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Fezza

Fezza

New Member
Joined
May 9, 2013
Location
England
Hello all,

New here - so go easy!

This is going to be my first attempt at building my own computer, I just wanted to see what you guys thought.. perhaps recommend a different part for me for my rig.

Case

CM Storm Enforcer *Already Bought*

Motherboard

Asus Maximum V Formula

CPU

Intel Core i7-3770K

HDD

Seagate 3TB 3.5 inch 7200RPM 64MB Cache Hard Drive

SSD

Samsung 250GB 840 Series SSD

Graphics Card

GeForce GTX 660 2GB *Already Bought*

PSU

Corsair 600W CXM PSU

RAM

Kingston HyperX Genesis 8GB 1600MHz RAM

Cooler

Corsair H100i

Sound Card

Creative Soundblaster Z Gaming Sound Card

Let me know what you think, I'd really appreciate.

Cheers!
 
Welcome to the forums! :)

Let me first ask, what're you doing with this computer?

Second: Let me just say you don't need a motherboard like that, you'd do just fine with something like a ASUS P8Z77-V Pro, or the Deluxe, or The Asrock Extreme6/4.

Third: Are you going to be Overclocking?

Fourth: You may want an 840Pro Series instead of just the 840, as it preforms much better for a little more money, and you could use the money you saved from the motherboard and throw it into SSDs.

Fifth: Are you thinking about going SLI with your GeFore GTX 660? Or just leaving it on it's own?

Thank you for taking your time to answer these questions it will help me a lot in helping you! :)
 
DarrenP said:
Welcome to the forums! :)

Let me first ask, what're you doing with this computer?

Second: Let me just say you don't need a motherboard like that, you'd do just fine with something like a ASUS P8Z77-V Pro, or the Deluxe, or The Asrock Extreme6/4.

Third: Are you going to be Overclocking?

Fourth: You may want an 840Pro Series instead of just the 840, as it preforms much better for a little more money, and you could use the money you saved from the motherboard and throw it into SSDs.

Fifth: Are you thinking about going SLI with your GeFore GTX 660? Or just leaving it on it's own?

Thank you for taking your time to answer these questions it will help me a lot in helping you! :)
Click to expand...

Hi Darren, thanks for the welcome.

1. I'm going to be using it primarily as a gaming computer but it will be put to good use in other ways too.

2. Thanks for the advice on the motherboard, that one was recommended to me hence why I thought I'd go for it. I'll take a look at the ones you've mentioned.

3. I will be overclocking yes.

4. I did mean the Pro, sorry!

5. I'll be going SLI with it once I get a bit more money together, my friend did me a good deal so I got the first for £90 brand new. I'll be looking at around £140 to get a second, it's not a priority right now though.
 
The 660 is a lower end card...you'd be better off upgrading to a single better card than going dual 660s.

Do you have speakers that are good enough to take advantage of the sound card?

Do you live by a Microcenter?

How far are you planning to overclock?
 
Knufire said:
The 660 is a lower end card...you'd be better off upgrading to a single better card than going dual 660s.

Do you have speakers that are good enough to take advantage of the sound card?

I don't have any speakers but I will be investing in some, it's a system I'm building gradually.

Do you live by a Microcenter?

If you mean the store then no I'm afraid we don't have one in the UK.

How far are you planning to overclock?

I've read that with the motherboard and CPU I was planning on using, I can safely overclock to 4.7ghz. But I've never overclocked before, I'm new to it so will be asking for advice etc.. before I do.
Click to expand...
 
Ah, you're in the UK. Are you planning on going with a nice pair of headphones or a full speaker setup? Because if you're going with a speaker setup with a receiver...the sound card becomes pretty much useless as the receiver does the same job the sound card does.
 
Knufire said:
Ah, you're in the UK. Are you planning on going with a nice pair of headphones or a full speaker setup? Because if you're going with a speaker setup with a receiver...the sound card becomes pretty much useless as the receiver does the same job the sound card does.
Click to expand...

I was going to be getting some speakers for when I'm listening to music etc.. but for gaming I will be using headphones, I want to block out the real world :D
 
If you never OCed before ( even if you already had ), i dont think you need to pay this premium price for an MB. Any ~150$ board will OC to at least 4.5ghz without issue, and more.

+1 for a better GPU but you seems to already have buyed this one. 660 is mid end card, in fact lower end of the mid range. It's an OK card but....

You dont need a sound card unless you plan on buying expensive speakers or headset ( i mean 150-200$ + stuff ).

If you mainly game, a 3570k is plenty, 100$ less VS the 3770k.
 
Boulard83 said:
If you never OCed before ( even if you already had ), i dont think you need to pay this premium price for an MB. Any ~150$ board will OC to at least 4.5ghz without issue, and more.

+1 for a better GPU but you seems to already have buyed this one. 660 is mid end card, in fact lower end of the mid range. It's an OK card but....

You dont need a sound card unless you plan on buying expensive speakers or headset ( i mean 150-200$ + stuff ).

If you mainly game, a 3570k is plenty, 100$ less VS the 3770k.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice.

Like I've mentioned in a previous post, I only got the 660 because I got a good price on it. It will keep me going for now, but I may end up upgrading and not bother going SLI with the 660. Again, I'll come here for advice on what to buy!
 
DarrenP said:
Alright, so what's your overall budget? Also what exactly are you going to be doing on this computer?
Click to expand...

I'm trying my very best to keep it under £700..

I'm currently stocking my Steam account up with games in anticipation for the completion of this rig. I've got things like FarCry, Crysis, Call Of Duty etc.. this is what I'll be spending most of my time on.

But of course it will be used for browsing, music and film etc.. hence why I wanted to get the 3TB HDD.
 
Oh, alright. Do you know where you'll be buying from? From there i can put together a parts list fine tuned to exactly what you want. :)
 
DarrenP said:
Oh, alright. Do you know where you'll be buying from? From there i can put together a parts list fine tuned to exactly what you want. :)
Click to expand...

Wherever is cheapest if I'm honest..

amazon.co.uk
aria.co.uk
scan.co.uk
ebuyer.com

Those are the four main websites I use for buying computer parts.
 
if you go with a 3570k then a 600w psu wont be needed might want to change that to a 500w. Also I would suggested not getting a h100i, maybe some thing like the Hyper 212 Evo or if you really want a AIO the H220 (if you can find it).
 
Good advice in this thread, not much for me to add.

The original motherboard choice isn't a bad choice - its just expensive. You get most all the premium features which most people don't use, as well as a lot of very high end specialized features only useful for benchmarking. That's what brings a premium price. If you want to have the best, its a good choice but really you might as well go with the Maximus V Extreme at that price.

I think the track others are suggesting here makes the best sense though. And especially for your budget, you'll get a powerhouse without overpaying.
 
When you buy on scan go onto 'today only' on the right side of the home page and look through everything to check they don't have an offer on something you want. Stuff normally sticks on there for about a week, I have saved a £10 here and there doing that. The offers 'change' at 2pm every day!

That motherboard is actually £113.99 but if you add it to cart conventionally from the product page they won't pass on those savings.

and there are a few SSD's and PSU's you might like to check out - http://www.scan.co.uk/todayonly/index.aspx

JR
 
Word of advice on audio. Audio setups with computers totally depend on what is actually going to be playing the sound. For example...

If you are sending the audio to a receiver, simply use the HDMI out of your video card to your receiver as the audio output device, that will work fine. Or if your mobo has a toslink out, that will be fine too as it is outputting a digital signal. Mobos aren't the best for analogue outs.

If you are going to be using nice headphones, you want an external DAC w/ headphone amp combo. Few options to link the computer to the external DAC (digital to analogue converter) w/ amp. 1. Get a PCI USB card as it will have its own dedicated line and wont have as much interference from other ports and wont share bandwidth from other USB devices. 2. Use the toslink out from the mobo to the DAC. 3. If you decide to use a soundcard use the toslink out from that. There are plenty of under $200 options for external DAC/Headphone amp options.

Basically, try to avoid outputting any analogue signal from the computer. The truth is you can get significantly better audio quality using an external DAC than the DAC in any mobo and any soundcard in a computer.
 
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