New gaming PC assistance

Tiffster · 20 Mar 2013 at 18:45

Hello,

I've joined the forum for some help with the spec of a new pc i want to build.

I will be using it for gaming, to be specific i want to be able to play Battlefield 4 when it comes at Max settings. I want to have a certain level of future proofness, which is why im specing a Blu ray drive.

I've been out of the gaming pc area for a while but here are two systems i have spec'd:

Case
COOLERMASTER SILENCIO 550 QUIET MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3770K (3.5GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPERX BEAST DUAL-DDR3 2400MHz X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 680 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
10x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX750 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE
Processor Cooling
Corsair H40 Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8 Standard Edition 64 Bit

£1415

Case
COOLERMASTER SILENCIO 550 QUIET MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3820 (3.6GHz) 10MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P9X79: INTEL® SOCKET LG2011
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPERX BEAST DUAL-DDR3 2400MHz X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 680 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
240GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
10x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX750 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE
Processor Cooling
INTEL CERTIFIED LIQUID CPU COOLER FOR SOCKET LG2011
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8 Standard Edition 64 Bit

£1610

I'm aware i don't "need" an I7 for gaming, but as i mentioned would it be better to go with it over a 5 for future gaming ?

I can upgrade the ram at a later date.

I don't need massive storage, my current pc only has 40gb of used space on the HDD after 6 years of use.

Thanks for any input etc.

Tiff

Bacon? · 20 Mar 2013 at 18:50

Have you considered something like this?

YOUR BASKET
2 x HIS HD 7950 IceQ X² BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795QMC3G2M) with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £259.99 (£519.98)
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £249.95
1 x Gigabyte X79-UD3 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £169.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT256M4SSD2) £159.95
1 x BitFenix Shinobi XL Full Tower Gaming Windowed Case - Black £114.98
1 x XFX Pro Series 750W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £84.98
1 x Avexir MPower Yellow Series 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Quad Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-4CM) £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £59.99
Total : £1,537.51 (includes shipping : £14.75).

Tiffster · 20 Mar 2013 at 19:17

Hi,

No i hadn't. I should point out im a bit lost with all the new tech available.

Is that a better pc ?

A few other things:

I don't want a gaming case (lights etc) just a plain black case will do.

I'll only be playing on 1 screen

zakblood · 20 Mar 2013 at 19:22

1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7970 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £349.99
1 x Samsung 500GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD500BW) £266.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £249.95
1 x Gigabyte X79-UD3 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £169.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit £109.99
1 x XFX 750W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £96.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £79.99
1 x Cooler Master Silencio 550 Silent Tower Case - Black £69.98
1 x OcUK Value Blu-ray / DVDRW combi SATA - OEM £59.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H55 Quiet Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011 / 1366 / 1155 / 1156 / AM2 / AM3 / FM1) £52.99
Total : £1,523.35 (includes shipping : £13.75).

a plain black case
16gb of fast ram (why 16gb and not 8gb, well for this amount of money why not, i have 16gb, and like everything else, windows will use it, so will some games if you got it, take off £50 if you don't want the amount)
a socket 2011 motherboard and cpu plus liquid cooling
a single fast high spec gaming card
a good powered psu, modular for better cabling
a 500gb sdd so no hdd needed
bluray player plus windows 8 64bit

option 2

1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7970 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £349.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £249.95
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) £189.95
1 x Gigabyte X79-UD3 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £169.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit £109.99
1 x XFX 750W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £96.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £79.99
1 x Cooler Master Silencio 550 Silent Tower Case - Black £69.98
1 x OcUK Value Blu-ray / DVDRW combi SATA - OEM £59.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H55 Quiet Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011 / 1366 / 1155 / 1156 / AM2 / AM3 / FM1) £52.99
Total : £1,446.31 (includes shipping : £13.75).

same as above but with only a 256gb sdd, no hdd needed if you haven't used 40gb in 6 years (can always add more if needed later) same as crossfire etc) 2 cards

both maybe ott for gaming only unless you play some high end games etc, i have a i7 as well and love it, both better and spec above that you first 2 quoted

hakank68 · 20 Mar 2013 at 19:32

i suggest you go with samsung ssd's rather than intel ones

zakblood · 20 Mar 2013 at 19:41

1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7970 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £349.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £269.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) £189.95
1 x XFX 750W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £96.98
1 x Asus P8Z77-V LX2 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £82.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £79.99
1 x Cooler Master Silencio 550 Silent Tower Case - Black £69.98
1 x OcUK Value Blu-ray / DVDRW combi SATA - OEM £59.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H55 Quiet Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011 / 1366 / 1155 / 1156 / AM2 / AM3 / FM1) £52.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Beast 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX16C9T3K2/8X) £35.99
Total : £1,303.85 (includes shipping : £12.50).

a i7 Z77 build just for the option with 8gb of ram but same bits as spec'ed above

i5 option to above just to show price tbh, only of use if your going to overclock, some will say change board, but i like asus, or Gigabyte if you chose...

1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7970 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £349.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) £189.95
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £187.99
1 x XFX 750W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £96.98
1 x Asus P8Z77-V LX2 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £82.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £79.99
1 x Cooler Master Silencio 550 Silent Tower Case - Black £69.98
1 x OcUK Value Blu-ray / DVDRW combi SATA - OEM £59.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H55 Quiet Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011 / 1366 / 1155 / 1156 / AM2 / AM3 / FM1) £52.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Beast 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX16C9T3K2/8X) £35.99
Total : £1,221.85 (includes shipping : £12.50).

Tiffster · 20 Mar 2013 at 21:04

Hi,

Thanks for the input.

After some thought, i will fit just one SSD and ditch the additional HDD. 250gb should be plenty i can always upgrade when/if i needed to.

I was pretty much set on the Nvidia GTX 680 card too.

zakblood · 20 Mar 2013 at 21:10

in which build?

£399.95 inc VAT is the cheapest 680 on site, with the 7970 being as quick, but cheaper

as you can alter any spec and any part you want tbh

Tiffster · 20 Mar 2013 at 21:39

On any build to be honest, i hated ATI in the past. Constant driver issues when i played new games but maybe things have changed. I still like the 680 though.

Here is what i have cherry picked:

1 x Samsung SSD840 250gb SSD £139
1 x GTX 680 £400
1 x Cooler Master Silencio 550 Silent Tower Case - Black £69.98
1 x Pioneer BDC207DBK blu ray drive £62
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £59.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit £109.99
1 x XFX 750W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £96.98
1 x Gigabyte X79-UD3 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £169.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £249.95

£1378 ish

Tiffster · 21 Mar 2013 at 18:41

Hi,

Does everything in the above build look compatible ?

Is liquid cooling better to go with ?

honosuseri · 21 Mar 2013 at 19:02

YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 670 FTW 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Assassin's Creed III & FTP Currency £311.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £269.99
1 x Plextor M5 Pro 256GB Extreme Series Solid State Drive - (PX-256M5P) £185.99
1 x MSI Z77 MPower Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 ATX Motherboard with FREE F1 RC Car & MSI HDD Enclosure £149.99
1 x Antec P280 Super Midi Tower Case - Gun Metal Black £99.98
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £99.98
1 x LG BH10LS38 10x BluRay-RW / 16 x DVD±RW Lightscribe Drive - Black (OEM) £74.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £71.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £59.99
1 x Avexir MPower Yellow Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CM) £37.99
Total : £1,362.88 (includes shipping : FREE).

Incrauze · 21 Mar 2013 at 19:20

Changed the SSD to the Samsung Pro as it has faster write speed and the Alpenföhn K2 will not fit into the Cooler Master Silencio 550 case,

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 680 WindForce 3x OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Assassin's Creed III & FTP Currency £419.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £249.95
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) £189.95
1 x Gigabyte X79-UD3 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £169.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit £109.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 500R Midi Tower Case - Black £99.95
1 x XFX 750W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £96.98
1 x LG BH10LS38 10x BluRay-RW / 16 x DVD±RW Lightscribe Drive - Black (OEM) £74.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £59.99
Total : £1,471.78 (includes shipping : FREE).

spoffle · 21 Mar 2013 at 19:24

Tiffster said:
On any build to be honest, i hated ATI in the past. Constant driver issues when i played new games but maybe things have changed. I still like the 680 though.

Here is what i have cherry picked:

1 x Samsung SSD840 250gb SSD £139
1 x GTX 680 £400
1 x Cooler Master Silencio 550 Silent Tower Case - Black £69.98
1 x Pioneer BDC207DBK blu ray drive £62
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £59.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit £109.99
1 x XFX 750W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £96.98
1 x Gigabyte X79-UD3 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £169.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £249.95

£1378 ish

Tiffster said:
Hi,

Does everything in the above build look compatible ?

Is liquid cooling better to go with ?

You'll get much better value for money going with AMD, and these driver issues, well they're not really an issue.

By all means go for a GTX680, but you are paying more money for less performance by going for nVidia.

I'd also drop the blu-ray drive as well, PC games are very unlikely to come on blu-ray disks, it's more likely just going to be digital download instead.

Bacon?'s spec is the best in this thread, and will give you a lot of performance.

honosuseri · 21 Mar 2013 at 19:29

spoffle said:
You'll get much better value for money going with AMD, and these driver issues, well they're not really an issue.

By all means go for a GTX680, but you are paying more money for less performance by going for nVidia.

I'd also drop the blu-ray drive as well, PC games are very unlikely to come on blu-ray disks, it's more likely just going to be digital download instead.

I'd agree bud a 7950 is a great bang for buck GPU especially with the games included. I don't think the 7970 is worth the extra. I used the 670 FTW as it uses the 680 PCB and cooler and he seems to be dead set against AMD GPUs. The 670 is a cutdown 680 but not by much with an overclock the 670 gets seriously close to it.

spoffle · 21 Mar 2013 at 19:45

I agree, I don't think the 7970 is worth the extra either. I've got 2x 7950s myself, with nice big overclocks (1300Mhz on both cores) and they fly.

Tiffster · 21 Mar 2013 at 21:29

Hi,

The graphics card is something i have thought hard about.

Cost aside, the 7970 or the 680 ? The reviews for the 680 are excellent.

honosuseri · 21 Mar 2013 at 23:22

Tiffster said:
Hi,

The graphics card is something i have thought hard about.

Cost aside, the 7970 or the 680 ? The reviews for the 680 are excellent.

Cost is everything fella or bang for buck as we like to say. I used a 670 that had a 680 PCB using the 680 cooler for £100 less than the 680 Incrauze used. The 670 is only slightly cutdown from the 680, it's common knowledge just to OC the 670. Look at THESE benchmarks and tell me that the 680 is really worth the extra cash. That £100 basically pays for your case or a PSU.

I don't know why people are getting excited about the "poor mans" X79 specs either with the SB-E 3820. The mobos cost you more and ideally you want to use quadchannel RAM as well. If your monitor is "only" 1080P you won't need dual GPUs but by all means have a mobo and PSU capable of running a second GPU.

If I was to do a socket 2011 spec based on your wishes I could suggest this....

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3930K 3.20GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £469.99
1 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £259.99
1 x Gigabyte X79-UP4 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £209.99
1 x Plextor M5 Pro 256GB Extreme Series Solid State Drive - (PX-256M5P) £185.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £99.98
1 x Antec P280 Super Midi Tower Case - Gun Metal Black £99.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £79.99
1 x LG BH10LS38 10x BluRay-RW / 16 x DVD±RW Lightscribe Drive - Black (OEM) £74.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £59.99
2 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-15000C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G186C9K) £49.99 (£99.98)
Total : £1,640.88 (includes shipping : FREE).

I thought the socket 1155 spec I did was a nice, well rounded rig. This has the Hexcore i7 but how you divide the budget is ultimately down to you bud. That is priced very close to your original 2011 socket spec with the 3820. Ok you might not need the bluray drive (which also writes Blurays btw) but you can adjust it to suit your needs. I look forward to seeing what you finally settle on.

Tiffster · 23 Mar 2013 at 16:53

Hi,

Agreed the 680 isn't much more than the 670 benchmark wise.

In compairing the 680 and the 7970 (925mhz) though the 680 is much better.

What do you think of Asus motherboards ?

Is a 2011 socket good/bad ?

Drollic · 23 Mar 2013 at 17:29

Don't know if it's any help, but I recently got a new pc for a fraction over £800.00 as per my sig. Whilst I didn't opt for a ssd it's a lot less to spend compared to your budget of £1400+ for not a great deal more performance gaming wise. I'll probably sell my 7950 when the new series of ati/nvidia cards come out (depending how much more performance they give) and use the money towards buying another high end card whilst still keeping total spend around £1050.00.