New System for 2012

[Rookie1986]

Hey Guys,

I'm looking at building a new System in 2012. I will have a budget of around £2000 to spend and already have my OS (W7) a SSD (Crucial M4) and PSU (Corsair 850w). I've been looking at the Dell UltraSharp monitors and also at the 3XS Overclocked Bundles on Scan.co.uk. To go with this I would also need a GPU (nVidia or ATI? single or dual cards??), Case (Thermaltake Level 10 GT has caught my eye) and Blu-ray drive. What do you guys think I should do?

Also is now a good time to buy, or would I be better waiting until later next year for future releases??

Hope you guys are able to help me,
Rookie

[EvanJackPenn]

Where you say "in 2012", how far in do you mean? There are the Ivy bridge chips out in March/April, and by then the new red/green GPUs will be out.

[Pob255]

Personally I don't think too much of the lv10gt it's a decent ok case, I'm not a big fan of the design but I do like the white&black version http://www.ebuyer.com/290303-thermal...now-vn10006w2n but at £200 for a steel case it's just massively overpriced.

About to only real reason to wait would be for hard drive prices to come down.

what's you current pc? you may be better off upgrading than building a new one.

[Rookie1986]

Where you say "in 2012", how far in do you mean? There are the Ivy bridge chips out in March/April, and by then the new red/green GPUs will be out.

Well, I don’t mind waiting until around the April/May area if it’s going to benefit me in the long run.

Personally I don't think too much of the lv10gt it's a decent ok case, I'm not a big fan of the design but I do like the white&black version http://www.ebuyer.com/290303-thermal...now-vn10006w2n but at £200 for a steel case it's just massively overpriced.

About to only real reason to wait would be for hard drive prices to come down.

what's you current pc? you may be better off upgrading than building a new one.

Yeah it’s an expensive case but I’m looking to do this as my Hobby/Project for 2012 and the price is a drop in the ocean in comparison to my other hobby (Golf).

At present I have:
Asus P5Q Pro Mobo
Intel C2D e8500
Thermaltake Golden Orb II CPU cooler
nVidia GTX 260
4GB DDR2 XMS Ram
Antec 300 case

Then the Crucial M4 SSD and Corsair 850w PSU I mentioned in my opening post. So asside from the SSD and PSU most of my other build is well out of date and I would keep the Antec but the front USB are broken, I've lost most of the screws and other bits for it and the Mrs kicked the front by mistake and snapped the front clean off lol!!

Rookie

[Pob255]

well if your 300 got that level of abuse are you sure you want to risk £200 on a new case?
The main thing about the price is that it's stupidly high, you can get far better cases for less.
Personally speaking it would have to be down around the £90-120 range.

However I do realise cases are a personal thing and if you love the look of it then no one can tell you different because it's what appeals to you.
I would suggest going to look at it in the flesh, so to speak, before getting one because of the cost. (although finding one on display might not be so easy)

With what you're got and you budget I'd suggest

i5 2500k
a good z68 motherboard (around £140-150)
8gb ddr3 1600mhz cas9
graphics card . . . big more tricky depending on what you're willing to spend the gtx580 is the current top card, the optimal price vs performance area is the gtx560(non-ti) or 6870
generally I'd say stick with a single card, dual card performance is much better these days esp in the mid range, however it is still a bit of hassle and things don't always work right.

[Rookie1986]

well if your 300 got that level of abuse are you sure you want to risk £200 on a new case?
The main thing about the price is that it's stupidly high, you can get far better cases for less.
Personally speaking it would have to be down around the £90-120 range.

However I do realise cases are a personal thing and if you love the look of it then no one can tell you different because it's what appeals to you.
I would suggest going to look at it in the flesh, so to speak, before getting one because of the cost. (although finding one on display might not be so easy)

With what you're got and you budget I'd suggest

i5 2500k
a good z68 motherboard (around £140-150)
8gb ddr3 1600mhz cas9
graphics card . . . big more tricky depending on what you're willing to spend the gtx580 is the current top card, the optimal price vs performance area is the gtx560(non-ti) or 6870
generally I'd say stick with a single card, dual card performance is much better these days esp in the mid range, however it is still a bit of hassle and things don't always work right.

Well the 300 has survived a lot of moving and its situated on the floor, my next case (which ever I decide on) will be going on top of my desk instead of under it (giving me more room for my chair). The Lv.10 GT isn’t the only case that I like; it just has that “WOW” factor which I’ve not seen in a case before.

I’m not sure where I would be able to go and see what one is actually like because I live up north (Co. Durham) and none of the big suppliers are near me

I was looking at this on the Scan website:

CPU: Intel Core i7 2700K 3.5GHz Quad Core + Hyperthreading 8MB Cache
CPU Coolers: Corsair H100 Hydro Series - Extreme Performance - Required Dual 120 Rad Bay
Motherboard Z68: Asus Maximus IV GENE-Z Intel Z68 M-ATX
Memory - DDR3: 16GB (4x4GB) Corsair Vengeance LP DDR3 1600Mhz

This comes in at £605 Inc. VAT. Then I just need to add a monitor, GPU, case and Blu-ray drive, effectively I could make the build for around the £1000 area if I keep my Samsung monitor and upgrade that at a later date….. although there is no point in getting the better GPU if I’m not going to get the best out of it.

I’m really struggling with the GPU, I’ve always had nVidia (to cut a long story short my Brother had a bad experience with an ATI and we’ve never used them since) but maybe I shouldn’t let one bad experience over 10 years ago effect what I buy today.

Maybe I would be best to leave this until a little closer to the time and have a look at what’s on the market then.

Rookie

[jim]

If you're getting that case, an matx board seems a bit of an odd decision? I know it should be just as fast, but surely it's wise to get the extra expandability of a full atx board?

[Pob255]

I agree with snootyjim although an matx would open you up to an matx system if you wanted something smaller on your desk, I'd suggest looking at the fractal design mini ARC although it's understated compared to the lv10gt it is a very good matx case and will fit the H100 with ease.

Or drop the cooler down to the H60 and get a silverstone fortress 3, which while still a clean design does have a very nice and different look due to the layout and shape.

Personally I don't really think that the i7 socket 1155 is worth the extra over the i5 2500k, for the majority of uses (esp games) hyperthreading doesn't add that much, but it's a big jump in cost
Radius bundle For £409 looks good
i5 2500k OC'd to 4.6ghz
Corsair H60 cooler
Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3P motherboard
8gb (4x2) 1600mhz corsair vengence LP ram

Or the edge bundle at £475
i5 2500k OC'd to 4.7ghz
Corsair H100
Asus P8Z68-V Pro
8gb (4x2) 1600mhz corsair vengence LP ram

8gb of ram is plenty and more can still be added later if needed.

[Rookie1986]

If you're getting that case, an matx board seems a bit of an odd decision? I know it should be just as fast, but surely it's wise to get the extra expandability of a full atx board?

That would only be if I was making the build for around £1000, if I decide to spend the whole £2000 then I would be looking at the "Bigger Brother" so to speak (Asus ROG Maximus IV Extreme-Z - Intel Z68 Chipset)

[Pob255]

I know what you mean on cards, I'm fairly lucky in that I've never had a bad nvidia card, where as I had a stock ati card cook it's own memory due to bad design and inadequate cooling, that put me off ati for a long time.
However the past few years have seen great improvement in them and personally speaking a lessening in nvidia stock cooling. (esp in the mid range)
And all told I do prefer nvidia, it's also down to the fact that two of my key MMO's both used PhysX and I do a couple of things with cuda too.

I've recently picked up a 2nd hand Asus DirectCU II gtx560Ti (from Useitnow) and I'm very impressed so far.

Probably the gtx570 is worth a look esp if you get a new high res screen http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphi...ng-best-fermi/
The Asus 570 directCUII looks good and great value http://www.scan.co.uk/products/31280...-dvi-i-dp-hdmi However it is a triple slots card so it is going to take up space.

[jim]

That would only be if I was making the build for around £1000, if I decide to spend the whole £2000 then I would be looking at the "Bigger Brother" so to speak (Asus ROG Maximus IV Extreme-Z - Intel Z68 Chipset)

If you're going for the matx board then the FT03 would be ideal as Pob suggested - my new PC is that Gene-Z mobo you mentioned, FT03 case + i5 2500K. If you're putting the case on your desk, then even more reason to go with the matx option, and a case with a small footprint to match.

[Rookie1986]

I agree with snootyjim although an matx would open you up to an matx system if you wanted something smaller on your desk, I'd suggest looking at the fractal design mini ARC although it's understated compared to the lv10gt it is a very good matx case and will fit the H100 with ease.

Or drop the cooler down to the H60 and get a silverstone fortress 3, which while still a clean design does have a very nice and different look due to the layout and shape.

Personally I don't really think that the i7 socket 1155 is worth the extra over the i5 2500k, for the majority of uses (esp games) hyperthreading doesn't add that much, but it's a big jump in cost
Radius bundle For £409 looks good
i5 2500k OC'd to 4.6ghz
Corsair H60 cooler
Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3P motherboard
8gb (4x2) 1600mhz corsair vengence LP ram

Or the edge bundle at £475
i5 2500k OC'd to 4.7ghz
Corsair H100
Asus P8Z68-V Pro
8gb (4x2) 1600mhz corsair vengence LP ram

8gb of ram is plenty and more can still be added later if needed.

I had a look at the Fractal and Silverstone cases and you were right in saying that they have a very clean look to them… almost too clean though, tbh it wouldn’t look much different than the Antec 300 that I have now. I’m happy enough to go with either the H100 or H60, the difference would be minor for my uses because I don’t plan to increase the overclocking any higher than the 4.7Ghz it ships at. Maybe I would be better sticking with a mid-tower over the micro ones?

If I was to go with a mid-tower would the differences between the Asus Maximus IV Extreme and the Gigabyte G1-Snpier 2 be worth the extra £5 upgrade cost?? Also what Mid-sized towers would you guys suggest because it’s been a very long time since I’ve been in the market for one?

I haven’t really looked much at the benchmarks for the i5 2500k vs. the i7 2700k when it comes to gaming so that is something I will need to look more in to. I’m not really sure what to do with the RAM, I honestly don’t think I would see much of a difference between the 8GB and 16GB for my uses but for how much extra it’s going to cost then it’s a non-issue really.

I know what you mean on cards, I'm fairly lucky in that I've never had a bad nvidia card, where as I had a stock ati card cook it's own memory due to bad design and inadequate cooling, that put me off ati for a long time.
However the past few years have seen great improvement in them and personally speaking a lessening in nvidia stock cooling. (esp in the mid range)
And all told I do prefer nvidia, it's also down to the fact that two of my key MMO's both used PhysX and I do a couple of things with cuda too.

I've recently picked up a 2nd hand Asus DirectCU II gtx560Ti (from Useitnow) and I'm very impressed so far.

Probably the gtx570 is worth a look esp if you get a new high res screen http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphi...ng-best-fermi/
The Asus 570 directCUII looks good and great value http://www.scan.co.uk/products/31280...-dvi-i-dp-hdmi However it is a triple slots card so it is going to take up space.

You linked the same Asus GTX 570 that I had been looking at although I had also considered the GTX 580 but I’m not sure if the extra performance is worth the increase in costs.

If you're going for the matx board then the FT03 would be ideal as Pob suggested - my new PC is that Gene-Z mobo you mentioned, FT03 case + i5 2500K. If you're putting the case on your desk, then even more reason to go with the matx option, and a case with a small footprint to match.

The idea behind putting my new system on the desk is to have it more “one show”, also I will be looking to bracket my monitor to the wall above/next to the case on an arm so I can move it out when in use and push it to the wall when its powered off (I’m sure you get what I mean… or at least I hope lol!). I’m not really stuck for space because my gaming desk is 150x110x75 (WxDxH in CM) and fitted to the wall and rest of the units down that side of the room.

Thanks for the ideas and advice so far guys, its much appreciated!

Rookie

[Pob255]

Well the question is how much are you willing to spend on a case?

modding is the way to go if you want a really unique case, if you're not willing to do it yourself then you pay someone to mod the case for you.

eg, get a nice aluminium case and then get it splash anodised http://www.chilledpc.co.uk/shop/prod...roducts_id=246 (£100) internals powder coated (£70) get a fancy shaped window laser cut (£55) and you'll have something unique and stunning looking.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would have a look at this build guide:

http://forums.hexus.net/pc-hardware/...er-2011-a.html

Regarding stock cooling of AMD cards,I have an HD5850 1GB with the standard stock cooler which is great. I also had an HD3870 and the stock cooler was fine. The only AMD stock cooler which could be a bit marginal under load is the one on my HD5670. However,that was in an SFF case with virtually no airflow for the graphics card. I use it in a SFF PC which means it is quite near to me and under normal usage is not really that noisy IMHO.

Also,I would NOT be investing in a GTX570 or GTX580 right now. The AMD HD7000 is being released soon(laptop parts are already starting to appear in listings).

[Pob255]

however cat as we've already seen the reason they are out is that many are just die shrunk rebrands, heck I'm not even sure some of the igp/laptop one are even die shrunk.
Although if they do bring out the 79xx first and in janaury then it would be worth waiting.

The 4850 cooler was pretty bad as was the original 5770 cooler.
That said I think some of the new nvidia coolers are a bit shonky too.
I think it's very telling that ati cards used to get custom coolers very quickly, where as nvidia cards with custom coolers where more uncommon.
Note I say where as this is currently no longer the case.

[Rookie1986]

Well the question is how much are you willing to spend on a case?

modding is the way to go if you want a really unique case, if you're not willing to do it yourself then you pay someone to mod the case for you.

eg, get a nice aluminium case and then get it splash anodised http://www.chilledpc.co.uk/shop/prod...roducts_id=246 (£100) internals powder coated (£70) get a fancy shaped window laser cut (£55) and you'll have something unique and stunning looking.

Well my total budget for the whole new system including monitor is £2000 so I guess that gives me enough for almost any case on the normal market.

I had a look at that site and they seem to offer some good stuff for modding a case, shame I wouldn't really know where to start lol – Although I would always like to have a Tron themed case! I need to decide if I'm going with water cooling or not (would I really need it in a system like this??) and then go from there.