Advice on Gaming Spec

Feesh

Feesh

Feesh

Associate
Joined
10 Mar 2010
Posts
171
Hi all, long time reader but first time poster :)

I'm a bit of a novice and I'm hoping you can advise me with the below spec. I arrived at this from browsing various posts throughout the forum. I have a budget of ~£800, no peripherals required. What I'm after is a gaming machine with the prospect of adding another GFX card for Crossfire in a year or so.

Asus P7P55D LE Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard £104.99
Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £163.99
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £229.99
Corsair TX 750W ATX SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-750TXUK) £92.99
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £64.99
Patriot Sector 5 G Series 4GB (2x2GB) PC3-12800 1600MHz Dual Channel (PGV34G1600ELK) £86.99
Coolermaster Elite 330 Midi Tower Case - All Black £30.64
Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus (Socket AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1156/1366) £19.99
Sony Optiarc AD-7240S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99

Total : £825.37

At the moment I'm running a Samsung 223BW with a max resolution of 1600 x 1050. I hope to up this to full HD very soon.

Am I in the right ball park?
Is Intel and ATI the way to go?
Is it all compatible?
Does my bum look big in this?

Cheers

Mike
 
Right ball park.
Intel 750s are a nice choice and fun to overclock. (although equally the AMD Phenom II series are very nice).
ATI - yes.
Compatible - yes.
Bum - no. :p

Maybe consider splashing out slightly more on a bigger/better case for improved cooling if you can stretch the budget a little more? Other than that seems like a nice build.
 
He did mention adding another graphics card for crossfire later on, so it would be a pain to also have to switch the PSU then.
 
Redmint said:
He did mention adding another graphics card for crossfire later on, so it would be a pain to also have to switch the PSU then.
Click to expand...

well considering a 4ghz i5 draws the same amount of power as a stock clocked i7 920 and i'm running a 3.6ghz 920 with a 5970 on a 700w psu i think 600/650 would easily be enough for a 750 plus 2 5850's
 
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Fair enough, was under the impression most people went for a bit higher than 600W for crossfire systems but I guess that's just if you want to play it really safe.

The Asus P7P55D Pro would probably be a better option for Crossfire.
 
Thanks for all the advice and speedy response!

Cat-The-Fifth, you've just saved me a :facepalm: 12 months from now. Great spot! :D

Monkeyking, I'll downgrade the PSU to a 650w if you think it will be sufficient for the i5 750 & 2 x 5850's. Would this limit the opportunity to OC, should I get very brave?

The saving on that means I can push up to the Asus P7P55D Pro, as suggested by Redmint. However, this doeasn't leave much to upgrade the case. Would the Antec 300 be a better replacement?

Thanks

Mike
 
Cheers Monkey that's great news!

I've settled on the below spec. A little over budget, but isn't that usually the case? :)

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £229.99
Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £163.99
Asus P7P55D Pro Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard £142.99
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C8) £121.89
Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650TXUK) £78.98
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £42.99
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £40.98
Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus (Socket AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1156/1366) £19.99
Sony Optiarc AD-7240S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £873.50

On a scale of 1-10 how would this run the latest demanding games?
Could I expect to get 12-18 months before the need to Crossfire is and maybe OC?

Thanks

Mike
 
7-9 on the game rating scale all depends on how badly optimised the game is and how much aa you put on but generally you're looking at a pretty hefty number fps wise :)

it'll be a while before you NEED to go into crossfire whether you want to beforehand is another matter entirely :D

i'd oc straight off the bat might as well get the most out of what you paid for :)

enjoy your new pc
 
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7-9, Liking the sound of that :)

I'll definately look into Crossfire at christmas, see if the missus is feeling generous!

I've never Overclocked before, and my experience is limited to a 30 minute read of 'The Beginners Guide' in the OC forum. Not sure if i'm brave enough for that just yet! :D
 
Thanks to all who contributed :)

Bought and built the system today. It was my first build and I was pretty anxious. However, here I am sat next to my sexy new machine which is humming away blissfully :D

Only thing I altered from the above spec was the 5850. I went for the Asus over the Sapphire.

I was a little sceptical of the Hyper 212+ due to the low price, I didn't expect much. After running prime95 at stock for a few hours, 50 degrees is all it ticked over at. I know it's only stock, but I'm still extremely impressed with the bang for buck!

So, where do I go from here? The Overclocking thread maybe? Dare I......
 
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