£300 to £400 gaming build.

5850. No, not any more. Few quid extra for a brand new 6850 with a nice cooler and full warranty, definately a good thing. Sure, the 5850 is a little faster.. but not amazingly so.

I'd already considered those cards, but I'd rather get something like the 6850.. I suppose in some respects I had already decided on that card before I started the thread, unless there was something better perf/pound.
 
Scougar said:
5850. No, not any more. Few quid extra for a brand new 6850 with a nice cooler and full warranty, definately a good thing. Sure, the 5850 is a little faster.. but not amazingly so.
Click to expand...

Fair enough, the 6850 is a very good deal tbh. If you did want to a save a bit those 280s are ~£50 but the extra £30 might be worth it for a 6850 that's probably quieter etc...
 
stulid said:
GTX570?

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18386670
Click to expand...

lol, maybe my nephews want a 2nd hand Asus 560Ti lovingly cared by er.. someone they might know. Hmm.. just a side thought here... I just wonder if maybe a 570 would fit in my case... random thought I know.. :D :o (It couldn't be any longer than the 560ti though tbh.. my drive cage get's in the way, so I can't fit in say, a 480 :-( )

beejjacobs said:
Fair enough, the 6850 is a very good deal tbh. If you did want to a save a bit those 280s are ~£50 but the extra £30 might be worth it for a 6850 that's probably quieter etc...
Click to expand...

Those card's are actually pretty good for the money, I just think that they are getting a bit long in the tooth now. If I was £200 to £300.. they'd defo be on my list.

EDIT: I've seen 6950 2GB's go for about £130, so if I was quick enough I'd probably grab them one of those.
 
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Going on another thread in this section the XFX Pro PSU seems pretty good and would fit the bill.

So so far:-

GPU: AMD 6850 1GB (Asus Direct CU II) £90
PSU: XFX Pro 550W £54
MB: Possibly the Intel H61 chipset
CPU: Possibly the I3 2120
RAM: Whatever's cheap for 4GB or 8GB (depending on budget at time).


Parts I already have:

HSF: Hyper 212
DVD Drive
HDD's
Keyboard
Mouse
Monitor
 
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Scougar said:
Going on another thread in this section the XFX Pro PSU seems pretty good and would fit the bill.

So so far:-

GPU: AMD 6850 1GB (Asus Direct CU II) £90
PSU: XFX Pro 550W £54
MB: Possibly the Intel H61 chipset
CPU: Possibly the I3 2120
RAM: Whatever's cheap for 4GB or 8GB (depending on budget at time).
Click to expand...

I just built the same system yesterday although for a mini-ITX case and it handles my games like SWTOR smoothly at 40+ FPS at 1680x1050 maxed fine. For this budget, an i3 2100/2120K is easily the best CPU, and a Radeon 6850 or GeForce GTX 550Ti, each for £100 works well.

Next step up I think would be £50 more for an i5 2500K and I would say a Radeon 6950 which is what I used in a previous system, but an i3&6850 does me fine!
 
sharingan_sasuk said:
I just built the same system yesterday although for a mini-ITX case and it handles my games like SWTOR smoothly at 40+ FPS at 1680x1050 maxed fine. For this budget, an i3 2100/2120K is easily the best CPU, and a Radeon 6850 or GeForce GTX 550Ti, each for £100 works well.

Next step up I think would be £50 more for an i5 2500K and I would say a Radeon 6950 which is what I used in a previous system, but an i3&6850 does me fine!
Click to expand...

The 6850 is cheap on offer which makes it attractive on a budget. The 550ti is worse than a 460 SC and the 6950s are priced pretty much the same price as the 7850 which is faster, cooler and uses less juice.

The 460 is my personal fav budget gaming GPU, when OC'd it's nigh on 6870 performance. But it's priced nearly the same too, with the 6850 priced at £90 it's hard to justify the 460 even if it does add cuda support and can be OC'd well....had the 460 been on offer i would make a stronger case for it.
 
Yeah I would get a 460 1GB if I could find one. Had one myself recently.. excellent card, and overclocked like hell (If only I could find one cheap).

Stulid> I'm sure I have a copy (fully licensed and not OEM) of Vista 64 bit ultimate that I could donate to the cause. I may be able to get 64 bit windows 7 as well (If I can find it at home after the move), but don't think it's ultimate, only 'home' (I think).

As for the performance of the i3. I would like to get an i5 (K), but then the motherboard costs substantially more, so I will have to be careful with costs.
 
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Scougar said:
Yeah I would get a 460 1GB if I could find one. Had one myself recently.. excellent card, and overclocked like hell (If only I could find one cheap).

Stulid> I'm sure I have a copy (fully licensed and not OEM) of Vista 64 bit ultimate that I could donate to the cause. I may be able to get 64 bit windows 7 as well (If I can find it at home after the move), but don't think it's ultimate, only 'home' (I think).

As for the performance of the i3. I would like to get an i5 (K), but then the motherboard costs substantially more, so I will have to be careful with costs.
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Nothing wrong with the home edition (you still get media centre) and windows 7 is much better than Vista but hey if it's free don't knock it right ;)

You can run the i5K on the H61 you just can't OC it. The non K 2500 CPU is nigh on the same price anyway, if you want the i5 you might as well get the i5K. I would go with the i3 and put more money into the GPU budget myself but I've already mentioned the 7850 and it's been dismissed as excessive :(

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/542?vs=539

That's a stock 460 vs the 6850. Check the BF3 benchmarks and that's without an OC on the card. I have mine running @900, although 800-850 is easily attainable for most.
 
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honosuseri said:
Nothing wrong with the home edition (you still get media centre) and windows 7 is much better than Vista but hey if it's free don't knock it right ;)

You can run the i5K on the H61 you just can't OC it. The non K 2500 CPU is nigh on the same price anyway, if you want the i5 you might as well get the i5K. I would go with the i3 and put more money into the GPU budget myself but I've already mentioned the 7850 and it's been dismissed as excessive :(
Click to expand...

I'm not dismissing it entirely.. it depends on the rest of the budget.. I didn't want to go overboard with a graphics card straight away. If it under £300 for the build I can suggest he gets a better card and see what he says :-) I'll take a proper look at the 7850 now that you've brought it up again.

SB boards seem to be holding there value and are rarely coming up at reasonable prices, so I think I'll have to rule the i5 out for now.
 
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YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £99.98
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £97.99
1 x Asus HD 6850 DirectCU V2 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £89.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £46.98
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £33.59
Total : £368.53 (includes shipping : FREE).




i3 on a z series mobo which can dual card. Seeing as they have a small screen the 6850 would do for now and they would have the option to run a second 6850 much later (cheap 2nd hand maybe) if they wanted more ooompf should they get a better screen.

The XFX 550W PSU would be better but costs a lil more, would still be in budget though. That or the OCZ would be man enough to run 2 6850s
 
Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail£97.99
(£81.66) £97.99
(£81.66)Asus HD 6850 DirectCU V2 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card£89.99
(£74.99) £89.99
(£74.99)XFX Pro 550W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply£52.99
(£44.16) £52.99
(£44.16)Gigabyte H61MA-D3V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard£47.99
(£39.99) £47.99
(£39.99)Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU)

Total: £322.55 (including VAT)

Trying to think of anyway to improve it, as I reckon it won't be upgraded for a long time.
 
I'd like them to play BF3/Skyrim (on low res screen), just thinking that the i3 may not be man enough for the task? Or would it be better to get a faster gfx card. I've not really investigated this newer dual core + threads thing before.

Perhaps I'm being overly cautious and this setup is fine?

£84 for a Z68 board, that's tempting, so perhaps they can go i5/i7 at a later point. Hmm.. this board looks a bit better for £6 more: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-483-AS&tool=3
 
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