Gaming Computer £1100 Budget

Ham&Cheese · 6 Jul 2014 at 17:58

Good evening everyone,

I'm currently looking to build a gaming PC with a budget of £1100-1200 (max) as the thread title says. I don't need a monitor, windows copy or any peripherals. You'll notice I've left out a HDD from my basket below, that's simple because I'll be reusing an old one. The primary function of the PC will be for gaming and a small proportion used for 3D modelling. I'm open to your suggestions and critique, if you feel it could be better, please let me know. Thanks in advance.

Your favourite sandwich.

Ham&Cheese.

My basket currently is;

x1 Asus Maximus VII Ranger - Devils Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle **£34 Saving**

x1 Corsair Obsidian 450D High Airflow Mid-Tower Case (CC-9011049-WW)

x1 Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 WindForce 3x OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card GV-N770OC-4GD)

x1 Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW)

x1 Kingston HyperX 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Red (HX21C11BRK2/8-OC)

x1 SuperFlower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black

x1 Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler

x1 LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM

Total Cost (including VAT) and shipping - £1,029.47

I live in Northern Ireland, so you have to account for that delivery charge

Danny75 · 6 Jul 2014 at 18:25

Welcome to the forum.

Thoughts:

First off, it's a nice build.

16GB RAM would be ideal for its secondary purpose, although as you can add more later, okay.

Would try and get a 240GB SSD, as they fill up quick. Crucial MX100 and an Intel model are well priced at the moment.

The PSU - good model but at 650W it is slightly overkill for a GTX 770, albeit not ideal for two of them. So if you wanted, you could drop to 550W, or increase to a 750W if you think you might add another.

lee32uk · 6 Jul 2014 at 18:57

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 WindForce 3x OC Rev2.0 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-N780OC-3GD) £359.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 - Devils Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle **£43 Saving** £351.98
1 x Kingston HyperX 3K SSD 240GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (SH103S3/240G) £109.99
1 x Phanteks Enthoo Pro Mid Tower Enthusiast Case with Window £89.99
1 x SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 750W Fully Modular "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £86.99
1 x Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler - Black £69.98
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G2133HC11ADC01) £59.99
1 x Samsung SE-S208DB/TSBS External Slimline 8x DVD-RW (TV Connect) - Black £21.98
Total : £1,160.50 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Free copy of watchdogs with the SSD

The Phanteks case is really nice.

Or with a 780 ti

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus GeForce GTX 780Ti DirectCU II 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £473.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 - Devils Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle **£43 Saving** £351.98
1 x Kingston HyperX 3K SSD 240GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (SH103S3/240G) £109.99
1 x Phanteks Enthoo Pro Mid Tower Enthusiast Case with Window £89.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G2133HC11ADC01) £59.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £49.99
1 x Raijintek EreBoss High Peformance CPU Cooler Black £29.99
1 x Samsung SE-S208DB/TSBS External Slimline 8x DVD-RW (TV Connect) - Black £21.98
Total : £1,197.50 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Ham&Cheese · 6 Jul 2014 at 20:31

Many thanks for your suggestions guys, just a few queries in relation to your posts.

Is it worth going SLI with the current standard of games?

Lee, is it worth spending the additional £40 for the second build? Will the case be fine for cooling all of the components? And lastly, if I overclock will that cooler be suffice?

Many thanks,

Ham&Cheese.

RJC · 6 Jul 2014 at 20:57

The 780ti or the 780 will be plentiful for all games at standard res i.e. 1200 x 1920 ~

The CPU cooler in both specs will fine along with the Phanteks case.

lee32uk · 6 Jul 2014 at 21:32

The Ereboss is a lot of cooler for the money. It holds it's own against some of the bigger Air coolers.

Here are some results of the Raijintek Ereboss with an i7 4770K setup:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Raijintek/Ereboss/6.html

The 4790k should run a bit cooler as well.

The Phanteks case will cope fine.

What resolution are you playing at ? And if it's 1080p do you plan on going to 1440p or higher in the near future ?

Here is a rough idea on performance between the 2 cards:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1036?vs=1072

Ham&Cheese · 6 Jul 2014 at 22:30

Currently I'm planning to only play at 1080p, unless the monitors are somewhat cheaper than they used to be. Thanks for the links very informative. Reading a little more, is it worth waiting for these new haswell chips, or is the current chips 'future proof' to an extent?

Doomedspeed · 7 Jul 2014 at 08:16

Ham&Cheese said:
Currently I'm planning to only play at 1080p, unless the monitors are somewhat cheaper than they used to be. Thanks for the links very informative. Reading a little more, is it worth waiting for these new haswell chips, or is the current chips 'future proof' to an extent?

What new Haswell Chips, Devils canyon is already out..

Do you mean Haswell-E? That's a different story all together they are the high end chips and anything that's an improvement on the current 4790k will be nearly the double the money.

The Current chips are really good.

I think this would be a good build for you:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus Z97 Maximus VII Ranger Intel Core i7 DIY ATX Motherboard, CPU & RAM Bundle £485.93
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 WindForce 3x OC Rev2.0 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-N780OC-3GD) £359.99
1 x SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 750W Fully Modular "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £86.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Windowed Case - Black (CC-9011017-WW) £69.95
1 x Crucial MX100 128GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT128MX100SSD1) £56.99
1 x Raijintek EreBoss High Peformance CPU Cooler Black £29.99
1 x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £1,120.32 (includes shipping : £13.75).

16GB of RAM will be helpful for model/rendering. You may not use it but you never know when you'll have a big complex model. Some of our models at work use over 20GB of RAM to modify. (these are silly big models though).

My spec has the Ereboss cooler but I would have gone for the Mount doom had it been in stock.

I think aircooling is the way to go.

The PSU is able to handle SLI, so that's a great option there if you ever do go beyond 1080p. A single GTX 780 will max at 1080p anyway.

stulid · 7 Jul 2014 at 09:06

Doomedspeed said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus Z97 Maximus VII Ranger Intel Core i7 DIY ATX Motherboard, CPU & RAM Bundle £485.93
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 WindForce 3x OC Rev2.0 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-N780OC-3GD) £359.99
1 x SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 750W Fully Modular "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £86.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Windowed Case - Black (CC-9011017-WW) £69.95
1 x Crucial MX100 128GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT128MX100SSD1) £56.99
1 x Raijintek EreBoss High Peformance CPU Cooler Black £29.99
1 x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £1,120.32 (includes shipping : £13.75).

My spec has the Ereboss cooler but I would have gone for the Mount doom had it been in stock.
)

Do you think the Ereboss fits that case? I'm not so sure.

@OP heres a spec that certainly does fit and is only 83p over budget

YOUR BASKET
1 x EPIC BUNDLE: Intel 4790K, Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7, Kingston 16GB 2400MHz Kit, Superflower 750W PSU & FREE STUFF!! **£50 SAVING** £549.92
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 WindForce 3x OC Rev2.0 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-N780OC-3GD) £359.99
1 x Intel 335 Series 20nm 240GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - Retail (SSDSC2CT240A4K5) £79.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black (CC-9011014-WW) £59.99
1 x Alpenföhn Brocken ECO CPU-Kühler - 120 mm £24.95
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £10.99
Total : £1,100.83 (includes shipping : £12.50).

• Latest Devils Canyon i7 CPU, 16GB RAM + 750W PSU.
• 4 year warranty with this Gigabyte board.
• Nice big SSD

Doomedspeed · 7 Jul 2014 at 09:42

I think you're right.

Some sites state 170mm but other are going around 160mm so the Matterhorn/Brocken is a MUCH safer choice.

Ham&Cheese · 7 Jul 2014 at 18:43

Thanks for the replies guys, I really appreciate it, just waiting for my holiday funds to come through, then I'll be purchasing the basket Doom posted, maybe push for stulids.

Ham&Cheese.