, although you could probably go 16GB taking into account the cheaper Case you're going for. on a budget i'd normally tend to lean towards AMD for CPU motherboard chipset and GPU, the HD6850 is slightly dated but shouldn't be a major issue, if you could stretch to a second one and run crossfire it would help especially ram wise. eg 2GB useable GFX ram over the 1GB, i've still have not updated my HD5830s. anyway. as for the Hard Drive yeah seems fine, although you might want to source a small SSD if you can on the cheap for the OS for nice snappy load times. PSU seems solid and should be enough. i'd also recommend looking into a good but affordable after market CPU cooler. while the stock intel ones should be sufficient i've not heard great things about them.
I would change the GPU if you plan to use any linux distro since ATI .nix drivers still suck About being left behind after haswell, well you could get an AMD CPU but then prepare for the performance drop.
Get a good case and add some coolers (i recommend Aerocool Sharks). 2 top exhausts, 1 back exhaust, 1 front intake and 1 side intake. Talking about the case itself, i have a CoolerMaster 690 II Advanced that is functional and discreet. I recommend spending a good time reading reviews of cases, specially to know about functionality, cable management and airflow quality. It may help you save some bucks, but in the end this is a very personal choice. Z77 + i5 + 8gb Ram is good. Look for info on the motherboard to avoid paying for stuff you don't want. This may also help saving more money. I would replace the memory for a Vengeance LP model (the one i have), so you would have more space for a better CPU cooler (CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Evo or something better) so you can use the overclocking capabilities of that K processor. Remember that Ivy Bridge CPUs aren't as cool as Sandy Bridge CPUs when overclocked. I have the same PSU and it's very good too. I'm just not sure you'll need a 650W for that config. Use one of that PSU calculators to be sure. Maybe you'll need that after some overclocking, but check this because you can save a bit if you don't need that much power. As for DVD drive, they all cheap quality these days. I got one and rarely use it to be honest.
IMO the Asus P8Z77-V LX will be a good buy. The onboard sound and LAN isn't as good as the higher models, but for double the cost it isn't worth it. With the money saved you could easily buy a dedicated sound and LAN card and have money to spare but really the onboard stuff will do just fine. Also you will lose SLI support, but if you get a half decent single GPU you'd be fine. The GeForce GTX 660 Ti will be the best bet right now but if you can hold out long enough, intel Haswell and the 760 Ti should be several months away. Also 8GB of RAM is more than enough. Make sure you get at least a 60Gb SSD for Windows. Windows 8 is kinda ugly and pointless right now , wait for SP1 and a cheap/decent touch screen monitor, in the meantime Windows 7 is just fine. You can also save money getting a chassis and PSU bundle deal from most places. A 550W PSU will be fine for a simple set up.
pretty much identical setup to mine (except i got nzxt switch case and a 7950), them parts will do you well, dont get why people would spend 100's on a new pc and stick it in a crappy 20£ ebay case ??? as someone else mentioned get low profile ram too, them stupid heatsinks are massive and serve no real purpose but to annoy you and get in the way of your cpu heatsink, fine if you got a waterblock like me but for most heatsinks you have to use ram slots 2-4 cos they too dam big. also differnce between haswell and IB will be minimal 6850 will play newer games but your gonna be limited by vram, so no ultra @ 1440p with 100000x AA on , 7850 (2 gb version) are best bang for you buck at mo or wait it out till later this year fro the next gen of cards to drop. i wouldnt buy from ebay/amazon (especially pc components) as some manufactures will refuse rma on them if they go bad, stick to scan/ebuyer/specialtech (or overclockers.co.uk if your desperate)
I really don't care about cases anymore, LAN parties are nowhere as common as it used to now that even guys living out in the sticks have broadband. Back in the day when broadband was still kinda rare and not the norm I would pack my PC every weekend, back then a nice case was a must, but these days? I only move my rig to change some part, I'm even thinking of moving it to another room 'cause I can't stand the fucking fans anymore and insulating it makes all thermals go crazy. Anyway, I wouldn't bother with highend RAM, I used to and the gains were always negligible. These days is better to have boatloads of cheap and fast RAM than a pittance of ultra-fast RAM. Recently I doubled mine to 16GB and the difference is amazing, no matter how much shit I have running at the same time it never slows down. SSDs are a much better investment than expensive RAM if speed is what you want. Get three 256 units on RAID 0 and boot times are gone. And don't skimp on the PSU, you have no idea the amount of problems you will have if there isn't enough power, specially with a big GPU.
