Some thoughts on this rig, please?

[Mitchi]

Hey guys.

As of now my PC is nearly five years old - five! And I'm still playing BF3 on it lol.

Intel Q8200 @ 4x2.33 Ghz
2x2 GB DDR1 RAM @ 800 Mhz
HD4850 w/ 512 MB VRAM
400W no-name China-made PSU



So I need a new PC. Games I want to play on it are mainly BF3, BF4, Assetto Corsa, DayZ (Standalone! Where are you?) and somewhere in the future GTA V. I'm not going to buy it now, but maybe in 8 - 10 weeks.

What I've come up with so far should be good enough and I'm not a PC noob, but I still want to hear some opinions on this.

4670k boxed (Corsair H100i will later be added!) ~ 200 ,-
MSi Z87-GD65 ~ 180 ,-
8GB Corsair Vengeance Low Profile black (PC3-12800U CL9-9-9-24) ~ 65 ,-
EVGA GTX 770 ACX Superclocked ~ 410 ,-
NZXT 530 (Full Tower) ~ 130 ,-
Be Quiet! 680W E9-CM (modular) ~ 125 ,-

= 1100 bucks



Thoughts about the CPU:
Prices still seem to be tangling aroung, sometimes you can find one for 180, sometimes it's 220. If, at the moment I want to order my parts, the prices for the 4670k go up a bit and the prices for the 4770k go down (300 atm, sometimes 280-ish), I'm gonna pick up the latter one.

Thoughts about the GPU:
I could get a 770 for around 350, but I love EVGA's performance and customer service if anything goes wrong. It's superclocked, it's got an ACX cooler. Probably one of the best cards out there now.
Aaaaand... depending on some numbers my bank account, I might go for the 780 one from EVGA - as far as I love the retail cooler, having a Titan-like GTX 780 ACX SC is just pure sex for a gamer. Sooo quick that thing! Cheapest 780 would be 560, this one is around 660.

Thoughts about the case:
Orginally planned to go for a 410 midi tower from NZXT. Now the replacement for the original Phantom will be this 530 and on their website it's been listed at 129 dollars. I think it'll be available soon here across the pond for that money. But what size is that? It's a bit bigger than a midi tower and it's called a full tower. As of now I only know the term 'big tower'.

Thoughts about the RAM:
It is clocked 1600 Mhz and somewhere I read that most games don't need (or accept) more than that - is that true? The mainboard can handle way more.



Okay, that's it. I hope to get some decent opinions and evaluations on this.

 

[eizbaer]

Okay, that's it. I hope to get some decent opinions and evaluations on this.

not sure how valuable this opinion's going to be for you... but still: looks good i'd probably go the same route - maybe not go full blast on GPU, but that's personal preference.

 

[JakeRadden]

Looks good to me. Might be the first time on here I haven't really had a criticism.

Hmmmm... Maybe, go gigabyte instead of MSI for motherboard? That's just me

Ah! Go for a good PSU. Seasonic-design, preferably.

 

[Vette Boss]

Be Quiet makes a decent PSU, not quite Seasonic quality, still quite good. My main criticism would be the Corsair closed-loop watercooling system, the Swiftech H220 is only slightly more and is fully serviceable and can be expanded. Not to mention, it is noticeably quieter.

 

[Mitchi]

I'm pretty sure I'll go for this motherboard, especially because I love e.g. the "go to bios"-button on it. I had an ASUS planned before, but a friend of mine showed me this and it really convinced me.

About the PSU - I wasn't sure if I should go for a Corsair or a Be Quiet!. I know Be Quiet! ones from two friends and they haven't had any problems in years. And - I can't deny I also want it because it's german made. But yeah, Seasonic technique is probably the best you want in a PSU ... I'll have to see.

About the Swiftech - I will have a closer look on this in comparison to the Corsair model. Problem is, as it seems, I can't find a retailer here in Europe for it... which makes up the problem for me that I have no clue how much it would cost me.

But thanks so far guys!

 

[73GMCSprint]

Looks pretty good to me. If it were mine (and I'm considering a similar build for myself in the hopefully near future) I'd go Gigabyte or Asus for the mobo. My (admittedly limited) experience with MSI has not been especially happy.

 

[Mitchi]

I wanted to go with an ASUS one, but a friend of mine then showed me the MSi and I was totally in love with it.

PC has been running for nearly two weeks now. Finally, the H100i came in.
Unfortunately I have to admit that the Corsair stock cooler are actually quite loud. But that doesn't bother me since I'm wearing headphones most of the time.

Crappy phone pics, but meh, I don't have a better cam.

Beautiful from the front.

Second World War from the back.

 

[JakeRadden]

Great! Now overclock the pants off of that i5.

 

[Mitchi]

Switched the Corsair fans to the motherboard. Waaay quieter now. But now they're not shown in the Corsair Link software anymore. Who cares, the BIOS controls it now - and does a great job. Only one cable on the cpu cooler pump now, quieter and actually about 5 degrees celsius cooler.

Going to overclock it with a friend very soon. 4,4 is my goal, maybe it goes further? I'll see.

Funny thing is that the friend I'm gonna do the overclocking with bought the exact same Mobo, gfx card and cpu - but I have 300 more points in the valley and heaven benchmark.

 

[JakeRadden]

I'd say 4.4 is a good OC level. My 3770k is at 4.2 with no tweaks other than multiplier, and that's under a $30 Hyper 212 Evo. I'd stretch that haswell out to 4.6-4.8 if it's got the legs for it.