£1200-£1300 gaming build, spec advice appreciated!

D-Zid-816

D-Zid-816

D-Zid-816

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9 Jan 2010
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Somerset, usually
Hi everyone, I'm a long time lurker who's finally managed to get the funds together for a gaming rig. :p
As the title states i have a relatively healthy £1200 budget (£1300 tops, though i may be able to scrape a few quid over if it came to it, maybe).
It'll mainly be for gaming, though i will need it for some 3d modeling and animating, mostly using 3dsmax and some maya, as well as a small amount of video editing. But gaming is my main concern!

I already have a 1920x1080 monitor and windows 7 64bit as well as speakers. I have also set a bit of extra money aside for a half decent keyboard and mouse so its just the main system that needs sorting out! :)

Here's what i've come up with so far..

[-Edit-]: Updated the shopping cart image with current planned build

Basket2.png



I think its all compatible stuff, i think! :s
This will be my first build so any advise/help would be really appreciated!

First build plan:
 
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looks good, though Id go for a 930 CPU (prob not much actual difference but its always better to go newer) and that cpu cooler is just the heatsink afaik so youll need a 120 mm fan with it too (or 2) Noctua P12 would be my choice, best performance (imo) but as your case has window you may want something with better aesthetics
 
95thrifles said:
looks good, though Id go for a 930 CPU (prob not much actual difference but its always better to go newer) and that cpu cooler is just the heatsink afaik so youll need a 120 mm fan with it too (or 2) Noctua P12 would be my choice, best performance (imo) but as your case has window you may want something with better aesthetics
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Hmm yeah, plus i still have some room left till i hit my budget so swapping the 920 for a 930 wouldn't hurt.
Had a look at the Noctua P12 sounds good to me, but looking through the other stuff by Noctua i noticed the NH-D14 Dual Radiator. Since its a P12 and a P14, as well as two heatsinks i might just go with that instead of the Thermalright Heatsink.
Also I'm not to fussed about the aesthetics, may sound silly since i picked out a case with a side window! But as its going to be out of sight under a desk for the most part, so I'm ok with it.

Thanks for taking the time to post here 95thrifles!
 
put a modular psu in it(HX650,HX750).

samsung F3 drive.

and I know its a personal thing, but those HAF cases are kind of ugly.

Titan Fenrir cooler is a proven winner, cheaper too.
 
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smit101 said:
Thats such an awesome spec it seems a shame not to finish it off with a Blu Ray/dvdRW combo drive.http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-098-LG&groupid=701&catid=10&subcat=314

Of course if you don't own any Blu ray discs or intend to in the future then ignore my suggestion. Imo though PC games will be available on blu ray in the future, so even if you don't watch movies on your PC it may still be worth installing one.
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That is something i completely overlooked, i hadn't even thought about looking into pricing for blu-ray drives at all, tbh at that price i may as well upgrade the dvd drive for one. Been considering buying a blu-ray player for a while now, but i don't see any reason why i shouldn't just use my pc for blu-rays, I'll be using it for practically everything else anyway!

Cheers for the suggestion!
 
Samsung F3 is the best HD out at the moment. Fractal Case is a better looking. Prolimatech Megahalems as its also on special and always comes out great, may want two fans to go with that.
 
stulid said:
put a modular psu in it(HX650,HX750).

samsung F3 drive.

and I know its a personal thing, but those HAF cases are kind of ugly.

Titan Fenrir cooler is a proven winner, cheaper too.
Click to expand...

Ah, i thought the TX750 was a modular psu, shows what i know, i'll switch that out as well then, thanks for that! Would a 650W be enough to run this setup? Also if i was to crossfire the 5870 with a second one in the future how powerful a psu would i need? I figure it might payoff to future proof this thing while its still in this planning stage.
Just went through a couple of reviews for the fenrir cooler, sounds great, except that it seems that some mobos struggle to fit them, so I'll have to check to see if its been tried out with the GA-X58A-UD3R anywhere.


panda_uk said:
Samsung F3 is the best HD out at the moment. Fractal Case is a better looking. Prolimatech Megahalems as its also on special and always comes out great, may want two fans to go with that.
Click to expand...

Samsung F3 it is then, costs slightly less to so that's an added plus!
Yeah, but i gotta admit i kind of like the HAF case and all the ugliness they come with!
I most likely wont be ordering for another 7-11 days tops, so the week offers around to big a deal for me, but I'm not to worried about loosing a quid or 2 if I'm getting good stuff.

I'll look into the titan fenrir cooler for now, got plenty time till i order so i wouldn't be to surprised if i end up changing my mind on it as well as 1 or 2 other things if i get good alternatives suggested etc!
 
D-Zid-816 said:
Ah, i thought the TX750 was a modular psu, shows what i know, i'll switch that out as well then, thanks for that! Would a 650W be enough to run this setup? Also if i was to crossfire the 5870 with a second one in the future how powerful a psu would i need?
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well going off the psu check off corsair it recommends an 850w psu for 2x5870s...

so i would recommend just dropping down to the 650w atx modular and upgrading the card say 2 years down the line...
 
phil_c_ said:
well going off the psu check off corsair it recommends an 850w psu for 2x5870s...

so i would recommend just dropping down to the 650w atx modular and upgrading the card say 2 years down the line...
Click to expand...

Thanks for checking that for me. Just had a look on the corsair site, that psu checker is a pretty handy search system.
So yeah i'll just go with the 650W modular psu then, and upgrade at some point in the future.
 
850w is overkill for two 5870's.

a single 5870 in a i7 system takes about 250w at full load according to custom pc reviews.

these modern ati cards are a lot more efficient than anything before.
 
stulid said:
850w is overkill for two 5870's.

a single 5870 in a i7 system takes about 250w at full load according to custom pc reviews.

these modern ati cards are a lot more efficient than anything before.
Click to expand...

Theres no way a single 5870 and i7 system uses 250W at load, the 5870 can use 160-180W full load, and a i7 will use over 100W, both could use a lot more if you overclock. I would say a safe bet would be around 400W for a i7 + 5870 and all other components, and you really wanta 550-600W psu to be safe, an extra 160W or so for a second 5870, which will only be around 550W, a 700W should be fine, maybe up to 800W for extreme safety. Theres no need to buy the top end Corsair to get a decent PSU, they are complete overkill the professional series, for your average computer.

Personally, I can see massive savings to be made with no performance loss.

Depends what you're doing, if you're really only gaming then theres tonnes of cheaper options for identical performance. From a very high clocked dual core costing sub £80, intel or AMD, to a 555Be and hope it unlocks to a quad core, if it does you have a quad core that will do around 4Ghz on silent air cooling, if not a dual core at 4Ghz will be great for the majority of games.

Move up to a lower quad(as they'll overclock fine) at £110-120ish. A second hand Q6600 at 3.5Ghz or so won't be beaten by any i7 setup for games for a good couple years, fantastic value quads and quite a lot become available second hand. A Q9400, only half decent socket 775 quad worth getting isn't great value compared to an i7, though much cheaper mobo's.

With your budget you could easily get something that spanks that system for quite a bit less.

2x 5850's for £100, save £50 on the mobo, £100 on the cpu, £30-40 on the psu. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=ca-032-oc&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1098 that would happily power a quad setup with 2x 5850's. 2x5850's will absolutely trounce a 5870 and only cost £120 more.

so i'd go
2x5850's, £420
latest asus 890gx mobo(only 8x pci-e, could wait for a fx version out shortly or just go 790fx, the 8xpci-e in crossfire will only cost you 4-5% in performance anyway) £100 for top end, add £15 for the usb 3 version(totally pointless)

4gb whatever memory, best to worst memory is about 2% difference max, £80 or £160 for 8gb.

a 555be and risk unlocking for £80, or a £120 quad core version, or again wait a month and get a hex core for £150 or £100 for a quad core that might unlock to a hex core.

£70 for a modular ocz 700w psu.


http://www.legionhardware.com/articles_pages/metro_2033_performance_guide,9.html

As you can see, cpu performance is not key, and a i7 980XE didn't manage to beat out a 965 once, not that the 965 spanked it, at 2 or 4Ghz, you wouldn't be able to tell which cpu was in your computer.

I can 100% guarentee you that a cheaper system with 2x5850's will SPANK a more expensive i7 system with 1x5870. If you have the money and want to, just get 2x5850 with the rest of the setup you specced, but you can get identical gaming performance for a lot cheaper, or better performance for cheaper.

It will lag behind in none gaming things, encoding and stuff, if you do anything else that really matters how fast it is then definately consider a i7, though a hex core AMD at £150 could be pretty awesome and superb for the price.
 
drunkenmaster said:
Theres no way a single 5870 and i7 system uses 250W at load, the 5870 can use 160-180W full load, and a i7 will use over 100W, both could use a lot more if you overclock. I would say a safe bet would be around 400W for a i7 + 5870 and all other components, and you really wanta 550-600W psu to be safe, an extra 160W or so for a second 5870, which will only be around 550W, a 700W should be fine, maybe up to 800W for extreme safety. Theres no need to buy the top end Corsair to get a decent PSU, they are complete overkill the professional series, for your average computer.

Personally, I can see massive savings to be made with no performance loss.

Depends what you're doing, if you're really only gaming then theres tonnes of cheaper options for identical performance. From a very high clocked dual core costing sub £80, intel or AMD, to a 555Be and hope it unlocks to a quad core, if it does you have a quad core that will do around 4Ghz on silent air cooling, if not a dual core at 4Ghz will be great for the majority of games.

Move up to a lower quad(as they'll overclock fine) at £110-120ish. A second hand Q6600 at 3.5Ghz or so won't be beaten by any i7 setup for games for a good couple years, fantastic value quads and quite a lot become available second hand. A Q9400, only half decent socket 775 quad worth getting isn't great value compared to an i7, though much cheaper mobo's.

With your budget you could easily get something that spanks that system for quite a bit less.

2x 5850's for £100, save £50 on the mobo, £100 on the cpu, £30-40 on the psu. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=ca-032-oc&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1098 that would happily power a quad setup with 2x 5850's. 2x5850's will absolutely trounce a 5870 and only cost £120 more.

so i'd go
2x5850's, £420
latest asus 890gx mobo(only 8x pci-e, could wait for a fx version out shortly or just go 790fx, the 8xpci-e in crossfire will only cost you 4-5% in performance anyway) £100 for top end, add £15 for the usb 3 version(totally pointless)

4gb whatever memory, best to worst memory is about 2% difference max, £80 or £160 for 8gb.

a 555be and risk unlocking for £80, or a £120 quad core version, or again wait a month and get a hex core for £150 or £100 for a quad core that might unlock to a hex core.

£70 for a modular ocz 700w psu.


http://www.legionhardware.com/articles_pages/metro_2033_performance_guide,9.html

As you can see, cpu performance is not key, and a i7 980XE didn't manage to beat out a 965 once, not that the 965 spanked it, at 2 or 4Ghz, you wouldn't be able to tell which cpu was in your computer.

I can 100% guarentee you that a cheaper system with 2x5850's will SPANK a more expensive i7 system with 1x5870. If you have the money and want to, just get 2x5850 with the rest of the setup you specced, but you can get identical gaming performance for a lot cheaper, or better performance for cheaper.

It will lag behind in none gaming things, encoding and stuff, if you do anything else that really matters how fast it is then definately consider a i7, though a hex core AMD at £150 could be pretty awesome and superb for the price.
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thanks for the essay.

I keep my response to two words.

your wrong.

www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2009/09/23/ait-radeon-hd-5870-1gb-review/8

as you can see total draw at the socket is 268w using a decent i7 system.

edit. 5870 in crossfire with the same system is 415w peak.
 
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elrasho said:
really? After looking at this article:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-5850-review-crossfire/9

I would say I needed at least 750W, I am thinking of OCing my i5 750 aswell so I will need more power
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ignore the americans.

you want an english site.

www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2009/10/14/ati-radeon-hd-5850-review/9

that's with the same i7 965 CPU as used above.

a 5970 has a peak of 415w, and is already a crossfire 5870 at 5850 speeds.

I would imagine a crossfire 5850 setup, using bit-tech test system uses 370w give or take.

a 620w psu from a good manufacture such as corsair will be fine.
 
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