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[StayDead]

So with the help of a bunch of other people I know I put together this: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1G0Vl

The parts are currently being delivered, for now I'm going to use my old HDD/2TB external to handle all my storage and use my old DVD drive to save money. The only problem with my plan is I won't be able to order Windows till the weekend. My parts should all end up arriving Thursday, I've got my case, motherboard, PSU, CPU cooler and GPU coming tomorrow, but I'll have to wait for my CPU, SSD and RAM.

This is my first "build". I mean I custom ordered a PC before but didn't put it together myself, so I'm kinda nervous haha.

 

[kharma45]

So with the help of a bunch of other people I know I put together this: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1G0Vl

The parts are currently being delivered, for now I'm going to use my old HDD/2TB external to handle all my storage and use my old DVD drive to save money. The only problem with my plan is I won't be able to order Windows till the weekend. My parts should all end up arriving Thursday, I've got my case, motherboard, PSU, CPU cooler and GPU coming tomorrow, but I'll have to wait for my CPU, SSD and RAM.

This is my first "build". I mean I custom ordered a PC before but didn't put it together myself, so I'm kinda nervous haha.

Costs a bit more but you'll be able to overclock and you get a slightly better GPU with more VRAM (although the VRAM amount is arguably overkill, but for the sake of £8 I would get it over the 2GB variant)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£23.00 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI Z87-G45 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£116.69 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£57.98 @ Novatech)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£64.98 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Fractal Design Define R3 Black Pearl ATX Mid Tower Case (£60.46 @ Scan.co.uk)
Other: Intel Core i5 4670K Quad Core Retail CPU (Socket 1150, 3.40GHz, 6MB, Haswell, 84W, Intel Graphics, BX80646I74770, 4th Generation Intel Core, Turbo Boost Technology 2.0) (£167.90)
Other: Asus GeForce GTX 670 DirectCU II 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **FREE SHIPPING** (£199.99)
Other: Be Quiet Pure Power L8 530W PSU (£58.12)
Total: £749.12
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-09-23 12:14 BST+0100)

 

[TheD]

What are the best cheap 240/250/256GBs SSDs around ATM?

 

[BudokaiMR2]

Yeah stick with the i7 and flog the APU

This is what I have been thinking of doing for a while but I absolutely cannot find any 1336 MATX boards anywhere. Even online they don't seem to be available anymore.

 

[kharma45]

This is what I have been thinking of doing for a while but I absolutely cannot find any 1336 MATX boards anywhere. Even online they don't seem to be available anymore.

Oh I didn't realise you only had the CPU :\ I would imagine the i7 will still fetch some reasonable cash too. You could sell both and maybe get an i5. All depends on how much you can get.

What are the best cheap 240/250/256GBs SSDs around ATM?

Where are you?

 

[Durante]

The HDD mounts in the R4 have thick rubber grommets. The mounting screws never touch the HDD cage. Likewise, the PSU sits on rubber nubs. You could use extra grommets at the back panel to fully de-couple. For fans, maybe get some rubber frame fans?

Just a suggestion, since the R4 meets all your other criteria.

A few things regarding Fractal Design:
- When you screw the HDD into the sleds, screw them in loosely. The minute the screw is threaded into the HDD, stop. Most vibration arises from people who screw them in too tightly.
- Fractal Design rubber grommets are horrible compared to the silicon Antec uses. I think the grommets are interchangeable so if you can get some of the Antecs, using them is a possibility.
- Fan decoupling isn't really ended unless they're really fast spinning fans. The Fractal Design R4 is heavy enough to not rattle. High end fans will offer suspension on dampening anyway.

Then I guess I'll go with a R4 and replace the default fans.

 

[Skyfireblaze]

One question, I wanted to buy the GIGABYTE 7950 and I read in the comments that you need 28cm space in your case to install it, well I just measured and looking at my case (a very old Aerocool iCurve) the HDD cage starts exactly at 28cm so the 7950 won't fit right?

 

[TheD]

Where are you?

Aus

Then I guess I'll go with a R4 and replace the default fans.

It was hard to find cases that met all your needs, the only others I saw that are close are a few from Lian Li (but they do not have top/bottom fan config and they cost a fair amount).

 

[Whiteshirt]

The default fans aren't even really that awful. I have no idea who would complain about "insufficient decoupling".

If we're talking about quiet computing, by far the biggest thing you can do to decrease noise is to leave the side and top fan slots blocked. You want to keep sound paths to you indirect.

The second thing you do is pick cases made with the thickest material possible. The reason the Fractal Design R4 does so well isn't so much that it has sound dampening material but rather because they give the side panels an excessive amount of weight and rigidity. For this reason, aluminium is actually awful for acoustic performance unless the material is as thick as that used in the old Mac Pro. This is like the only place where decoupling actually matters as aluminium is light enough to rattle.

Other top tier quiet computing cases, such as the Antec Solo II and P183, use the same principle - Antec's high end quiet cases uses a stupidly thick combination of polycarbonate and steel. The Antec Solo II is still the best quiet computing system for medium powered systems - having proper hard drive suspension ribbons and 1mm thick side panels - but its also bloody expensive.

If you're in Europe, you might want to look into cases from Nanoxia. Its basically a company that churns out cheaper priced Fractal Design clones. I've built a system in one and they don't really seem all that different from a Fractal Design Define series case.

Aus

Samsung 840 or 840 Evo. Nothing cheaper than these drives in the Australian market. This is anecdotal but they're our best selling SSD brand and also the brand that we've had to RMA the least.

 

[Gaf_SentMe]

At that price, and considering you got the Node as a case, it's a shame you don't overclock. If you choose the cheaper, non-gold-certifield PSU (still a really good unit!), you could get something like this for not much more money:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($223.98 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: Asus Z87I-DELUXE Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($185.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($67.50 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sandisk Ultra Plus 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($159.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card ($633.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Fractal Design Node 304 Mini ITX Tower Case ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Essential 600W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($64.99 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($95.87 @ Outlet PC)
Other: QNIX QX2710 LED Evolution ll DPort 27" 2560x1440 Samsung PLS (LG IPS) Matt Screen Panel HDMI, Display Port, PC 27-inch Monitor * Thunderbolt Display ($379.00)
Other: SilverStone PP05 Short Cable for PSU Set ($19.99)
Other: Nippon Labs CT-4MINI-NA ($1.49)
Total: $1932.76
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-09-23 04:02 EDT-0400)

Change the SSD to the 120GB 840 EVO and the price drops below what you'd pay for what you put together. Overclocking your CPU is totally worth it, especially considering you have a friggin 780 in there. Do it.

Daaamn homie. How could you goddamn! I've never oc'd before. Always feared it for some reason. But you may have sold me on future proofing ma rig some more. Damn you PC GAF goons!

Isn't that PSU too large for my case?
What amount of fps may I add onto my GPU with an overclock? A rough estimate for a game like Crysis 3 perhaps.

 

[Unknown One]

I once feared ocing myself, but just read up on how to do it and watch some videos on it. The only painful part is testing out the stability which takes a while.

 

[Ty4on]

They do, but they're such noisy fuckers :\ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBGTwelALY0

My card

Replace the stock fan curve the second you get it unless you really need your GPU to be sub 60C. This is my fan curve, but 0% is the same as 25% (1150RPM). Should maybe tweak it a bit better to keep it around 80C under heavy load because I think ambient temp was kinda high when I last set it. Games that don't stress it like SC2 HoTS and Dota 2 on the highest settings are not audible over the stupid PSU. Streamed Dota 2 in client at a friends house when I noticed how silent it was

 

[Aranath]

I could use some advice with regards to testing some parts in my PC. I shipped my computer from the UK to Spain the other day (moved here for work) and my computer arrived on Thursday. When I unpacked it it had very clearly been dropped on the lower, back corner where the PSU is. The case was all bent and dented.

I had to force the screw out to have a look inside. My main storage HDD in its holding tray had broken free in the HDD bracket and had moved around. I'm currently running the WD diagnostic program to check that for faults. The quick test came up OK and Crystal Disk Info is showing its fine, so hopefully that's not damaged.

I'm worried about my PSU, though. It's a Corsair HX850. As I say, it was obviously dropped on that corner and I'm not sure if the PSU has been damaged. The computer turns on and everything seems to run fine, but I can't feel any air blowing out the back of the PSU. When I put my hand under the computer, I can feel a very, very slight bit of air movement, but I can't tell what direction.

When I start to stress the computer, running benchmarks or whatever, I still can't feel anything by the vents and the power supply seems to get noticably warmer. Do you think the fans have been damaged in some way?

Also, what's the best way to test my CPU? Should I run Prime95 and see if it conks in?

Thankfully, I had the good sense to remove my GPU before shipping. I should have taken other stuff out as well, apparently. This is so frustrating.

 

[Azulsky]

You will have to look at the fan. I have the same PSU and it doesnt even turn the fan on till im ingame. You can run OCCT to pull as much wattage from the PSU as your system can. They have a specific test for it.

Dont open the PSU and have a look around either the components will hold charge for days.

I would be way more concerned about the HDD. Make sure you data is backed up. I would consider it an untrustworthy drive from this point on.

 

[TheD]

Samsung 840 or 840 Evo. Nothing cheaper than these drives in the Australian market. This is anecdotal but they're our best selling SSD brand and also the brand that we've had to RMA the least.

They are what I am looking at, but I am a bit worried about the writes on those SSDs.

 

[Azulsky]

They are what I am looking at, but I am a bit worried about the writes on those SSDs.

In what way

 

[kharma45]

They are what I am looking at, but I am a bit worried about the writes on those SSDs.

Don't be

http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/417...-with-final-conclusion-final-update-20-6-2013

 

[Aranath]

You will have to look at the fan. I have the same PSU and it doesnt even turn the fan on till im ingame. You can run OCCT to pull as much wattage from the PSU as your system can. They have a specific test for it.

Dont open the PSU and have a look around either the components will hold charge for days.

I would be way more concerned about the HDD. Make sure you data is backed up. I would consider it an untrustworthy drive from this point on.

Thanks for the advice. I ran the PSU test on OCCT and within seconds the PSU started making a very audible buzzing noise, which was never there before. I turned the test off immediately just in case it damaged something. So I guess I can state confidently that it has been damaged. I did notice air movement out the back, so the fan obviously isn't broken, but something is not right in there.

I've got WD's full HDD test going at the moment. That's got 4 and a half hours left on it, so we'll see how that goes later. If that comes back all clear, should I still be worried? The shipping company is basically telling me I have to take it to a PC shop and they must assess the damage. If they get clear results like I'm getting, I'd imagine they won't insist on replacing it.

 

[TheD]

Don't be

http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/417...-with-final-conclusion-final-update-20-6-2013

That is the kind of data I wanted to see, thanks.

But that is only half of what I was thinking, the other half is write speeds.
I know that the 840 EVO can only it's max write speed until the small NAND buffer is filled up then it drops back to a much slower speed, that might be a problem for one of the things I will be using it for (hibernating the system).

 

[schandmann]

Daaamn homie. How could you goddamn! I've never oc'd before. Always feared it for some reason. But you may have sold me on future proofing ma rig some more. Damn you PC GAF goons!

My pleasure.

Isn't that PSU too large for my case?

Nope. 140mm depth.

What amount of fps may I add onto my GPU with an overclock? A rough estimate for a game like Crysis 3 perhaps.

It doesn't work that way. Highly CPU-intensive games will run better (in some cases by a pretty big margin), while others won't see much improvement at all. But for the sake of your question, here's a chart showing an i7-3770K at different clocks in Crysis 3:

Keep in mind that Haswell doesn't overclock all that well under air. But you should get 4-4.2 GHz, which IMHO is a pretty good performance increase.

 

[StayDead]

Costs a bit more but you'll be able to overclock and you get a slightly better GPU with more VRAM (although the VRAM amount is arguably overkill, but for the sake of £8 I would get it over the 2GB variant)

links/QUOTE]

Thanks for the links, but (un)fortunately? I already paid for everything yesterday, just thought I'd post it in here haha. From everything I've read and everything I've heard from people I know it's a good build so hopefully I'll get a good lot of use out of it. I'm dreading getting the HDD out of this current PC however as I really didn't look after it as well as I should have so I imagine it's super dusty everywhere. The biggest issue was I had a case, well have at the minute a case which I found incredibly difficult to open haha.

The biggest thing I'm worried about now is just doing the thing without mucking anything up.

 

[Azulsky]

Thanks for the advice. I ran the PSU test on OCCT and within seconds the PSU started making a very audible buzzing noise, which was never there before. I turned the test off immediately just in case it damaged something. So I guess I can state confidently that it has been damaged. I did notice air movement out the back, so the fan obviously isn't broken, but something is not right in there.

I've got WD's full HDD test going at the moment. That's got 4 and a half hours left on it, so we'll see how that goes later. If that comes back all clear, should I still be worried? The shipping company is basically telling me I have to take it to a PC shop and they must assess the damage. If they get clear results like I'm getting, I'd imagine they won't insist on replacing it.

I would still take it to the PC shop with the PSU. Explain how it was found ejected from its slot and how it bounced around the case during shipping. I would bet they reccommend replacement. The main concern is whether or not it was mechanically damaged; not whether you still have sector integrity. Not to be captain hindsight if you only have one mechanical drive take it with your carry on.

 

[Skyfireblaze]

Please don't punch me but... I know the future seems pretty AMD like and I have been a AMD guy all my life but if I'm not sure if a Sapphire 7950 card, 27cm long will fit in 28cm case-space, how is the ZOTAC GTX 760 AMP with lovely 22cm length? Benchmarks show them pretty close but the 760 only has 2GB VRAM vs the 7950 with 3GB...
Which would be more future-proof? I only game at 1080p!

 

[OminoMichelin]

Please don't punch me but... I know the future seems pretty AMD like and I have been a AMD guy all my life but if I'm not sure if a Sapphire 7950 card, 27cm long will fit in 28cm case-space, how is the ZOTAC GTX 760 AMP with lovely 22cm length? Benchmarks show them pretty close but the 760 only has 2GB VRAM vs the 7950 with 3GB...
Which would be more future-proof? I only game at 1080p!

2GB for 1080p is good enough;unless you want max setting and 60fps on everything you should be fine for a few years. Not sure about the size though

 

[Skyfireblaze]

2GB for 1080p is good enough;unless you want max setting and 60fps on everything you should be fine for a few years. Not sure about the size though

Hmm alright thanks for the quick answer, so I will see a difference between 2GB and 3GB even at 1080p? :/

 

[Smokey]

With a shitty monitor

It's coming. Someday.

Lol

Kennah I can't believe you

 

[kennah]

Nor should you.

 

[OldAsUrSock]

Hmm alright thanks for the quick answer, so I will see a difference between 2GB and 3GB even at 1080p? :/

Go 3 or go home

 

[Aranath]

I would still take it to the PC shop with the PSU. Explain how it was found ejected from its slot and how it bounced around the case during shipping. I would bet they reccommend replacement. The main concern is whether or not it was mechanically damaged; not whether you still have sector integrity. Not to be captain hindsight if you only have one mechanical drive take it with your carry on.

Yeah, that's true.

I'll definitely be removing the majority of parts before shipping it back next year. Definitely learned my lesson this time.

Would Prime95 be the best means of testing the CPU for faults?

 

[Skyfireblaze]

Go 3 or go home

I would but I fear a 7950 won't fit in my case And the internet isn't helpful either, from 10 benchmarks and reviews I read 5 claim the 760 is faster and another 5 claim the 7950 is faster :/

 

[OminoMichelin]

I would but I fear a 7950 won't fit in my case And the internet isn't helpful either, from 10 benchmarks and reviews I read 5 claim the 760 is faster and another 5 claim the 7950 is faster :/

It's always like this with similarly powered cards, which by the way should tell you how much that VRAM difference really counts imho you can't go wrong either way, but if you want to avoid headaches 760 is the best choice

 

[Skyfireblaze]

It's always like this with similarly powered cards, which by the way should tell you how much that VRAM difference really counts imho you can't go wrong either way, but if you want to avoid headaches 760 is the best choice

Oh I never had issues with my AMD drivers coming from a 4850 over a 5770 to a 6850 now, one thing that concerns me though I pretty much read across the board now that the 7950 with the newest beta-drivers has faaar better frame-timings than the 760 :/

 

[OminoMichelin]

Oh I never had issues with my AMD drivers coming from a 4850 over a 5770 to a 6850 now, one thing that concerns me though I pretty much read across the board now that the 7950 with the newest beta-drivers has faaar better frame-timings than the 760 :/

Really? can you share a link?

 

[Skyfireblaze]

Really? can you share a link?

Oh sure, let me just crawl through my history!

 

[Durante]

It was hard to find cases that met all your needs, the only others I saw that are close are a few from Lian Li (but they do not have top/bottom fan config and they cost a fair amount).

I currently use a Lian Li PC-P50 and am happy with it, but I don't want to decommission my old system which is why I'm in the market for a new case. The only things I don't like about the PC-P50 is the overdesigned shape at the top front, the lack of external USB3 and the direction of the HDD mounting. On the other hand, the PCI mounting mechanism is amazing (easily the best I've ever seen), all the fans are decoupled efficiently and even the PSU is mounted securely without any screws.

Talking about it I almost feel like I should buy a cheap-ass case to put my old HW in and keep the PC-P50...

Sweeet.

 

[Dawg]

What's the best option for a GTX770? Noisewise, that is. Coming from an EVGA single fan cooler (lots of noise and hot)

 

[Haly]

If I get a "CPU Fan Error" on the POST screen, but it's still spinning, does that mean it's just not spinning fast enough?

This is for an Asus Grphon Z87 motherboard with a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO heatsink.

 

[kennah]

What's the best option for a GTX770? Noisewise, that is. Coming from an EVGA single fan cooler (lots of noise and hot)

Best option? Watercooled.

Cheap options? One of the two fan versions.

 

[Gaf_SentMe]

My pleasure.

Nope. 140mm depth.
It doesn't work that way. Highly CPU-intensive games will run better (in some cases by a pretty big margin), while others won't see much improvement at all. But for the sake of your question, here's a chart showing an i7-3770K at different clocks in Crysis 3:

Keep in mind that Haswell doesn't overclock all that well under air. But you should get 4-4.2 GHz, which IMHO is a pretty good performance increase.

Thanks. i will adjust accordingly. Just sitting on the big news events for the week and I will purchase the parts.

Any thoughts on the monitor? Better recommendation?

 

[todd360]

I need help. I'm going to change from a nzxt phantom to a bitfenix prodigy. All I need to buy to pull this off is the bitfenix case and
AS Rock LGA1155 DDR3 SATA3 USB3.0 A GbE Mini-ITX Motherboard Z77E-ITX and a few fans.

http://pcpartpicker.com/b/G3a

Anyways my OS is on my samsung SSD pro. I have been told that I need to delete everything on SSD and install windows 7 again once I have everything in the bitfenix case. So my question is can I wipe the SSD from the samsung program in my current pc setup? I feel like that wouldn't work because how can you delete something that's running a OS at the same time.

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[kennah]

I need help. I'm going to change from a nzxt phantom to a bitfenix prodigy. All I need to buy to pull this off is the bitfenix case and
AS Rock LGA1155 DDR3 SATA3 USB3.0 A GbE Mini-ITX Motherboard Z77E-ITX and a few fans.

http://pcpartpicker.com/b/G3a

Anyways my OS is on my samsung SSD pro. I have been told that I need to delete everything on SSD and install windows 7 again once I have everything in the bitfenix case. So my question is can I wipe the SSD from the samsung program in my current pc setup? I feel like that wouldn't work because how can you delete something that's running a OS at the same time.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Just reformat at the windows installation screen.

 

[todd360]

Just reformat at the windows installation screen.

So just hook up everything to new motherboard and put it in new case and put in windows 7 os on usb and it will allow me to reformat there?

 

[Skyfireblaze]

Really? can you share a link?

Sorry that took a while but I found two links again, the first being this review:

http://techreport.com/review/24996/nvidia-geforce-gtx-760-graphics-card-reviewed/4

And there was also a comment on this forum, post #7 to be exact :/

http://forums.overclockersclub.com/index.php?showtopic=196766

 

[Seanspeed]

Sorry that took a while but I found two links again, the first being this review:

http://techreport.com/review/24996/nvidia-geforce-gtx-760-graphics-card-reviewed/4

And there was also a comment on this forum, post #7 to be exact :/

http://forums.overclockersclub.com/index.php?showtopic=196766

That first link shows that's not true at all.

EDIT: Ok, looking past just Crysis 3, it does seem to hold a slight advantage. Hardly the faaaar better frame timings you were indicating, though.

 

[kennah]

So just hook up everything to new motherboard and put it in new case and put in windows 7 os on usb and it will allow me to reformat there?

Yep

 

[Skyfireblaze]

That first link shows that's not true at all.

EDIT: Ok, looking past just Crysis 3, it does seem to hold a slight advantage. Hardly the faaaar better frame timings you were indicating, though.

Well okay far better was exaggerated but these were only two links of the ones I originally read, I'm trying to find another post where someone detailed how the 7950 was smoother in Skyrim with ENB than the 760.

 

[t-ramp]

If I get a "CPU Fan Error" on the POST screen, but it's still spinning, does that mean it's just not spinning fast enough?

This is for an Asus Grphon Z87 motherboard with a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO heatsink.

Could be something buggy with the motherboard or the fan RPM sensor or wire. I think my P8P67 Pro originally didn't read the RPM from one fan port, and now the CPU fan port doesn't seem to register instead. It could be that I moved the same fan from one port to the other, though... I'm not worried about it.

 

[NoRéN]

Your 7850 will probably be able to run GTA V and AssCreed on medium settings, but open-world games are CPU-intensive, so definitely upgrade to i5.
If you're not overclocking (and you won't be with that motherboard), the i5-3350P is fine.

This 7950 is best value GPU at the moment and would give you a pretty big performance increase, but I don't know if its worth it right now. The 7850 is still a solid performer, especially if you don't need insane amounts of AA or whatever. Hell, my framerate-insensitive flatmate has a Sapphire 7850 and he runs everything maxed out.

That bold part is the type of important info I was hoping to confirm. The 7950 has really been at a great price lately so i may just upgrade to that. Will it require a new PSU?

I already have a Hyper 212 evo which is why I didn't list a cooler.

So, i5, 7950. I didn't list a monitor either as I really don't consider that part of the budget. I was just focusing on the internal components first. Looks doable with the budget I had in mind.

Thanks.

 

[Hazaro]

looking at the benchmarks I'd be better off with the 650Ti.

650 Ti / 7850 would be a nice boost, but if you live in the US a $200 7950 is by far the best thing to buy, and you can sell some of the 3 games that come with it.

Don't care for overclocking as my needs aren't that high, just gaming at reasonable settings. The 3570K was what i was looking at so that's good to hear.

Currently at 1600 x 900 and would like to upgrade to 1080. As far as settings, I hope to at least be able to run stuff like GTA V and Assassin's Creed Black Flag at medium settings.

$500 seems reasonable to drop for upgrades. Does that seem good?

And yeah, it has definitely been a solid build. No problems at all and games look great on it.

GTA IV really liked a strong CPU, AssCreed probably won't care as much. I'd overclock your current CPU as much as possible and grab a 7950 at $200. Then you can swap over to a 3570K/4670K and a $100-$120 Z series motherboard to overclock if it's not enough oomph for you.

So with the help of a bunch of other people I know I put together this: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1G0Vl

The parts are currently being delivered, for now I'm going to use my old HDD/2TB external to handle all my storage and use my old DVD drive to save money. The only problem with my plan is I won't be able to order Windows till the weekend. My parts should all end up arriving Thursday, I've got my case, motherboard, PSU, CPU cooler and GPU coming tomorrow, but I'll have to wait for my CPU, SSD and RAM.

This is my first "build". I mean I custom ordered a PC before but didn't put it together myself, so I'm kinda nervous haha.

Enjoy!

One question, I wanted to buy the GIGABYTE 7950 and I read in the comments that you need 28cm space in your case to install it, well I just measured and looking at my case (a very old Aerocool iCurve) the HDD cage starts exactly at 28cm so the 7950 won't fit right?

A hammer and dremel can fix this.

 

[Dawg]

Best option? Watercooled.

Cheap options? One of the two fan versions.

Cheap option it is. MSI is a good option, I take it?