I gave my nephew the Pentium 2.13Ghz Core 2 CPU, plus MOBO, plus RAM, plus PSU and 120GB SATA HD from my second RIG. I kept the case and other drives. That should be a bit better than the old rig he was using - my AMD 2500+, great setup for it's day but a bit long in the tooth to handle more modern games. I could have gave him the Aerocool Extremeengine 3T case but I can't get another one of those.

Now I've got to find some new stuff to go in that case as it's rather empty at the moment.

Started by ordering a XFX ProSeries 850W Core Edition Power Supply - 80 PLUS Bronze Certified. Has plenty of good reviews.

Corsair Vengeance Blue LP 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800 C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit - might go for the white depending on MOBO I end up with.

I7 3770 CPU, just because I can. OK, I could buy a 2570 but at the moment I need to spend some cash.

Motherboard I am presently thinking of is the GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) Motherboard

Win 7 64 bit

Graphics probably an AMD Radeon HD 7850 of some description, might go for a 7870 though.

Already got a 240GB SSD, Blueray and a HD for it.

Anyone think there are better options out there?

Good luck finding anywhere stocking the Corsair LP Vengeance, everywhere I looked had it on backorder and dabs shoved my due date back 3 weeks, so I ordered some Mushkin instead from Aria as that was low profile. If you don't actually need the low profile version get youself the standard vengeance, I think the timings are a bit tighter (and its cheaper).

Welcome to the I7 3770(K?) club!

That GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD3H is a great board, but there are so many out there it's worth checking the features. I spent a long time mulling over my options before going for the ASUS P8Z77-V PRO as they use Intel NIC onboard, decent voltage regulators and have some nice extras like the AI Suite. If you're interested in it, see if you want a board that will support Thunderbolt in future, or possibly a cache SSD.

Thought about cache ssd already, the Gigabyte has that option, went for a 240GB main SSD to contain Windows, games and a few extras. Will be putting other stuff on a normal HD as appropriate.

The Thunderbolt interface will probably be an important option next year, and is incredibly interesting. This year I can probably ignore it. Would be nice to have multiple monitors running but I can do that already.

Quote from: Serious on May 25, 2012, 00:50:57 AM


Graphics probably an AMD Radeon HD 7850 of some description, might go for a 7870 though.

Do NOT get a 7870, you can overclock the nuts out of the 7850

I have a sapphire 7850, quiet and runs everything.

I would also go for a 7850.

You don't need a 850w PSU, 650w is more than enough unless you plan to add another GPU at some stage? in which case a 850 would be great.

I like to keep my options open and a dual GPU setup is one of them I'm considering.

Quote from: Serious on May 28, 2012, 09:16:21 AM
I like to keep my options open and a dual GPU setup is one of them I'm considering.

I had 2 7850s and they went like the clappers, they also caused a ton of heat build up, and actually when it came down to it the microstuttering problems crossfire brings I ended up sending one back, the 7850 alone is great and like you I am sitting it out now and will add one at a later date maybe when the drivers are more mature and the price is even better

Running with V-sync on solves a lot of micro stutter issues with crossfire, it also reduces the heat output quite a lot as 90% of games don't need to run at anywhere near 100% on both cards to hit 60 FPS even with all the eye candy turned up.

With my 6950 (running as 6970's) the fans never goes above 40% and temps are in the low 70's even in this weather, but you do need a decent case for a crossfire setup to be able to keep the noise down and everything cool. 

This order contains the following items;
Item: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H Socket 1155 VGA DVI HDMI DisplayPort 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard
Qty: 1 Cost: £107.65

Item: Intel Core i7 3770K 3.5GHz Socket 1155 8MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor
Qty: 1 Cost: £222.63

Item: Corsair 8gb (2x4gb) Ddr3 1600mhz Low Profile Vengeance Memory Kit Cl9 1.35v
Qty: 1 Cost: £39.08

Prices ex-vat. Ebuyer

Parts arrived, now all I have to do is assemble the thing. Hope it works...

Got post, looking good so far. Need to order a new HS&F, one Intel supplied is really crap.

Then I'll be able to overclock it to 4 googlehurtz and beyond 

Go Noctua, they are worth it for the silence Dead easy to fit too despite their size.

Somehow they didn't put in the manual or on the box that if you put a mouse or keyboard in the VIA USB sockets before installing the windaz 7 USB drivers the whole lot goes pear shaped.

There is a small reference to this issue half way down the specification list but it doesn't say that if you do X then you're screwed to the wall 

Now not having such a good time. Win7 refuses to look at the sockets unless the drivers are there and then promptly crashes on restart 

Had I not got an old PS2 mouse and my IBM model M keyboard then this would be just about impossible.

One good thing is installing win7 takes just a few minutes 

I had a similar but less catastrophic issue on my board when I plugged my keyboard into the special ASUS USB3 UBERCHARGE TURBO-V socket on the back and Windows had a BF at it and refused to use the keyboard, I think I had to call up the accessibility keyboard panel to continue until Windows had finished installing.

Have updated the bios to F9. Then I tried downloading the latest VIA driver from their site. Still the same results.

Have asked Gigabyte if they know of a cure.

This is becoming one right pain in the bum.

If anyone else has ideas then please post them.

How old is the USB-kbrd ? i think there were a change 2007-2008 there older once does not work for BIOS and pre-OS start environment but newer USB-kbrds should work from start.
Some BIOS have a setting to choose if you want kbrd to be run by OS or BIOS.