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Advice on Choices - Alternatives for New Build to Game at 1440p (First Personal Build)

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Hello. I read the tips and discussions quite a bit on the site but I never directly asked a question before and everyone agrees I should ask it here.

So as the title suggests, I wanted to ask advice on my planned build at a budget of €2000 for V. High to Ultra 1440p @ 30 ~ 60 FPS and possibly a suggested alternative to any item for a similar price. These are European prices so just bare that in mind as I won't be able to order parts from America without a premium.

Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit (OEM) - €50

Cooler Master HAF X Case - ATX - €140

Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H - €190

Intel Core i5-3570K (OC'd to 4.5 Ghz) - €200

Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950 (OC'd too) - €275

16 GB Corsair Veng. 1866 Mhz RAM - €110

Generic Wireless/ Bluetooth Card - €40

Samsung SSD 840 250GB - €145

Toshiba 7200 RPM 2TB HDD - €80

Corsair CPU Cooler H100 - €85

XFX PRO Core Edition 850W PSU - €95

A- IPS Panel 1440p Monitor from Korea ~ €280

Logitech 5.1 Speakers Z506 - €85

Razer Arctosa Gaming Keyboard - €45

Gaming Mouse - €30

= €1850

I already have the case mentioned and a desk, so with my budget of €2000 if this build sounds okay I plan on getting a really comfy chair and some boring power plug accessories etc. Any help on whether this is a reasonable build for gaming at 1440p would be really appreciated. Thanks again.

More about : advice choices alternatives build game 1440p personal build

  • JoeGuy00 has edited this thread
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PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/K5uw
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/K5uw/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/K5uw/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£161.94 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£23.75 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V LK ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£99.99 @ Dabs)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£51.10 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£53.39 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£173.99 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB Video Card (£350.75 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Power Supply: SeaSonic M12II 650W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£90.72 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£11.49 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£67.19 @ Aria PC)
Monitor: Asus PB278Q 27.0" Monitor (£492.50 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1576.81
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-16 17:51 GMT+0000)
  • bodeen2012 has edited this thread

Best solution

Your build is reasonable as is.
Here are my thoughts.

1. See if you can't add to your budget for a graphics card. It is the most important part for fast gaming and high details.
A GTX680 or 7970 perhaps.
2. Fast ram does not benefit a 3570K significantly. 1600 is fine.
Read this:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-...
Make it low profile too.
No game will use more than 2-3gb, so 8gb is the norm. Considering how cheap ram is, I can't argue against 16gb.
3. A more modest cpu cooler like the cm hyper212 evo will do the job very well.
4. XFX psu is excellent quality, but a card as good as a GTX680 or 7970 needs only a 550w psu. Look for 650w or so and save a bit.
I would not buy a H100 unless you were looking for record level overclocks .
  • JoeGuy00 selected this answer as the solution
  • geofelt has edited this thread

geofelt said:
Your build is reasonable as is.
Here are my thoughts.

1. See if you can't add to your budget for a graphics card. It is the most important part for fast gaming and high details.
A GTX680 or 7970 perhaps.
2. Fast ram does not benefit a 3570K significantly. 1600 is fine.
Read this:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-...
Make it low profile too.
No game will use more than 2-3gb, so 8gb is the norm. Considering how cheap ram is, I can't argue against 16gb.
3. A more modest cpu cooler like the cm hyper212 evo will do the job very well.
4. XFX psu is excellent quality, but a card as good as a GTX680 or 7970 needs only a 550w psu. Look for 650w or so and save a bit.
I would not buy a H100 unless you were looking for record level overclocks .


Thanks for the advice so far. So if I go for the 212 Cooler and get a Z77X-UD3H mobo instead of a Z77X-UD5H, along with holding off on a second 8GB RAM kit for now I wouldn't see any drop significant drop off in performance? It saves €160 off the price too.

Is a Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950 good enough for 1440p once it is overclocked quite a bit? I know a 7970 falls in my budget now, but I don't mind keeping my change and selling my card to cover a GPU upgrade later and miss a couple FPS in the mean time.

I agree with those changes.

On the ram, you imply that you might buy a second 8gb kit later.
If you want 16gb, buy a 2 x 8gb kit up front.
Ram vendors will not support ram bought in disparate kits.
The same part number can be manufactured with differing technologies that might not be compatible.
Also, 2 sticks of 8gb are easier for the motherboard to control than 4 4gb sticks. Still, adding a second kit later should work, but no guarantees.

7950 is fine. I would not even bother to try to overclock one. graphics card vendors are wise to overclocking, and reserve the better chips for use in their overclocked versions. If you want, look for a factory overclocked version in the first place. Really, you will not notice the difference.

I love the 2560 x 1440/1600 monitors. You will too.
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