The PC Build Thread

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Prices will be updated shortly. Wlll also factor in new Z77 motherboards.
 
Duff-Man said:
This post is in reply to my cousins rig which I am building for him, main purpose is to be able to write Blu-Ray discs and video encoding, but also some light gaming will post screenshots and pics later. Some of his "have to have parts" in the rig were, an unlocked i7, an Aerocool case, and a Nvidia garphics card. He already had a powersupply and he insisted on not buying a new one, even though it was an Aerocool 78+ 730W PSU, and finally he said that it must be overclocked past 4 Ghz :D

Specs for my cousins rigs are as follows :

CPU : i7 2600K - Overclocking Goal = 4.5Ghz
Motherboard : ASUS P8Z68-V
GPU : Point of View GTX 550Ti
HDD : Seagate Barracuda 2TB
Case : Aerocool Sixth Element
CPU Cooler : Antec Kuhler 620

Will update you with screenshots soon
Click to expand...

Finally finished building my cousin's rig, successfully overclocked the 2600K to 4.8GHz : [email protected]
show_oc.php
 
Great thread Duff-Man :D I'm looking into a new PC but have been out of the loop for ages, so this helps a lot - last time I checked I wanted a Pentium 2 w/ Voodoo 2 to play Quake 3...

Purpose: Gaming/Design
Budget: R11 000
Already Owned Hardware: N/A
Amt. of years intended to last: 3-5 years
Wanted Date: 10 April 2012
LAN Parties: No
Preferred Manufacturers: N/A

I'm looking to get a gaming rig in the next few days and have been considering an i5 2500K, GTX 570, 8GB RAM and a 1TB HDD - no idea which kind of mobo to get though. Any recommendations? I don't want to stuff anything up while building it myself so I'm thinking of getting Evetech to assemble one, any idea what their service is like and how much I could save if I got the components myself individually?
 
Outrack said:
Great thread Duff-Man :D I'm looking into a new PC but have been out of the loop for ages, so this helps a lot - last time I checked I wanted a Pentium 2 w/ Voodoo 2 to play Quake 3...
Click to expand...

Thanks Outrack :)

Outrack said:
Purpose: Gaming/Design
Budget: R11 000
Already Owned Hardware: N/A
Amt. of years intended to last: 3-5 years
Wanted Date: 10 April 2012
LAN Parties: No
Preferred Manufacturers: N/A

I'm looking to get a gaming rig in the next few days and have been considering an i5 2500K, GTX 570, 8GB RAM and a 1TB HDD - no idea which kind of mobo to get though. Any recommendations? I don't want to stuff anything up while building it myself so I'm thinking of getting Evetech to assemble one, any idea what their service is like and how much I could save if I got the components myself individually?
Click to expand...

Very sensible choices, in terms of Evetech I think you'd be better off assembling your rig on your own, you would save yourself around R2500 if you were to buy from them, for example their build that matches your specs is retailing at R13 500. Also you would learn a lot more about your computer than if someone else had done it for you. As for Evetech's service I'm not sure what they're like, I generally buy my components from Esquire, Wootware and Rebeltech. I will do a full quote for you when I get back home, typing this from my cell now.
 
Outrack said:
Purpose: Gaming/Design
Budget: R11 000
Already Owned Hardware: N/A
Amt. of years intended to last: 3-5 years
Wanted Date: 10 April 2012
LAN Parties: No
Preferred Manufacturers: N/A
Click to expand...

CPU : i5 2500K @R2100
Motherboard : MSI Z77A-G45 @R1530
GPU : 2x Radeon 6870 in Crossfire @R2160 each
HDD : Seagate Barracuda 1TB @R660
Power Supply : Corsair TX850W @R1400
RAM : Corsair Vengeance 8GB Kit (4GBx2) - DDR3-1600 @R560
Case : Aerocool X Warrior @R500
Optical Drive : Asus DVD-RW 24X @R150

Total = R11220

_________________________________________________________________________


For your motherboard I've given you a Z77 motherboard which will allow you, if needed, to run an Ivy Bridge CPU at a later stage and allow you to switch between the integrated graphics on the i5 or your dedicated graphics card. It's one of the few Z77 motherboards available in SA. If your computer was needed at the end of the month I would've recommended an ASUS or Gigabyte motherboard, but since they aren't available in SA yet, this the only other brand currently supplying Z77 motherboards. For your graphics card instead of getting a GTX 570, I have given you two 6870's in crossfire, which is around a 50% performance increase compared to the GTX 570 : http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/273502-GPU-Value-Comparisons (Archer's GPU comparison charts)

Hope this helps , if you have any questions ask away :)
 
Hey guys, currently I have a i72600k, an Asus Gene-Z and a 560ti running off a corsair 650tx. I was keen on getting a 580gtx for some insane pricing from rebeltech a few days ago (3.7k for a MSI twin frozr gtx 580 0_0), but they have since increased it back up to 4.7k. So I'm wondering if I should perhaps sell my psu, get a 850W psu for around 1.1k (buy second hand) and then procure myself another 560ti also second hand for around 1.8k? I see on archers graphs that a 560ti sli outpaces even a 680gtx. The alternative would be to wait a few months, sell the 560ti and get a price reduced 7970/50 or 6xxgtx? Any thoughts?
 
Duff-Man said:
For your motherboard I've given you a Z77 motherboard which will allow you, if needed, to run an Ivy Bridge CPU at a later stage and allow you to switch between the integrated graphics on the i5 or your dedicated graphics card. It's one of the few Z77 motherboards available in SA. If your computer was needed at the end of the month I would've recommended an ASUS or Gigabyte motherboard, but since they aren't available in SA yet, this the only other brand currently supplying Z77 motherboards. For your graphics card instead of getting a GTX 570, I have given you two 6870's in crossfire, which is around a 50% performance increase compared to the GTX 570 : http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/273502-GPU-Value-Comparisons (Archer's GPU comparison charts)

Hope this helps , if you have any questions ask away :)
Click to expand...
Thanks! A friend told me I should avoid crossfire due to microstutter in certain games, how prevalent is it? I've also had bad experiences with Radeon cards in the past (specifically with the Catalyst drivers) so I'm reluctant to go with them again, but this was years ago so hopefully they're not as bad as they used to be.

Here's the build I got from Evetech just for comparison, which comes to R10,596 - R11,220 is pushing my budget a bit but I suppose I could always get the second 6870 at a later stage... I've never built a PC from scratch before, would there be anything else I'd need to get in your build (heatsink/fan?)

EDIT: Didn't see nakedpeanut's post - that would bring the total price down to R10,736 which is pretty awesome. Decisions, decisions...
 
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Pansyfaust said:
Hey guys, currently I have a i72600k, an Asus Gene-Z and a 560ti running off a corsair 650tx. I was keen on getting a 580gtx for some insane pricing from rebeltech a few days ago (3.7k for a MSI twin frozr gtx 580 0_0), but they have since increased it back up to 4.7k. So I'm wondering if I should perhaps sell my psu, get a 850W psu for around 1.1k (buy second hand) and then procure myself another 560ti also second hand for around 1.8k? I see on archers graphs that a 560ti sli outpaces even a 680gtx. The alternative would be to wait a few months, sell the 560ti and get a price reduced 7970/50 or 6xxgtx? Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Hi Pansyfaust

What I think you should do is add another 560Ti to your current 560Ti, sell your TX650 and get a TX850. Unless you really have to, instead of buying second-hand I would rather buy brand new, it will be much less hassle and you have peace of mind.

PSU@R1555

GPU@R2513

Total = R4068 (If bought new)

A 560Ti SLI will beat both the 7970 and the GTX 680, if you want to upgrade from that, then you should wait for the Nvidia GK110 based GPU to release which is expected in Q4 2012/Q1 2013, or wait for the Nvidia 7xx (Maxwell) series to launch or the Radeon 8xxx series to launch before upgrading again.
 
nakedpeanut said:
Nice price on a 6870 if anyone is interested R 1,699.00: http://www.wootware.co.za/msi-amd-r...hics-card.html?SID=8mo466h698s6fopqiq63mf5ho4
Click to expand...

Nice spot ;)

Outrack said:
Thanks! A friend told me I should avoid crossfire due to microstutter in certain games, how prevalent is it? I've also had bad experiences with Radeon cards in the past (specifically with the Catalyst drivers) so I'm reluctant to go with them again, but this was years ago so hopefully they're not as bad as they used to be.

Here's the build I got from Evetech just for comparison, which comes to R10,596 - R11,220 is pushing my budget a bit but I suppose I could always get the second 6870 at a later stage... I've never built a PC from scratch before, would there be anything else I'd need to get in your build (heatsink/fan?)

EDIT: Didn't see nakedpeanut's post - that would bring the total price down to R10,736 which is pretty awesome. Decisions, decisions...
Click to expand...

There would be some micro stutter, but it won't hamper gaming much at all, if you do see some then update your drivers and micro stuttering should cease. The stock heatsink will be fine, unless you want to overclock your CPU. With only a R150 price difference now I would strongly suggest building your PC from scratch. Your home built PC with two 6870's in crossfire would offer around 50% better performance than the Evetech assembled PC with one GTX570.
 
Duff-Man said:
Hi Pansyfaust

What I think you should do is add another 560Ti to your current 560Ti, sell your TX650 and get a TX850. Unless you really have to, instead of buying second-hand I would rather buy brand new, it will be much less hassle and you have peace of mind.

PSU@R1555

GPU@R2513

Total = R4068 (If bought new)

A 560Ti SLI will beat both the 7970 and the GTX 680, if you want to upgrade from that, then you should wait for the Nvidia GK110 based GPU to release which is expected in Q4 2012/Q1 2013, or wait for the Nvidia 7xx (Maxwell) series to launch or the Radeon 8xxx series to launch before upgrading again.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply duff, I can get a new 560ti (not a gigabyte one) for 2.1k, and then the guy I can buy the psu is someone I know, so warranty and returns for the psu (if need comes) should not be a problem. I had a look at the Corsair spu. Its nice, but the title is misleading as it is not a modular psu (well it is, but only has 4 modular connections, whereas the antec hcp is more modular). So all in all a total cost of around 3.1k, plus I can sell my psu off for like R700, so only ~ 2.5k for an upgrade to 680gtx like performance. Me Likes :)
 
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