Gaming PC - how/why/what?

[Delboy]

Ah, excellent tip thanks mate, I would have put the PSU in first but wouldn't have plugged it in! Will keep that in mind when I get there.

Following on from your earlier info/recommendation I've now rejigged my spec and as tends to be the way I have also upped the game in a few places, some to give headroom for overclocking and others to allow future upgrading. New intended spec is:

Intel i5 3570k
Asus P8 Z77-V mobo
Kingston HyperX 10th Anniversary Low Profile (needed LP to allow for the CPU cooler) 2x8Gb
Noctua NH-D14 CPU Cooler
Asus GeForce GTX 680 DirectCUII TOP 2Gb
WD 1TB Black 3.5" HDD
Crucial 256Gb m4 2.5" SSD
LG BH16LS38.AUAR10B (catchy!) BD/DVD RW Optical Drive
CoolerMaster HAF-X Full Tower Case
XFX 750w Black Edition PSU

Then some Arctic Silver thermal compound and a fairly bogo Microsoft wireless keyboard/mouse combo and a copy of Win 8 pro 64gb.

I don't think I'll tell the wife how much this is really costing....

[Joe1989]

You wont need the thermal compound! Intel Heatsinks have some on it already.

[sideways14a]

He is using a different cooler.

[Delboy]

What sideways said

The stock cooler is fine for stock clock speeds but nothing more it seems, figured I may aswell be ready when I do decide to crank things up a bit.

[sideways14a]

I would have went closed loop water

[Delboy]

Haha, I had to draw the line somewhere. I decided getting a good air cooler would probably be better than an entry to mid level water job.

Just got to find the time to do some proper price checking and make sure I don't pay too much for anything then I'll hit the big order/end marriage button

Will be like a second Christmas when that lot arrives.

Have been looking up PC exclusive games to play and I'm liking the look of Amnesia, Arma 2 (on its own and then with the DayZ mod) and the STALKER games. May also pick up Crysis to play through again with it looking how it should and the GPU comes with AC3 which will keep me occupied for a while too assuming I get on with it better than I did with brotherhood

[Delboy]

Also going to get myself a 'Dave' (Ikea laptop desk designed for sofa usage) for keyboard/mouse duties.

[sideways14a]

Get a water unit even the cheeper ones are better than high end air

[Delboy]

The reading around I've done including a couple of direct head to heads suggests that you are right if only considering temps, but it seems you only get a few degrees less with closed circuit water coolers that cost a bit more but more noise to go with it.

I'll stick with the Noctua, it will cope with what I'll need it to

[sideways14a]

Temps are vital, even 5 deg C is important thats said on Ivy bridge there is a problem with the solder they used under the heat spreader so its a moot point.

The main this with a closed loop cooler, apart from the performance is the noise. My H60 is silent compared to my old monster air cooler, and i mean silent.

[Joe1989]

The cooler will generally have a small tube of it in anways.

Also i agree with sideways something like the corsair cpu cooler H60 is what i'd go for

[Delboy]

The test on toms hardware was a 2-3 deg difference between the Noctua and best performing near cost closed loop and none of them were quieter, apparently the ND-H14 is very very quiet and efficient.

Main problem I can see is with all that weight hanging off the mobo, but I won't be moving it around much if at all so should be ok. Could always look to support it somehow, make up a bracket or something.

The wife has approved the purchase now so after a little more price checking I'll be good to go. Woo!

[sideways14a]

Yeah the weight of a big cooler was always something i had in the back of my mind, that and the physical height of the thing made smaller cases a problem.
I used to run a big tower cooler, it had a big big fan on and did ok - but the h60 was a jump again in cooling plus it really tidied up the interior.

I also swapped the stock 6970 cooler for a big bastard, its a fan / heatsink job but because the fan is so massive it is near silent and shifts a shit load of air which is dead handy. Going to get a second h60 and see if I can retro fit it on the gpu.

[Delboy]

The water coolers do look much neater.

I quite like some of the custom water jobs you see about with all the lit piping etc, very cool (excuse the pun!).

The GPU I've settled on comes with an alternative cooler, big twin fans plus decent heat sinks and reviews seem to confirm they do a good job while being very quiet.

Will see how I get on with the Noctua, I won't be stressing anything much for a while, will monitor temps and if things start looking a bit high in future I'll look into other options.

[pyro]

I've got an ND-H14. Its quieter than my PSU.

[Delboy]

Cheers Pyro, how does it perform for you and what kind of system are you running?

[Cluck]

Del - I did some pricing up today (I had a job postponement so it was better than twiddling my thumbs for a bit ) to see if I could maybe help you out (I can't, sorry - most of the bits were either cheaper from Dabs and/or EBuyer or so small an amount more expensive that it simply isn't worth my while giving you a price ) and that GTX680 is ridiculously cheap at Dabs right now. To put it in perspective, it costs me almost as much ex. VAT as they are selling it for inc. VAT, with ebuyer selling at just over £490 (which is about right based on my cost price). If you want that specific card then I would grab it from there now before they go .

[Delboy]

Thanks very much for that Cluck, really appreciate it

I'm ordering tonight as it goes so fingers crossed I'll get there in time. Going through Top Cashback which gets me a couple of percent back as well, not a lot but all helps

Will keep this thread updated as I go, maybe do a little step by step photo build or something.

[Delboy]

And that's that ordered!

If anyone is interested Dabs have knocked that Crucial SSD down to £129, which I think is a bit of a bargain for a 256Gb SSD.

[Pete C]

Good work - I have a 120Gb and it's too small once you've installed a few games.