£1500 Build Help

Cupcakeking · 19 Feb 2013 at 13:50

So my current pc is showing it's age and screaming out to be replaced, however my knowledge on the current components are limited to say the least. So basically what I'm looking for is a gaming PC with a £1500 budget, that doesn't include anything like keyboard, mouse, monitors etc.

[WU-TANG]GZA · 19 Feb 2013 at 14:05

YOUR BASKET
2 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £249.95 (£499.90)
1 x Plextor M5 Pro 256GB Extreme Series Solid State Drive - (PX-256M5P) £179.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £161.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £129.98
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £99.98
1 x Corsair Carbide 500R Midi Tower Case - Black/White £94.98
1 x Asus Xonar D2X 7.1 PCI-E Sound Card £79.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £79.99
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD316GB1600C11DC) **OcUK Exclusive** £59.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £59.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
Total : £1,483.46 (includes shipping : £14.75).

Loads of RAM, plenty room PSU-wise too. Two cracking cards in Xfire, soundcard, big SSD, storage drive. Case is personal choice so choose one you like if you don't like the Corsair. Could afford to spedn the extra money to get the Retail version of the CPU for longer warranty and stock cooler - up to you.

What resolution are you gaming at? 1080p? Xfire might be a bit overkill if at 1080p or less (depends how much anti alias you want to be using) and could save you £250 (add one later if/when you need it)

snips86x · 19 Feb 2013 at 14:14

I love that build Wu-Tang!

Would it be worth swapping the mobo for THIS one and do you need the sound card?

[WU-TANG]GZA · 19 Feb 2013 at 14:17

snips86x said:
I love that build Wu-Tang!

Would it be worth swapping the mobo for THIS one and do you need the sound card?

Yeah I like that board also and the benefits are probably not worth the extra but it still fits within budget.

Soundcard - each to their own. Onboard sound is a lot better than it was a long time ago but for me I can still benefit from the sound improvemnts when gaming mostly for me but music also. Definitely not an essenital component these days by any means just a nice perk I put in there

honosuseri · 19 Feb 2013 at 14:28

YOUR BASKET
2 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £249.95 (£499.90)
1 x Plextor M5 Pro 256GB Extreme Series Solid State Drive - (PX-256M5P) £179.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £161.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UP4 TH Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £159.98
1 x Corsair Obsidian 650D Gaming Midi Tower - Black £149.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £99.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 3TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST3000DM001) HDD £95.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel kit (PV316G160C9K) £59.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £59.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
Total : £1,503.28 (includes shipping : £13.75).

There is supposed to be a massive free games bundle for buying the 7950 as a Xfire setup, so look into that. 8GB is ample for gaming but this Viper RAM is a good price with a good CAS rating, it also overclocks very well.....16GB is the max you can use without having a Pro OS licence.

You could save cash on the case, that's personal preference. The SSD is a rival of the more expensive samsung 840 Pro, 3TB HDD for storage but you could save a few quid dropping to 2TB.

I look forward to seeing what you settle on

SheriffHD · 20 Feb 2013 at 03:28

for £1500, id make my self a beast system on the 2011 socket, 3820 semi unlocked can get easily upto 4ghz which is ample. and would go for 32gb ram and id just use a single card instead of a crossfire. (id raher more power from a single card than 3 cards at half the power) so a single GT680 would be more than enough for me.

zakblood · 20 Feb 2013 at 05:58

1 x kfa2 geforce gtx 680 ex oc 4096mb gddr5 pci-express graphics card with a free copy of 3dmark advanced edition £499.99
1 x intel core i7-3820 3.60ghz (sandybridge-e) socket lga2011 processor - retail £229.99
1 x asrock x79 extreme4 intel x79 (socket 2011) ddr3 motherboard £167.99
1 x intel 520 series 120gb 2.5" sata 6gb/s solid state hard drive £119.99
1 x kingston hyperx beast 16gb (4x4gb) pc3-19200c11 2400mhz quad channel kit (khx24c11t3k4/16x) £99.95
1 x seagate barracuda 3tb 7200rpm sata 6gb/s 64mb cache - oem (st3000dm001) hdd £95.99
1 x xfx pro 650w core edition '80 plus bronze' power supply £69.98
1 x alpenföhn k2 mount doom cpu cooler (socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / am2 / am2+ / am3 / fm1 / fm2) £59.99
1 x antec one gaming case - black £49.99
1 x lg gh24ns95 24x dvd±rw sata rewriter (black) - oem £19.99
2 x scythe gentle typhoon 120mm 1450 rpm - 3 pin £13.99 (£27.98)
total : £1,456.84 (includes shipping : £12.50).

reasons for above choice, even though i might have waited myself to see what the newer sockets and cpu are like in july tbh.

i7 & motherboard on a socket 2011

only just slightly slower than a ivy 3770k but with the advantage of a newer socket and faster quad memory just about makes up for it or in some tests is slightly faster.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

Intel sdd and a 3tb drive, would have liked the WD but only find the red and green versions, no black

apart from the 4 tb version and price too high for budget.

put in the K2 as it seems to be the best price v cooling there is atm, plus noise levels are lower than any of cooler released atm

went for Kingston ram for price and speed alone, got some great reviews.

went for a lower powered psu as only gone for a single video card, a 680 and 4gb of memory, choice picked as in tests it was one of the quietest of the 680 and just as fast, if not faster than most.

added 2 case fans for case so push pull cooling won't be a problem either.

zakblood · 20 Feb 2013 at 06:32

1 x Sapphire HD 7970 VAPOR-X GHZ 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE OcUK Ultimate Games Bundle £379.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £229.99
1 x ASRock X79 Extreme4 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £167.99
1 x Intel 520 Series 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £119.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB (4x4GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Quad Channel Kit (KHX24C11T3K4/16X) £99.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 3TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST3000DM001) HDD £95.99
1 x XFX Pro 650W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £69.98
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £59.99
1 x Antec One Gaming Case - Black £49.99
1 x LG GH24NS95 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
2 x Scythe Gentle Typhoon 120mm 1450 RPM - 3 Pin £13.99 (£27.98)
Total : £1,336.84 (includes shipping : £12.50).

same as above with a different amd card fitted, choice was because it has faster memory and less noise, only a 3gb card but as fast as the 680 with less cost, just for choice.

many will say i7 isn't needed but it's not no slower when not used either,but if you think the same and find benchmarks to confirm and agree with them, don't buy it, and also if you agree with the same train of thought with the 680 and 7970 are over priced and next level down would be cheaper and once OC'ed they will be as quick, which in most cases is true, but ask them for heat and extra power used and noise levels etc, and see how quite it goes, OC the cpu will be fine upto 4ghz with little heat extra as fan will sort that and as well as very little extra noise, video card is plenty for all games as it is, so no need to ramp that up. (for choice only and to show what you can get)

2 x HIS HD 7950 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795F3G2M) with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £239.99 (£479.98)
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Intel 520 Series 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £119.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £99.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 3TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST3000DM001) HDD £95.99
1 x Samsung Green 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual/Quad Channel Kit (MV-3V4G3D/US) £65.98
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £59.99
1 x Antec One Gaming Case - Black £49.99
1 x LG GH24NS95 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
2 x Scythe Gentle Typhoon 120mm 1450 RPM - 3 Pin £13.99 (£27.98)
Total : £1,329.35 (includes shipping : £13.75).

just for the i5 choice with plenty of OC head room with K2 as well still in the mix, with 2 video cards for crossfire, and a 3tb hdd plus still kept the sdd for cache and boot etc so haven't picked larger than what's needed eg o/s and a few apps, everything else is on hdd, have upped the psu for cards and gone silver. good luck in what ever you go for, no matter who's build/spec it is and enjoy it

Tim2100 · 20 Feb 2013 at 12:45

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7970 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £319.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £259.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) £189.95
1 x GeIL EVO Veloce Hot-Rod Red 32GB (4x8GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Quad Channel Kit (GEV332GB1866C10QC) £149.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £129.98
1 x Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD2002FAEX) HDD £124.99
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX750M High Performance 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020040-UK) £99.98
1 x Pioneer BDR-207EBK 12x BluRay RW / 16x DVD±RW 128GB - Retail £85.99
1 x Cooler Master CM-690 II Advanced USB3.0 Dominator Case - Black £84.98
1 x Intel Liquid Cooling Solution CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011) £73.98
Total : £1,536.34 (includes shipping : £13.75).

stulid · 20 Feb 2013 at 12:50

zakblood said:
1 x Sapphire HD 7970 VAPOR-X GHZ 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE OcUK Ultimate Games Bundle £379.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £229.99
1 x ASRock X79 Extreme4 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £167.99
1 x Intel 520 Series 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £119.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB (4x4GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Quad Channel Kit (KHX24C11T3K4/16X) £99.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 3TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST3000DM001) HDD £95.99
1 x XFX Pro 650W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £69.98
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £59.99
1 x Antec One Gaming Case - Black £49.99
1 x LG GH24NS95 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
2 x Scythe Gentle Typhoon 120mm 1450 RPM - 3 Pin £13.99 (£27.98)
Total : £1,336.84 (includes shipping : £12.50).

same as above with a different amd card fitted, choice was because it has faster memory and less noise, only a 3gb card but as fast as the 680 with less cost, just for choice.

many will say i7 isn't needed but it's not no slower when not used either,but if you think the same and find benchmarks to confirm and agree with them, don't buy it, and also if you agree with the same train of thought with the 680 and 7970 are over priced and next level down would be cheaper and once OC'ed they will be as quick, which in most cases is true, but ask them for heat and extra power used and noise levels etc, and see how quite it goes, OC the cpu will be fine upto 4ghz with little heat extra as fan will sort that and as well as very little extra noise, video card is plenty for all games as it is, so no need to ramp that up. (for choice only and to show what you can get)

A bit naff if you ask me.

I would doubt that the case would take that cooler once you have moved the fans of it up higher to try and clear the tall RAM you have choosen.

The motherboard is naff, the Gigbayte X79-UP4 is on offer and has a full eight RAM slots, better warranty, dualBIOS and more.

Doomedspeed · 20 Feb 2013 at 13:13

stulid said:
A bit naff if you ask me.

I would doubt that the case would take that cooler once you have moved the fans of it up higher to try and clear the tall RAM you have choosen.

The motherboard is naff, the Gigbayte X79-UP4 is on offer and has a full eight RAM slots, better warranty, dualBIOS and more.

Agree on all those points. The antec one is a budget case, not really suited to a high end 2011 build. Corsair 500r would be my choice.

Gigabyte board over Asrock every second of the day.

Why 4x4gb? 2 x 8gb is just neater. 2400mhz is a bit OTT too.

£120 for a 120gb SSD. Is it 2011 again? Can get much bettyer value. Plaxtor,Samsung, crucial or even the vertex 4's.

zakblood · 20 Feb 2013 at 15:39

well thanks for your comments, shame you didn't read it fully;

here's it again just in case you didn't see it or read it or as you didn't understand it either first time.

(for choice only and to show what you can get)

no comment on anything else

Doomedspeed · 20 Feb 2013 at 16:12

zakblood said:
well thanks for your comments, shame you didn't read it fully;

here's it again just in case you didn't see it or read it or as you didn't understand it either first time.

(for choice only and to show what you can get)

no comment on anything else

I got that.. Just saying that I wouldn't, as there are a few things wrong with it. And then I explained what I would get.

zakblood · 20 Feb 2013 at 16:13

yea no worries, was only showing him what he could get, stulid does seem to jump down my throat, second comment about me with naff or money waster in it

honosuseri · 20 Feb 2013 at 19:13

zakblood said:
yea no worries, was only showing him what he could get, stulid does seem to jump down my throat, second comment about me with naff or money waster in it

Be honest bud it was naff

Why are you trying to spec around a £500 Nvidia 680 aswell? It's only marginally better than the 670 which is waaaaaay cheaper. £500 pretty much pays for two 7950s and as I said there is the never settle games bundle which has a bonus for those who adopt Xfire.

I don't think he needs to be on the 2011 socket at all but if I was told to do one for the same price as yours, I'd spec something like.......

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £259.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £229.99
1 x Gigabyte X79-UP4 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £189.98
1 x Plextor M5 Pro 256GB Extreme Series Solid State Drive - (PX-256M5P) £185.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £99.98
1 x Corsair Carbide 500R Midi Tower Case - Black £94.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £72.98
2 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel kit (PV316G160C9K) £59.99 (£119.98)
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £59.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £1,347.36 (includes shipping : £13.75).

OTT though. The OS needs to be Pro or it will be limited to 16GB (32GB in basket, half the supported mobo amount). So even the UD3 mobo would be ok to save some cash along with buying less RAM for a non Pro OS. The Viper kits are 1600Mhz but overclock well, good for over 2000mhz btw

Looks like a nice basket of bits but it has hardly been tailored to being a gaming rig specifically i.e money has been "wasted". We really need to know more about what he already has or what he intends to buy apart from the tower. For that budget the Z77 and i5K with aftermarket cooler, 8GB of RAM and twin highend GPUs would happily power a 120Hz screen for gaming. As GZA says he can just use a single GPU to save cash especially if he isn't using 120Hz on the panel.

As I've said I look forward to seeing how the OP balances it out in the end after all the suggestions

zakblood · 20 Feb 2013 at 20:20

naff it may be, but wasn't meant to be built, just showing what budget could get, thats why i said it and made the comment, which only me seems to have understood, should have made it more clear, but i didn't so yes it's naff

(for choice only and to show what you can get)

doesn't seem to mean the same to you lot that it means to me, ah well my bad use of english again

and nice spec above btw again, i'll learn, each day a bit more goes in, slowly