£550 Spec - Video / Music / Graphics Editing with occasional gaming

RoyMi6

RoyMi6

RoyMi6

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Joined
9 Mar 2010
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Hey guys, replacing my ancient AMD64 build and got £550 set aside for it. (EDIT: OK, resigned to ~£650 budget to include SSD)

Am reusing 1TB HDD, DVDRW Drive, two DVI monitors, speakers, keyboard, and mouse. Can't use PSU as it's on it's way out (funny noises) and case is cracked so don't want to reuse either.

Hoping for an i5 if possible and don't plan on overclocking so stock cooling will hopefully do me unless there's recommend improvements to be made at good value without risking components. I'll be cabling it in so no need for wireless cards.

As my focus is for video editing over gaming I'm happy to sacrifice graphical power in preference for better, good value, CPU's and keeping options open for upgrade paths is always nice.

What are my options?

Cheers,
Roy
 
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1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
Asus P8Z77-V LX Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - 79.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £23.99
1 x HIS HD 7950 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Sleeping Dogs, Nexuiz, Dirt Showdown & CODMW2 PC Games - 227.99 (on sale)
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black - 27.98
1 x OCZ CoreXtreme 500w '80 Plus' Power Supply - 29.99
total: 574.93
Main differences are board, (personal choice, I got the z68 model of that board for a friend, perfect for his needs, slightly cheaper than the gigabyte too. Slightly less powered PSU, but single GPU and no soundcard shouldn't need more than 500w. if you ever go dual gpu you may need a more powerful one but that should only draw around 400w. Case again was personal choice and really just to save some money, still a great case though for 28 quid. better than the cheap fleabay crap for the price. I am not a big fan of the 7850, so I went for the 7950 3gb, awesome performer with a bunch of free games too, so I suppose to you it may be worth the extra, because the card is kick ass and you get some games. MW2 is the best of the bunch IMO.
So your paying an extra 19 pounds for a much better card. Idleman's spec is by no means bad, he used a slightly better case and slightly better PSU, but in my opinion an extra 50w is not worth almost double the price, case again is personal choice. I'd rather have a 3gb 7950 and sacrifice 50w of psu power :P
 
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I think the problem is I'll always be able to get "more" for more money so am really trying to stick to a budget.

I appreciate the recommendation for the cheaper power supply though. Think I'll go with that because I don't see me going crossfire any time soon then that gives me some spare to double the ram! :)
 
I'd not recommend going for the cheaper PSU, I'd much go for the Bronze rated PSU's vs 80 Plus only.

That RAM is fine for your needs :)
 
Just reading up on what all the 80Plus and Bronze Rated is about (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80_PLUS) I think I'm going to have to agree with BuToNz.

Been out the game that long I didn't know that was a "thing" to be rated like that.

I've also decided to go with a SSD drive and push my budget a little more (will have to reduce the alcohol intake at the weekends)

So this is how it's looking - with free shipping:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x MSI HD 7850 Twin Frozr III OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards w/ Nexuiz, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showdown PC Games £169.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £81.98
1 x OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-120G) £79.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED316G1600HC11DC) £59.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £34.99
Total : £656.93 (includes shipping : FREE).

 
RoyMi6 said:
Just reading up on what all the 80Plus and Bronze Rated is about (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80_PLUS) I think I'm going to have to agree with BuToNz.

Been out the game that long I didn't know that was a "thing" to be rated like that.

I've also decided to go with a SSD drive and push my budget a little more (will have to reduce the alcohol intake at the weekends)

So this is how it's looking - with free shipping:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x MSI HD 7850 Twin Frozr III OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards w/ Nexuiz, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showdown PC Games £169.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £81.98
1 x OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-120G) £79.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED316G1600HC11DC) £59.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £34.99
Total : £656.93 (includes shipping : FREE).

Click to expand...

What, no hdd for storage? :eek:
 
As in OP I have a 1TB drive that I'll use in addition to the new SSD.

I've also got 4TB of NAS that I mainly work from and copy back to.
 
This you mean? http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-106-OC

Ok, I'll give you that. Vertex appears to trump Agility overall anyway and it's a doable price increase.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x MSI HD 7850 Twin Frozr III OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards w/ Nexuiz, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showdown PC Games £169.99
1 x OCZ Vertex 4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (VTX4-25SAT3-128G) £85.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £81.98
1 x TeamGroup Elite 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED316G1600HC11DC) £59.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £34.99
Total : £662.93 (includes shipping : FREE).



EDIT:: BOUGHT! Good times!
 
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