£800 build

[3lliot]

Hey everyone, I'm looking to buy a gaming pc, and would like to build it with my step-dad. And since I'm kind of new to this thing I would be thankful if anyone could have help me out on choosing some parts and give me a few tips when building. I understand the absolute basics of building and I've rebuild my current computer a couple of times to sort some problems out. So basically I'm pretty shabby on the building side of things but would still like to give it a go. My step-dad has also built a computer before but we're talking a while ago (~10 years ago).

I've got a budget of around £800 but don't really want to go over it. I'll mainly be using it to play new games and games like d3, Dota and Tera preferably at high settings and frame rate.

I'm also probably going to be recording/streaming gameplay aswell so I would be greatful if you could keep that in mind when suggesting parts.

I would be greatful if you're willing to help and sorry for the tl;dr :S

 

[Orcvader]

Do you need Windows, monitor, mouse, keyboard, etc?

 

[3lliot]

Nope sorry, forgot to tell you

 

[honosuseri]

Slightly over but you will notice you can make some cuts to the spec to save cash

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7850 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £191.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £189.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (ST2000DL003) £89.99
1 x Sandisk Extreme SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (SDSSDX-120G-G25) £89.99
1 x MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £77.38
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 700W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £64.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £49.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £38.39
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £825.65 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Ivybridge i5K. Uses less power than the sandybridge CPUs has a better IGP too.

The Z77 mobo will allow you to OC the i5K (expect 4ghz on the stock heatsink). It has lucid MVP which uses the CPUs IGP to boost the dedicated GPU (7850) and quick sync uses the IGP to help "turbo boost" video encoding tasks providing the software supports it.

Case has 4 120mm fans, digital temp display and fan controller. It also has cable management and comes with an extension lead for the aux 4/8pin power from the PSU. PSU is OTT but it is a modular unit and very quiet (you could save some cash here), it's a bargain whilst on offer as the 600W unit is the same price

Good size and speed SSD for the OS, apps and games. This seriously reduces the load times of the OS and games installed to it. Added a 2TB eco storage drive for you to fill with gameplay videos

The 7850 has 2GB of VRAM, they overclock very well and is really the default choice for a midrange GPU. I included 8GB of RAM 1600mhz, overclocking of the CPU is done via the multiplier, so no need for faster RAM on this socket type. It's best to use low profile RAM so that aftermarket heatsinks can fit over the RAM easily. I didn't include a heatsink, partly to save costs and also to help simplify the build for you.

Hope this helps, any questions or problems you might have you know where we are

 

[Orcvader]

Went a tad over. Can also use caching to get the SSD to cache for the HDD. Stock cooler is loud so added in a 3rd party CPU cooler.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7850 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £191.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £189.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £109.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5 SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT064M4SSD2) £67.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £59.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £44.99
1 x Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £39.98
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £813.85 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 

[honosuseri]

Went a tad over. Can also use caching to get the SSD to cache for the HDD. Stock cooler is loud so added in a 3rd party CPU cooler.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7850 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £191.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £189.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £109.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5 SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT064M4SSD2) £67.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £59.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £44.99
1 x Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £39.98
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £813.85 (includes shipping : £12.50).

Why the SLI/xfire mobo when the PSU doesnt have enough juice to Xfire the 7850?

 

[3lliot]

Thanks both of you, very helpful
Do you think it would be worth cutting off the optical drive to add some more RAM? I multi-task quite a lot and don't think I'll be using disks as much since most of the games I'll be buying are on Steam or will be digitally downloaded. Also would I need any thermal paste for the cpu or not?

 

[Orcvader]

Why the SLI/xfire mobo when the PSU doesnt have enough juice to Xfire the 7850?

Seemed quite popular. I suppose we can drop that back to the MSI in your spec.

Thanks both of you, very helpful
Do you think it would be worth cutting off the optical drive to add some more RAM? I multi-task quite a lot and don't think I'll be using disks as much since most of the games I'll be buying are on Steam or will be digitally downloaded. Also would I need any thermal paste for the cpu or not?

8gb is more than enough. Only really need more if you do a lot of HD video editing/virtual machines. Could use the extra money for my HDD space though.

The Gelid cooler will have some preapplied.

 

[honosuseri]

It's handy to have an optical drive. SOme of us use USB pendrives to install the OS but you might find it easier to use a disk.

An SSD makes a lot of sense. 60GB in my eyes isn't really big enough. My install for shogun2 is well over 20GB! Hence me going with the 120GB to give you enough space to keep the current games you are playing on there and reap the speed benefits of the SSD.

You wont really need thermal paste. The stock heatsink has it already applied, the gelid tranquillo orcvader used comes with a lil tube of the stuff (it's not pre-applied you have to put a dab of the paste on the cpu before fitting). I have that heatsink and it is good however if you arent confident building it does complicate things, you could always add a heatsink later, for £20ish it would make for a great crimbo present from somebody

 

[3lliot]

Ah yes thanks, that's a good idea with the heatsink haha! Also I was wondering if these AMD cpu's are actually any good? They seem to be a lot cheaper and I know my current pc uses one of the old AMD athlon x2 4400+ and runs pretty well of it, so are they still as good as they used to be or what's changed?

 

[Orcvader]

Ah yes thanks, that's a good idea with the heatsink haha! Also I was wondering if these AMD cpu's are actually any good? They seem to be a lot cheaper and I know my current pc uses one of the old AMD athlon x2 4400+ and runs pretty well of it, so are they still as good as they used to be or what's changed?

No... for performance Intel wins. Bulldozer performs worse than the Phenom II in games, and the Phenoms was pretty much Core 2 Quad level.

The i5 3570K is the best for gaming at the moment.

 

[honosuseri]

Ah yes thanks, that's a good idea with the heatsink haha! Also I was wondering if these AMD cpu's are actually any good? They seem to be a lot cheaper and I know my current pc uses one of the old AMD athlon x2 4400+ and runs pretty well of it, so are they still as good as they used to be or what's changed?

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=434

We sometimes suggest AMD llano builds but in your case you want to avoid AMD like the plague.

That link shows the topend AMD bulldozer CPU vs the i5K sandybridge CPU.....remember ivybridge is an improvement over SB. Whilst the AMD CPU takes a lead in media encoding, intel has quick sync, if the software you use supports it, the time to encode videos is seriously reduced. I ran a 2 pass encode of a 2hr DVD (on the fly from the DVD) on an SB i52500K at 4.4ghz with quick sync in 20mins!!

In short intel rules the roost currently

 

[tamzzy]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7850 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £191.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £189.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.98
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD10EZRX) **SINGLE PLATTER** £74.99
1 x Samsung 64GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC064D/EU) £53.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £49.99
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.98
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £38.39
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £798.23 (includes shipping : £12.50).



right on budget ;p

 

[honosuseri]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7850 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £191.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £189.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.98
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD10EZRX) **SINGLE PLATTER** £74.99
1 x Samsung 64GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC064D/EU) £53.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £49.99
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.98
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £38.39
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £798.23 (includes shipping : £12.50).



right on budget ;p

That mobo has had a number of threads with people complaining about issues when using ivybridge CPUs. It may be fixed in a BIOS update but till then i would avoid it.

That PSU quite frankly has a pathetic amount of amps on the 12V rail.

 

[3lliot]

Thanks Tamzzy, that build looks pretty solid aswell. I'll take all of these in to consideration.

I was wondering if this Samsung Green memory would be worth getting? (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-017-SA)

I'll probably be able to grab the extra money to upgrade the Crucial memory to this, and from what I've read this memory is pretty new and runs at a low voltage, so easier to overclock right? Would hope you guys could give your opinions on this and if overclocking memory is pretty easy to do?

Much appreciated guys

 

[tamzzy]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7850 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £191.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £189.95
1 x MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £77.38
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD10EZRX) **SINGLE PLATTER** £74.99
1 x Samsung 64GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC064D/EU) £53.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £49.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £38.39
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £785.64 (includes shipping : £12.50).



changed the mobo, changed the psu
and well, samsung greens are awesomely wicked, yes, but, for a system of 800 quid, money is better spent elsewhere

 

[honosuseri]

Thanks Tamzzy, that build looks pretty solid aswell. I'll take all of these in to consideration.

I was wondering if this Samsung Green memory would be worth getting? (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-017-SA)

I'll probably be able to grab the extra money to upgrade the Crucial memory to this, and from what I've read this memory is pretty new and runs at a low voltage, so easier to overclock right? Would hope you guys could give your opinions on this and if overclocking memory is pretty easy to do?

Much appreciated guys

I already told you that any faster than 1600Mhz RAM on this socket is a waste.

 

[3lliot]

Oh yeah sorry! Thanks for the help guys, have been waiting for this sort of support for a while now

 

[honosuseri]

Oh yeah sorry! Thanks for the help guys, have been waiting for this sort of support for a while now

It's all good in the hood bud. There is quite a lot to take in, FYI the weekly offers change on a wednesday. These offers can make a difference as to what particular components we spec but you certainly have an idea what you can get for your money now. Always post what you intend to buy before you do, then we can double check the spec and look for alternatives.

Take your time and do your own research is the best advice i can give. That youtube video i linked is well worth a watch. Im getting very annoyed at some new forum members who are spec'ing when they have no idea what they are talking about. There are plenty of helpful members here just be wary of who you listen to. Look for reviews of stuff we suggest to help you decide if it's for you or not. I look forward to seeing what you settle on.

When you come to build the machine we will do our best to help if you need it