£1000 gaming PC... Please help!

[RodLeach]

Hi,

Ok, first up I'm Rod.. Brand new to the forum but I've been told by numerous people this is the best place to ask for advise regarding a new PC built for more gaming purposes.

First of all, I have a case and I have windows. I don't need a monitor or anything else so I literally just need you guys to offer specs for the inside but heres the catch..

The case I have is the Silverstone GD05. It's an HTPC case but it's not a thin DVD/Blu Ray player type case. Have a look here: http://silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=241&area=en

It supports a Micro-ATX motherboard and a full size graphics card but I'm aware that the term 'full size' is a bit open. I've seen some cards that just have cooling fins/fans etc that stick out over the edge which in my case would mean the lid wouldn't fit on..

So as you can see it's a bit more awkward all round really as I'm limited with the CPU cooler height, the motherboard has to be m-ATX and the graphics card may end up tighter than well, to avoid offence.. something tight!

I'm going to fit a 128GB SSD for boot purposes and a 1/2TB WD Caviar Black HDD for the bulk of the storage..

The rest is down for you guys to suggest.

Aaaaaand theres another catch..

The reason behind the HTPC case is that I prefer to have my PC plugged into my TV so for the majority I'll be happily running at 1080p but on the odd occasion I have a game where I need a keyboard and mouse I'll need to use my 27 inch iMac as a monitor which means I'll need something that handles 1440p.

Ok, that covers it all.. Thanks for reading and I can't wait to see some suggestions start to come in!

 

[teppic]

Hello Since you've got a case and drives already it's easy to be well under budget with a good system.

You could add a Blu-ray player/recorder to this if wanted.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Geforce GTX 770 Gaming Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £319.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £191.99
1 x Seasonic G series 650w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £99.98
1 x Gigabyte Z87M-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £97.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (PV38G240C0K) £65.99
1 x Thermalright AXP-100 ITX & HTPC CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £39.95
Total : £827.89 (includes shipping : £10.00).



It's be easy to spec a 4770K or 16GB memory to spend more, but it wouldn't be necessary for gaming. I'd need to double check that the cooler has no problem with RAM clearance (the Patriot memory is usually ok).

At 1440p I'd prefer a 7970, but the ones at ocuk all seem to be slightly too large for the case. If the height of the 770 stops the lid going on, here's another option:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-219-EA&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1750

 

[honosuseri]

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7950 Twin Frozr III Boost Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **NEW REVISION** £239.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £191.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87M-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £97.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x Toshiba (7K3000.D) 3TB SATA 6GB/s 64MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA300) HDD £83.99
1 x Seasonic G series 550w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £76.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (PV38G240C0K) £65.99
1 x LG CH10LS28 BD-ROM 10x BluRay ROM / DVDRW SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (Retail) £63.98
1 x Thermalright AXP-100 ITX & HTPC CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £39.95
Total : £961.36 (includes shipping : £11.25).



BOOM! Everything and more (GPU comes with games) and still under budget

Rather than use the 1440P panel why not get a wireless mouse and keyboard. You can get cushions for your lap with a flat surface on (think they are for TV dinners), which you could use as a flat surface for the mouse....might be more convenient.

 

[RodLeach]

Wow.. the advise wasn't wrong! You guys do know your stuff..

Is the 7950 going to be a problem shortly down the line though?

You'll have to excuse my ignorance, I don't think I have enough space to run dual cards with my case so I want to make sure I have a certain amount of life left to avoid upgrades anytime soon?

 

[David Bisset]

The 7950 Boost and the 770 are close enough in performance that both will likely become obsolete at basically the same time.

 

[honosuseri]

Wow.. the advise wasn't wrong! You guys do know your stuff..

Is the 7950 going to be a problem shortly down the line though?

You'll have to excuse my ignorance, I don't think I have enough space to run dual cards with my case so I want to make sure I have a certain amount of life left to avoid upgrades anytime soon?

The Tahiti cores don't get that hot. You can OC the 7950 to close the gap on the 7970, as long as the temps are no higher than 80deg under gaming you'll be ok. AMD will have new GPUs out around Oct time and BF4 should come bundled with the higher end cards. You can use the IGP to get the system working for HTPC use and drop in a GPU later.....that's down to you.

There are free apps that let you use a smartphone as a basic mouse and keyboard which you might find useful. Also look at using the XBMC software, you can navigate it with an Xbox pad and even launch Steam (Big picture mode for TVs) from it too

That's a vid from a fellow forum user. Gives you an idea of what's poss