Three Gaming Rigs needed - £1300 to £2300

samtaylor345 · 21 Apr 2013 at 13:00

Hi guys,

I'm pretty new to the whole self build scene but have been asked to come up with three rigs between £1300 and £2300 - roughly £500 difference but doesn't have to be.

This is what I'm looking at at the moment - any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

Build 1:
Processor - Intel Core i7-3970X @ 3.50GHz
GPU - Sapphire HD 7970 GHz Edition Vapor-X
Motherboard - Gigabyte X79-UD3
RAM - Corsair 32GB (4x8GB) DDR3 1866MHz Vengeance Red Heatspreader
Soundcard - Xonar DX
Storage - WD 500GB Velociraptor Internal Hard Drive + Intel 120GB 520 Series SSD
PSU - OCZ ZT Series 650W Modular PSU

Total Cost - £2006.5

Build 2:
Processor - Intel Core i7-3930K @ 3.20GHz
GPU - Asus HD 7950 Direct CU II
Motherboard - Gigabyte X79-UD3
RAM - Corsair 32GB (4x8GB) DDR3 1866MHz Vengeance Red Heatspreader
Soundcard - Xonar DX
Storage - WD 1TB Velociraptor Internal Hard Drive
PSU - OCZ ZT Series 650W Modular PSU

Total Cost - £1472.5

Build 3:
Processor - Intel Core i7-3770K @ 3.50GHz
GPU - Asus HD 7950 Direct CU II
Motherboard - Asus P8Z77-V LX Socket 1155 VGA DVI HDMI 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard
RAM – G.Skill 16GB DDR3 2400MHz TridentX Memory
Soundcard - Xonar DX
Storage - Seagate 1TB Barracuda Internal Hard Drive + Intel 120GB 520 Series SSD - Retail
PSU - OCZ ZT Series 650W Modular PSU

Total Cost - £1078.5

I am going to add in an optical drive but I'll just choose this when I'm buying as its fairly generic.

RJC · 21 Apr 2013 at 13:03

For general gaming the i5 3570k would be ample, but if you have money to spend then build 2 with a ssd and standard hard drive.

Come up with a quick spec below, do you have a case?

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £259.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - OEM £239.99
1 x Gigabyte X79-UP4 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £209.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) ** Cash Back Promo ** £189.95
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £99.98
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C9 1866MHz Quad Channel Kit (PVI316G186C9QK) £99.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £79.99
1 x Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler - Silver (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £66.98
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
Total : £1,279.42 (includes shipping : £10.50).

honosuseri · 21 Apr 2013 at 13:12

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3930K 3.20GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail with Dead Space 3 PC Game £479.99
1 x HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795QC3G2M) £239.99
1 x Gigabyte X79-UP4 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £209.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) ** Cash Back Promo ** £189.95
1 x BitFenix Shinobi XL Full Tower Gaming Windowed Case - Black £114.95
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £103.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £99.98
1 x Asus Xonar D2X 7.1 PCI-E Sound Card £89.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £79.99
2 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI38G213C1K) £49.99 (£99.98)
1 x Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-S20LBK DVD Rewriter including Labelflash - Retail £20.99
Total : £1,747.49 (includes shipping : £14.75).

Add another 7950 for Xfire and it's still just under £2K

samtaylor345 · 21 Apr 2013 at 13:16

I don't know why I hadn't done that already?!? Thanks for pointing that out.
I had been looking at this case:

Case - CiT Vantage Gaming Case Black HD Audio Black Interior 4 Fans Card Reader

I was thinking the fans included would be ample? Or am I wrong?

RJC · 21 Apr 2013 at 13:16

Please remove the competitor link and check the FAQ regards competitors

Just post the specs up

illuz · 21 Apr 2013 at 13:20

honosuseri said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3930K 3.20GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail with Dead Space 3 PC Game £479.99
1 x HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795QC3G2M) £239.99
1 x Gigabyte X79-UP4 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £209.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) ** Cash Back Promo ** £189.95
1 x BitFenix Shinobi XL Full Tower Gaming Windowed Case - Black £114.95
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £103.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £99.98
1 x Asus Xonar D2X 7.1 PCI-E Sound Card £89.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £79.99
2 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI38G213C1K) £49.99 (£99.98)
1 x Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-S20LBK DVD Rewriter including Labelflash - Retail £20.99
Total : £1,747.49 (includes shipping : £14.75).

Add another 7950 for Xfire and it's still just under £2K

This, excellent build. Sammy greens though, more performance for the same price (Unless you're all about aesthetics!). Add another 7950 though

samtaylor345 · 21 Apr 2013 at 13:24

Sammy greens? :S

RJC · 21 Apr 2013 at 13:32

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-017-SA&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

samtaylor345 · 21 Apr 2013 at 13:34

Ahh thanks - so is 8GB RAM ample?
I was planning to go with 16/32GB

honosuseri · 21 Apr 2013 at 13:35

samtaylor345 said:
Sammy greens? :S

THIS stuff which has a good rep for being overclocked

There is always wiggle room when spec'ing........

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3930K 3.20GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail with Dead Space 3 PC Game £479.99
2 x HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795QC3G2M) £239.99 (£479.98)
1 x Gigabyte X79-UP4 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £209.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) ** Cash Back Promo ** £189.95
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 £99.95
2 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI316G186C0K) £89.99 (£179.98)
1 x Asus Xonar D2X 7.1 PCI-E Sound Card £89.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £79.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £59.99
1 x Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-S20LBK DVD Rewriter including Labelflash - Retail £20.99
Total : £2,007.26 (includes shipping : £13.75).

See what I mean? lol

samtaylor345 said:
Ahh thanks - so is 8GB RAM ample?
I was planning to go with 16/32GB

8GB is ample for gaming, I did use 16GB to make a well balanced rig. If you go with the 2011 socket you ideally need to use a quad channel RAM config. On the 1155 socket dual channel is fine

snips86x · 21 Apr 2013 at 13:35

honosuseri said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3930K 3.20GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail with Dead Space 3 PC Game £479.99
1 x HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795QC3G2M) £239.99
1 x Gigabyte X79-UP4 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £209.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) ** Cash Back Promo ** £189.95
1 x BitFenix Shinobi XL Full Tower Gaming Windowed Case - Black £114.95
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £103.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £99.98
1 x Asus Xonar D2X 7.1 PCI-E Sound Card £89.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £79.99
2 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI38G213C1K) £49.99 (£99.98)
1 x Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-S20LBK DVD Rewriter including Labelflash - Retail £20.99
Total : £1,747.49 (includes shipping : £14.75).

Add another 7950 for Xfire and it's still just under £2K

I like that, nice spec Hono!

Since he's got the cash, throw in another 256gb SSD and maybe the H110 over the H100i?

honosuseri · 21 Apr 2013 at 13:56

snips86x said:
I like that, nice spec Hono!

Since he's got the cash, throw in another 256gb SSD and maybe the H110 over the H100i?

As I said there is always wiggle room. I dont know what the spec is to be geared towards. Just showing possible alternatives.......

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3930K 3.20GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail with Dead Space 3 PC Game £479.99
2 x HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795QC3G2M) £239.99 (£479.98)
1 x BenQ XL2411T 24" TRUE 120Hz 3D Vision 2.0 Widescreen LED Monitor - Black/Red £239.99
1 x Gigabyte X79-UP4 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £209.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) ** Cash Back Promo ** £189.95
1 x BitFenix Shinobi XL Full Tower Gaming Windowed Case - Black £114.95
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £103.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £99.98
1 x Asus Xonar D2X 7.1 PCI-E Sound Card £89.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £79.99
2 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI38G213C1K) £49.99 (£99.98)
1 x Corsair Fan, SP120 PWM Low Noise High Pressure Fan 4 pin, Dual Pack (CO-9050012-WW) £25.99
1 x Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-S20LBK DVD Rewriter including Labelflash - Retail £20.99
Total : £2,262.40 (includes shipping : £22.20).

Going to the max budget but for gaming I've added a 120Hz panel. Xfired 7950s, the H100i has an LED on the block and I've added some better fans for it. RAM is faster than RJCs choice for literally a few pence more.

£1300-2300 is a massive difference. They really need to set a budget and state what they want it to do for the cash. I look forward to seeing what they settle on

samtaylor345 · 21 Apr 2013 at 14:40

The big difference is due to wanting to build three different PCs (for me and a couple of mates).

I'm just hoping to get a good solid gaming platform that is capable of playing the most up to date games...
Never had a gaming PC before so I'm not sure what to add to that.. :/

Thanks for the help so far

illuz · 21 Apr 2013 at 14:42

samtaylor345 said:
The big difference is due to wanting to build three different PCs (for me and a couple of mates).

I'm just hoping to get a good solid gaming platform that is capable of playing the most up to date games...
Never had a gaming PC before so I'm not sure what to add to that.. :/

Thanks for the help so far

That spec is pretty much as best as you can get in terms of gaming, it's perfect for gaming and will rip through everything with ease too! :cool:

honosuseri · 21 Apr 2013 at 15:17

samtaylor345 said:
The big difference is due to wanting to build three different PCs (for me and a couple of mates).

I'm just hoping to get a good solid gaming platform that is capable of playing the most up to date games...
Never had a gaming PC before so I'm not sure what to add to that.. :/

Thanks for the help so far

Well case is a personal preference so I imagine your specs will vary there.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £279.95
1 x HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795QC3G2M) £239.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) ** Cash Back Promo ** £189.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x Antec P280 Super Midi Tower Case - Gun Metal Black £99.95
1 x Asus Xonar D2X 7.1 PCI-E Sound Card £89.99
1 x XFX 750W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £83.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £79.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £59.99
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI38G186C9K) £39.95
1 x Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-S20LBK DVD Rewriter including Labelflash - Retail £20.99
Total : £1,314.22 (includes shipping : £13.75).

Haswell is due in a month or two but this is still a great gaming rig and is at your starting budget.

scotsdragon · 21 Apr 2013 at 15:37

YOUR BASKET
2 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7970 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £323.99 (£647.98)
1 x Corsair Obsidian 900D Super Tower Case £299.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail with Dead Space 3 PC Game £259.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) ** Cash Back Promo ** £189.95
1 x Gigabyte X79-UD3 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £169.99
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Quad Channel Kit (PVI316G213C1QK) £109.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £99.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £79.99
Total : £1,875.56 (includes shipping : £14.75).

I specifically left out cooling because with this case your only limit is what you want to do air, water or closed looped the choice is truly yours.

honosuseri · 21 Apr 2013 at 15:50

scotsdragon said:
YOUR BASKET
2 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7970 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £323.99 (£647.98)
1 x Corsair Obsidian 900D Super Tower Case £299.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail with Dead Space 3 PC Game £259.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) ** Cash Back Promo ** £189.95
1 x Gigabyte X79-UD3 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £169.99
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Quad Channel Kit (PVI316G213C1QK) £109.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £99.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £79.99
Total : £1,875.56 (includes shipping : £14.75).

I specifically left out cooling because with this case your only limit is what you want to do air, water or closed looped the choice is truly yours.

That's a lot of poppy to spend on a case, I'd rather put some of that into the Hexcore i7 personally. Also it's £10ish cheaper to buy two dual channel kits of that RAM as I did earlier

YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 670 FTW 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £319.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £279.95
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) ** Cash Back Promo ** £189.95
1 x MSI Z77 MPower Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 ATX Motherboard with FREE F1 RC Car & MSI HDD Enclosure £149.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance C70 Midi Tower Gaming Case - Military Green £109.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £103.99
1 x XFX 750W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £83.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £79.99
1 x Patriot Viper Xtreme 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PXD38G1600LLK) £39.95
1 x Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-S20LBK DVD Rewriter including Labelflash - Retail £20.99
Total : £1,393.78 (includes shipping : £12.50).

Styled military theme with Xfire support along with wifi and bluetooth inc. This is the beauty of doing custom builds, as my sig says the possibilities are endless

scotsdragon · 21 Apr 2013 at 15:56

Yeah but lets face it how many of us have bought a case wanted to expand later and not had enough room.... a case for me should last a few builds. I went for that ram as im sure i have read quite a few times on here that OC the 3820 requires higher clock ram to reach best speed and for a tenner i thought that was fine but I could and am a lot of the time wrong im still learning myself lol but hey everyone has to start somewhere lol

honosuseri · 21 Apr 2013 at 16:01

scotsdragon said:
Yeah but lets face it how many of us have bought a case wanted to expand later and not had enough room.... a case for me should last a few builds. I went for that ram as im sure i have read quite a few times on here that OC the 3820 requires higher clock ram to reach best speed and for a tenner i thought that was fine but I could and am a lot of the time wrong im still learning myself lol but hey everyone has to start somewhere lol

The Shinobi XL I used is a full tower and has ample room and that's just over £100 not £300

YOUR BASKET
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Quad Channel Kit (PVI316G213C1QK) £109.99
2 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI38G213C1K) £49.99 (£99.98)
Total : £209.98 (includes shipping : FREE).

RAM is the same just cheaper buying the dual channel kit twice

Ok £10 doesnt sound like much but little changes all add up as you balance the build out

scotsdragon · 21 Apr 2013 at 16:03

Aye it does lol nice one