Custom build question

[Shinnywolf]

Hi I'm looking for some advice concerning a psu
I'm in the process of building a new pc, the components I'm using are


Envizage E-3393 Black Blue ATX Gaming PC Tower Case

Gigabyte H61M-D2H-usb3 micro atx socket 1155 motherboard

Intel i5 2500k 3.3ghz processor

Nvidia Geforce GT440 1GB DDR3 PC Gaming Graphics Video Card

Corsair XMS3 CMX16GX3M4A1333C9 RAM Module - 16 GB (4 x 4 GB) - DDR3 SDRAM - 1333 MHz DDR3-1333/PC3-10666 - Non-ECC - Unbuffered - CL9 - 240-pin DIMM

1tb seagate barracuda hd

PCI N 300Mbps Wireless /WiFi Lan Card

My question is will the following psu provide sufficient power for the system to run smoothly

CORSAIR CX600 V2 600W BUILDER SERIES POWER SUPPLY PSU

Also would this psu have enough left over for any future upgrades i.e second graphics card or i7 processor, more fans?

 

[philipma1957]

a i7 2700k or an i7 2600k would be fine. by a second graphics card do you mean a 440


if you mean a second 440 yeah it can do that.

 

[Shinnywolf]

Not sure about second graphics card yet as can't have another 440 because mobo only has 1 pci express 2.0 socket so second graphics card would prob be a pci express x16

 

[dma0991]

Your build is messed up, it has no affinity, gaming or general use. Don't you have a budget and location/website where you will purchase these items?

 

[Shinnywolf]

Your build is messed up, it has no affinity, gaming or general use. Don't you have a budget and location/website where you will purchase these items?

Please elaborate. What do you mean by messed up?
The pc will be for general use but also capable of gaming for my children's use.
I don't have a set budget and I'm shopping around from different sites to get the best deals

 

[Shinnywolf]

The type of games it needs to run for my children are minecraft, total war, empire earth, starwars battleground and maybe skyrim if this build can run its spec

 

[dma0991]

Please elaborate. What do you mean by messed up?

What I mean is that is a jumbled mess of parts that although would work, it can do better if you've placed more emphasis on certain parts. As it is now, it will not be playing those games you've listed or at least it won't even be enjoyable with choppy frame rates.

Intel Core i5 3450
ASRock B75M-GL
G.SKILL Value Series 8GB
Seagate Barracuda 1TB
Cooler Master Elite 311
Silverstone ST50F-ES 500W
XFX Radeon HD7850 1GB / MSI GTX560 Ti 1GB

This set would cost about $700++ and most of the prices are referenced from Newegg. A good 500W PSU is sufficient for a single GPU setup, since you're probably limited by what the motherboard can do anyways and less things to worry about in a single GPU setup. Its always better to have a single good GPU versus having two GPUs that perform half as good. For future upgrades, you're probably never have to for the next 5 years or so except an upgrade to SSD and/or newer GPU.

 

[Shinnywolf]

Thanks for the input.
Wouldn't just changing the graphics card from my setup solve the choppy frame rate.
I've gone for a multi CPU as I do a lot of video and audio editing and was hoping the multi CPU and extra ram would speed up re-encoding times.
(my current pentium4 system with 1gb ram takes 4+ hrs to re-encode a 2hr video file to AVI)

 

[Shinnywolf]

Lol sorry my bad. Just noticed your talking about gpu not cpu.
I'm not using a multi card setup, I just asked about future upgrades as I wanted to know what the psu was capable of

 

[dma0991]

Coming from a P4 to this machine it would be a world of a difference. I do not recommend getting the Core i5 2500K for your purpose is because you'll probably never gonna overclock it and the motherboard that you chose won't allow you either way whether it is physically limited or chipset limitation set by Intel.

Not sure how much RAM your encoding software uses but 8GB is a good start, you can always add more if you feel like it. Change to 8GBx2 sticks if you want but I find it unnecessary unless you're very sure that it will require that much RAM.

The only thing that matters when it comes to PSU is what GPU you're using it with. With a 500W PSU, it could go as high as a GTX670 or HD7950 or almost any single GPU except for a few very high end single GPUs. Other components like fans, HDD, etc are negligible difference as they don't take that much power.

 

[Shinnywolf]

Thanks again for your input.
As far as ram is concerned I'm treating it like a condom in my wallet, I would rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it lol
Why don't you recommend the i5 2500k? I wasn't planning on over clocking it, I chose the 2500k for its performance rating.
What version i5 do you recommend?
As gaming is a second thought I wanted to spend as little as possible on the gpu without losing the ability to play the games the kids want (seems ridiculous to pay more for gpu than processor when gaming is a after thought)
Also like to add that I already have the mobo and case so everything else is replaceable if more suitable components are recommended

 

[dma0991]

It depends on the user, I would recommend the Core i5 2500K if there will be overclocking. The one that I've stated in my recommendation isn't that far behind compared to the Core i5 2500K. The GPU I've listed has good price/performance value and compared to the GT440, the performance difference is night and day. If you don't want to spend that much then take a step back to HD6850 or GTX560, which will work just fine I suppose.

If you already have the motherboard, use previous generation Sandy Bridge processors Core i5 25xx preferably without the K suffix which is cheaper.

 

[Shinnywolf]

Once again thankyou for your input and advice
So without sounding like a complete idiot the K suffix refers to the ability to overclock?
A i5 2500 would perform the same as a non overclocked i5 2500K?

 

[dma0991]

Once again thankyou for your input and advice
So without sounding like a complete idiot the K suffix refers to the ability to overclock?
A i5 2500 would perform the same as a non overclocked i5 2500K?

The difference would be overclocking capabilities and IGP type/performance, Core i5 2500(HD2000) and Core i5 2500K(HD3000). Not that it matters because you certainly need a better discrete GPU in order to actually play the games you've listed and you don't have the GPU switching option on the H61 chipset, which makes the presence of the IGP irrelevant.

I wouldn't recommend the Core i5 2500 due to the fact that it is $10 cheaper than the Core i5 2500K. I'd rather settle for the cheaper Core i5 2300/2400.

 

[TemjinGold]

I'd echo dma0991's recommendation for GPU. I know you said gaming is an afterthought but if you get the 440, your kids physically CANNOT play those games (unless they enjoy slideshows.) If you are going to do that, you might as well just use the built-in video from your cpu and save some money.

 

[Shinnywolf]

Ok that makes sense when you put it like that, I will go for the i5 2400.
So it's just the graphics card I need to make a final decsission on.

If I can pick your brain again, how do you rate a MSI R6850 PM2D1GD5 graphics card for £116 or for that price is there better avaliable. Only mentioned that card as custom pc mag recommend it for running skyrim on max settings on a low budget.
Also if I was to upgrade at a later date to a water cooled case (not for any other reason apart from it sounds awesome) would that use any more power (I'm assuming a water cooled case would need power to pump the water around the cooling system)

 

[lehtv]

Skyrim on max settings won't happen with that card, depending on what you view as playable. I'd say 50+ FPS is playable, 6850 should be good for medium settings. But if the idea is to be able to play games rather than enjoy them at their highest image quality (read: gameplay matters a lot more than eye candy anyway), I'd recommend the slightly cheaper but newer and less power hungry HD 7770. It performs nearly as well.

Water cooling is a gimmick for anyone who isn't a hardcore overclocker, and even then a lot of hardcore overclockers (or at least people who call themselves that) prefer air cooling. Seeing as you're not getting an unlocked CPU, water cooling is definitely out of the question.

 

[Shinnywolf]

Lol I know water cooling would not be needed, it's like putting nos on your scoobie. Your never gonna need it but it does sound cool when your mates ask what it is lol

If I got one it would be solely for the gimmick factor and bragging rites lol

There is a good chance I would never play skyrim on the pc I was using it more for a resource usage example (I do all my gaming on modified jtag Xbox 360) but like with the ram it's a case of I would rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it!
The biggest use of graphics resources that will prob be used on this pc is minecraft but it's always nice to know you have some extra in reserve just incase you ever need it.

 

[Shinnywolf]

Ok I've just checked out the 7770 reviews and that seems like a viable option for the price, thanks

I would just like to say this is the first time I've visited this site and I'm very impressed by the knowledge and quick responses of its users. I will be recommending you to my peers and will definitely be using you in the future.

Thanks for all your assistance guys or girls it's really appreciated

 

[TemjinGold]

OP: If you have money to throw into a gimmick that will not help you at all AND likely cause you problems (watercooling can require maintenance depending on the rig; you also have the potential for water leaks), why not just throw it into a stronger GPU? Bragging about water cooling will be cool once. Then the novelty wears off and you spent a load of money on nothing. A much stronger GPU is much better to brag about.

 

[Shinnywolf]

Lol very true

 

[Shinnywolf]

ok then just to recap on the system

corsair CX600 V2 600W builder series PSU

Envizage E-3393 Black Blue ATX Gaming PC Tower Case

Gigabyte H61M-D2H-usb3 micro atx socket 1155 motherboard

Intel i5 2400 processor

artic freezer pro rev2 cpu fan

Corsair XMS3 CMX16GX3M4A1333C9 RAM Module - 16 GB (4 x 4 GB) - DDR3 SDRAM - 1333 MHz DDR3-1333/PC3-10666 - Non-ECC - Unbuffered - CL9 - 240-pin DIMM

1tb seagate barracuda hd

radeon HD 7770 graphics card (or radeon HD 6790 which is cheaper and 256bit instead of 7770 128bit so im assuming will perform better)

PCI N 300Mbps Wireless /WiFi Lan Card

liteon ihas 524 dvd rom

windows 7 ultimate 64bit

can anyone see any problems with this setup

 

[lehtv]

Where are you buying from btw?

Problems I see:

PSU - it's about 200W overkill. CX430 would be easily powerful enough. If you just want future proofing (for OC and higher end graphics) I'd recommend a 500W unit that is 80+ Bronze and with 5-year warranty (preferably Seasonic, XFX, PC Power & Cooling or similar)

Case - never heard of this brand... buy a good quality case so it will last you a long time. Antec makes sturdy steel cases that are functional and not too expensive, Cooler Master's Elite cases are also decent value

RAM - why do you need 16GB? For general use, 4GB should be enough, 8GB is reasonable since RAM is cheap. Did I miss something?

HDD - model?

DVD - missing?

SSD - missing - for general use this is the best thing you can buy, but of course the budget can limit it

Personally I'd also go for the newer Ivy Bridge i5 and a B75/H77 board.

 

[Shinnywolf]

im shopping around from various sources to get the best deals.
the psu has a 80+ rating already and im assuming having extra power is not gonna affect the system performance and the corsair brand comes highly recommended.
i would rather have the extra power to allow for any future upgrades rather than have to replace it if i upgrade at a later date

 

[Shinnywolf]

Where are you buying from btw?

Problems I see:

PSU - it's about 200W overkill. CX430 would be easily powerful enough. If you just want future proofing (for OC and higher end graphics) I'd recommend a 500W unit that is 80+ Bronze and with 5-year warranty (preferably Seasonic, XFX, PC Power & Cooling or similar)

Case - never heard of this brand... buy a good quality case so it will last you a long time. Antec makes sturdy steel cases that are functional and not too expensive, Cooler Master's Elite cases are also decent value

RAM - why do you need 16GB? For general use, 4GB should be enough, 8GB is reasonable since RAM is cheap. Did I miss something?

HDD - model?

DVD - missing?

SSD - missing - for general use this is the best thing you can buy, but of course the budget can limit it

Personally I'd also go for the newer Ivy Bridge i5 and a B75/H77 board.

unfortunately i already have the mobo so im working to its spec

at the risk of sounding like a complete noob whats a ssd

this is the case and i already have this too http://www.envizage.com/products/ca...3393-black-blue-atx-gaming-pc-tower-case.html
it has its own front fans but surely its just a box for the conponents and wont make that much difference

as i stated before i do a lot of audio and video file convertion so im aiming to bring conversion time down to a minimum, would rather have more ram and not need it than not enough when needed

just reading through the mobo manual and the bios gives the option for overclocking. why is this if the H61M mobo restricts overclocking as has been stated previously in this thread