New Gaming Build around £800

Right...this is my current basket based on this weeks deals.

MSI ATI Radeon HD 6970 2048MB Twin Frozr III GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with Dirt 3 & Deus Ex PC Games** £267.95
(£223.29) £267.95
(£223.29)
Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £101.99
(£84.99) £101.99
(£84.99)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £89.99
(£74.99) £89.99
(£74.99)
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
(£70.82) £84.98
(£70.82)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.98
(£66.65) £79.98
(£66.65)
Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
(£49.99) £59.99
(£49.99)
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £44.99
(£37.49) £44.99
(£37.49)
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99)
Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
(£21.66) £25.99
(£21.66)
Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
(£13.32) £15.98
(£13.32)
Sub Total : £668.19
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £136.14
Total : £816.83

I haven't added any discount codes yet and I'm not sure if any are relevant to that build so that final price may go down a bit.

Ideally I'd like to get the price down a little bit if it's possible to be able to include a monitor for under £900 and the obvious place to start is the 6970 but it's very tempting as its in this week only and is a good deal anyway. It also may be overkill with an i3 processor - could anyone give me some advice on this?

I've used the Antec case purely because it's in this week only and I seem to remember it having quite a good reputation for running cool - I'm open to suggestions if the cooler master is a better case for the money though.

My plan would be to upgrade to an i5 and a SSD (and possibly a few fans) over the next couple of years if I can, but that's not definate.

Hopefully I haven't missed anything obvious there as I've done it on my lunch break at work - again, any suggestions would be a massive help!

Cheers,
Richy :D
 
HIS ATI Radeon HD 6950 IceQ X PLUS Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with Battlefield 3, Dirt 3 & Deus Ex PC Games** £227.99
(£189.99) £227.99
(£189.99)
Dell ST2220M 21.5" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £113.99
(£94.99) £113.99
(£94.99)
Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £101.99
(£84.99) £101.99
(£84.99)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £89.99
(£74.99) £89.99
(£74.99)
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
(£70.82) £84.98
(£70.82)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.98
(£66.65) £79.98
(£66.65)
Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
(£49.99) £59.99
(£49.99)
Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £49.99
(£41.66) £49.99
(£41.66)
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99)
Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
(£21.66) £51.98
(£43.32)
Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
(£13.32) £15.98
(£13.32)
Sub Total : £755.71
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £20.10
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £155.16
Total : £930.97


Sell two of the games and bang! Under 900 with monitor
 
i'd drop the gfx card to the 6950 and put the money saved towards a i5 2300/2400 quad core.

no real need for the z68 mobo either as your not getting a "K" processor, maybe swap it for one of the msi or gigabyte H61 mobos to save a bit more.
 
Thanks again GZA, it's definately getting there now...I hadn't seen that offer including BF3!

mp - I think I will go for the 6950, it matches my budget a lot better than the 6970 and I assume it's still a pretty good card - hopefully it should last for the next 2-3 years at least?

If I dropped to a H61 would I be limiting a CPU upgrade? and if so how much? As I've mentioned previously an upgrade to i5/7 in the next couple of years is possible - would that still be possible with a H61 chipset?

Cheers
Richy
 
Yeah dont get an H61 mobo for the reasons you have stated. In a year or so, you will be able to buy an i5 2500k for say 100 pounds and just drop it in there.

6950 Vs 6970:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/293?vs=292

Not much in it, especially when you take the price into account.

If you sell all three games for an average of say 20 quid each you have a 170 pound card. Great performance for 170 quid....
 
richyb_safc said:
If I dropped to a H61 would I be limiting a CPU upgrade? and if so how much? As I've mentioned previously an upgrade to i5/7 in the next couple of years is possible - would that still be possible with a H61 chipset?

Cheers
Richy
Click to expand...
tbh if your thinking of that upgrade i'd wait and get it this time, rather than upgrade from the 2100 etc, could do it going for the 560ti instead of the 6950/6970.
 
mp260767 said:
tbh if your thinking of that upgrade i'd wait and get it this time, rather than upgrade from the 2100 etc, could do it going for the 560ti instead of the 6950/6970.
Click to expand...

the 560ti isn't that much less than the 6950 that it'll allow for the £70 or so increase from i2100 to i2500k ;)
and the ones worth getting(2gb vram) are similar price wise to the 6950s.

as for your previous suggestion of i2300/i2400 they're only £10-£20 less than the i2500k so if you're already spending £150 may as well spend the little extra and get the i2500k.


YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI ATI Radeon HD 6970 2048MB Twin Frozr III GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with Dirt 3 & Deus Ex PC Games** £267.95
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £101.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.98
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £39.98
1 x Cooler Master HAF 912 Case - Black £52.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £29.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
Total : £789.83 (includes shipping : FREE).



with free shipping and cmdouble voucher code

sorry I'm no help on the monitor

incase you don't have the free shipping set up http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sh...&posted=1&utm_source=forums&utm_medium=banner

if you want to drop to the 6950 gza has suggested a decent one

for 560ti I would say you want a 2gb vram one not the 1gb vram

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-175-OK&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1341

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-140-MS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1341
 
Last edited:
Cheers for that fowler - I've got my free shipping set up now!

I've got an updated build in my basket on my work pc (so I cant post it now) including the i5 and the 2gb 6950 with 3 games suggested by GZA. It's going to be over budget but I'm going to have a look at a case and PSU tomorrow and hopefully take advantage of either the cmdouble or antec offer and see how tempted I feel...

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about a monitor yet - it's looking like the 21.5" Dell specced a few times is probably the best bet to try and stay close to my budget so I might use that on my older build and use my current, bigger one for this.

I'll post what I've got once I've added the case and psu tomorrow and hopefully you can help me improve it again :)

Thanks again guys,
Richy
 
I can't believe my eyes, finally Mr Fowler appreciates the beauty that is an i3 gaming rig!

After all the grief you game me!

******faints into office chair overcome with astonishment******
 
jpod said:
I can't believe my eyes, finally Mr Fowler appreciates the beauty that is an i3 gaming rig!

After all the grief you game me!

******faints into office chair overcome with astonishment******
Click to expand...

I have no problem with the i3, its only where you put it in when the i2500k will fit the budget(which in this case it wouldn't unless you compromise elsewhere).
 
right...as I'm not going to build this until after christmas my new plan is to take advantage of this week only over the next couple of weeks, buying bits as they are on offer - Starting today :D

This is my current basket - which is going to push me over budget in the long run but as I'm not buying it all in one go it doesnt seem as bad!

HIS ATI Radeon HD 6950 IceQ X PLUS Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with Battlefield 3, Dirt 3 & Deus Ex PC Games** £227.99
(£189.99) £227.99
(£189.99)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £89.99
(£74.99) £89.99
(£74.99)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £69.98
(£58.32) £69.98
(£58.32)
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99)
Sub Total : £348.29
FREE SHIPPING (DX Secure Next Day)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £69.66
Total : £417.95

I'll add to that aver the next couple of weeks with an i5, Z68 mobo, dvd rw and a case/psu which will probably take advantage of either the cooler master or antec deals (+ possibly a SSD, depending on what is on offer!) - the antect deal is on 'till the 31st Jan according to the special offer forum but I cant find anything about the cooler master offer?

If there's anything anyone thinks I should change on there please let me know before about 3:30 this afternoon if you can before it's too late!!

I'm not too sure about the 1TB hard drive - it seems a good deal as it's on this week only and the same price as the 500gb but what are they like for speed? would I maybe be better off waiting for a faster, possibly cheaper one as I don't really need a full TB of storage?

Thanks again!
Richy
 
Last edited:
lol, I've literally just placed that order!!

I did look at that but there's around £50 difference plus I'll be selling BF3 so I thought it'd be worth saving - the 6950 2gb is still a decent card yeah? (I hope so now!!)

Richy
 
I knew I should have checked that, anyway - £40 is around £50 - ish :)

I forgot to mention yesterday I didn't order the HDD, £90 (ish) isn't that cheap when a 500gb would be more than enough storage - I'll wait and see whats in the offers over christmas!

Cheers for checking my maths fowler ;)
 
[WU-TANG]GZA;20839753 said:
This is the closest I can get to a strong system.

OS and HDD current prices are the killers. If you have any spare Sata drives let us know as it can get you a better GPU.

You could lower the CPU to the i3 2120 which is dual core and won't make much of a difference in most games currently which would keep it strictly within budget and allow for more cash for the GPU which could get you an AMD 6870 or maybe an Nvidia 560Ti...


Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £161.99
(£134.99) £161.99
(£134.99)
MSI ATI Radeon HD 6850 Cyclone Power Edition 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £119.99
(£99.99) £119.99
(£99.99)
Dell ST2220M 21.5" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £107.99
(£89.99) £107.99
(£89.99)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.98
(£66.65) £79.98
(£66.65)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £69.98
(£58.32) £69.98
(£58.32)
XFX Pro 550W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £58.99
(£49.16) £58.99
(£49.16)
Cooler Master HAF 912 Case - Black £49.98
(£41.65) £49.98
(£41.65)
Kingston HyperX Genesis 8GB (4x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3K4/8GX) £39.95
(£33.29) £39.95
(£33.29)
Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
(£21.66) £25.99
(£21.66)
LG GH22NS70 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
(£15.82) £18.98
(£15.82)
Sub Total : £678.18
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £138.14
Total : £828.82
Click to expand...


I'm assuming you already have a Monitor, keyboard, and mouse laying around right now? If I were you, I would use those and just get the main computer tower built. Then after you have a bit of extra cash, go and by the monitor and any other peripherals.
 
richyb_safc said:
lol, I've literally just placed that order!!

I did look at that but there's around £50 difference plus I'll be selling BF3 so I thought it'd be worth saving - the 6950 2gb is still a decent card yeah? (I hope so now!!)

Richy
Click to expand...

The 6950 is an excellent card and much better value than the 6970 in my eyes. Try and squeeze the i5 2500K into budget though. A decent gaming rig with an i3 doesn't really go :p
 
Cheers Ivan,

yeah, I'm waiting to see if there's any i5's in the next couple of this week only(s?), or as one of the next couple of daily offers...I don't know what my chances are though...

I need to have a bit more of a think about cases - I want something with decent cooling and good cable management so It looks all nice and neat once I've built it :cool:

Any one got any suggestions? I'm going to have a look in case central but if anyone can suggest anything in this thread it would at least keep it all in one place! - I know GZA and fowler have already suggested a couple, I quite like the look of the Zalman Z9 suggested by GZA at the minute...

Cheers again everyone - this help is much appreciated!
Richy
 
Hello again, just a quick update on this build - todays basket is as follows (taking advantage of This Week Only!)

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £161.99
(£134.99) £161.99
(£134.99)
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £81.38
(£67.82) £81.38
(£67.82)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £71.99
(£59.99) £71.99
(£59.99)
Sub Total : £262.80
FREE SHIPPING (DX Secure Next Day)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £52.56
Total : £315.36

(I didnt order the 1TB hard drive last week)

Including the stuff I got last week (Win7, 6950, 8gb RAM) that will just leave case and PSU, DVD drive, CPU cooler and possibly a couple of fans. (I think)

This seems to be pretty consistent with what people have been suggesting but if anyone can improve it at all (or make it cheaper!) it would be a great help!

Also, is it worth including this? - It seems to have decent reviews and is relitavely cheap - I will be overclocking but not too much, maybe to around 4 GHz

I'm still trying to find a good case with decent cable management and cooling if anyone can suggest any (preferably taking advantage of the coolermaster or antec offers)

Cheers again everyone!
Richy
 
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