ITS ARRIVED!! Finally, after many years it is coming

Finally worked my ass off to get 50% of my new rig sorted. The basic plan is to keep the following from my current rig:

• OCZ ModXtreme 700W PSU
  
• ATi 4870 1Gb
  
• 3xHDD
  
• H60 CPU cooler
  

I will then add a new mobo, ram, PSU and SSD at the moment and then upgrade my graphics card (to a EVGA 680 4GB Classified or FTW) at christmas with some more work moneys (and maybe some student loan ). After a lot of tooing and froing of PM's with nixy (really hats off to him, been very helpful and informative) I have finally arrived at the below solution:

• CPU - IvyBridge i5 3570K
  
• RAM - 8GB (2x4) Corsair Dominator GT RAM @ 1866MHz - been looking at upgrading to dominator platinum for an extra £15 but not really sure.
  
• SSD - personally I have gone with the Vertex 4 (I know the vertex 2 and 3 used sandforce controllers and had problems with compressability but this uses a interlinx controller which doesnt have the same problems)
  
• Mobo - I am really stuck here, been looking around, reading/watching reviews and asking nixy lots of annoying questions. In the end it has been pushed it down to the Asus P8Z77-V DELUXE, however, I am also considering the Asus Z77 Sabertooth.
  

Also, potentially going to upgrade my case (Antec 900 II) to a NZXT Switch 810 - really like the look of it although it is a tad expensive so that will probably mean my build gets postponed until sometime around end of september/mid october. Also gona swap out any/all fans to Akasa Venoms as I have 2 of these currently and they are pretty boss, they are super silent 90% of the time but when I need a lot of air moving they get it done superbly (and still pretty much quiet as hell)

Any advice people want to give is appreciated, esp on mobo/case

great news delta . all looks chineese to me mate but im happy for you

thought it was a tread about a girl but i was wrong

Got this all finally sorted now;

• Mobo - Asus Sabertooth Z77
  
• CPU - Intel 3570K
  
• SSD - Samsung 830 128GB
  
• Optical - Samsung SH-B123L/RSBP - Realised my old IDE drive wouldn't fit and as I have a ton of BR movies that I can't watch at uni thought I would grab one of these at the same time
  
• Ram - Very indecisive here - either Corsair Dominator GT 8GB (2x4 @1866MHz), Corsair Dominator Platinum 8GB (2x4 @1866MHz) or Patriot viper Xtreme Division 4 16GB (4x4 @1866MHz) - any help?
  
• Case - NZXT Switch 810 Matt Black - really started loving the look of this - don't know why or how but it looks pretty bawss without looking too OTT (in my mind)
  

vincent wrote:thought it was a tread about a girl but i was wrong

Laugh. My. Arse. Off.

Delta wrote:Got this all finally sorted now;

• Optical - Samsung SH-B123L/RSBP - Realised my old IDE drive wouldn't fit and as I have a ton of porn that I can't watch otherwise at uni thought I would grab one of these at the same time

Fixed it for you.


As per your PM, getting 1866MHz RAM is nuts mate. Unless you're going for record overclocking stick to 1333/1600MHz max, with latencies of 9-9-9-27 (or lower). You'll only be paying more for something you will not notice nor have benefits from

8 vs 16GB ? I got 16 in here myself and I only ever go above 6 when I start video rendering. Then I am indeed using up to 13! That includes watching a 1080p BluRay, having several (10+) tabs open in Chrome and with all the RAM Windows 7 hogs by the by.

haha you caught me (is it even possible to get BR porn these days? long live xhamster!!)

Anyway, reference ram I personally think 16GB is the way to go for me - (at the end of the day why not?), however, I am slightly confused how patriot can market 4x4GB sticks at £20 more than 2x4GB sticks of Dominator GT and the same price as 2x4GB sticks of dominator platinum - this is making my spidey sense tingle (and not in a good way). The patriot ram is 9-11-9-27 and the dominator GT is 9-10-9-27 and the dominator platinum is the same as GT latency.

EDIT - found a 2x8GB patriot dual channel viper xtreme div 2 kit for same price as 2x4GB dom Plat (still 9-11-9-27 though)

EDIT 2 - surely the latency depends on the clock speed, therefore if the ram is used at 1600MHz instead of the advertised max of 1866MHz then it will be lower - eg the same patriot ram (well it is 2x4Gb instead of 2x8 but the 2x4 1866 has the same latency as the 2x8 1866) at 1600MHz is 8-9-8-24 latency instead of 9-11-9-27.

Edit 3 - reference overclocking i am hoping to get somewhere around 4.0Ghz

Why? Because the Dominator RAM is very expensive compared to for example the Vengeance series. All for those heatspreaders that have no real purpose

Also, I find the prices of the 16GB kits disturbingly expensive in the UK. 159 for 2x8 GB or 59 for 2x4 GB? That has to be some kind of error I hope. It cost me 99 euro for 2x8 >.<

Vince! Nice nice

I wouldn't get ya pants too wet for ram timings esp if you plan to over clock. That cup will do 4ghz on stock heat sink and fan but the ram at 1800+Hz you would need to lower the Hz or slacken the timing to get it over 4ghz. Id go with corsair ever time. Solid and in my rig with the dominator its running at 3.8ghz cpu ram at 1866 default timings that on an original i5 750 UD5 mobo. That's plenty for me. No point in having nice ram if you have to undertook it to over clock ya cpu.

I hear what both of you are saying, the only reason i looked at the patriot is because it looks sweet woth the sabertooth board and i a fair nit cheaper. Tbh i wasnt going to get anything higher than 1866, worst casr i spend £20-30 more and have to take it down to 1600, which is better than getting 1600 and wishing i could get it a bit higher. The dom plat ilooks good but i think if i am spending that money i might as well get 16gb patriot ram.

So yeah basically comes down to corsair dominator 2x4 gb or patriot whatever i said earlier(on phone and cant scroll down) 2x8 gb for £20 extra.

so just about to order things:

Case: NZXT Switch 810
Mobo: Asus Sabertooth Z77
CPU: Intel i5 3570K
RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum 8Gb (2x4 @1866)
Storage: Current 1.25Tb of storage plus a samsung 830 128Gb SSD
Video Card: Current ATi 4870 - upgraded after/@ xmas to EVGA 680 Classified HC or 2x670 in SLi watercooled
PSU: OCZ ModXtreme 700W PSU

Cooling: Currently air plus a H60 for CPU over the next couple of months am going to upgrade to custom water cooling loop (hence big case)

Unfortunately I have to order everything to uni house cos i left it late but I can't wait until the weekend to start getting things opened and built!

you not getting a sound card aswel?

Why would you need a separate sound card? The onboard ones are pretty good for all of us non-audiophiles

plus inboard a comp case is the very very last place you want audio equipment, can't think of a worse place, the rfi is everywhere.

borrow an external audio grade DAC, once you've heard the difference you would never use any thing else, a speedhound promise or your opinion back guarantee.

good point, add to the list above a LG/pioneer bluray player, soundcard (Asus Xonar DGX), TP-Link wifi card

can someone please help me. Still undecided on a new case, looking at THIS but its so plasticy

Basically I need:

- room for a 240/360mm radiator up on top without modding the case
- window
- not look like i'm 10 (ie a nice clean square/rectangle case rather than looking like an alien just shat on my desk)
- black inside and out (preferably matte and not shiny but beggars can't be choosers)
- not hot swap bays but the nice toolless ones
- full tower
- budget £160 max

so yeah and sorry for the tall orders

whoever comes up with all the computer parts being water resistant will become a trillionary, just think, you get all your gismos gfx cpu's blasbldyblas connect them all and than just chuck em into a ice cold bucket of water next to your desk ha? cooling problem solved.

Delta wrote:can someone please help me. Still undecided on a new case, looking at THIS but its so plasticy

Basically I need:

- room for a 240/360mm radiator up on top without modding the case
- window
- not look like i'm 10 (ie a nice clean square/rectangle case rather than looking like an alien just shat on my desk)
- black inside and out (preferably matte and not shiny but beggars can't be choosers)
- not hot swap bays but the nice toolless ones
- full tower
- budget £160 max

so yeah and sorry for the tall orders

Look at the Corsair 650D perhaps? It's floating in between a midi and full tower and is made of solid metal. It's matte black on the inside as well on the outside. It has a 200mm fan in the front and one at the top, which can be replaced by 2x120/140mm fans (so a 240mm radiator would fit). I got this case as you probably know, and I'm loving it.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-212-CM

I have that and when I bought it I exchanged the fans for some 120mm silent rubber mounted ones. The stock fans in any case suck donkey ass.

I esp like the drive bays and the fact there is a lot of space behind the mobo tray to hide the cables, with lots of rubber grommits to guide the cables through.

When its was new June 2010.

Dont worry about the big g*y blue light, button on top to turn it off or on.

Another good feature is it has a SATA bay on the lid, I use it a lot for reinstalling and formating PC/Laptop hard drives. Just take the bare drive (large or small) slot it in and off you go.



The 650D is an awesome case but £150 worth compared to the Cooler Master, yep thats the choice I made too.

Window? you're at Uni, cut it out of the side and silicon some perspex in. Job done. Over 100% saving= more beer.

looked at the 650D but cannot justify spending the same ammount but getting a smalled (albeit less plasticy) case. My only other consideration is a Fractal Design Define XL and mod the top to take a 360mm rad up top (and potentially a 240 down below but that can wait atm as it will only be a cpu and 1 gpu for the time being)

see post #3-5:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18429178

Got back to uni to find most of it had arrived (minus optical drive and SSD), took some pics:

Little and large (new NZXT Switch 810 in back old Antec 900II in front):



New Case with side off:



All set up and ready to rock:



Then I got to the problems, firstly I grabbed my old PS2 keyboard instead of my nice new usb one, so no keyboard :/ Then after balgging a keyboard off a mate found out that win7 hates new mobos & cpus etc so PC won't boot and as I have no optical drive I cannot repair the start up, solved this by running off an old ubuntu live USB stick I (luckily) happened to have with me. Hopefully will be all sorted out monday but no gaming and no TS until then

Download a win 7 iso using torrent on ubuntu burn image to USB stick (Google instruction) install win 7 from USB using your own key code. Who uses optical drives these days.

i was going to do that (have a copy from a certain site already) but i'll just have to do it all again on monday or tuesday when my SSD arrives so htought I might as well just wait until then tbh

Aye, you can't run a new PC/new mobo/CPU on an old windows installation. The motherboard just won't function properly because it's missing all sorts of registry input and drivers.

What else is new, Vandal

finished installing hardware and windows after minor panic (apparently windows 7 doesnt like you having 2 monitors plugged in so kept giving me a black screen for the final part (where you do your username etc) - unplugged monitor and replugged it and all was dandy).

Just installing motherboard stuff and will be around sometime tonight hopefully!!

piccy:

so i'm well on my way to saving for my new graphics card(s) but I have hit a bit of a stone wall.

It basically comes down to one of 5 options:
- MSI Lightning 7970 3GB £379.99 - and potentially watercooling loop for GFX and CPU
- Asus 7970 Matrix Platinum 3GB £449.99
- EVGA 670 SC 4GB £379.99 - NO W/C cos no graphics card blocks
- ASUS 670 DirectCU II 4GB £399.99
- EVGA GeForce GTX 680 Classified 4GB £529.99

SO if anyone has some helpful insights then please post cos I'm in a massive dilemma

cheers vig

Not a huge amount of insight but MSI are a good company for GFX cards. I've had a couple of MSI cards over the last few years and they are quiet and cool, OC well.

Currently have twin frozr 570 and its a great card, hasn't struggled with anything really. runs cool, even with fans on low. Imagine the 670 is just as nice.

What happened to the I-must-have-a-GTX680-4GB ?

I've seen some reviews of the Matrix, and it isn't really worth your money unless you're a vivid overclocker. Plus it really is expensive for what you get in return. The Lightning card is a little slower, but can easily match the Matrix without problems.

The 670's are pretty good cards price/performance wise compared to the 680's. The 680's however will be better in the long run and when overclocked.. but as always you get what you pay for.

i dunno, i realised that the 7970 was about £150 cheaper i guess . I was thinking that the matrix would last pretty well, especially if a full block came out so i could w/c it. Then again I only have room for 1 of them and I've heard a lot of bad stuff about Crossfire when compared to SLi which would be what I am looking at with the 670/680's.