First 'High Budget' build, looking for some advice on parts. (£1300 Budget [UK])

[Raze664]

Got a budget of around £1300 (+/- £100).

Case - Scan.co.uk: Coolermaster HAF 932 Black/ Titanium Tower Computer Case - RC-932-KKN1-GP

Motherboard - Scan.co.uk: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4 Intel P67 Express Socket 1155 Motherboard - GA-P67A-UD4/B3

CPU - Scan.co.uk: Intel CPU Core i7 2600 Sandy Bridge Quad Core Processor - BX80623I72600

RAM - Scan.co.uk: Corsair Memory Vengeance Black 8GB DDR3 1866 MHz CAS 9 XMP Dual Channel Desktop - CMZ8GX3M2A1866C9

GPU - Scan.co.uk: XFX HD6990 ATI / AMD Graphics Card - 4GB - HD-699A-ENF9

Hard-Drive - Scan.co.uk: Seagate Barracuda XT 2TB Hard Drive - ST32000641AS

PSU - Scan.co.uk: Coolermaster RS-A00-AMBA Silent Pro M 1000W Modular Power Supply (PSU)

Sound-Card - Asus Xonar D1 PCI Sound Card 24Bit

Want advice on the whole build, and some suggestions for Heatsink, Fan Controller, any other extra's. I don't have much interest in SSD's, though I may add one once the price comes down, looking at running 2 monitors minimum, maybe more. PC Will be used for Gaming(naturally), graphics work, 3d rendering occasionally, and watching HD movies.

Fan controller I was looking at: NZXT Sentry LX Fan Controller

Edit: Just thought I'd add that it's only the tower I need, monitors I am getting seperate, same for speakers, keyboard, mouse etc.

 

[Yami]

I wouldn't recommend getting a Gigabyte board, they have terrible support (RMAing them can be a long and difficult process). For a similar price look at the ASUS P8P67 Pro.

Get the i5 2500K instead of the 2600K to save £60. By getting the latter over the former you're paying 30-40% more for about a 5% performance increase (and even then only in applications which support hyperthreading).

The Corsair Vengeance stick are okay (I have the same but blue), but they have oversized and plasticky heatsinks (which can cause obstruction issues with larger CPU coolers) Look at these instead Scan.co.uk: Corsair Memory Vengeance Jet Black LP 8GB DDR3 1600 MHz CAS 9 XMP Dual Channel Desktop - CML8GX3M2A1600C9
They're cheaper and have more sensibly-sized heatsinks.

Are you planning on overclocking? That will help me recommend a heatsink. I would generally recommend this but it's seemingly out of stock at Scan Scan.co.uk: Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler - RR-B10-212P-GP

Instead of the default HAF 932, look at the 932 Advance, since it's identical in price but comes with two USB3 ports on the front as well as the usual. http://www.scan.co.uk/products/coolermaster-haf-932-advance-black-full-tower-case-with-usb-30-w-o-psu. It doesn't have the black interior though, so it's up to you which feature you would prefer.

For a fan controller recommendation look at this http://www.techist.com/forums/f38/lamptron-fan-controller-touch-247018/. Scan don't have it but there are plenty of UK sites that do.

Normally I'd recommend you get everything at the same site, since that makes delivery cheaper, but if you get the mobo at eBuyer you save a tenner (Asus P8P67 Pro R3 P67 Socket 1155 8 Channel HD Audio.. | Ebuyer.com), and also they have the heatsink I recommend in stock (Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus Socket 775, 1156,1155.. | Ebuyer.com).

Get this PSU instead, it's slightly more expensive, but modular and has a 7-year warranty instead of the 2-year warranty on the Coolermaster one you chose. Also, 1000W is overkill even if you get another 6990. http://www.scan.co.uk/products/850w-corsair-hx-series-v2-modular-80-plus-silver-90-eff-sli-crossfire-eps-12v-7-year-warranty

Finally, I really recommend getting an SSD. Just a decent 60GB one like this http://www.ebuyer.com/268239-ocz-60gb-agility-3-ssd-2-5-sata-iii-read-525mb-s-write-agt3-25sat3-60g. I know you've probably heard it a thousand times, but they're awesome.

 

[Raze664]

I'll take your advice and go the i5 2500k, I'll probs clock that up to 4.0-4.2.

Got accounts for a few sites around the UK, so will look at getting parts from each to save funds, like the mobo from eBuyer as you said.

Must admit to liking that fan controller, and about the SSD, seeing as you just saved me a chunk on the processer, I might put that into getting an SSD. I do like the idea of the increased speed, lower failure rate etc, but it's just the price for the low storage which I'm thinking of.

 

[Yami]

I do like the idea of the increased speed, lower failure rate etc, but it's just the price for the low storage which I'm thinking of.

Well, you're not really meant to use it for 'storage', per say. You just put your OS and programs on it, and store everything else on the separate storage drive. Btw, while they may 'technically' have a lower failure rate, in real-world terms they don't.

Btw, I've been doing loads of edits on my post, adding new recommendations etc., you should probably go through it again Particularly the PSU recommendation.

You can probably go further than 4.2 with that hardware btw, you could get at least 4.5 (I'm on 4.5, though I can get up to 4.8 stable (and possibly further but I haven't tried).

 

[Raze664]

So you have, will have another look.

In terms of the Advance case, will definitely change that, colours dont bother me, I won't be having it on show, it just looks like the best bet in terms of cooling and general looks.

Wasn't sure on the PSU, hence I went for the bigger one, and to be honest, never had many problems with any drive, had probably 40-50 standard drives over my builds and had one failure and a couple of file table crashes.

Cheers for the help.

 

[Raze664]

Finally managed to raise enough money to get this, so just want to get another check on whether I should upgrade anything else as it was a few months ago when I asked for this advice, seems that the Z68 boards are getting recommended a lot of places, but I am not too sure on this so wanted to check.

I'll be overclocking the CPU, and there is basically no chance in me putting two of the cards into Crossfire, by the time it won't max out games, I'll be building a new one.

Case: Coolermaster HAF 932 Advance Black Full Tower Case with USB 3.0 w/o PSU - RC-932-KKN5-GP - Scan.co.uk

Motherboard: Asus P8Z68-V Intel Z68 S1155 Motherboard - Scan.co.uk

CPU: Intel CPU Core i5 2500K Unlocked Sandy Bridge Quad Core Processor OEM - CM8062300833803 - Scan.co.uk

CPU Cooler: Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler for All Intel/AMD CPU's - RR-B10-212P-GP - Scan.co.uk

RAM: Corsair Memory Vengeance Jet Black LP 8GB DDR3 1600 MHz CAS 9 XMP Dual Channel Desktop - CML8GX3M2A1600C9 - Scan.co.uk

GPU: Asus HD 6990 ATI - AMD Radeon Graphics Card - 4GB - 90-C3CHI0-T0UAY0YZ - Scan.co.uk

HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB Hard Drive - WD1002FAEX - Scan.co.uk

SSD (Maybe): OCZ Agility 3 60GB SSD - Solid State Drive - AGT3-25SAT3-60G - Scan.co.uk

 

[Yami]

Yup, all looks good.

 

[Prophet]

I would suggest getting the ssd as the new chipsets have a feature called SSD caching which allows user to combine a SSD and HDD to increase your HDD's performance by roughly 4x. What it does it cache all programs that are frequently opened to your SSD. You only need a 64gb SSD to take full advantage of this feature. I've used both a SSD as my main boot and this feature and the difference is very small. If you choose to get a larger SSD you still have the option to partition off the remaining space and use it however you feel.

I like your motherboard choice, I will be getting the deluxe version of that board for my build. It has been getting great reviews from every site I went to.

The HAF is a nice case, if you ever want to dabble in water cooling later on it has more then enough room to fit everything you would ever need in it. Good luck with your build!

 

[Raze664]

Cheers, will be ordering this in the next couple of days,

 

[Raze664]

Just went to buy this PC, and it seems Scan has raised the price of the 6990's to £580, rather than £540, so it works out cheaper to buy Dual 6970's. Which from what I can gather are faster combined rather than taking the single card.

Is the Asus P8Z68-V suitable for running dual cards, or will they be too close together/bad cooling etc?