New PC setup

M

MaximusZA

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 7, 2011
Messages
732
Reaction score
72
Location
Somewhere over the Rainbow
Hey Guys,

I was wondering if I could get some advise. I am building a new gaming PC for myself, I can't afford a very high end gaming pc so my budget is +-R12000 and this is what I had in mind:

Case: Antec Lanboy Air
Motherboard: GIGABYTE Z77X-UD3H
Powersupply: Cooler Master Silent Pro M2, 720w (12v: 696w)
CPU: Ivybridge Intel Core i5 3570K, 3.4GHz
Memory (RAM): 2 x 4GB Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9
Hard drive: Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003, 1TB/1000GB, SATA6G, 7200rpm, 64mb cache
Graphics Card: Club 3D HD7870, 2GB 256bit DDR5, PCI-E 3.0, HDMI, DirectX 11
optical drive: LG GH24NS90, 24x SATA

Now this would set me back about R12500 which is pretty much on my budget. Now does anyone have any recommendations or changes that wouldn't up my budget? or is this a decent price and decent spec?

thanks guys
 
Last edited:
If you can, try go for the Nvidia GTX670 graphics card instead. They have very impressive results.
 
Add an SSD, and a 720W PSU is overkill unless you intend on adding another graphics card later on.
 
MaximusZA said:
Hey Guys,

I was wondering if I could get some advise. I am building a new gaming PC for myself, I can't afford a very high end gaming pc so my budget is +-R12000 and this is what I had in mind:

Case: Antec Lanboy Air
Motherboard: GIGABYTE Z77X-UD3H
Powersupply: Cooler Master Silent Pro M2, 720w (12v: 696w)
CPU: Ivybridge Intel Core i5 3570K, 3.4GHz
Memory (RAM): 2 x 4GB Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9
Hard drive: Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003, 1TB/1000GB, SATA6G, 7200rpm, 64mb cache
Graphics Card: Club 3D HD7870, 2GB 256bit DDR5, PCI-E 3.0, HDMI, DirectX 11
optical drive: LG GH24NS90, 24x SATA

Now this would set me back about R12500 which is pretty much on my budget. Now does anyone have any recommendations or changes that wouldn't up my budget? or is this a decent price and decent spec?

thanks guys
Click to expand...

Hi MaximusZA

Here's my quote

CPU : i5 3570K @R2210
Motherboard : ASRock Z77 Extreme4 @R1555
GPU : MSI GTX 670 @R4675
HDD : Seagate Barracuda 1TB @R630
SSD : OCZ Vertex 4 - 64GB @R1020
Power Supply : Corsair TX650W @R1050
RAM : Corsair Vengeance 8GB Kit (4GBx2) - DDR3-1600 @R560
Case : Aerocool Cyborg X @R700
Optical Drive : Asus DVD-RW 24X @R150

Total = R12 550

________________________________________________
Hope this helps, I couldn't find a WD hard drive so I put a Seagate instead, if you have any questions just ask or take a look at the The-PC-Build-Thread ;)
 
Last edited:
i see no cooler. this implies you are not going to overclock, the 3570k is overkill. get the 3550 instead.
the extreme4 has two pci-e slots. it's a lovely board (i have one), but if you are only ever going to run one GPU, it's overkill. get a board with only one pci-e slot (and save maybe four or five hundred bucks). take that saving and get the vertex4 120GB.
 
Duff-Man said:
Hi MaximusZA

Here's my quote

CPU : i5 3570K @R2210
Motherboard : ASRock Z77 Extreme4 @R1555
GPU : MSI GTX 670 @R4675
HDD : Seagate Barracuda 1TB @R630
SSD : OCZ Vertex 4 - 64GB @R1020
Power Supply : Corsair TX650W @R1050
RAM : Corsair Vengeance 8GB Kit (4GBx2) - DDR3-1600 @R560
Case : Aerocool Cyborg X @R700
Optical Drive : Asus DVD-RW 24X @R150

Total = R12 550

________________________________________________
Hope this helps, I couldn't find a WD hard drive so I put a Seagate instead, if you have any questions just ask or take a look at the The-PC-Build-Thread ;)
Click to expand...

Duffman these prices are awesome!

I am considering getting another GPU at a later stage just at the moment I don't feel it's necessary. but as games become more of PC killers i will add another GPU, would the 650 watt handle the 2 GPU's? I would love to get an SSD from what I've read here and everywhere else its a really good upgrade, but does the price justify the upgrade?
 
droplet said:
i see no cooler. this implies you are not going to overclock, the 3570k is overkill. get the 3550 instead.
the extreme4 has two pci-e slots. it's a lovely board (i have one), but if you are only ever going to run one GPU, it's overkill. get a board with only one pci-e slot (and save maybe four or five hundred bucks). take that saving and get the vertex4 120GB.
Click to expand...

The i5 3550 can also be overclocked, but rather than just raising the multiplier on a 3570K you will have to play around with the BLCK frequency and CPU voltages to get a stable overclock, so for first time overclockers, the better CPU would be the 3570K. MaximusZA could always add in a air/water cooler or build his own water cooling loop to get better temps.

It would be better for MaximusZA to get a better motherboard now rather than an SSD, due to the fact that when games get more demanding in the near future he could add in another GTX 670 for better performance. You could always get another SSD and configure them in RAID 0 for maximum performance, but you don't want to end up two and a half years down the line having to buy a new motherboard and the hassle of putting your PC together again, because your current motherboard isn't capable enough to meet your demands.
 
MaximusZA said:
Duffman these prices are awesome!

I am considering getting another GPU at a later stage just at the moment I don't feel it's necessary. but as games become more of PC killers i will add another GPU, would the 650 watt handle the 2 GPU's? I would love to get an SSD from what I've read here and everywhere else its a really good upgrade, but does the price justify the upgrade?
Click to expand...

A Corsair TX650 would be able to handle 2-way GTX 670 SLI without any overclocking. If you're going to overclock then a Corsair TX750 would probably be the better option for around R200 more.

To give you a rough idea of your rigs power consumption and what PSU's to look for, here's the best PSU calculator I know of PSUCalc.

Basically what an SSD allows you to do is access your files faster. It will give you faster read/write times and it will allow you to boot programs and some games faster, but besides that nothing really special. The choice is up to you, if you can live without faster boot times, then drop the SSD and invest the money somewhere else in your rig, but if booting programs/games faster is a priority for you, then by all means get an SSD ;)
 
Last edited:
Thanks a million guys! you've been a great help! and my final spec will be

CPU : i5 3570K @R2210
Motherboard : ASRock Z77 Extreme4 @R1555
GPU : MSI GTX 670 @R4675
HDD : Seagate Barracuda 1TB @R630
SSD : OCZ Vertex 4 - 64GB @R1020
Power Supply : Corsair TX650W @R1050
RAM : Corsair Vengeance 8GB Kit (4GBx2) - DDR3-1600 @R560
Case : Aerocool Cyborg X @R700
Optical Drive : Asus DVD-RW 24X @R150

thanks to Duff-man who has shown me I can get everything i wanted and more for the same price as my original spec.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X