Looking for gaming spec - £1000 budget

jamesy505 · 17 Jul 2011 at 00:23

Hello folks,
A few months back I posted asking for a gaming spec but didn't follow through with the purchase.

Now I've decided 100% decided to take the plunge and build my first PC. It's only use will be for gaming, primarily SW-TOR and possibly Battlefield 3 ( im currently avid Xbox gamer but PC version looks great).

I'm looking for help on the specs, what I have is keyboard and mouse, so need everything else, including monitor and OS.

Looking for best bang for buck rig, as don't expect to upgrade any time in next 2-3 hrs. A SSD would also be great for main apps but if my money can be used to better effect elsewhere then so be it.

My budget is £1000 max.

Hope you guys can offer wisdom and guidance !!

Thanks

Sycho · 17 Jul 2011 at 01:55

I am a bit over but a nice spec, someone will probably tweak if need be:

Your basket

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE DIRT3 Game Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE DIRT3 Game £199.99
(£166.66) £199.99
(£166.66)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £155.99
(£129.99) £155.99
(£129.99)
Iiyama ProLite E2410HDSD 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black Iiyama ProLite E2410HDSD 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £139.99
(£116.66) £139.99
(£116.66)
Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £139.98
(£116.65) £139.98
(£116.65)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £61.99
(£51.66) £61.99
(£51.66)
Cooler Master CM-690 II Lite Dominator Case - Black Cooler Master CM-690 II Lite Dominator Case - Black £56.99
(£47.49) £56.99
(£47.49)
OCZ Agility Series 30GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-1AGT30G) OCZ Agility Series 30GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-1AGT30G) £46.99
(£39.16) £46.99
(£39.16)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £44.99
(£37.49) £44.99
(£37.49)
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W '80 Plus' Power Supply BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W '80 Plus' Power Supply £44.99
(£37.49) £44.99
(£37.49)
LiteOn IHAS324-32 24x DVD±RW ReWriter SATA (Black) - Retail LiteOn IHAS324-32 24x DVD±RW ReWriter SATA (Black) - Retail £19.99
(£16.66) £19.99
(£16.66)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939 / AM2 / AM3 / 775 / 1155/ 1156 / 1366) Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939 / AM2 / AM3 / 775 / 1155/ 1156 / 1366) £19.99
(£16.66) £19.99
(£16.66)
Sub Total : £843.23
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £13.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £171.40
Total : £1,028.38

olivier renault · 17 Jul 2011 at 02:23

Sycho's is good. It's got a good motherboard, but I wouldn't put that PSU in that rig. You can reduce your memory to 4GB which is ample, and spec a better PSU, maybe a XFX 750 or Lepa 850W, which will allow you to Xfire 6950's later.

in short

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus ATI Radeon HD 6950 DirectCU II 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £191.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £155.99
1 x Iiyama ProLite E2409HDS 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £149.99
1 x Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £139.98
1 x XFX Pro 750W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £79.99
1 x Cooler Master CM-690 II Lite Dominator Case - Black £56.99
1 x OCZ Agility Series 30GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-1AGT30G) £46.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £29.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500413AS) £29.99
1 x LG GH22NS70 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
1 x Antec Kuhler Flow High Performance CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3) £16.99
Total : £1,018.79 (includes shipping : £19.10).

Rooster212 · 17 Jul 2011 at 02:28

The 6950 MSI Twin Frozr III has served me very well so far, I think its a great card for all my games so far on top settings with no stutter....

Personally I would agree a 6950 is good, which version is up to you!

Edit: I got my HD 6950 for £200 on a deal of the week thing, i think it's probably better than a Nvidia 570 for the money you pay (unless you want 3D or Eyefinity which could sway your decision either way)

olivier renault · 17 Jul 2011 at 02:43

If you drop crossfire, you can get a Asrock Pro 3, a Antec HCG 620W, and a NVidia 570.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £227.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £155.99
1 x Iiyama ProLite E2409HDS 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £149.99
1 x Asrock Z68 PRO3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £105.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £79.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 620W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £62.99
1 x Cooler Master CM-690 II Lite Dominator Case - Black £56.99
1 x OCZ Agility Series 30GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-1AGT30G) £46.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £29.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500413AS) £29.99
1 x LG GH22NS70 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
1 x Antec Kuhler Flow High Performance CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3) £16.99
Total : £1,004.99 (includes shipping : £20.10).

In all builds, the small SSD is either for games, or to make use of Intel SRT technology. As a straight program OS drive, I would get at least the Vertex 2 50GB.

olivier renault · 17 Jul 2011 at 02:47

Rooster212 said:
The 6950 MSI Twin Frozr III has served me very well so far, I think its a great card for all my games so far on top settings with no stutter....

Personally I would agree a 6950 is good, which version is up to you!

Edit: I got my HD 6950 for £200 on a deal of the week thing, i think it's probably better than a Nvidia 570 for the money you pay (unless you want 3D or Eyefinity which could sway your decision either way)

The MSI is £230. Not that bad. The DirectCU is similar to the twin frozr. It's slightly overclocked, and has custom custom cooling.

I would be more inclined towards a 6950 build, although I don't know the comparative performance of the 570 and 6950 2GB in SW:TOR and BF3. If you want to save a tenner (if that)< you have a Win 7 + Caviar Blue 500GB in the software section. Although I prefer a F3 or Barracuda.

jamesy505 · 17 Jul 2011 at 12:11

Thanks for the replies guys.
I can see in both builds there are 6950's but on is 1Gb and the other for 2Gb for only £8 more? Or is the GTX 570 superior to both?

Surely the 2GB is superior, or is there more to the comparison apart from the Gb size?

For SSD, how much space would Windows7 take up on that? I would assume I wouldn't have much left for anything else ?

Thanks

Murray · 17 Jul 2011 at 12:21

windows would take around 25gb I think.

DefiantAsh · 17 Jul 2011 at 12:30

BF3's apparent recommended GPU is a 6850 i believe, so it should fare up pretty well

With other recommendations like a Quad-core CPU, 4GB RAM, Win7 64bit etc etc.

Maxi011 · 17 Jul 2011 at 12:53

You would be mad not to get the 2gb version of the 6950 imo.
The 570 is slightly superior in most cases i think but it depends on the game. However there may be some scenarios where you need the extra vram from the 6950.

rough comparison of 6950 & 570:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/293?vs=306

Either way both cards are really good.

jamesy505 · 18 Jul 2011 at 11:50

I have a 1TB external HD, would it be worth increasing the SSD and leaving out the normal HD?

Or is that me being silly? :-)

Looking for a once over on the 6950 2GB spec with different PSU from other reply before I order?

Thanks

Cycrow · 18 Jul 2011 at 12:27

jamesy505 said:
I have a 1TB external HD, would it be worth increasing the SSD and leaving out the normal HD?

Or is that me being silly?

Looking for a once over on the 6950 2GB spec with different PSU from other reply before I order?

Thanks

technically you could, but i wouldn't rely on an external, especially when u'll most likly be installing games onto it.

if you can push another £20, theres the 40gb intel, which is big enough for the OS and programs

Murray · 18 Jul 2011 at 12:47

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 OC Twin FrozR III Power Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Dirt3 PC Game £199.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £155.99
1 x Iiyama ProLite E2409HDS 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £149.99
1 x Gigabyte P67A-D3 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £90.98
1 x Lepa B-Series 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply £72.98
1 x OCZ Vertex 2 50GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-2VTX50G) £71.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £32.99
1 x Cooler Master CM-690 II Lite Dominator Case - Black £56.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £29.99
1 x Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939 / AM2 / AM3 / 775 / 1155/ 1156 / 1366) £19.99
1 x LG GH22NS70 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £993.91 (includes shipping : £22.20).