Building a gaming rig £600-£800 help

[pensive]

Hello,

This is my first time here and attempting to select components for a PC.

I wish to build my first gaming PC (which will be used for other work as well).

I do not wish to spend more than £900 if possible and do not want the PC to get out of date quickly (such as in the next 5 years). I really want help selecting components which make games fast and look great, boot up fast, have decent memory and overall smoother running.


My friend knows more about components than me and has selected what he thought would be good. He is going to build it for me. I am a noob at this type of thing I know really know good processors and graphics cards.

Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM

HIS HD 7870 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H787QN2G2M) HIS HD 7870 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H787QN2G2M)

Be Quiet Power Zone 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Fully Modular Power Supply Be Quiet Power Zone 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Fully Modular Power Supply

Gigabyte Z77-HD3 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard Gigabyte Z77-HD3 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard

Kingston 120GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/120G) Kingston 120GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/120G)
Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1333C9D3B1K2/8G) Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1333C9D3B1K2/8G) £61.99

Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) HDD Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) HDD
Be Quiet! Shadow Rock Pro SR1 CPU Cooler Be Quiet! Shadow Rock Pro SR1 CPU Cooler
Cooler Master Elite 430 Black Midi-Tower - Black Cooler Master Elite 430 Black Midi-Tower - Black
OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM

Thanks!

 

[DaleTheWhale]

Your friend seems to be a generation behind!

Change it from Ivybridge to Haswell, no point being locked to a old generation.

4670k & a Gigabyte D3H + AMD 270x/280.

 

[The Only Beardy]

the components that your friend has specced are a little dated... for example the 7870 is 2 years old and the 3570k is nearly the same... I have just about kept it under £900 but it went over with the P&P.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming Edition OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Battlefield 4 PC Game £259.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £169.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £107.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 330R Silent Mid Tower Case - Black £74.95
1 x Toshiba SSD HDTS212EZSTA 9.5mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £71.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £65.99
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 Raijintek EreBoss High Performance CPU Cooler £26.99
Total : £915.29 (includes shipping : £17.85).



This spec has a 4670k which can be OC'd you have some relatively quick RAM, a good solid SSD, a very stable, reliable PSU and a GPU which should play most games at high - ultra settings. Basically a good solid build... i possibly would have gone with the gigabyte OC mobo, but i tried to keep it in budget. I havent put in an optical drive as usually you only need that for booting the OS and then its relatively redundant (if you do need it then just pick up the cheapest one there).

 

[Doomedspeed]

GPU is today only so be quick:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming Edition OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £227.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £169.99
1 x MSI Z87-G43 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard - FREE Alpenfohn Civetta Cooler!! £86.99
1 x Toshiba SSD HDTS212EZSTA 9.5mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £71.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L8 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply - With 120mm Silent Wing Fan Built in £53.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £47.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 200R Compact ATX Case - Black (CC-9011023-WW) £47.99
Total : £772.51 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Motherboard is a decent overclocker and comes with a free cooler to get you started.

 

[JCX50]

Personally, I would go for an Nvidia Graphics Card.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Geforce GTX 770 Gaming Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £269.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £191.99
1 x Be Quiet Power Zone 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Fully Modular Power Supply £89.99
1 x MSI Z87-G43 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard - FREE Alpenfohn Civetta Cooler!! £86.99
1 x Kingston 120GB SSDNow KC300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Solid State Hard Drive w/ Adapter - (SKC300S37A/120G) £85.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £47.99
1 x NZXT Source 210 Elite Midi Tower Case - White £39.95
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24F1ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £19.99
Total : £907.86 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 

[The Only Beardy]

although i like my build... dommed's is probably better I would say that the cooler is better on mine... not sure what the MSI mobos are like, but I know the gigabyte boards are pretty solid for OCing...

 

[Josh]

A 280X for that price is what I would personally go for.

*I feel dirty now...

 

[DaleTheWhale]

although i like my build... dommed's is probably better I would say that the cooler is better on mine... not sure what the MSI mobos are like, but I know the gigabyte boards are pretty solid for OCing...

You're £115 over threshold budget!

 

[The Only Beardy]

I do not wish to spend more than £900 if possible and do not want the PC to get out of date quickly (such as in the next 5 years).

if the budget is £900, then am I not only £15 over budget?

 

[The Only Beardy]

but you can knock nearly £70 off my build by getting the reduced GPU and the cheaper case... I am unsure on how good the Alpenfohn cooled you get with that mobo is and how good it would be for a decent stable OC of like 4.2Ghz? then again, that doesnt matter if the system isnt going to get OC'd...

 

[Doomedspeed]

although i like my build... dommed's is probably better I would say that the cooler is better on mine... not sure what the MSI mobos are like, but I know the gigabyte boards are pretty solid for OCing...

I searched through a few review on that board over the weekend (because taht's what i do in my spare time appearently) and it seems a decent overclocker. Up there on the tail of the similar price gigabyte boards.

Though personally Gigabyte are my No.1 motherboard manufacturer.. But for the moeny ()and the free cooler) the MSI can't be ignored.. As overclocking isnt a massive issue, it should be spot on.

The cooler itself isn't the best, but its quieter than the stock cooler and will give you better temps too.. and the best thing is, its free, so you can buy an OEM CPU which is £20 cheaper currently..

Saving money all over the shop.

 

[pensive]

GPU is today only so be quick:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming Edition OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £227.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £169.99
1 x MSI Z87-G43 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard - FREE Alpenfohn Civetta Cooler!! £86.99
1 x Toshiba SSD HDTS212EZSTA 9.5mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £71.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L8 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply - With 120mm Silent Wing Fan Built in £53.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £47.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 200R Compact ATX Case - Black (CC-9011023-WW) £47.99
Total : £772.51 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Motherboard is a decent overclocker and comes with a free cooler to get you started.

Thanks for the answers. I just had a question to you: is that Civetta Cooler good?

 

[Doomedspeed]

Thanks for the answers. I just had a question to you: is that Civetta Cooler good?

Its a good cooler for stock clocks.

The real shame is you've misses that epic deal on the 280X

So get this one instead: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-246-MS



Its an LE version which means it has a slower stock clock and it may not be as overclockable but its still good. Great value for money.

 

[pensive]

Personally, I would go for an Nvidia Graphics Card.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Geforce GTX 770 Gaming Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £269.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £191.99
1 x Be Quiet Power Zone 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Fully Modular Power Supply £89.99
1 x MSI Z87-G43 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard - FREE Alpenfohn Civetta Cooler!! £86.99
1 x Kingston 120GB SSDNow KC300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Solid State Hard Drive w/ Adapter - (SKC300S37A/120G) £85.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £47.99
1 x NZXT Source 210 Elite Midi Tower Case - White £39.95
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24F1ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £19.99
Total : £907.86 (includes shipping : £12.50).

Sorry for another post, but just wanted to know if your RAM would interfere with a third party CPU fan?

 

[Doomedspeed]

Sorry for another post, but just wanted to know if your RAM would interfere with a third party CPU fan?

It won't

Only High profile RAM will..

This is an example of high profile RAM:

YOUR BASKET
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV "Frost Edition" 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit £59.99
Total : £68.69 (includes shipping : £7.25).




It obviously also depends on the cooler too, bu that RAM is the spec you quoted will fit under anything.

 

[RJC]

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming Edition LE 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £239.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £169.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-SLI Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £73.99
1 x Toshiba SSD HDTS212EZSTA 9.5mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £71.99
1 x Toshiba 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA200) HDD £62.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 200R Compact ATX Case - Black (CC-9011023-WW) £47.99
1 x Xigmatek Achilles II SD1284 CPU-Cooler - 120mm £26.99
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24F1ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £19.99
Total : £889.50 (includes shipping : £8.00).