First build, does this look ok?

[Jasd]

Ok, so this will be my first self build. The machine will be used for CAD / 3D work but also some gaming hence the 7970 as opposed to a dedicated workstation card. Have i made any noob mistakes on setup? Any help greatly appreciated.

GPU: Gigabyte 7970 3GB AMD Radeon Graphics Card

MB: MSI Z87-GD65

CPU: Intel Core i7 4770K Quad Core

Memory: Corsair CMZ16GX3M2A1600C9 Vengeance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600 Mhz CL9 XMP

Case: Corsair Carbide Series 300R

PSU: Corsair Professional Series AX 760 Watt

HDD: Samsung 840 Series 500GB 2.5 inch SATA Solid State Drive

Optical: Asus DRW-24B5ST 24x Internal SATA DVD Drive

Network: ASUS PCE-N10, 150Mbps, Wireless N PCI-E card, 802.11n

Did i forget anything or do any of my choices look a bit tardish? Honest responses welcome.

 

[dannyboy2233]

What is your budget?

 

[mrdannok]

Yes it is good, no question about it. No bottleneck in that. You should be fine to play almost anything, but you could've gone the extra mile and pickup a little heatsink or water cooling to go with your CPU if you wish to OC it. Have fun with your machine

 

[Jasd]

@Dannyboy, the budget is about £1800. The current setup is working out at around £1500 including a monitor, but there is some wiggle room if you can suggest improvements.

@Mrdannok: Cooling is something i am concerned about, can you recommend anything specific that would be suitable for this system?

Also, do i need anything extra, this is my first build so i am unsure as to whether or not i need to buy cables etc to put it all together?

 

[Jasd]

Also, another quick question, Windows 7 or 8?

 

[mrdannok]

O.O dont touch to W8 man! Dont touch to that, keep it to W7. For the water cooling, it depends on your socket, simply go to either newegg.com or ncix.com (or any stores and ask them for water cooling or heatsink) and search for "water cooling" or "heatsink" (water cooling is better than an heatsink but it costs a little bit more)

 

[dannyboy2233]

O.O dont touch to W8 man! Dont touch to that, keep it to W7. For the water cooling, it depends on your socket, simply go to either newegg.com or ncix.com (or any stores and ask them for water cooling or heatsink) and search for "water cooling" or "heatsink" (water cooling is better than an heatsink but it costs a little bit more)

First of all, for under $100 air cooling is actually better than water-cooling. Until you get to a 240mm rad water-cooling system, air-coolers perform better. Here is a good build for $1700 USD, meaning that it translates to about 1700 pounds (using price conversions, etc.). The processor is slightly worse, but it has twice the GPU power, as well as a better. smaller 840 Pro Series SSD, and a 1TB HDD (500GB SSD is unnecessary, especially since the 840 Series is not very good). This build also has a much better case and PSU. Overall, a much, MUCH better build for the money.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($199.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.98 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($144.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($128.53 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($129.97 @ Outlet PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($89.98 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) ($349.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) ($349.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 500R Black ATX Mid Tower Case ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Professional 850W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1653.39
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-07-04 17:22 EDT-0400)

 

[mrdannok]

WTF why put Crossfire with an i5? it wont be able to manage it, and if youre going to Crossfire 2 7970 a 850 wont be enough, get a 1000W PSU

 

[dannyboy2233]

WTF why put Crossfire with an i5? it wont be able to manage it, and if youre going to Crossfire 2 7970 a 850 wont be enough, get a 1000W PSU

Are you kidding me? A 4670k will be more than enough for this system (no bottlenecking whatsoever), as will the 850W PSU. Since we are already accounting for dual-GPU, there are really no more power-intensive upgrades that OP can do, hence why I've put an ~800W build with an 850W PSU.
There is literally no proof whatsoever to support your first statement. The 4670k is simply the non-hyperthreaded version of the 4770k. If you are trying to tell me that having four, extremely powerful physical cores inhibits one form doing Crossfire, you are largely mistaken. The 4670k can handle anything you throw at it; it would take an insane amount of GPUs to bottleneck a 4670k (dual-7990, or something of that nature). Next time you want to prove me wrong, please provide us all with some sort of proof.

 

[Jasd]

So isn't the i7's hyper threading supposed to be better for Cad and 3D work? This will be mostly for work and some gaming, so the ability of the machine to handle that is paramount.

 

[dannyboy2233]

So isn't the i7's hyper threading supposed to be better for Cad and 3D work? This will be mostly for work and some gaming, so the ability of the machine to handle that is paramount.

Yes, but I don't know if you will notice it. It takes some pretty intense work to push an OCed 4670k to its limit... If you do extremely hardcore editing, spend the extra $100 for the 4770k; if not, stick with the 4670k. This decision is up to you, as I am not knowledgeable about those sorts of programs, but more importantly nor do I know at what level you use them at. That is for you yourself to judge, and not me.

 

[Jasd]

So isn't the i7's hyper threading supposed to be better for Cad and 3D work? This will be mostly for work and some gaming, so the ability of the machine to handle that is paramount.

Yes, but I don't know if you will notice it. It takes some pretty intense work to push an OCed 4670k to its limit... If you do extremely hardcore editing, spend the extra $100 for the 4770k; if not, stick with the 4670k. This decision is up to you, as I am not knowledgeable about those sorts of programs, but more importantly nor do I know at what level you use them at. That is for you yourself to judge, and not me.

Yes, you make a good point, i do have to make a decision on what my requirements are. I guess in a more global sense, assuming the quibbles we have are over minor details such as is the i7 better than the i5 type arguments which i have no doubt could rage on for decades, is, do i have the parts required for a complete setup or have i missed anything? Do the parts tend to come with the appropriate cables? Have i done anything stupid like specify memory which will not work with the motherboard? These are the kinds of issues a need to address before i order.

 

[dannyboy2233]

So isn't the i7's hyper threading supposed to be better for Cad and 3D work? This will be mostly for work and some gaming, so the ability of the machine to handle that is paramount.

Yes, but I don't know if you will notice it. It takes some pretty intense work to push an OCed 4670k to its limit... If you do extremely hardcore editing, spend the extra $100 for the 4770k; if not, stick with the 4670k. This decision is up to you, as I am not knowledgeable about those sorts of programs, but more importantly nor do I know at what level you use them at. That is for you yourself to judge, and not me.

Yes, you make a good point, i do have to make a decision on what my requirements are. I guess in a more global sense, assuming the quibbles we have are over minor details such as is the i7 better than the i5 type arguments which i have no doubt could rage on for decades, is, do i have the parts required for a complete setup or have i missed anything? Do the parts tend to come with the appropriate cables? Have i done anything stupid like specify memory which will not work with the motherboard? These are the kinds of issues a need to address before i order.

One thing that I would do is get the Corsair Vengeance LP RAM @ 1600 MHz, as the low-profile will make sure that you can fit any sort of aftermarket cooler. Other than that, the only things you might want to buy are some zipties for cable management; other than that, for a relatively stock build like this (I.E. no water-cooling, etc.) all the cables should be supplied.
A final thing I would look at are case fans; in the build that I specified, the Corsair 500R has quite a few fan slots. If you've got the money to spare, I recommend getting some aftermarket case fans for the case, in order to have the best airflow possible. I would get dual Corsair AF-120 fans for the top of the case, dual Corsair AF-120 fans for the front of the case, a single Corsair AF-120 for the back, as well as a 200mm Bitfenix Spectre Pro for the side of the case. This will cost you an extra $100 or so, for extremely good cooling. However, if you don't want to spend that money, then just stick with the case fans for now. Fan upgrades are easy enough that they can be done separately; perhaps in a few months when you come across the money. Good luck with the build!
Don't forget; if you think that someone has helped you a lot throughout this thread, give their answer a B.A.!

 

[Jasd]

Thanks for the help, greatly appreciated. Can you tell me, does the corsair case (i changed to the one you suggested it does look much better) come with basic fans installed in all the slots or are the slots empty? Also, is faster RAM worth bothering about? I see for about the same price i can get 1866Mhz RAM, is this something that would be of any benefit?

Also, can i have 2 monitors connected at the same time in this setup? eg, one on the motherboard, one on the graphic card?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004T2LMP2/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE Any opinion on monitor choice?

 

[dannyboy2233]

Thanks for the help, greatly appreciated. Can you tell me, does the corsair case (i changed to the one you suggested it does look much better) come with basic fans installed in all the slots or are the slots empty? Also, is faster RAM worth bothering about? I see for about the same price i can get 1866Mhz RAM, is this something that would be of any benefit?

Also, can i have 2 monitors connected at the same time in this setup? eg, one on the motherboard, one on the graphic card?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004T2LMP2/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE Any opinion on monitor choice?

It comes with basic fans installed in some of the slots. However, I recommend doing that which I stated before and (at some point, not necessarily now) buying aftermarket fans to fill all the slots. However, as it is when it is shipped to you, it will function just fine. In terms of the RAM, no; you will not see a difference. As for the dual-monitor; you can run dual monitors EASY. You can actually run them both from the GPUs. You will be able to do a large amount of monitors quite well, as you have 3GB of VRAM, as well as two cards.
As for that monitor; it's not spectacular, but anything Asus tends to be good. I say go for it if it's on sale.
It's been a pleasure "working with you", Jasd!

 

[Jasd]

Many thanks for the help, in particular to Dannyboy for the excellent and timely responses.

 

[dannyboy2233]

Many thanks for the help, in particular to Dannyboy for the excellent and timely responses.

Any day! It's been a pleasure helping you