Quick spec check

[NicktheNorse]

I've been out of the PC building business for pretty much 10 years (last thing I put together had a P4 2.4Ghz in it...). I'm building a new pc, and I'd like to have this spec checked if that's ok! I'll be using my old Cooler Master ATC-111c and I already have a keyboard, mouse and Win7.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7970 VAPOR-X GHZ 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE FARCRY3, Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs & 20% off MOH Warfighter PC Games £359.99
1 x Intel 520 Series 240GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £239.99
1 x Benq XL2411T 24" TRUE 120Hz 3D Vision 2.0 Widescreen LED Monitor - Black/Red £227.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £167.99
1 x Asus P8Z77-V PRO Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £159.98
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX650M High Performance 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020039-UK) £86.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB (4x4GB) PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Quad Channel Kit (KHX16C9T3K4/16X) £79.99
Total : £1,337.92 (includes shipping : £12.50).



I live in Norway so I won't actually be purchasing from OcUK - and as a result my relative pricing will be different - for example, the HD 7970 might seem like overkill in terms of price, but in Norway it costs the same as an nvidia 670 and is only £50 more expensive than a 7950 so it seemed like a reasonable added expense to get the faster card.

edit: I've been thinking of getting the Gigabyte HD7950 WF3 as it's about £70 cheaper than the Sapphire HD7970 I've specced above - Is the 7970 worth it over the 7950? Can the 7970 overclock further than the 7950?

 

[zakblood]

for me memory needs to be 2x8gb not 4times 4gb etc, easy to upgrade and better to sell on etc, apart from that enjoy

 

[Doomedspeed]

That looks good mate, though i would change a few things (some are personal preference)

From what i've read there is not a huge gap between the 7950 and 7970, with the 7950 being able to be overclocked to frighteningly near 7970 performance. The 7970 does obviously have more overclocking headroom but it doubt you'd need it, as these are top end cards.

The monitor choice is spot on, as is the PSU and CPU (obviously)

The SSD seems a bit pricey and with Samsung and Crucial making great SSD's and selling at very attractive prices they are well worth a look.

Im not a fan of Asus motherboards so personally i'd go for a gigabyte, as i have had good experiences with them. It also offers very simular features to the Asus and is a fair few £'s less..

RAM wise your better off going for 2 X 8GB just to free up the other RAM slots, these one's ive found are great (i have them, 2 x 4GB) and are very well priced..

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE FARCRY3, Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs & 20% off MOH Warfighter PC Games £259.99
1 x Benq XL2411T 24" TRUE 120Hz 3D Vision 2.0 Widescreen LED Monitor - Black/Red £227.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) £199.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £167.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £129.98
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX650M High Performance 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020039-UK) £86.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX16GX3M2A1600C11) £59.99
Total : £1,147.92 (includes shipping : £12.50).





Have you thought about an aftermarket cooler to overclock with?

 

[NicktheNorse]

Ok cool, thanks for the advice

Edit: Haven't really considered after market cooling, figured I'd start out with stock intel cooler and go from there. Are those independent, sealed water cooling CPU coolers any good these days?

 

[NicktheNorse]

I put an order in for my new system

In the end I swapped the Intel 520 240GB in for the Intel 330 version which was 30% cheaper, wanted to stick with Intel.

Stuck with the Sapphire 7970 as when I woke up this morning it was on sale bringing it to within £40 of the gigabyte 7950 (which was out of stock anyway).

Also swapped the RAM for two 8GB sticks, and got a higher wattage PSU as it was also on sale.

(again, this is not OcUK I'm talking about as I'm in Norway).

Thanks again for the advice.

 

[zakblood]

enjoy it and post how you get on building it and using it, always nice to get feedback