Good, compatible build?

B

bigbuddaman

New Member
CPU: i5 2500k 3.3ghz (LGA1155)
CPU cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler
Mobo: Asus P8P67 Intel P67 (1155) B3 rev
GPU: XFX AMD Radeon HD 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCIe (the bios flash to 6970 swayed me from the GTX 560 ti)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 4gb (2x2gb) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
Optical drive: LG GH22NS70 22x DVD+/-RW SATA Black - OEM
HD: WD Caviar Black 1TB 64MB Cache Hard Disk Drive SATA 6 Gb/s 126MB/s <4.2ms 7200rpm - OEM
PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro 700w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Modular Power Supply
Case: CoolerMaster Elite 430 Midi Case - Black
Monitor: Samsung EX2220 22" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black LED Back Lit Panel
OS:Win7 64bit

This is going to be my first build, so unsure if everything looks OK. Any changes I could make? Everything there comes to £1k ($1640) and would like to keep it at (or below) that number really!

Thanks for your help
 
I would switch the PSU to something from xfx/seasonic/pc power and cooling/corsair/antec. OCZ is alright, but these are better.

I generally recommended against flashing the bios because people have been having trouble with the 6970 flashed cards dying after a few months. It seems to be hit or miss if it happens or not. It is a bit safer (but cards can still end up dying) to unlock the shaders from a 6950 bios rather than using the stock 6970 bios.

If you do plan to try to unlock it, here is the unlocked xfx 6950 bios.
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/91751/XFX.HD6950.2048.101204_1.html

There is no guarantee that it will work or that the card will be problem free after flashing.
 
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also the psu is either overkill or underpowered, overkill for 1 gpu, but not enough to run 2

yeah, it is considered safer to unlock the shaders and then do the minor overclock on the 950 from what i've heard, and like he said, it's not a guarenteed unlock, some will and some won't, basically all 950s are based on the 970, either they couldn't run correctly at the 70's specs or they had too many 70's produced and needed more 50's.
 
salvage-this said:
If you are planning on an SSD the Z68 would be better. if not, then the P67 will be just fine.
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Thanks mate. With regards to the GPU, im having second thoughts about messing around with the 6950. Is the card still a good choice or would a 560ti be more suited? Will probably be playing BF3 and skyrim when they come out
 
At stock the 6950 will just edge out the 560TI. Both are good cards. It looks like neither BF3 or Skyrim will use Physx so I would say that the better choice would be the 6950. 2gb of memory and slightly better performance out of the box for a bit more money. I would go for one that has a better cooler than stock. I have heard that some of them can get pretty hot with the stock coolers.
 
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salvage-this said:
At stock the 6950 will just edge out the 560TI. Both are good cards. It looks like neither BF3 or Skyrim will use Physx so I would say that the better choice would be the 6950. 2gb of memory and slightly better performance out of the box for a bit more money. I would go for one that has a better cooler than stock. I have heard that some of them can get pretty hot with the stock coolers.
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Awesome, thanks again!
 
and you said you were worried 'bout messing with the 6950, really if you try to unlock the shaders it should say unsuccesful if it can't or just be better if it can, and you don't heave to but you can up the clocks if you want, as long as you watch the temps you'll be fine.
 
Best bet is to get one with a good cooler and OC it. Even if you get a non reference model that can not be unlocked. I'm sure that I am getting better performance with my clocks than what I would get with the unlocked shaders.
 
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