New poster, new gaming PC build

righteousass

righteousass

righteousass

Associate
Joined
15 Oct 2009
Posts
20
Location
Newcastle Upon Tyne
EDIT:

Budget changed to £1150
Don't need Windows, keyboard, mouse
Want options for cheap crossfire in 1 or 2 years time

--------------

Hello

I have a little building experience from way back when but my component knowledge is way off these days. From some skim-reading of these forums I've built a picture of what I want and I was hoping you guys could help me out with the missing parts :)

I'd like to build a gaming PC from a budget of around £1300-1400. I'll probably need the whole shebang but can forgo some items if I go over budget. I don't want to force myself into spending the whole lot though. Based on the core components I've already picked out I'd like to get what's needed to match up with them, and not go to overboard.

This will be a pure gaming PC. I don't care about fancy looks or too much noise. I need to cool the CPU sufficiently to reach possibly up to 4ghz.

This is what I've come up with so far:

CPU: Intel Core i7 930 2.80GHz (Bloomfield) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail £208.99
GFX: Gainward GeForce GTX 460 GLH 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £193.86
MOBO: Asus P6X58D-E Intel X58 (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard £144.98
HDD: Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1) £119.99
HDD: Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ £46.99
RAM: Corsair XMS3 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 12800C9 1600MHz Triple Channel (CMX6GX3M3A1600C9) £129.24

Here's where you guys come in!

Is the stock cooler going to handle the OC? If not what would you recommend? The Corsair H50-1 looks interesting compared to the bulky fan coolers. I don't want a full blown water cooled solution though, so the H50 is about as off the beaten path as I dare to go.

PSU-wise, I'm not sure where to start. I'm guessing 650w is the minimum, but apart from what I see in some of the OcUK builds I have no idea what to go for.

Case wise, I want something that can house everything above, while maintaining airflow and being easy to manage the cables. I did say I don't care about looks but if I can get an optical drive match with the case it would be a bonus.

Monitor. Oh. My. God. How things have changed since I bought my 17" standard aspect. I've got some idea of what is good but there are just so many to choose from and I'm lost. I'm looking for a decent gaming option between 22-24". I suppose this is the part that depends on how much I spend on the main machine.

OS - which version of Windows 7 should I get?

Optionals:

Gaming Keyboard, Gaming Mouse, and a headset. Might replace my Speedlink Medusa with another Speedlink Medusa!

I'm hoping to buy tomorrow. I 'd really appreciate your help in making some of the choices, and please by all means if I'm making stupid mistakes.
 
Last edited:
A 550w would be more than fine - The PSU spec requires just as must quality as quantity so stick with a good brand.
The stock cooler is naff - Either get a high end air cooler or entry level water cooling (the Corsiar H50-1 is good my brother has one).
I cannot comment on a specific case (my Antec 300 is smaller than you are after) but please consider noise. A noisey pc is VERY annoying.
Get a decent 24 inch LCD monitor. I cannot reccomend a specific one though.
Get any windows 7, but make sure it is retail as OEM is a one-pc-only copy. Ensure you get 64 bit as there is no reason for 32 bit.
Get a cheaper 460 - No need to spend that much on one!

It may be easier if you post a screenshot of your OCUK basket so people can see - It is just a bit easier to see:)
 
Last edited:
Last edited:
If it is for gaming you should consider a AMD build instead. Yes the intel cpus have a slight advantage at crunching numbers but this comes with a price tag attached. For gaming it is the GPU which has more of an impact on performance.

A X4 phenom II would be more than man enough for gaming and save you £100. The most expensive AMD mobos (asus crosshair for example) are around the same price as your spec mobo but you could save money there too.

Only issue with AMD chipset mobos is that SLI isn't really possible. New ATI cards are due soon (october i believe) so it may pay to wait a few weeks and see what happens to the prices. If you are dead set on the 460 it will run fine on the AMD mobos you just wont be able to run a second one in the future. Note with the money saved from changing the cpu/mobo your budget for the gfx can be increased!

If you want more than 4GB of RAM then you have no choice but to use a 64bit version of win7 or the OS simply wont use it all.

Cases are largely down to personal taste. Read some of the reviews and note the negative comments to help you come to a decision.

Hope this helps.....good luck with the build
 
If you're building it purely for gaming you'd be better off dropping down to an i5 760 and saving £100 to spend elsewhere (graphics).

Appologies if this build completely throws you off your i7 track. It's got a damn nice monitor, which you could always substitue for something slightly cheaper if you wanted a H50, mouse and keyboard. Windows Home Premium should be fine. That motherboard doesn't support 8x/8x crossfire though. But there's enough juice in the psu should you ever want to buy a second 5870.

HIS ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £281.99
(£239.99)
Dell Ultrasharp U2311H 23" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey £264.36
(£224.99)
Intel Core i5 760 2.80GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £148.04
(£125.99)
Sapphire Pure 950W Modular Power Supply £140.99
(£119.99)
Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1) £119.99
(£102.12)
Asus P7P55D-E Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard £109.99
(£93.61)
OCZ Reaper Low-Latency 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 12800C6 (1600MHz) Dual-Channel (OCZ3RPR1600C6LV4GK) £86.94
(£73.99)
Coolermaster CM-690 II Advanced Dominator Case - Black £80.99
(£68.93)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £79.89
(£67.99)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £46.99
(£39.99)
Titan TTC-NK85TZ/V2 Fenrir CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/LGA775/LGA1156/LGA1366) £32.99
(£28.08)
Sony Optiarc AD-7260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£11.91)
Sub Total : £1,197.58
Shipping : £20.10
VAT : £213.09
Total : £1,430.77
 
Last edited:
I wouldnt go for the motherboard Burty suggested.
As he mentioned if you wanted to go Xfire you have 1x PCIe x16 n 1xPCIe x4 which would make the 2nd graphics card near useless.
Go for a mobo with 2x PCIe slots if you like to go for Xfire later.
As mglover suggested go for a decent PSU 650w corsair. Lots of people suggest the be quiet PSU too and its £20 cheaper than the corsair. But ive had no experience with tht PSU.
But those PSU's wont be powerful enough to run Xfire 5870's.
 
Checking reviews, crossfire 5870s are fine on a 600w psu, so I would get a 650-700w so you have no power concerns in the future when you come to upgrade (a PSU either works or it doesn't, it has no 'performance').

Power requirements are enourmously over-exagerated:).
 
mglover070588 said:
stuff...
Click to expand...

From a Guru3d review of the 5870s in Xfire - that someone posted up here

"A second card requires you to add another 188 Watts. You need a 700+ Watt power supply unit if you use it in a high-end system. That power supply needs to have (in total accumulated) at least 55~60 Amps available on the +12 volt rails."

950W just gives you headroom if you want to upgrade in the future. IMO you can hang onto a PSU and case the longest, so the more futureproof they are, the cheaper your subsequent upgrades.

ETA: even this only has 52A on it's 12V rail
 
Last edited:
Here is a much better Intel/Nvidia alternative :)

Untitled-1.png


The monitor is great its an IPS monitor so colours and viewing angles are far superior from TN paneled monitors and its Dell so its very good quality.

But if you want to go with an i7 build I would recommend changing the monitor to a BenQ 24" LED monitor and then switch it to the i7 bundle. But the i5 is much better with single cards.

The SSD I chose is 5 pound mroe than the C300 and has 4gb less but the writing speeds are much, much better.

The case is upto you but thge Antec 902 is a good choice it can easily fit all of that build in and has good air flow.

The Noctua air cooler is massive! But its the best Air cooler in the market and is mcuh better than the H50/H70 I think the only other cooler thats better is the Coolit 240 rad version which is quite pricey for what it is.
 
That PSU in the above spec only has 2 PCI-e modules meaning you'd need to bodge two more off of the molex rails if you ever wanted another GPU. This has enough cables for two GPUs and is not the alleged overkill that my Sapphire suggestion was.

I'd go with the C300 personally as write speeds don't really matter, compared to the much faster read speeds of the SATA 6Gb/s utilising crucial.

It's much more cost effective to run an i5 with an ATi card, purely because you can pick up a Xfire compatable motherboard for £130, where as an SLi compatable i5 motherboard is £150 (which is the same price as a good i7 mobo)
 
Last edited:
Thanks a lot for all your input guys. I've changed my path somewhat after some intense reading this morning, and a slight cut in budget :(

I'm going to go down the AMD route, mainly to save a bit of cash but also for the possible chance to upgrade to the Bulldozer later on. I was reading elsewhere and now on here that the AM3 socket is very likely for this. On the subject of upgrades, it would be nice to crossfire down the line. So in less than a day I've changed from Intel to AMD and Nvidia to ATi.

basket.jpg


CPU - the higher-end AMD looks a bit pricy and this one seems to be on the sweet spot with some room to OC

Cooler - the H50 seems sufficient for this application, and takes away the risk of a huge block making case management difficult. I'm used to cleaning up stock gunk from cooling blocks and applying Arctic Silver myself. Any reason not to here?

RAM - changed down to 4gb but moved up from Corsair standards for slightly better timings at only a few £s more. Was looking at the OCZ reapers though, any experience of those? Bearing in mind I want to OC.

PSU - looked at a few reviews and Burty88's suggestion. Looking for the neatest solution possible while being able to keep SLi upgrades available. Is this PSU more suited?

SSD HD - sticking with the C300. General consensus seems to be that they're the best at the price/size. Also the mobo has SATA 6GB/s so why not use it? Does anyone know if you get a mounting kit with it or the mobo?

Case - torn between CM-690 and the Antec 902. CM-690 looks like it has a lot of fan options so it swings it a bit but the stock is iffy so I'll be keeping an eye on it.

Optical - placeholder price - I want to check the drive bezel and case finish match up before I choose (eg. shiny/slick looking and matte finish look bad)

GFX - I'm struggling to get a card in budget while being able to afford a decent screen. I might drop to 22" so I can afford this one.

I already have a retail Windows which I thought was OEM so bonus right there.

Budget-wise things are iffy. I'm waiting for something to come off before I can guarantee it. This puts a tight squeeze on the monitor. Any more suggestions here? It just has to be suitable for gaming and doesn't need to look beautiful. Obviously the cheaper and bigger the better :)

Again, thanks for your help.
 
Last edited:
Burty88 said:
snip
Click to expand...

You do not need 700w for a xfire 5870. Go and look at reviews with full system under load graphs.

Google '5870 crossfire power draw" and check all the reviews.

Here is the first one I just found to help you get started:
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/29...870_graphics_card_in_crossfire_x/index14.html

The OP requires help and you spurting out crap isn't helping.
A system with a heavily clocked cpu, a hard drive or two and 2 5870's will need no more than 600w.

The PSU that mattjd spec'ed is good and allows for future upgrades:).
 
Last edited:
righteousass said:
also for the possible chance to upgrade to the Bulldozer later on. I was reading elsewhere and now on here that the AM3 socket is very likely for this.
Click to expand...

It has been announced that Bulldozer will NOT be compatible with AM3 motherboards you will ahve to purchase an AM3+ motherboard to use a Bulldozer processor.

Non of the current generation allows for future upgrades (Maybe AM3 and s1366 with a 6 core processor but they are roughly the same speed on all current games/programs but with just 2 more cores added which will only help for encoding and future games that will support 6 cores).

So get whichever is the best bang for buck now because you wont be able to upgrade. I recommend an i5 over an AMD processor because its just that much better for roughly the same price.

I wouldnt touch crossfire until AMD sort out there current set of drivers. 10.4 seem to be the only set of drivers which work OK but your using old drivers with bug fixes missing and wont have the performance increases. TBH I wouldnt touch multi GPU at all whether it being Nvidia or ATI, it causes more issues than good. Just get the best single GPU you can afford.

I think 470 and 5850 are the best bang for buck cards out atm because you can overclock them to be as good as there older brothers, especially the 470 when overclocked it can out perform a stock 5870 in most things.
 
Thanks for the heads-up on Bulldozer. I suppose hanging on would be better but if I wait I'll be waiting forever as there'll always be something new.

Tweaked the build a bit again, gone back to Intel with the i5, and you may see a few other changes you guys suggested too. I take what you say about multi-GPU but I can review that next year to see if those problems still exist.

I have lost a bit of budget as my auctions didn't turn out as planned. So I'm hoping to spend no more than £1100 now. As you can see with a few tweaks I've gotten the system below 1k with a decent card.

basket2.jpg


Is this system still Crossfire ready?

The remainder of the cash can either go on a monitor, or fund a better GFX card and a lesser monitor. I'm in two minds on that one.
 
The mobo you have chosen is Crossfire ready x16/x4 so you do have the option to go crossfire in the future but the second card will not be running at its highest potential.

I would highly suggest to spend 13 pound more and get an Nvidia MSI 470. Then overclock it to 800-850MHz main clock and 1000Mhz Memory clock and then you will have a bloody fast card :D

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-088-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1810

But by doing this it would be a waste of money getting a corssfire only motherboard. So just either get a cheaper single PCI-E x16 slot motherbaord or pay more for a SLI board.

With the rest of money you can then buy a nice monitor like the BenQ 24" LED Monitor:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-033-BQ&groupid=17&catid=510&subcat=
Slightly over what you have left but its a very good monitor for its price.
 
need a gigabyte UD4 motherboard, also that psu is not good enough, it only has two pcie cables, when you need four for 5850 crossfire.

the Antec new truepower 650w psu has the right amount of connectors.
 
I'm reading the specs wrong I guess! '2x PCIe 2.0 x16 Slots' I'll be more in depth and check the manufacturer sites from now on. Cheers!

Making the multi-GPU capability better pushes the price up a bit, despite this I've made the suggested mobo and PSU changes and it leaves a lot less for the monitor. I can't really go over £1150ish as I'm supposed to be at £1000 (sneaking a bit extra on already but don't tell the wife) so I need to save somewhere else.

How about dropping the case down to the Antec 300? It seems big enough. That'll get me ~£40 back toward the monitor.

So with the Gigabyte UD4 and the Antec Truepower that's coming it almost bang on £1000 including shipping.

basket3.jpg


So that's £150ish for a monitor. I'd love a 24" but I don't want to forgo a quality gaming experience for size.

This looks OK - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-033-BQ&groupid=17&catid=510&subcat=

Really can't go too much higher here. I'm already counting on trading in Xbox games ;)
 
Bah. I've just read something I don't like about the motherboard. Apparently if you pop another GPU in, the Sata 6Gb/s reverts to 3Gb/s, and the USB 3.0 reverts to 2.0

Back to the drawing board.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom