£1200 gaming rig

[Katsumoto]

Sorry to make yet another thread. Anyway had a problem with my last spec as I realised it'd need to be cheaper in order to comfortably afford a car next year.

So, £1200:
Requires:

Keyboard
Operating system
Monitor
Case
All components

Hopefully I can get what i'd love at this price.

Oh incidentally main games will be:

Starcraft 2
Galactic Civilisations 2
Shogun total war
Borderlands 2
Planetside 2
Civilisations 5
Dirt 3
Dawn of war series games
Warcraft 3
Command and conquer generals 2 (when it eventually comes)
Battlefield 3 (only a little bit)
Guild wars 2
Supreme commander
Red alert
Skyrim (only to try out some mods, the base game I didn't like)
Portal/Portal 2
Freelancer
Rise of nations
Age of empires (all of them)

Those are my main bunch i'd say. A fair few oldies in there too, and yes, I do like RTS games.

 

[Sparx]

Here's my suggestion. The keyboard is down to your own personal preference. The case is your personal pref also but I added one anyway for the sake of the full build.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Palit GeForce GTX 670 Jetstream 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £309.95
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC256N/EU) **BTS £20 CASHBACK** £155.99
1 x BenQ GL2450 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £119.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x Corsair Gamer Series GS 700W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £76.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £64.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black £59.99
1 x Patriot Viper Xtreme 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PXD38G1600LLK) £39.95
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-7280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £1,140.82 (includes shipping : FREE).

 

[Katsumoto]

Here's my suggestion. The keyboard is down to your own personal preference. The case is your personal pref also but I added one anyway for the sake of the full build.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Palit GeForce GTX 670 Jetstream 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £309.95
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC256N/EU) **BTS £20 CASHBACK** £155.99
1 x BenQ GL2450 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £119.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x Corsair Gamer Series GS 700W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £76.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £64.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black £59.99
1 x Patriot Viper Xtreme 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PXD38G1600LLK) £39.95
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-7280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £1,140.82 (includes shipping : FREE).

Thanks a lot Was struggling to get all I wanted on budget. Add in the operating system and you're more or less bang on budget.

 

[Sparx]

You could save £60 odd by dropping the SSD to the 128GB model (here). But I think it would be really worth keeping the 256GB model so you can install the OS and get a few of your main games installed on it as well so they run a bit nippier (map loading, etc).

 

[Phusion]

The case and K/M is up to your pick

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 Windforce 3X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £359.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x BenQ GL2450 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £119.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Series SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive - (MZ-7PC128B/WW) £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £83.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £64.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £58.98
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/1156/1155/775/AM3/AM2+/AM2) £32.99
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £30.95
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-7280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £1,141.82 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 

[Doomedspeed]

i'd definatly pick the Z77X-DH3 over the Standard Z77-DH3 as it allows you to have a great SLI build (cheaper Upgrade) in a few years. For this just make sure you have a 700W-750W PSU with 4 x 6 Pin connectors.

Both builds look pretty similar, 3570k is a great choice as is the GTX 670.

 

[Sparx]

Thanks a lot Was struggling to get all I wanted on budget. Add in the operating system and you're more or less bang on budget.

You could save £60 odd by dropping the SSD to the 128GB model (here). But I think it would be really worth keeping the 256GB model so you can install the OS and get a few of your main games installed on it as well so they run a bit nippier (map loading, etc).

Forgot to mention, with the 256GB model Samsung you get £20 cashback as well!

 

[tamzzy]

YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £317.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x IIyama Prolite E2473HDS 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £159.95
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC128D/EU) £89.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £83.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £81.98
1 x OCZ ZT 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply £69.98
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) £57.98
1 x BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Case - White/Blue £44.99
1 x Logitech G110 Illuminated Gaming Keyboard (920-002241) £39.98
1 x GeIL EVO Leggera 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL38GB1600C9DC) £35.99
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 120 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/AM2/AM3/FM1) £24.98
1 x LG GH24NS90 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £1,225.49 (includes shipping : £14.75).



full spec on budget +/- 10 quid

 

[Katsumoto]

Thanks guys. Looking more at 2TB HDD's at the moment (the Hitatchi sounds nice), but the rest seems good stuff.

Looking at it all the main things i'm concerned about, but willing to expand my budget for are
a) Monitor
b) PSU
3) GPU (no extra money though, £320 area)

I hear OCZ PSU's have many issues? I don't know enough here to make a proper decision on PSU.

1) At these specs will I be able to comfortably game using 120hz/3D? It'd be nice to try it out if possible, and as said i'd pay a little more for it. Question is the 60-120hz worth it? Or 3d?
2) What wattage would I require for future sli/crossfire? If SLI (nvidia cards are more power efficient i'm lead to believe) how much and if crossfire how much? 7970's are certainly being considered here as they are comparable in price to 670's.
3) 7970, 670 or 2*7850's? This PC needs to last a fair while.

*Also how much is reasonable to spend on a case if i'm looking at some overclocking? The Corsair 650D looks nice but that's quite a price hike on what's been suggested so far.

 

[RJC]

I can help in answering some of the questions.

OCZ are good on the PSU front, as most of the specs have used a lower end board which really can cater for single gpu setups which 650w will be ample, if you we to a board which can do SLI and crossfire then a 750w PSU Would be ideally be needed.

The 670 gpu is good card, I use the Gigabyte Windforce in my system.

 

[stulid]

I'm getting bored of speccing OCZ PSU's now, they are a bit like M'cDonalds burgers.