Advice on my PC build

[roberduckzilla]

I'm new to the hexus community and looking for some help and advice on my first computer build. I'm looking at building a fairly decent pc. Mainly for gaming purposes. As I have said I want it to be to be something half decent for gaming. Not an overly expensive beast of a pc! Anyway here is what i have compiled together so far. What do you think?

CPU - Intel i5-3570K
MOBO - Asrock Z77 Extreme4
RAM - Corsair vengeance 8GB (was thinking 2x4gb)
HDD - 1TB Seagate Barracuda HDD (sata 3 7200)
GPU - MSI GTX660 Ti PE 2GB
PSU - Corsair CXM 600W
ODD - Lite-On iHAS 123-04 DVD/CD
Case - Casecom CS-13

All this is around the £700 mark.
I have chosen these parts based on reviews and what I have heard from people, also within my price range. I dont want to spend much more than this if I can help it. I have also chosen these parts as they are fairly future proof and can be overclocked etc. As of now i dont plan to dual screen, However i may want to in the future, aswell as OC.

Lastly, go easy with the harsh comments as stated, I'm new to hexus and this is my first build. Thanks in advance!

[dacads]

For graphics I would go with a Radeon 7950 as its better value for money due to the games you'll get with it

[Marc_92]

Do you already have an aftermarket heatsink or are you going to get one later on? The build is very solid but like dacads said, the 7950 is probably the better option in terms of fps and overall value.

[roberduckzilla]

That's the main thing I have been very undecided on, the graphics card. Do you both use amd then? I have been looking into the 7950. What one would you suggest.. Heatsink I was planning later on, I was thinking about getting a 212 cooler master. At the moment they are about £25 with pretty good cooling. However they are quite large, which is a plus or downside depending on how you look at it.

Thanks for the feedback though!

[flearider]

if your going amd .. myself i stick with sapphire .. if there is a problem they sort it out ..
cooler not much there i'm on full water .. but you do want to go with somthing thats rated over what the cpu can put out in watts ..just incase you o/c ..or not will keep it cool and quiet ..
and def get a ssd.. why use a tortoise when you can have a hare ..you will not only see the dif but feel it ..just move your page file onto the mech drive ..

[roberduckzilla]

That's 3 for 7950 then! Haha. I was looking at them, only added the 660ti after looking online at reviews and comparisons etc. but I do know when overclocked the the 7950 are superior. So I may have been won over to them now xD. Also, SSD been thinking about that too. My total spend is slowly wanting to climb however.

[Willzzz]

It really comes down to which actual cards you are considering and more importantly how much they cost.

This card is a total bargain:
http://www.dabs.com/products/asus-ge...83360000&src=3

£32 less than the equivalent 7950 and while it's pretty hard to say which is faster out of a 7950 and a 660Ti because the lead changes from game to game, you can be certain that the 660 Ti is cheaper and quieter.

http://techreport.com/review/23981/r...0-ti-revisited

[roberduckzilla]

Basically I don't want to spend over the £250ish mark.
I've actually read this review before and found it useful, this was the card I first decided on but upon seeing figures and reviews with the Msi card beating it overall. The Msi card is £235 on scan at the moment. The sapphire card (3gb 7950 vapor x) seems to be around the £250 mark.
I think I'm going to have to have a rethink about the graphics card. At the end of the day. Either of the cards that have been suggested in this thread are still going to be pretty decent.

[Willzzz]

Certainly the MSI PE is a very strong card, but Asus are pretty top tier and you don't usually see them that cheap.
Plus if you buy from dabs you can get cashback from quidco.

For some reason the 7950 Vapor-X is stupidly expensive on Scan and a not cheap £266 on dabs.
£247 on Amazon, but games bundle there, and still £20 more than the Asus 660 Ti.

[Marc_92]

Seeing that 660ti for under 230 is a steal right there. Those benchmarks posted were quite interesting to see, has defiantly added some food for thought for me with how close they are. I guess the only letdown is the lack of free games with the ti compared to the 7950.

[Willzzz]

I mean you can get a 660 Ti for £216 but the extra £10 for the Asus version is money well spent imo.
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-p...dl-dvi-dp-hdmi

There is the free2play bundle with the Nvidia cards, it isn't as good as the free games, but it's still worth a few quid on ebay.

As great as the AMD bundles are they aren't worth that much really, I mean I picked up Hitman Absolution for £4.99 on steam.

[Willzzz]

Oh and talking of free games there are still cards that come with AC3 in addition to the free2play.

[Phaz0r18]

If your budget can afford it i'd suggest adding in a small SSD to use as a boot drive, the loads speeds you get from turning the power button on and being able to log in almost instantly really make it a worthwhile purchase...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

On a side note regarding the bundles. The Nvidia bundle is worth around £20 to £25. Crysis 3, Bioshock Infinite,Tombraider sell for around £15 to £20 each on Ebay,and the two game codes go for around £30 to £35.

[Biscuit]

Certainly the MSI PE is a very strong card, but Asus are pretty top tier and you don't usually see them that cheap.
Plus if you buy from dabs you can get cashback from quidco.

For some reason the 7950 Vapor-X is stupidly expensive on Scan and a not cheap £266 on dabs.
£247 on Amazon, but games bundle there, and still £20 more than the Asus 660 Ti.

I mean you can get a 660 Ti for £216 but the extra £10 for the Asus version is money well spent imo.
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-p...dl-dvi-dp-hdmi

There is the free2play bundle with the Nvidia cards, it isn't as good as the free games, but it's still worth a few quid on ebay.

As great as the AMD bundles are they aren't worth that much really, I mean I picked up Hitman Absolution for £4.99 on steam.

What exactly makes Asus better than MSI? You're just making stuff up tbh.

In reviews they are fairly equal and in most cases they say the MSI has the slightly better cooler, hence why i bought 2 of them. Afterwards it was pointed out to me that MSI have actually done some work on the regulation and it provides a much more stable clockspeeds than the other overclocked Ti cards.

The only person who can say whether the games budles are worth it is the person buying the card, if he would be buying the games and playing separately then price wise it makes the AMD solution a no brainer.

If i was in the OPs position, i would stick with the AMD card.

[Mehta23]

I'd just like to point out that a 660Ti boost can be found for £125ish. Two of them in SLI perform nearly as good as a titan or a 690 at 1080p ^_^ £250 for £800 performance.