Building myself 1st Gaming PC, 1.3k budget

An i7 makes no real difference compared to an i5 for gaming, unless you run at stock clocks. The 780 is aimed at people who run at very high resolution or don't care what they pay for a graphics card. Spending >£500 on a graphics card for 1080p gaming, with a budget of £1,300 is not a good idea in my view.

Add in a soundcard and an SSD and delivery costs and the price is more like £1,650.
 
OK guys, appreciate the advise, I'm close to ordering, but how does my build look to you guys?

I'm over budget too, but I'm really struggling to find compromise, suggestions welcome.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 WindForce 3x OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-N770OC-2GD) £339.95
1 x BenQ XL2411T 24" TRUE 144Hz 3D Vision 2.0 Widescreen LED Monitor - Black/Red £239.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £191.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-OC Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £179.99
1 x NZXT Phantom Enthusiast USB3.0 Full Tower Case - Black £104.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD120BW) £83.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £79.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A2133C11R) £79.99
1 x XFX Pro 650W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £64.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £48.95
1 x Three Fan Bundle - Akasa 120mm Piranha High Performance PWM Air Ripper Blade Fan £36.95
1 x Alpenföhn Brocken CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £32.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
1 x Be Quiet! Shadow Wings Fan PWM - 140mm £15.98
1 x Razer Goliathus Omega Fragged Speed Gaming Mouse Pad £14.99
1 x AeroCool F6XT 6-Channel Fan Controller £14.99
Total : £1,577.34 (includes shipping : £22.20).



I might be overkill on cooling, but i like the idea of fan control
 
I'd get one of the 7970s on offer, as they're £279-£289 saving you quite a bit.

The RAM can be had cheaper too. The height of those may not be compatible with your cooler - check that. I'd always go for smaller sized RAM to avoid problems like that.

The board's good, but you could save about £40 by getting a cheaper Gigabyte one.

Although it adds a few pounds, get the retail CPU over the OEM one for the longer warranty.
 
teppic said:
I'd get one of the 7970s on offer, as they're £279-£289 saving you quite a bit.

The RAM can be had cheaper too. The height of those may not be compatible with your cooler - check that. I'd always go for smaller sized RAM to avoid problems like that.

The board's good, but you could save about £40 by getting a cheaper Gigabyte one.

Although it adds a few pounds, get the retail CPU over the OEM one for the longer warranty.
Click to expand...
Ahh sound advice, yeah its unnecessarily expensive considering its just for gaming. I wanted the oc board incase i decide to oc, i dont really need sli and xfire, not gonna be using that i dont think.
Also it think the case comes with fan controler, maybe i dont need that.
 
zoobee said:
Ahh sound advice, yeah its unnecessarily expensive considering its just for gaming. I wanted the oc board incase i decide to oc, i dont really need sli and xfire, not gonna be using that i dont think.
Also it think the case comes with fan controler, maybe i dont need that.
Click to expand...

You don't need the OC board for that. It's just a board that is aimed more at overclocking than the others. This one is a really good buy and will overclock well:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-436-GI

It allows for Crossfire/SLI just in case you change your mind later.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 Geforce GTX 770 EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (77XPH6DV6KXZ) with FREE GPU Keyring £319.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £275.99
1 x BenQ XL2411T 24" TRUE 144Hz 3D Vision 2.0 Widescreen LED Monitor - Black/Red £239.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £131.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD120BW) £83.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £79.99
1 x Corsair 2013 Edition Gamer Series GS 700W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020064-UK) £79.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Windowed Case - Black £69.95
1 x Kingston HyperX Beast 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX21C11T3K2/8X) £69.95
1 x Corsair Hydro H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler *Manufacturer Refurbished Unit - 90 Day Guarantee £39.95
Total : £1,414.69 (includes shipping : £19.10).



Still staying with the GTX770, Im not convinced the 7970 will be as good, lowering the mobo, going for the i7, cheaper case and PSU, RAM

I'm quite impressed with that, is the case big enough for all the kit?
 
zoobee said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 Geforce GTX 770 EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (77XPH6DV6KXZ) with FREE GPU Keyring £319.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £275.99
1 x BenQ XL2411T 24" TRUE 144Hz 3D Vision 2.0 Widescreen LED Monitor - Black/Red £239.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £131.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD120BW) £83.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £79.99
1 x Corsair 2013 Edition Gamer Series GS 700W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020064-UK) £79.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Windowed Case - Black £69.95
1 x Kingston HyperX Beast 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX21C11T3K2/8X) £69.95
1 x Corsair Hydro H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler *Manufacturer Refurbished Unit - 90 Day Guarantee £39.95
Total : £1,414.69 (includes shipping : £19.10).



Still staying with the GTX770, Im not convinced the 7970 will be as good, lowering the mobo, going for the i7, cheaper case and PSU, RAM

I'm quite impressed with that, is the case big enough for all the kit?
Click to expand...
Yup ;) - Well, let me double check actually :p
R088ieS86 said:
Get windows 8 just in case some newer games support DirectX 11.2 (windows 8.1 only... atm)
Click to expand...

You much of a Saints guy? ;)
 
The H100 may have some problems fitting in the case.

The 770 and 7970 are close and trade blows depending on the game. The 770's not a better card.
 
I might go for the Corsair 500 series then, or the YOUR BASKET
1 x NZXT Phantom Enthusiast USB3.0 Full Tower Case - Black £104.99
Total : £116.69 (includes shipping : £9.75).



\Hmm yes, is the game bundle still going on the 7970? The 770 is 40 quid more, but the games bundle makes that decent value considering everything.

and one more thing, I'm tempted to let o/c build it too and perhaps stage 1 o/c it. Roughly how much would that cost and would an oc invalidate any of the warranties?
 
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A decent air cooler is fine for an overclocked Haswell CPU. I can run mine at 4.6GHz without temp problems, though it's quite a high end air cooler.

The Sapphire 7970 comes with whatever games are left in the mega bundle, up to 5. The Gigabyte has the standard set, I think it's 3.
 
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