I want to hear opinions about my first PC build

Hey!

I'm thinking about building my own pc it would be used to game, and video editing.

I have chosen these parts because, I want it to be silent, have good game performance and in the budget of max 1100 euros.

I would like to hear your opinion on these parts:

  • CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz
  • CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i
  • Motherboard: Asus Maximus V Gene Micro ATX LGA1155
  • Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (4 x 2GB) DDR3-1600
  • Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" (I will put a HDD later on)
  • Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card
  • Power Supply: Corsair CX 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V
  • Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Arctic White)

I think it would look neat, but I wondering if I can fit the H100i in there?

 

-Lazba


Buy a cheaper CPU cooler and put the rest of the money into a better graphics card like a 7950, or wait for the R9 series announcement from AMD to see what prices do, and what else comes on offer.

What would you consider as a good and cheaper CPU cooler?

Corsair h60 $40 cheaper

h50 is $50 cheaper. 

many recommend the Cooler Master Hyper 212 evo, as well as the Xigmatek Dark Night Night Hawk edition.

at that price you will get better performance from an air cooler. Heard plenty of bitching about the low end corsair closed loops.

First of all I would suggest against a CX power supply as they aren't great. I would replace it with a much lower wattage XFX power supply. 

I would advise against getting a H100i, they're noisy and bad quality for a water cooling loop and recommened a cheap air cooler. It's been suggested but the Xigmatek Dark Knight is a very good choice. 

With the money this will save I'd recommend getting a better GPU. I don't know which country you're in but the Asus 670's and 660ti's are on sale right now. Or go for a 760 at the same price. 

You may want to consider getting an AMD platform as well. Swapping out the motherboard for a Gigabyte 990fx UD3 and a AMD 8350 processor. Then maybe get a 7950 or even 7970. I'd actually recommend going this route with your budget. If you let me know what country you're in I'll construct a PC Part Picker list for you. 

Swap that case for the Corsair 350D.

Thanks for the help, and I'm from Finland

Alright, I'm no expert in Finnish computer parts lol. However if you can find these parts and fit them into your build for the same budget then great. 

CPU: AMD FX8350 

CPU Cooler: Xigmatek Dark Knight Night Hawk Edition 

Motherboard: Gigabyte 990FX-UD3 

RAM: Any 2x4GB kit. 

Storage: Any 120GB SSD 

Video Card: (XFX, Asus, MSI ect) Radeon HD 7950

Power Supply: XFX 550W PSU

I hope this fits, if it doesn't then you could replace the the GPU with a 7870Ghz edition which when overclocked performs fantastically and sometimes on par with a 7950. 

The Xigmatek Dark Knight SD performs about on par with an H100. which only performs slightly, and i really mean slightly, less than a H100i. I would personally choose the Dark Knight SD for any build as you don't really have to worry about an air cooler failing as much as you do with an AIO water cooler, and they're usually much cheaper.

Personally, if you're going to be video editing, then I would say go for an 8350 and just a decent motherboard as the 8 cores will be better for editing. You don't need a Maximus for video editing/gaming unless you REALLY want the cool little features/bragging rights.

Also more RAM if you can. during video editing I can see someone using all 8gigs. It's not hard. You can get by with 8 gigs no problem, but again if you can afford 16 then go for it.

With the money you could save going 8350 on this you could get a few silence optimized fans which if you're a silence freak, you'll probably want.

If you plan to deit in Sony Veges then go OpenCL.(7970)

If you plan to edit in AE then go Cuda.(680)

Either way will give you great gaming/editing performance.

I put a few builds together for you. An Intel and an AMD option.

  • Intel I was actually able to get you a 680 and 16gbs of RAM with this one :http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1Heco


  • AMD There are a LOT of xtra fans I put on this list. All of them absolutely great and basically completely silent. http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1He4J

 Either one is great. Feel free to get a 680 on the AMD build as I think you could get away with it, or vice versa.

Good luck. 

 

I love that this kinda people exist! I think you got the build for me.

That intel build is eeepic :] 

No problem. I actually just LOVE to put some build together for people. I actually spent about an hour and a half putting those build together. May I ask a favor in return? Post pics once you build it!!! Would love to see this fully built if you go through with it.

I'll make a couple of recommendations:

Get the Samsung EVO 120 GB SSD:

 http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Electronics-EVO-Series-2-5-Inch-MZ-7TE120BW/dp/B00E3W15P0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1380212530&sr=8-2&keywords=samsung+evo+ssd

Here's an article on why they're so great:

http://anandtech.com/show/7173/samsung-ssd-840-evo-review-120gb-250gb-500gb-750gb-1tb-models-tested

It's that time of year where new products are coming out and older generations are plummeting in price. Look around for graphics card deals and get a better video card for the same price.

Here's an example:

http://www.dealzon.com/deals/geforce-gtx-560-price#msi-n670gtx-pm2d2gd5oc

I may be posting some updates on this forum as picture and blog format.

+I have a youtube channel so maybe some speed builds?

1100 euros will get you a whole lot more computer.

First of all, no reason at all to get a CLC, especially the Corsair series. Invest in a high-end air cooler, like a Phanteks PH-TC14PE, Silverarrow Extreme, Noctua NH-D14, bequiet! Dark Rock Pro 2, etc., and you will have a quieter, higher-performing cooler for, usually, less money.

CPU-wise, it looks like you want mATX, and I'm a fan. I would recommend going for Haswell, simply because it gets better performance per-clock, but that is just me. The ROG series of mATX boards, the Gene line, as you chose, are great for overclocking and have a solid overall feature set. If you want even smaller, the Haswell Z87 Impact is an ITX ROG board that can crank out just as high of OCs, albeit, it is more expensive.

For cases, in the mATX size, there really isn't any competition at the price-range against the Silverstone TJ08B-E. PcPartPicker doesn't have it, so I added it as a custom part from Amazon.co.uk down at the bottom of the list. It is aluminum, and much better than the aluminum-can sheet that Lian Li uses on their low-end cases. It has plenty of room for full-sized PSUs, holds an ample amount of drives, and even supports decent watercooling options (a 180 and 120mm rad out of box, which is plenty for CPU + GPU). Fantastic choice, both aesthetically, functionally, and for the price.

GPUs are tricky; with R9 having just come out, the price of 79xx has dropped exponentially. You can easily fit 7950 CF in that budget, which will destroy a 7970 or 680. Power draw will be reasonable, especially with Haswell, so any decent 650W PSU will be plenty. If you would rather go for a single 7950, which, mind you, will max out 99% of games at 1080p, then you could fit more storage, more fans, and other "goodies" into the rig. If you want dual 7950s, I would recommend a Lepa G650. It is one of the highest quality OEMs that CWT produces, up there with the  Enermax OEMs that Lepa uses on many of their other G series PSUs. It has a low ripple, high efficiency, and delivers the appropriate wattage and amperage on the single +12V rail for dual GPUs, as well as the appropriate connectors for up to 4 8-pin PCIe connectors. Fantastic unit, one that I would use in any rig. If you want a single 7950, you don't need 650W, so you could grab a smaller unit, like an XFX Core 450, which, although lower quality, is still fantastic for the price, and saves money for other things in the rig, or just money in your pocket. Another great unit to consider is the Fractal Design Telsa R2 650; again, great ripple, efficiency, and at a very competitive price.

As for the RAM, I would go for 8GB of G.SKILL Sniper 1866mHz CL9 @ 1.5V, that way it is small enough for even the largest CPU cooler, like the bequiet! Dark Rock Pro 2 I included for the amazing performance and stunning looks (it should fit, seeing as physically, it is roughly the size of the NH-D14, which definitely fits.) Fast, low CL, low voltage, plenty of it.

Lastly, I threw in another fan, a 120mm Scythe Gentle Typhoon, which has reasonable CFM, great noise, incredible quality, and, were you to ever watercool, would work fantastically as a radiator fan. I would use it as rear exhaust, because back fan grills, generally, are pretty restrictive.

Rig with dual 7950s: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1HS2l

Rig with single 7950s: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1HRP0

Hope that helps some!

 

The problem is that I live in Finland and the "deals" are not so common here, because the limitation of the pc part stores.

I'm amazed of the amount of the time that people use to help others here! I will look in to your build lists, and check if I can get the parts here for reasonable price.

yeah the prices are bit high in here, and there are only few stores lol. I will look in to those parts, thanks!

"First of all, no reason at all to get a CLC" TOTALLY agree with what he said about air coolers over AIO coolers. I find them just so much more reliable.

"You can easily fit 7950 CF in that budget, which will destroy a 7970 or 680" ? yeah but the added effect of the frame pacing issues? To me the issues of CF just aren't worth the power, I'd always recommend going with a beast single video card over 2 good cards. There's just too many issues with CF right now. (granted they're "working on it")

"As for the RAM, I would go for 8GB of G.SKILL Sniper 1866mHz" This will serve you great. Personally I'd still recommend getting a 16gb kit since you said you'd be video editing but like I said earlier, you can totally get by with an 8gb kit. Especially if it's this kind.

And do you really think a maximus is necessary? Not to be condescending or rude in any way, but I honestly don't see the point in getting a top of the line MOBO. Reasoning?

Also OP, if you can, try to find a deal on a 7950 with a better cooler cause that cooler is pretty damn close to reference, which I never recommend getting.