£1860 - spec me please

leanneuk

leanneuk

leanneuk

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Joined
18 Mar 2012
Posts
14
Hi guys,

I asked for help building a gaming rig a few months ago and was advised to wait it out for Ivy Bridge. I'm now looking to make my purchase within the next 2 days.

I'll be needing a monitor (23/24") for gaming (that I can also hook my PS3 upto). And most importantly the best quality rig I can afford (It's primarily for gaming).

I already have a keyboard, mouse and speakers.

Budget £1860

Thank you very much in advance.
 
Hi there :)

Here's my suggestion, no doubt you'll get many others to choose from!

YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK GeForce GTX 680 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £419.99
1 x Intel 520 Series 240GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £279.98
1 x Benq XL2410T 24" TRUE 120Hz 3D Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £239.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £173.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £169.99
1 x Corsair Graphite 600TM Midi Tower Mesh Windowed Case - Black £134.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £109.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F4 EcoGreen 2TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD204UI / ST2000DL004) £104.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £72.00
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1156/1155/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+/FM1) £64.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £39.95
1 x LG GH22NS70 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
Total : £1,856.47 (includes shipping : £22.20).

 
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Hi beejjacobs

Thanks for your help :) Would that spec play the latest games on ultra settings? (Sorry I'm not very savvy in this department)

Also, would you recommend I overclocked it or is that too complicated? What is the benefit of overclocking?

Thanks
 
leanneuk said:
Hi beejjacobs

Thanks for your help :) Would that spec play the latest games on ultra settings? (Sorry I'm not very savvy in this department)

Also, would you recommend I overclocked it or is that too complicated? What is the benefit of overclocking?

Thanks
Click to expand...

yes i would overclock it if u feel ok to do it.
and it should play lastest games on ultra.
 
680 best GPU around. I always go for custom cooling solutions, like the Twin Frozrs, Sapphire dual fans.

2500K 3570K best gaming CPUs around.

750 / 850W for SLI support.

8GB 12800C9 perfect for gaming.

big CPU quiet cooler for overclocking. Can go cheaper, I would aim at sweet spot 4.4GHz overclocking.

SSD for OS and games.

120Hz screen for smooth gaming.

Good motherboard for overclocking and SLI. Can go cheaper (I like the AsRock Z68 Extreme 4, like mine).

So yeah, that's the kind of stuff you want for gaming.

Case is OK but plenty of choice around. If looks no object, the Raven RV03 is a good air cooling case for quietness and performance. Can Go Carbide 500D, Obsidian 550D, or plenty of others.

Can go 128GB M4, but you will have to manage space better (games around 10-15GB nowadays).
 
Thanks Stinger53.

Thanks olivier renault, that's massively helpful.

Can I just ask would it be worth buying the the benq xl2420t over the benq xl2410t? Or isn't there much difference.
 
leanneuk said:
Hi beejjacobs

Thanks for your help :) Would that spec play the latest games on ultra settings? (Sorry I'm not very savvy in this department)

Also, would you recommend I overclocked it or is that too complicated? What is the benefit of overclocking?

Thanks
Click to expand...

My mate Beej has done a very nice spec for you there. Unfortunately everyone has gone mad today ordering the new kit so you will find a lot of the good mobos are now out of stock i.e what Beej spec'd. Gives you an idea of what's possible for the cash though.

I try to explain overclocking with cars. Now you can buy very fast and expensive cars but they are limited electronically to 155mph even though they can go much faster.
The K edition CPUs are "engines" without the limiter, so you can manually tell it what it is. You could get 4ghz from the sandybridge i5Ks on the stock cooler and with a better heatsink 4.4 was easily attainable....not bad from a 3.3 CPU. Asking it to run faster increases temps which is why people add the aftermarket coolers.

The speed is the FSB multiplied by the CPUs multiplier/ratio. Overclocking these K CPUs is as simple as upping the multiplier or ratio. Infact many mobos have an auto option to make it even easier for you. Each CPU is unique, we call it the silicon lottery. Some CPUs can run faster than others, you just dont know till you try, with sandybridge having been out for sometime we know 4.4 is a good expected overclock. You will see threads start up soon with people showing how far they have "pushed" their unlocked ivybridge CPUs.

If you have any more questions or need help come build day, come back and find us we are more than willing to baby step you through the process :)
 
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Vinni3 @H|H said:
FSB hasn't existed since LGA 1366. :p
Click to expand...

haha well spotted mate, it's been a long day.... I meant CPU base clock. I'm old school and old habits die hard ;)

Same difference though, the base clock (100mhz) X the multiplier/ratio (34) = speed 3400mhz or 3.4Ghz. As you up the multiplier by one it's easy to calculate the increase in speed. So 35 is 3.5Ghz, 36 3.6Ghz and so on. There are tools or software rather that we use to test stability but we can cover this later once you have the machine setup nicely at stock speeds.

Sorry for any confusion caused...a slip of the tongue is no fault of the mind and all that jazz lol
 
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Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
EVGA GeForce GTX 680 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (02G-P4-2680-KR) £429.95
(£358.29) £859.90
(£716.58)
Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £219.95
(£183.29) £219.95
(£183.29)
BenQ G2750 27" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £179.99
(£149.99) £179.99
(£149.99)
Asrock X79 Extreme 4 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £150.00
(£125.00) £150.00
(£125.00)
OCZ ZX Series 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £124.99
(£104.16) £124.99
(£104.16)
Corsair Vengeance Blue 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B) £89.99
(£74.99) £89.99
(£74.99)
Noctua NH-D14-2011 Dual Radiator CPU Cooler with PWM Fans (Socket LGA2011) £72.98
(£60.82) £72.98
(£60.82)
Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (WD10EARX) £69.98
(£58.32) £69.98
(£58.32)
OCZ Petrol 64GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive (PTL1-25SAT3-64G) £59.99
(£49.99) £59.99
(£49.99)
Cooler Master HAF 912 Case - Black £52.99
(£44.16) £52.99
(£44.16)
Sub Total : £1,567.30
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £14.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £316.41
Total : £1,898.46


£40 over budget BUT you get SLI GTX680 AND a 27'' screen
 
leanneuk said:
Thanks Stinger53.

Thanks olivier renault, that's massively helpful.

Can I just ask would it be worth buying the the benq xl2420t over the benq xl2410t? Or isn't there much difference.
Click to expand...

The xl2420t has the latest Nvidia 3D Vision 2 where as the xl2410t has the original.

Newer tech etc...

I have my eye on the xl2420t
 
honosuseri said:
My mate Beej has done a very nice spec for you there. Unfortunately everyone has gone mad today ordering the new kit so you will find a lot of the good mobos are now out of stock i.e what Beej spec'd. Gives you an idea of what's possible for the cash though.

I try to explain overclocking with cars. Now you can buy very fast and expensive cars but they are limited electronically to 155mph even though they can go much faster.
The K edition CPUs are "engines" without the limiter, so you can manually tell it what it is. You could get 4ghz from the sandybridge i5Ks on the stock cooler and with a better heatsink 4.4 was easily attainable....not bad from a 3.3 CPU. Asking it to run faster increases temps which is why people add the aftermarket coolers.

The speed is the FSB multiplied by the CPUs multiplier/ratio. Overclocking these K CPUs is as simple as upping the multiplier or ratio. Infact many mobos have an auto option to make it even easier for you. Each CPU is unique, we call it the silicon lottery. Some CPUs can run faster than others, you just dont know till you try, with sandybridge having been out for sometime we know 4.4 is a good expected overclock. You will see threads start up soon with people showing how far they have "pushed" their unlocked ivybridge CPUs.

If you have any more questions or need help come build day, come back and find us we are more than willing to baby step you through the process :)
Click to expand...

Hmm, even when it's dumbed down for me I still find it difficult to understand. Thank you for trying to explain that to me.

Would it be worth waiting for the GTX 690? Or will that be out of my price range?
 
beejjacobs said:
Hi there :)

Here's my suggestion, no doubt you'll get many others to choose from!

YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK GeForce GTX 680 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £419.99
1 x Intel 520 Series 240GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £279.98
1 x Benq XL2410T 24" TRUE 120Hz 3D Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £239.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £173.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £169.99
1 x Corsair Graphite 600TM Midi Tower Mesh Windowed Case - Black £134.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £109.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F4 EcoGreen 2TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD204UI / ST2000DL004) £104.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £72.00
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1156/1155/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+/FM1) £64.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £39.95
1 x LG GH22NS70 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
Total : £1,856.47 (includes shipping : £22.20).

Click to expand...

Hi,

Do you think I'd be ok getting the 180GB INTEL 500 series SSD instead of the 240GB one above? Or would you advise against it?
 
My money would be on something around this.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Palit GeForce GTX 680 Jetstream 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £479.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT256M4SSD2) £189.95
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x IIyama Prolite E2473HDS 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £149.99
1 x Silverstone Strider 1200W Modular '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply ** PRE ORDER PRICE ** (SST-ST1200-G) £149.99
1 x Asrock Z77 Extreme4 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £124.99
1 x Silverstone Raven 3 Full Tower Windowed Case - Black/Gold (SST-RV03B-W USB 3.0) £99.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (ST2000DL003) £93.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £72.00
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1156/1155/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+/FM1) £64.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £39.95
1 x LG GH22NS90 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
Total : £1,688.90 (includes shipping : £20.10).



PSU, not sure. I really like the Strider 1200W, but it's rather overkill, however it's fully modular, gold, not that expensive (same as a Corsair AX850) and fits in the case. XFX 850 XXX would be enough. Hell, even a CM Silent Pro 600 for £55 will do the job.

Monitor, well, can always go BenQ 2420T, or two monitors, i7 ivy, audio card, or a posh case (FT02). Or just save your monies.
 
Last edited:
On the cheaper side of things


YOUR BASKET
1 x Palit GeForce GTX 680 Jetstream 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £479.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT256M4SSD2) £189.95
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x IIyama Prolite E2473HDS 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £149.99
1 x Asrock Z77 Extreme4 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £124.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (ST2000DL003) £93.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £72.00
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1156/1155/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+/FM1) £64.99
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £54.98
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black £53.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £39.95
1 x LG GH22NS90 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
Total : £1,547.90 (includes shipping : £20.10).



a £500 GPU always makes my eyes water. eek! To be fair, I spend almost the same with my two 6950's :)
 
Last edited:
olivier renault said:
My money would be on something around this.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Palit GeForce GTX 680 Jetstream 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £479.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT256M4SSD2) £189.95
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x IIyama Prolite E2473HDS 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £149.99
1 x Silverstone Strider 1200W Modular '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply ** PRE ORDER PRICE ** (SST-ST1200-G) £149.99
1 x Asrock Z77 Extreme4 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £124.99
1 x Silverstone Raven 3 Full Tower Windowed Case - Black/Gold (SST-RV03B-W USB 3.0) £99.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (ST2000DL003) £93.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £72.00
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1156/1155/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+/FM1) £64.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £39.95
1 x LG GH22NS90 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
Total : £1,688.90 (includes shipping : £20.10).



PSU, not sure. I really like the Strider 1200W, but it's rather overkill, however it's fully modular, gold, not that expensive (same as a Corsair AX850) and fits in the case. XFX 850 XXX would be enough. Hell, even a CM Silent Pro 600 for £55 will do the job.

Monitor, well, can always go BenQ 2420T, or two monitors, i7 ivy, audio card, or a posh case (FT02). Or just save your monies.
Click to expand...

This looks great. Thank you very much.

Can I just ask will the BenQ 2420T hook up to the PS3 too?
 
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