£6-700 gaming build

chapman4789 · 30 Jun 2011 at 05:26

hey I'm planning on building a gaming rig within the next week, have a budget ranging between 600 & 700

current plans are:

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6950 2048MB - £203.99

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz - £173.99

Gigabyte Z68A-D3 Intel Z68 - £85.19

OCZ StealthXStream 2 700W - £60.98

Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case - £42.98

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB - £27.98

OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 - £26.39

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 - £19.99

OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter - £14.99

Total: £662.47

was wondering if anyone with current knowledge has any opinions on this build, or any suggestions where I can shave money off?

if needed I can go above the 700 mark but would prefer to stay under

as905 · 30 Jun 2011 at 05:39

if it was me i would change 4 things from your list:

i will change the mobo to GA Z68X UD3P because its decent for OC the cpu.
i will change the hard drive & get the caviar black (faster).
i dont know much about OCZ power supplies but i would go for the XFX Pro because its top notch quality & rated 9.6 out of 10.
lastly the cooler if you're not going to overclock the i5 then its cool but if you are then get a thermalright or any high end air cooler (check reviews),expect to pay minimum £40 for a decent cooler.

hybrid572 · 30 Jun 2011 at 07:54

I agree that the motherboard's a bit cheap, although I'd go for the MSI P67A-GD53 instead.

The Samsung F3 1TB is considerably faster than the Seagate and about the same as the Caviar, plus twice the size for £40.

OCZ power supplies and RAM are generally considered less preferable to other brands- Corsair XMS3 RAM and the Antec High Current Gamer 620W, or the XFX Pro 650W, are considerably better recommendations for similar money.

Also, don't listen to the haters, the Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 is plenty for overclocking as long as you don't plan to do extreme overclocks with considerable voltages. I would go for the Hyper 212 Plus over it though, as long as you don't mind it being HUGE.

chapman4789 · 30 Jun 2011 at 14:52

cheers for the advice

Murray · 30 Jun 2011 at 15:09

The Freezer 7 Pro is fine I am sitting stable at 4Ghz

olivier renault · 30 Jun 2011 at 15:14

Yeah, upgrade motherboard. Really dont like that gigabyte, it's really ghetto.

Not a fan of OCZ either. Corsair GS / XFX / Corsair TX.

Id get 12800C9 memory as well.

The Seagate will do as a drive, but if you have some margin, the Samsung F3 are quite nice and quick (I have 2).

If you are tight on budget, can leave the cooler and overclock for later, saves £20. Stick with the 6950 2GB

The case is good for the budget. Better more expensive case would be a CM 690 II, another choice would be the Antec 100, or the HAF series.

All prices are quite high. maybe worth shopping around.