Gaming system around £1k

[Moo]

A bit similar to this topic viewtopic.php?f=23&t=62262.
First system I've built from scratch for very many years, and I've never been very good at making decisions. It's taken me a long time to come up with this list. I had been waiting for Z68, but it seems I won't have use for its features and am better sticking with the cheaper P67.
Basically for gaming only, so extreme quietness isn't really necessary (but would be nice ).

Fractal Design R3
ASUS P8P67 Pro
Intel 2500K
Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme
2x 4GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 PC3-12800
1280MB Palit GTX 570 Sonic Platinum
2x Akasa AK-174BK-S 120mm
2x Xilence Red Wing 120mm
550W NZXT HALE90
64GB Crucial RealSSD M4
1.5TB Samsung F3EG

So, what do you think?

Edit: Sigh, just when I thought I'd got somewhere..

How about this instead?

CoolerMaster HAF 912 Plus
ASUS P8P67 Pro
Intel 2600K
Alpenföhn Matterhorn
2x 4GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 PC3-12800
1280MB Palit GTX 570 Sonic Platinum
2x Akasa AK-174BK-S 120mm
1x Xilence Red Wing 120mm
750W Powercool PC750UM
64GB Crucial RealSSD M4
2TB Samsung F3EG

Better CPU and RAM, different cooler, PSU and case..

[kuzzia]

I don't know how quiet your PSU, case fans and video card are. As long as you know how quiet they are, then it is of course no problem.

Anyways, the rest of the components are the de facto standard choices here at SPCR.. which is a good thing, definitely.

The Cooler master HAF 912 is also a very good case. The mesh might not be good for acoustics, but since you've chosen gaming components, your system will most likely exhaust alot of heat. In that situation, the meshed front will definitely prove helpful as the GPU and CPU fans don't need to have many rpm's.. just take a look at the review of NZXT H2 here at SPCR to see what an impact restricted air flow can have on both temperature (and therefore, acoustics)..

between the HAF 912 and Design R3... I'll leave that up to you, whatever you feel most comfortable with.

[Moo]

I don' know much about the fans either (or the PSUs), but finding any well-reviewed ones at sensible prices here (UK) seems very hard. The video card gets good reviews (http://www.guru3d.com/article/palit-gef ... m-review/1).
I'm guessing the first PSU is "better" (80+ gold), but the second one is higher wattage, modular and supposedly has 80+ certification, although I can't find it on the 80+ list site.. Anyway, it's part of the bundle, and cheaper than the first one. If it's really noisy I can replace it.
As for the case, I read a review saying the cooling of the HAF 912 wasn't all that great, despite all the grilles (it sounded as though they were comparing it to larger cases though). But I expect no worse than the R3. As for the design, I think I prefer the R3, although "doors" aren't always good. Anyway, it's just going to sit under a desk so what it looks like isn't really important.
The second design is based on a "bundle" which happened to have the same motherboard, and which presumably has stuff that works well together, and saves a little money. The better CPU is probably the most important change.

[kuzzia]

The 2500k will suffice for gaming, the 2600k is only marginally better. We're talking about a few FPS for some games. Not worthwhile.

You said that you live in the UK... Try looking at "quietpc.com".. it's based in the UK and it sells nexus 120 mm fans AND Nexus PSU's.. the NX5000 can be had for a reasonable price, and it has received the editor's choice here at SPCR.

the HAF 912 is definitely good (and big) enough. I've also read reviews that have stated that it's too small... But those reviewers are most probably comparing it to big tower cases like its bigger siblings. An inch behind the motherboard tray?? Maybe that's not enough.

[Moo]

I just looked at a couple of reviews, and it seems you're right. I presume this is because both CPUs are more than capable of running games, and it's the graphics card which is the limiting factor? Wouldn't the 2600K be more "future proof" though?
I guess I could go with the 2500K then. I'd lose a little saving, by not having the bundle from the second build, but less than the difference in the processors. And I'd be able to choose my own stuff again, which is a mixed blessing .

Thanks for that site.. The Xilence fans were mainly on my list because they were the cheapest PWM ones I could find with a good reputation (I believe two of the connectors on the P8P67 can only control PWM fans). I would have been getting them from somewhere other than the rest of the stuff anyway. Nexus 120 PWM from Quietpc are only a little more expensive.

Back to the drawing board...

Edit: Current version

CoolerMaster HAF 912 Plus
ASUS P8P67 Pro
Intel 2500K
Alpenföhn Matterhorn
2x 4GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 PC3-12800
1280MB Palit GTX 570 Sonic Platinum
SeaSonic S12II-520
64GB Crucial RealSSD M4
2TB Samsung F3EG

Back to 2500K, so ditching the bundle. Better PSU. I'm thinking sticking with this RAM over the cheaper but higher-voltage I had originally is a good idea. I'll stick with the stock case/cooler fans to begin with, and see what I need to get from there. Also gives quietpc a chance to get some Nexus Basic fans back in.

[Moo]

How about the ASUS ENGTX570 DirectCU II instead? I can get this for basically the same price.
The only review I can find doesn't say much about noise, but in this thread and in the review quotes on the ASUS site there are favourable comments about the noise levels.

[lodestar]

For a gaming system I would recommend the Antec 902 case, which has incidentally been reviewed by SPCR http://www.silentpcreview.com/antec-902. The latest version of the 902 is the V3. It differs from the case in the review by having a motherboard tray cutout for the CPU cooler, USB 3.0 and an SSD mount. One advantage of this case is that you will not need to fit additional fans which will help offset the extra cost of it. You could also substitute 2x4GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 PC3-12800 for the 2x 4GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 PC3-12800 for the same reason. As regards your choice of graphics card, if you want a 570 from a purely gaming perspective the best value is the one with a substantial factory overclock at less cost than similar cards. That would be the Sonic Platinum which you have already chosen. If you want one that is quiet/quieter at idle then the Gainward Phantom or Golden Sample versions would be a better choice.

The other thing that I think you need to address is your intention to power this system with a 520w PSU. It's not that it won't do it but it will probably be noisy at load. This is taking account of the factory overclocked GTX 570 and that you are likely to be wanting to overclock the 2500K to 4Ghz+ to extract the maximum gaming performance from the system. I note that Scan included a 750w model in the bundle you were considering earlier, and I think you should consider something in the 700-750w range. For around £5 more than the SeaSonic S12II-520 there is from Scan the Corsair Gaming Series GS 700 which has a 140mm fan, and should be fairly quiet at idle and more reasonable under load.

[Moo]

For a gaming system I would recommend the Antec 902 case

I don't really see any great advantage to that case.. More fans, but they aren't especially quiet. It has fan controllers, but I'd rather vary them through the motherboard, if at all.. Also it lacks the PSU vent on the bottom.

You could also substitute 2x4GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 PC3-12800 for the 2x 4GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 PC3-12800 for the same reason.

I was under the impression that higher voltage memory stressed the CPU/MB more, and was best avoided... Only £2 or so difference anyway.

As regards your choice of graphics card, if you want a 570 from a purely gaming perspective the best value is the one with a substantial factory overclock at less cost than similar cards. That would be the Sonic Platinum which you have already chosen. If you want one that is quiet/quieter at idle then the Gainward Phantom or Golden Sample versions would be a better choice.

Hmm... I'm thinking factory overclocking is only really worth paying more for if you're not going to do it yourself. And with the better cooler of the ASUS, I'd be able to go higher at lower fan speeds. Best of both worlds really. I'll have a look at those other cards though.
Edit: They looked interesting... But after reading this I think I'll stick with the ASUS.

The other thing that I think you need to address is your intention to power this system with a 520w PSU.

Ah.. I had used this, and 520W seemed fine, but that wasn't considering the overclocking. But even if I increase several parameters, I get to around 550 minimum 600 recommended. I'm guessing it's calculating for an "average" and not especially efficient PSU too. Combined with them generally being less efficient when underloaded, I'm thinking 520 probably is too low if I'm overclocking, but I'm never going to need 700 (Unless I decide to SLI in the future). As for the bundled 750, it's very cheap, and I couldn't find it on the 80+ site, so I doubt it's very good at all (and maybe not up to 750W).
OK, Antec HCG-620, which is a rebadged 620W version of what I already had.

[Moo]

Ok, I got it and built it.. So here's my comments about the components:

ASUS GTX 570 DirectCU II
This thing is not quiet I don't know how anyone could say it was quiet, I'd hate to hear whatever it was they were comparing it to.
The cooler is great, keeps it very cool. But the fans are terrible. 1170-3420RPM, it seems, and even at lowest speed they are the most noticeable sound from the PC. I don't know why anyone would need almost 3500RPM anyway, as the cooler works fine at much lower levels. So, ASUS, why did you put such silly fans on an otherwise good card?

ASUS P8P67 Pro
This motherboard isn't as nice for fan control as I had been hoping. There's 4 fan headers, but as far as I can tell, one isn't controllable at all, and two of the others have their speeds linked. So really there's only two controllable speeds

Alpenföhn Matterhorn
Nice cooler, and the fan included isn't too bad either. But. Doesn't work well at all with the P8P67! I really don't know why Scan were offering them together in bundles. The only way to install it is a workaround:
The cooler is attached to the motherboard with two metal brackets. The brackets have screws that can slide between 3 positions, A B and C, and you are meant to choose the right position depending on the CPU socket you want to use it with. For LGA1155/6, this is B. The brackets are connected to the cooler itself with screws that can go through one hole for A and B positions, and another for C (from memory..). The problem is that in B position, the "arm" on the bracket with the extra hole positions sticks out quite a way. Installing it like this on the P8P67 Pro is impossible. If you try to mount it with the cooler horizontal, the "arm" is blocked by one motherboard heatsink. Vertically, the arm is blocked by the other heatsink. What I had to do was use one bracket connected to the cooler with the A/B hole, and the other with the C hole, and have the sliding screws sort of mid-way and not in any of the three positions. With it like this, I could mount it either horizontally or vertically, but horizontally, the heatsink projected over the RAM sockets, so I went with vertically.
All this could have been avoided, I believe, if they had just included two mirror-image brackets, rather than two identical ones. Or, two brackets specific to this mounting-hole-distance, without the sliding screws. But oh well.