Help with spec ~£1000, converting a friend to PC gaming

[Sifal]

So my friend and I have always done a lot of console gaming together (and I have been quietly PC gaming in the background on a few titles that weren't available on the 360). We've been pretty disappointed by the release of the new consoles (namely their lack of native 1080p out of the box with many titles) and as such are making the full jump to PC gaming.
I already had a fairly capable PC because I do a lot of Photoshop etc work so I just added a new graphics card and I'm already there.

My Full Specs:
Gigabyte GA-Z77x-D3H Motherboard
i7 3770k
Sapphire R9 270x Vapor
32GB Kingston blu 1600mhz
240GB Sandisk SSD
OCZ ZT 650w 80plus bronze
Noctua NH-D14
Fractal Design R4 Arctic White

So here's the thing, because boys want toys that are as good as their friend's toys (despite being in our mid 20's) he wants a similar spec and has a budget of £1000 (with windows but no peripherals or screen)
His PC will basically be a living room machine for gaming (1080p on a television) and Netflix etc. As such I can't see that he needs such a good processor or nearly as much ram but would benefit from a better graphics card than I got (though I've got say the 270x for the £155 I bought it for is handling everything pretty well so far).

So what are your thoughts? I don't think it's possible to do a copycat of my system for a £1000 but it probably doesn't make sense to anyway?
Would the best advice I could give be to go AMD, mini-itx and something like a 280x?

I defer to the greater wisdom of people who know more than I do and thank you in advance.

 

[ExRayTed]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 280X Dual-X OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card with Battlefield 4 PC Game £269.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £185.99
1 x MSI Z87-G43 Gaming Series Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £79.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G2133HC11ADC01) £69.95
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02733) £67.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £52.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 200R Compact ATX Case - Black (CC-9011023-WW) £47.99
1 x Raijintek EreBoss High Performance CPU Cooler £31.99
1 x Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-221LBK DVD Rewriter - OEM £14.99
Total : £1,001.45 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 

[The Only Beardy]

I'm not exactly sure what ur after... but with a £1000 budget, this is probably what i'd get...

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £185.99
1 x HIS Radeon R9 270X IceQ BOOST 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £161.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87M-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £95.99
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U24001004G-2CI) - Blue Light £89.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £79.99
1 x NZXT KRAKEN X40 AIO Water Cooling Unit - 140mm £78.98
1 x BitFenix Phenom MATX Cube Case - Arctic White £74.95
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £71.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD1002FAEX) HDD £64.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x Samsung SH-118AB/BEBE SATA 18x DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM £10.99
Total : £989.94 (includes shipping : £11.75).



hope this helps... if he can borrow an optical disk to install the OS and doesnt need an HDD you could swap the 270x for a 280x

 

[Josh]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 280X Dual-X OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card with Battlefield 4 PC Game £269.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £185.99
1 x MSI Z87-G43 Gaming Series Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £79.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G2133HC11ADC01) £69.95
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02733) £67.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £52.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 200R Compact ATX Case - Black (CC-9011023-WW) £47.99
1 x Raijintek EreBoss High Performance CPU Cooler £31.99
1 x Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-221LBK DVD Rewriter - OEM £14.99
Total : £1,001.45 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Good spec for that price, can't fault it!

 

[krnsniper]

Why not go for z87 haswell i7 4770k

 

[Fallen god]

Why not go for z87 haswell i7 4770k

Better to fit in a nice GPU then an i7.

 

[ExRayTed]

Better to fit in a nice GPU then an i7.

EggsZachary

 

[joeyjojo]

Also definitely go for newest Windows - some big optimisations with new CPUs.

 

[ExRayTed]

Also definitely go for newest Windows - some big optimisations with new CPUs.

I can't in good conscience recommend a product I detest using

But you're right.

 

[Sifal]

Thank you for your help and advice. Think I will build him an i5 system with a 280x happy in the knowledge that I'm spending his money wisely. Will probably give him my 650w power supply and get a 750w so I can crossfire my 270x with another in the future when it starts to feel lacking.
Regarding windows I will prob go with 8.1 (even though I refuse to use it yet myself) as the computer will probably mostly be used in Steam Big Picture mode etc anyway.

 

[ukbilleh]

i probably wouldn't agree going the route of sli/crossfire, just go for one single big card if you're going to be @1080p single monitor, you aren't going to get the full benefit of two cards and one single high end card should last you longer. It will also save you cost on power supplies, cooling, bills etc etc.

I would stay with windows 7

I would probably adjust the above specs to not include a K processor and not include a z77 / z87 board and stay around the h77 mark then plumb the rest of your money into GPU. You could keeps the K series cpu and Z board but the faster cpu speed won't help and the overclocking won't help and your case + cooling won't be up to the job so just get the biggest nastiest gpu affordable with what you have left.

just my 2c

Your basket

MSI Geforce GTX 780 Gaming Edition OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £359.99
Retail Intel Core i5-4430 3.00GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £139.99
Crucial M500 240GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (CT240M500SSD1) £115.99
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02733) £67.99
Corsair Builder Series CX 600W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020048-UK) £59.99
TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £56.99
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £47.99
MSI B85M-P33 Intel B85 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £47.99
BitFenix Comrade Midi-Tower - Black £29.99
OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99

Shipping cost £8

Total : £943.90

sorry i don't know how the other guys do their specs but thats what i would say above,leave you with a bit left for mouse / keyboard

 

[Akagi]

As I have said countless times before (and I'm getting quite tired of saying it to be frank) there is absolutely no reason to choose Windows 7 over Windows 8/8.1.

Windows 8.1 is snappier and more responsive, it has better optimisation, better security, it has support for DX11.1, and it will be the main target OS of software developers from here on simply because it is the current Microsoft operating system. Not only that but there will be a point where it will start to get more support than Windows 7, and support for Windows 7 will end before support for Windows 8.1.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the interface after the various fixes and improvements. If you don't like Metro style apps, nobody is forcing you to use them. The Metro style interface is a faster and more efficient way of searching for applications.

Even if you are absolutely adamant that you do not want to put up with the Metro style start menu, grab Start8 and you will have a flawless clone of the Windows 7 start menu. This coming from a user who currently has one system running Windows 7 and another on Vista, but who has used Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 extensively on different systems.

 

[ukbilleh]

As I have said countless times before (and I'm getting quite tired of saying it to be frank) there is absolutely no reason to choose Windows 7 over Windows 8/8.1.

Windows 8.1 is snappier and more responsive, it has better optimisation, better security, it has support for DX11.1, and it will be the main target OS of software developers from here on simply because it is the current Microsoft operating system. Not only that but there will be a point where it will start to get more support than Windows 7, and support for Windows 7 will end before support for Windows 8.1.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the interface after the various fixes and improvements. If you don't like Metro style apps, nobody is forcing you to use them. The Metro style interface is a faster and more efficient way of searching for applications.

Even if you are absolutely adamant that you do not want to put up with the Metro style start menu, grab Start8 and you will have a flawless clone of the Windows 7 start menu. This coming from a user who currently has one system running Windows 7 and another on Vista, but who has used Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 extensively on different systems.

cost; however that being said *edit* http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SW-165-MS but either way maybe you wouldn't get so tired of 'saying it' if you didn't say so much

I don't want to take over this guys thread with a to and fro re the advantages / disadvantages of win 8.1. I (assuming) like many others will upgrade when I have to for dx11.1 however I think the users perspective of the interface is subjective to the user. It might be more efficient and blah blah but I don't like it hence my suggestion. Maybe the op likes it or not who knows he can decide. This isn't the be all and end all of the op's build so I guess the final word is with the op.

I certainly wouldn't agree that nothing is wrong with the interface however. Given't the backtracking by MS in 8.1 and the upcoming 8.2 it certainly seems like MS has some mods to make to make the interface more appealing to an average user like me who for years has had a start button and no metro.

All in all op my suggestion is there. It will save you a few quid but it certainly isn't going to break the bank. You probably are better off with win 8.1 but I'll leave that with you.

 

[fowler002]

i probably wouldn't agree going the route of sli/crossfire, just go for one single big card if you're going to be @1080p single monitor, you aren't going to get the full benefit of two cards and one single high end card should last you longer. It will also save you cost on power supplies, cooling, bills etc etc.

I would stay with windows 7

I would probably adjust the above specs to not include a K processor and not include a z77 / z87 board and stay around the h77 mark then plumb the rest of your money into GPU. You could keeps the K series cpu and Z board but the faster cpu speed won't help and the overclocking won't help and your case + cooling won't be up to the job so just get the biggest nastiest gpu affordable with what you have left.

just my 2c

Your basket

MSI Geforce GTX 780 Gaming Edition OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £359.99
Retail Intel Core i5-4430 3.00GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £139.99
Crucial M500 240GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (CT240M500SSD1) £115.99
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02733) £67.99
Corsair Builder Series CX 600W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020048-UK) £59.99
TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £56.99
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £47.99
MSI B85M-P33 Intel B85 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £47.99
BitFenix Comrade Midi-Tower - Black £29.99
OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99

Shipping cost £8

Total : £943.90

sorry i don't know how the other guys do their specs but thats what i would say above,leave you with a bit left for mouse / keyboard

Unless I'm going blind no one suggested going xfire or sli for the friend, the op mentioned getting a bigger psu for themself(not the friend) for xfiring their 270x in the future. Always helps fully reading what there not what you think is there.

As for going the non-k cpu route and h87 route, with a k cpu you can oc the cpu to get more life out of it if things start to lag and plugging in a newer GPU would be bottlenecked by the cpu if you weren't able to oc it.

 

[ukbilleh]

Unless I'm going blind no one suggested going xfire or sli for the friend, the op mentioned getting a bigger psu for themself(not the friend) for xfiring their 270x in the future. Always helps fully reading what there not what you think is there.

As for going the non-k cpu route and h87 route, with a k cpu you can oc the cpu to get more life out of it if things start to lag and plugging in a newer GPU would be bottlenecked by the cpu if you weren't able to oc it.

what's the point of sli when his budget can accommodate a 770 / 780 and he's going to be on a single monitor @ 1080p hence suggestion for single card… Single card, less hassle, power usage, psu requirement, board requirement, cabling, heat built up etc etc. Great he can do xfire/sli but worth it? Not really. Later on down the line? In this case I'd build it to replace 'most' of it when it needs it years later.

as for the cpu
say in the sandy bridge era you'd recommend an i7 2600k over i5 2500k for gaming? Is it worth it? Barely. The guy's friend is on a budget, might as well plow the cost into the GPU and think about the cpu later. Personally rather be a bit lacking on the cpu over gpu. CPU chosen will be fine and there won't be any issues. Could probably go lower.

 

[DaleTheWhale]

i probably wouldn't agree going the route of sli/crossfire, just go for one single big card if you're going to be @1080p single monitor, you aren't going to get the full benefit of two cards and one single high end card should last you longer. It will also save you cost on power supplies, cooling, bills etc etc.

I would stay with windows 7

I would probably adjust the above specs to not include a K processor and not include a z77 / z87 board and stay around the h77 mark then plumb the rest of your money into GPU. You could keeps the K series cpu and Z board but the faster cpu speed won't help and the overclocking won't help and your case + cooling won't be up to the job so just get the biggest nastiest gpu affordable with what you have left.

just my 2c

Your basket

MSI Geforce GTX 780 Gaming Edition OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £359.99
Retail Intel Core i5-4430 3.00GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £139.99
Crucial M500 240GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (CT240M500SSD1) £115.99
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02733) £67.99
Corsair Builder Series CX 600W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020048-UK) £59.99
TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £56.99
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £47.99
MSI B85M-P33 Intel B85 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £47.99
BitFenix Comrade Midi-Tower - Black £29.99
OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99

Shipping cost £8

Total : £943.90

sorry i don't know how the other guys do their specs but thats what i would say above,leave you with a bit left for mouse / keyboard

WHAT?!

"the faster cpu speed won't help and the overclocking won't help"
"I would stay with windows 7"
"Retail Intel Core i5-4430 3.00GHz"

This is poor advice, very poor I'm afraid to say!

EDIT:

"say in the sandy bridge era you'd recommend an i7 2600k over i5 2500k for gaming? Is it worth it? Barely. The guy's friend is on a budget, might as well plow the cost into the GPU and think about the cpu later. Personally rather be a bit lacking on the cpu over gpu. CPU chosen will be fine and there won't be any issues. Could probably go lower."

WHATTT?!!!

You understand how bottlenecks work right? Actually, I'm still shocked.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 280X Dual-X OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card with Battlefield 4 PC Game £251.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £169.99
1 x Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z87 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £119.99
1 x Crucial M500 240GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (CT240M500SSD1) £109.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £69.95
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler £49.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 200R Compact ATX Case - Black (CC-9011023-WW) £47.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) HDD £43.99
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £1,006.45 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 

[fowler002]

what's the point of sli when his budget can accommodate a 770 / 780 and he's going to be on a single monitor @ 1080p hence suggestion for single card… Single card, less hassle, power usage, psu requirement, board requirement, cabling, heat built up etc etc. Great he can do xfire/sli but worth it? Not really. Later on down the line? In this case I'd build it to replace 'most' of it when it needs it years later.

as for the cpu
say in the sandy bridge era you'd recommend an i7 2600k over i5 2500k for gaming? Is it worth it? Barely. The guy's friend is on a budget, might as well plow the cost into the GPU and think about the cpu later. Personally rather be a bit lacking on the cpu over gpu. CPU chosen will be fine and there won't be any issues. Could probably go lower.

Are you simply arguing for arguments sakes? Also are you blind/stupid?
NO ONE SUGGESTED SLI try reading the posts for what is written not what you think is written, also the budget can only accommodate a 780 and ssd if you go for a cheapo h87 mobo + non-k cpu which is not a good idea.

Where in my post did I say I would recommend a 2600k over a 2500k? If you read my 'sb era' posts in spec me threads I've suggested 2500k over a 2600k/2700k if its a gaming only/mainly gaming rig.

The guys friend is on a budget but its a budget where you can get a very well rounded system without having to cut corners like you would with a £500 budget for example.

 

[ExtremeIC3cream]

Now keep it down ladies

 

[stulid]

My 1p,

I've been using the Win8.1 90day evaluation copy for a number of weeks now, I too was a die hard Win7 fan but now after using it for a long enough period of time I would not go back.

 

[fowler002]

Now keep it down ladies

And that post is helpful how?

ukbilleh seems to be under the impression sli has been suggested when it clearly hasn't(looking at the specs suggested its been 270x and 280x, so there is no way to go sli anyway and ukbilleh has been the only one yo suggest nvidia).

Didn't want to resort to calling him bind/stupid but it seem he is as he didn't get it after I said in my post back on 1st Jan that no one suggested sli/xfire, yet he still insisted on sticking with the 'sli isn't worth it' line.