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i5 4690k - £162
Noctua NH-D15 - £76
Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 7 - £131
TeamGroup Xtreem LV 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 - £140
Corsair AX860 - £128 (for future SLI/Xfire)
Samsung 840 EVO 500GB - £165
WD Black 1TB - £56
Corsair Graphite 760T - £134
GPU - Radeon 7970 - Already owned
OS - Already owned
Optical drive - Already owned
Total = ~£1000 (prices are rounded)
PSU is overkill for future SLi/Xfire, but it's your money. Ditto motherboard is a bit premium if you're wanting to save money, but if that's what you've chosen then fine, it'll work (I don't have a particular recommendation, they're all fine) Stop wasting posts here and go buy it! :p
I did want a high end PSU and it was a toss up between the AX760 and the AX860 and in the end I just erred on the side of caution as there's no way to tell how much power GPUs will use in the future, especially with 4k looming. I will review my mobo choice though!
I would get a cheaper motherboard and cheaper RAM.Quote:
Originally Posted by Little_Dud
You might be able to get a cheaper cooler.
I would also get an MX100 512GB.
You can also get a Toshiba 2TB 7200RPM hard drive for not much more than the WD Black 1TB.
Unless your going for looks than I'd recommend ram without massive useless heatsinks, besides that it looks good. You could probably find some cheaper parts that preform the same if you looked but that's not needed.
Well, I can't see a difference between the Gigabyte Gaming 3, 5 or 7. Do the more expensive ones overclock better? The pages on scan are almost identical. So unless someone can enlighten me, I'll just go for the cheap one. Concerning RAM selection and their heatsinks, I understand, and it bothers me. I really really like the specs, especially for the price, but i know it will cause problems with the NH-D14. I could move the fan to above the heatsinks (I think), or possibly turn the whole cooler 180 degrees? I'm not sure what effect that would have on the performance of the cooler, though.
I've recently posted about a computer very similar to yours. The difference between gaming 5 and 7 is very slight, there's a few more USB 3.0 slots and a few more fan slots. I also believe the gaming 7 supports water cooling more than the gaming 5 or 3, eg allows for larger coolers, although i'm not sure.
As far as overclocking goes I think the gaming 5 and 7 are pretty much the same
Your pc specs look very good, the rams a bit pricey though.
For platinum supplies, the best efficiency when the load is around 50% or below, not sure what everyone else thinks? article hereQuote:
Originally Posted by kalniel
Yes I know but it looks soooo good and even though I'll mainly be using this PC to game and RAM speeds mean very little to games, I just can't let go of them. £140 isn't ridiculous for a 16GB kit anyway.Quote:
Originally Posted by mynameissi
From my pretty noobish perspective this looks really good. Particularly great upgrade potential with the z97 and the possibility of SLi/Xfire. It is a bit expensive though.
The ram I was potentially thinking of getting was thisQuote:
Originally Posted by Little_Dud
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/16gb-...-cas-11-13-13-
which is about ~£10 cheaper
But thats because I have a personal preference for corsair hardware :P
Your ram is not that absurd price wise, but there are certainly cheaper alternatives
I'm a bit gutted as the Team RAM was £130 over at overclockers until just a couple of days ago. Oh well.
In that case get the cheapest.Quote:
Originally Posted by Little_Dud
Usually in terms of OC ability they would all overclock to the same level, usually it's features and not performance that separates the SKUs in a range, unless you are an extreme overclocker and can take advantage of the features in the 7 board.Quote:
Originally Posted by Little_Dud
Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 3
Supports 4th and 5th Generation Intel® Core™ processors
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi MB3 gaming audio suite
Audio Noise Guard with LED path lighting
Realtek ALC1150 115dB SNR HD Audio with Built-in rear audio amplifier
Killer™ E2200 gaming networking platform
Extreme multi graphics support
SATA Express support for 10 Gb/s data transfer
M.2 for SSDs drives with up to 10 Gb/s data transfer
Long lifespan Durable Solid caps
APP Center including EasyTune™ and Cloud Station™ utilities
GIGABYTE UEFI DualBIOS™
Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 5 has all of the Gaming 3 features plus:
Gold plated display and audio ports
High end Nichicon audio capacitors
Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 7 has all of the Gaming 5 features plus:
Gold plated display and audio ports
High end Nichicon audio capacitors
The main difference I could see between the 5 and 7 was that the 7 has a Power button and some switches near the RAM slots which aren't present on the 3 and 5, it also has probe points for testing voltages with a multimeter, if you are overclocking to a point where you need to monitor voltages in this way then the 7 makes sense, if not and you don't need the Audio enhancements on the 5 then the 3 would be perfect for you.
Great looking ram that's concealed under a massive heatsink will be just as concealed as not so great looking ram concealed under a massive heatsink, however if you still want to go for that ram then get the NH-D15 heatsink instead of the NH-D14 as this has extra clearance for high profile memory modules.Quote:
Originally Posted by Little_Dud
Yeah, sorry, it was a typo, I was always planning to get the NH-D15.Quote:
Originally Posted by KeyboardDemon
I've gone for the Gaming 5 in the end. All bought up now, thanks for your help, guys.
Excellent, let us know how the build goes, maybe post pictures if you can and then add your system specs under your profile.Quote:
Originally Posted by Little_Dud
Hi there!
I'm posing from my new PC! Everything went well, no major problems.
I'll upload some photos later, but just one quick question: http://imgur.com/Pjw1S3g
Normal? or no? Non-RAPID scores are in the sticky note.