Gaming PC £1000-1200

[Steedie]

Hey guys

I made a thread like this last year, and unfortunately, had to pull the plug on the project and delay it until now. But the money is in a separate account now and has no other purpose than to buy this PC, so it will definitely be bought today

So the reason for the range in the budget, ideally I'd like to spend £1000, and keep a couple of hundred for games and other bits and pieces for it later on (I like tweaking), but if for a bit more up to a max of £1200 I can get a lot more performance, I'm happy to spend it upfront

It will be purely for games, so all about raw power in games when picking the components. I'm a graphics snob too, I really like to be able to play games on max settings (will be on 1920x1080) or not at all lol

You guys literally have free reign, because I'm so out of the loop, I'm not even sure anymore what to buy and what's the best price/performance kit on the market

It's only the base unit I need, a case and everything inside it. Monitor and the other stuff is already here

Cheers guys

 

[olivier renault]

I'll start off.

YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £359.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £161.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £104.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £89.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £74.99
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 700W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £64.98
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black £53.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £40.79
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £1,010.68 (includes shipping : £12.50).



But basically, a 670, a i5 processor, Z77, 8GB RAM, 600W+ PSU, and a 128GB SSD. That's what I'd get for a £1000 PC.

Can change quite a lot of things around if your budget is flexible.

 

[stulid]

YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK GeForce GTX 670 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £319.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £173.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £104.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £89.99
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX750M High Performance 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020003-UK) £86.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £74.99
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) £43.99
1 x Akasa AK-CC4007EP01 Nero 3 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/2011/AMD AM2/AM2+/AM3/FM1) £23.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
Total : £1,003.88 (includes shipping : £12.50).




Hope you didnt need a copy of Windows?

 

[Steedie]

Awesome, thank you! That's roughly the core components I was putting in a basket when I was messing around. But the other components are a great help, especially the PSU as I had no idea what so ever to get for that. Last one I had was a Corsair. And fantastic that you got a SSD in there too, forgot all about that

That case you suggested, looks nice, does it allow for easy cable management do you know?

Thank you also stulid, very similar specs, almost identical, looks like the that seems to be the spec to go for

 

[stulid]

Vids are a useful way to check out a case

 

[olivier renault]

Yes, it's a good budget case. It's modern with plenty of cable management.

The only problem with it is that it only has a 1/2 stack for the hard drives (I think 4 bays?). Dunno why Corsair didn't include a removable top portion like the 500R. Well, probably because it's too expensive, but 'maybe' they will include that as an optional extra.

But there are plenty of cases to choose from.

Going higher up, I like the Silverstone RV03, P280, the 500R (which I have). Very well designed, bit noisy.

 

[Steedie]

Does look very nice, the case I was previously looking at was the 650D, which looks amazing, but obviously nearly 3 times the price

 

[Steedie]

Just a quick question guys,

Is it worth adding a sound card? In every PC I've previously build (granted, that was 3 years ago the last one) I've always included a dedicated sound card, usually Creative. Just because I do like the best sound possible out of the headphones I'll be plugging into them. And it always used to be a bit of a performance boost too, taking cycle off the CPU

I quite like the look of the Creative Recon3D, is it worth the £70 for the OEM?

 

[olivier renault]

Onboard sound is very good nowadays. I would say, start with onboard, and if you don't like it, go for a dedicated soundcard.

A SB / IB i5 CPU has plenty of cycles left for anything. Not really sure how much sound impacts CPU's nowadays.

I'm really not a creative fan. They'd be all right if they stopped jamming your computer with bloatware. If it was me, It'd then be a Asus Xonar, around £30.

 

[Steedie]

Think I'm settled on this below. I've taken most of both of your specs on, only adjustments I made is the case and added a soundcard (also I know you said not Creative, but I've read good things about the software lately as I agree completely their last effort was shocking and I'm familiar with them so know it's good)


YOUR BASKET
1 x Gainward GeForce GTX 670 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £321.98
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £161.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 650D Gaming Midi Tower - Black £145.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £104.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £74.99
1 x Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D PCI-E Soundcard - OEM (30SB135000000) £73.99
1 x OCZ Vertex 3 60GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive (VTX3-25SAT3-60G) £64.99
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 700W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £64.98
1 x Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit £55.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
Total : £1,111.87 (includes shipping : FREE).



Still within the upper 1200 limit

Reckon I'm good to go?

 

[stulid]

The Crucial M4 is a better SSD.

Bored of the Gelid cooler now, swap for this - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18403278

That PSU is only on offer till the morning, it also only has two PCI-E connectors, so if you add a second card then you will have to use molex adapters, these two are better,

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-047-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-000-XF&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1497

 

[Steedie]

In terms of read/write speeds? As it will only be used for the OS so don't need the extra size, but if it's a better overall drive, I'll spend the extra £30

 

[stulid]

In terms of read/write speeds? As it will only be used for the OS so don't need the extra size, but if it's a better overall drive, I'll spend the extra £30

The 64GB M4 is a cheaper price (£59.99)

 

[Steedie]

Awesome, didn't see that! Sorted Changed that then

 

[olivier renault]

the Crucial M4 64GB has 1/2 the sequential write speeds, but frankly, it doesn't matter for an os drive.

I'd still recommend the M4, better as a whole.

 

[RiseAgainst]

In terms of read/write speeds? As it will only be used for the OS so don't need the extra size, but if it's a better overall drive, I'll spend the extra £30

I think its more a reliability thing , have heard a lot of people saying that they have had multiple OCZ drives fail on them so I would say its not worth the risk ( got an M4 myself and very happy with it )

 

[Steedie]

Thanks for all your help guys

I ordered last night and went for this in the end:

MSI GeForce GTX 670 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W)
Corsair Obsidian 650D Gaming Midi Tower - Black
Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
Corsair HX 650W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply
Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache
Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5 SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium 7.1 Sound Card - OEM
2x Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit
Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366)
Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit

Can't wait to build it all! And start playing Diablo!

 

[olivier renault]

Looks good. Have fun

 

[IvanDobskey]

Looks good but I'd have gone for the 128b M4 as 64gb is full in no time at all. Most people end up regretting not buying a bigger ssd.

 

[Steedie]

I was thinking about it, but I'm literally using it for the OS and that's it, so it shouldn't be an issue