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What do you think about this PC?

G

gLockwoRk_

Junior Member
Hey Guys,

what do you think about this PC? Is there anything you would change? Maybe an Haswell i7-4770k? Which Motherboard would you suggest? Should be in the same price area.

The whole system is about 1200 Euros. Thats what I'm willing to spend.

This PC is only about Gaming/Streaming.

HDD: Western Digital Caviar Green 1000GB, 150MB/s, SATA 6Gb/s (WD10EZRX)
SSD: Samsung SSD 840 Series 120GB, 2.5", SATA 6Gb/s (MZ-7TD120BW)
CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K, 4x 3.50GHz, boxed (BX80637I73770K)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance Low Profile schwarz DIMM Kit 8GB PC3-12800U CL9-9-9-24 (DDR3-1600) (CML8GX3M2A1600C9)
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 770 Superclocked ACX Cooler, 2GB GDDR5, 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort (02G-P4-2774)
MoBo: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H, Z77 (dual PC3-12800U DDR3)
CPU Cooler: Enermax ETS-T40-VD
Case: MS-Tech X3 Crow¹
PSU: Enermax Revolution87+ 650W ATX 2.3 (ERV650AWT-G/ERV650EWT-G)


Thank you!

gLockwoRk_


/Edit/

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
- Gaming and Streaming

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread#
- 1200 Euro

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
- Germany

4. IF you're buying parts OUTSIDE the US, please post a link to the vendor you'll be buying from.
We can't be expected to scour the internet on your behalf, chasing down deals in your specific country... Again, help us, help YOU.
- geizhals.de

5. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.
- For this time, it's Intel & nVidia

6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
- No

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
- Maybe a bit. Not to much

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using?
- 1920*1200

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Note that it is usually not cost or time effective to choose your build more than a month before you actually plan to be using it.
- Next Weeks
 
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This is a nearly perfect build. The only suggestion I would make is to look at 2TB hard drives, because they are often only slightly more expensive than 1TB drives, and also consider going with a 7200RPM drive like a Western Digital Caviar Blue, as opposed to the slower Caviar Green. You'll be loading most of your games from the hard drive, given the small SSD, and the Green drive really isn't intended as an applications drive, but rather a media drive.
 
Thanks Termie!
I got two more questions.

#1 Haswell, yes or no? No I have the chance to do it.

#2 EVGA GeForce GTX 770 Superclocked ACX Cooler or Gainward GeForce GTX 770 Phantom? And why?
 
gLockwoRk_ said:
Thanks Termie!
I got two more questions.

#1 Haswell, yes or no? No I have the chance to do it.

#2 EVGA GeForce GTX 770 Superclocked ACX Cooler or Gainward GeForce GTX 770 Phantom? And why?
Click to expand...

Haswell? It's 10% faster, but doesn't overclock as well. I'd be willing to pay up to 10% more for it, so check the prices available to you.

Between the ACX and Phantom, I guess I'd go with the ACX. EVGA has great support here in the states - don't know about where you are. The Phantom coolers look interesting, but I haven't been convinced by reviews that they actually work all that well.

Above either of those, by the way, I'd take the MSI Gaming or the Asus DC2.
 
Thank again.

i7-3770k or i7-4770k are at the same price here in germany.
What Motherboard would you suggest for the i7-4770k for around 130 $ / 100 €?

Is there a reason why you would take the MSI or the Asus? Seams to be slower than the other cards. GTX 770 Compare.
Ok, maybe this is not noticeable. I don't know really much about it.
 
gLockwoRk_ said:
Thank again.

i7-3770k or i7-4770k are at the same price here in germany.
What Motherboard would you suggest for the i7-4770k for around 130 $ / 100 €?

Is there a reason why you would take the MSI or the Asus? Seams to be slower than the other cards. GTX 770 Compare.
Ok, maybe this is not noticeable. I don't know really much about it.
Click to expand...

All those factory overclocks are minimal. I recommend the MSI and Asus because they have much better coolers. You can manually overclock any of them to about the same level.

For a $130 Z87 motherboard, you don't have a lot of choices, and you need to factor that into your decision. You can get plenty of great Z77 motherboards for far less than that.

If you want Haswell for under $130, perhaps the ASRock Z87 Pro 3. It's much more than a Z77 Pro 3 for use with an 3770K, so keep that in mind.
 
Thanks lehtv!

Few minutes ago I finished the review about the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 770 2 GB
What do you think about Zotac? Don't know about them :/
Edit: Finished the conclusion, seams the MSI Gaming is ahead. Bye ZOTAC

/ Edit /
Thanks Termie!

I guess, I'll think about the MSI. Seams solid.

About the motherboard, I'm not that big of an OC-Guy. But I'll try to boost it up to 4.0 GHz or 4.2 GHz.
I guess this will work with the ASRock Z87 Pro 3 or? What do you think about the ASUS Z87-K, Z87? Same price area.
 
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Looks like there's something wrong with that Zotac - it idles at far too high a Wattage and temperature. Also, it has no factory overclock at all.

Read this review of the MSI 770 Gaming and see if you aren't convinced: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_770_TF_Gaming/29.html

The Z87-K may be good, but I think ASRock typically gets the best user reviews in the budget sector. Asus makes excellent midrange and higher-end motherboards.
 
Thanks again Termie.
Read the review what you & lehtv linked. I'll go may way with MSI. Thanks for the suggestions.

So, now I have to decide what motherboard. But if you say ASRock could be better in this budget sector, I'll get this.
 
HDD Western Digital Caviar Green 1000GB, 150MB/s, SATA 6Gb/s (WD10EZRX)
SSD Samsung SSD 840 Series 120GB, 2.5", SATA 6Gb/s (MZ-7TD120BW)
CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K, 4x 3.50GHz, boxed (BX80637I73770K)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance Low Profile schwarz DIMM Kit 8GB PC3-12800U CL9-9-9-24 (DDR3-1600) (CML8GX3M2A1600C9)
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 770 Superclocked ACX Cooler, 2GB GDDR5, 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort (02G-P4-2774)
MoBo: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H, Z77 (dual PC3-12800U DDR3)
CPU Cooler: Enermax ETS-T40-VD
Case: MS-Tech X3 Crow¹
PSU: Enermax Revolution87+ 650W ATX 2.3 (ERV650AWT-G/ERV650EWT-G)
Click to expand...
HDD ST2000DM001 75€
SSD Samsung 840 250GB 140€
CPU: 4770K 295€
RAM: The cheapest 2x4GB 1600 or 1866 55€
GPU: MSI 770 Gaming 360€
Mobo: Gigabyte Z87-HD3 105€
Cooler: AC Freezer i30 27€
Case: Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 80€
PSU: Seasonic M12II 520W 65€

=1200€

Is there a reason why you would take the MSI or the Asus? Seams to be slower than the other cards
Click to expand...
That's just the factory clock speed. All of them are the same GPU and you can very easily clock any of them at the same frequency as the biggest factory OC you can find. It's another point how well each card overclocks beyond that, but I'd say MSI and Asus are definitely decent overclockers
 
Why are we talking about 4770K's and 3770K's for a gaming machine where budget is a factor? I'd rather get an i5 4670K and spend the 87 euro savings on something else.
 
It's for gaming and streaming. I'm not 100% sure how correct the assumption is that the extra threads will help maintain decent framerates while streaming gameplay, but I assumed that was the reason behind the OP's CPU choice, and I just went with it.

And for a 1200€ budget gaming rig, I think an i7 is not a bad choice anyway, there are games where the extra threads have an advantage and it does have a little bit more future resistance compared to 4670K. For your $1000 midrange build, the 4670K however is an obvious choice; basically the extra $200/200€ afford a bigger SSD and an i7.

What would you spend the extra 87€ on, mfenn? Any graphics card higher than GTX 670/7970 is going to be inevitably worse bang for buck, and probably not doable for such a small amount of extra money anyway - and that's the only other upgrade that could possibly matter for gaming.
 
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Thanks guys for all the help!

Another question that comes in my mind:

About the CPU Cooler: Enermax ETS-T40-VD

#1 Does an 1156 Cooler fit on an 1150 Haswell?

#2 Is this Cooler enough for an Haswell? I'm not that much into OC'ing. (As said above, maybe 4.0 GHz - 4.2 GHz)

#3 About the Motherboard. If you would choose between these Motherboards, which one would you take, and why?
ASUS Z87-K
Gigabyte GA-Z87-HD3
ASRock Z87 Pro4
ASRock Z87 Pro3

Tbh, I'm not that guy that needs many features. I should work and thats all.

gLockwoRk_
Thanks
 
#1 yes
#2 yes, any aftermarket cooler supplied with a 90-120mm fan is plenty for that overclock

Why the Enermax cooler? It's terrible and overpriced. It's louder, hotter and more expensive than the i30.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/enermax-ets-t40-vd_5.html#sect0
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/arctic-freezer-i30_5.html#sect1

True spirit 120mm at 800 RPM performs better than Enermax at 1800 RPM.
Arctic i30 at 1400 RPM performs better than True spirit 140mm at 800RPM.

In addition, i30 has a much lower idle fan speed which makes it silent on idle.

#3 These are all single GPU boards with nothing fancy, but good basic features. The few differences

ASUS (105&#8364😉
- best fan control
- ALC887 sound
- Realtek 8111GR LAN
- 7 expansion slots, effectively 6 with a dual slot graphics card
- a little bit narrower than regular ATX
- 105€

GIGABYTE (105&#8364😉
- ALC892 sound
- some Realtek LAN
- full ATX width
- 6 expansion slots, effectively 5 with a dual slot graphics card

Asrock Pro4 (110-115&#8364😉
- 6 expansion slots, effectively 6 with a dual slot graphics card
- ALC892 sound
- Gold caps
- full ATX width
- Intel LAN (probably best among these)

Asrock Pro3 (100-105&#8364😉
- as above, except:
- regular solid caps
- very narrow board, not actually full ATX dimensions, which makes installation slightly tighter

One thing I'm not sure is the warranty length on the Asrocks. It's 2 or 3 years, on Asus and Giga it's 3.

Really any of them will do. I'd pick between Asus and Gigabyte, the Pro3 is worse than either and the Pro4 is more expensive. I favor Gigabyte slightly because of the full width and the 892 sound.
 
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Allright lehtv, you got me! I'll go with the i30! Thanks for the reviews.

For the motherboard I'll take the Gigabyte or the ASRock Pro4, 8 Euros difference are ok.

At all, I'm very thankfull for all your help! This is an amazing forum, keep the work up!

I'll give you guys some feedback!

gLockwoRk_
 
In my opinion no. Lightning is great if you want to push the GPU overclock to the max. If you just want the stock speed of the Lightning card, you can easily overclock the 400€ card to the same speed. The extra 50€ would be better spent on a 4GB card, but that's not worth it for you either because you're buying a single GPU board; 2GB of VRAM is fine for a single 770.
 
 
I can't find info on CPU cooler clearance in the MS tech case. The True Spirit 140 cooler is taller than most at 170mm, so many ATX cases are incompatible... but the MS-Tech case is also wider than your typical mid tower. It could fit. But given your mild OC, I would not buy the TS140, it's more expensive than the AC i30 which will definitely fit.
 
Sorry, missed that PSU choice. Yes, 520W would be enough (it is enough for pretty much any single GPU setup), that is why I went with the 520W unit in my earlier post. Also I don't recommend Enermax usually as in most cases there are more cost effective and same or better quality options for the same wattage and efficiency ratings.

Getting the m12II would almost allow you to get teh Samsung 840 250GB while staying in budget
 
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