£800 Gaming PC Spec?

weyland yutani · 7 Jul 2011 at 14:36

As a novice I'm finally taking the plunge and ordering parts to self assemble. My budget is around £800 the parts below are slightly over at £830 with vat/delivery.

i5 2500k http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-360-IN

ATI HD6950 2GB http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-256-SP

MSI P67 with Heatsink http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-036-OP

XSM3 4GB RAM http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-203-CS

XFX 650W PSU http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-008-XF

Windows7/500GB HDD Bundle http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SW-000-OP

Sony 24x DVDRW http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-046-OT

CM-690 II Case http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-212-CM

Is this a decent spec and good value for the money? I going to attempt a sensible overclock to around 4.2GHz on the i5. Ideally I'd like a 60GB SSD, blu-ray drive and 8GB Ram but they are luxuries I can do without for now.

Any input and advice is much appreciated.

stulid · 7 Jul 2011 at 14:38

You couldn't have got it more bang on first time if you tried.

weyland yutani · 7 Jul 2011 at 14:45

Thanks, thats the benefit of taking the time to read these forums I suppose

Overclocking the cpu isn't as scary as I imagine is it? Folks here seem to reassure novices like me that it is relatively staight forward to do a mild overclock at least.

stulid · 7 Jul 2011 at 14:52

The MSI board has a button called "OCGenie" press it and you get 4.2GHZ, to go further is "simples" as Alexander would say.

munz · 7 Jul 2011 at 15:05

got that cpu cooler myself will lower temps/noise levels and 4.4/4.5 is easily doable for mild overclock.

i used the half sized pea on top of cpu + fill in gaps on hyper 212 method and worked out very well.

It's nice when they get it spot on first time innit stulid

LEK-89 · 7 Jul 2011 at 15:54

I've just set up my new rig last night which is very simular to yours and I'm using the Be Quiet Dark Rock Advanced CPU cooler.

I've only had to time install Windows 7 so far but looking in the BIOS the idle CPU temps for me are 38c, a little higher than I expected but I will give it a few days to bed it. Overall though, I cannot believe how quiet the entire rig is!

Enjoy yours if you go for it mate

Liam

Marine-RX179 · 7 Jul 2011 at 16:00

The Cooler Master CM-690 II Lite case only comes with two standard 120mm fan (1 front 1 rear)...I would strongly recommend getting a couple more fans.

The Antec Tri-Cool 3-Speed 120mm Fan is currently only going for £1.99 each:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=57&subid=4&sortby=priceAsc
And you might get Blue LED ones as well.

But one thing your should note is that those fans doesn't come with case fan screws or boxes I think...so they are pretty much like OEM item in bags/bubble wraps etc.

weyland yutani · 7 Jul 2011 at 16:11

Thanks Liam, yeah cant wait to get this built. Ive been a console gamer for years but always wanted a superior beast of a PC. Surely I can expect great performance from this spec for some time right?

I'd forgoten about getting case fans but they're so cheap I'd be crazy not to get a couple extra. Thanks for the input guys.

CochesePL · 7 Jul 2011 at 16:14

As for the fans I recommend Silverstone ST-AP121 Penetrator they're great !

Jamiman · 7 Jul 2011 at 16:18

Do you already have thermal paste?

if not, you might need some!

olivier renault · 7 Jul 2011 at 16:32

That's pretty much my recommended rig for the money.

Similarly with the overclock. 4.2GHz should be easily achievable and well within the recommended specs (1.3V Vcore, 1.5V vram, or about). I wouldn't bother above 4.4GHz, unless you have a golden sample 2500K (i.e. still achieving 4.6GHz under 1.28V).

timmillwood · 7 Jul 2011 at 16:44

Why not go for a Z68? It might cost a little extra, but might be worth it in the long run.

Jony27 · 7 Jul 2011 at 16:47

why would he need a Z68 when he has a board that can support crossfire/sli, unless he really needs the Z68 features, theres no need for it.

weyland yutani · 7 Jul 2011 at 16:51

Yeah I'm confident this is a pretty good gaming spec for the money too. The system is probably better than I need but its within budget and BF3 is on the horizon so sod it

As a complete novice a safe and stable system is all I need so a mild overclock is plenty. I will need thermal paste too, thanks!

Jony27 said:
why would he need a Z68 when he has a board that can support crossfire/sli, unless he really needs the Z68 features, theres no need for it.

Yeah I assumed one of the only advantage of the Z68 was onboard graphics/output (is this right?) which I dont need.

olivier renault · 7 Jul 2011 at 17:11

should have paste with the 212+.

Z68 has a couple of perks. Intel SRT (ssd caching to accelerate hard drive access), QuickSync (using the 2500K iGP for computation), and Lucid Virtu (GPU vitualisation, mainly using the IGP for low intensity tasks like internet / video / idle thus saving on electricity).

TNGL · 7 Jul 2011 at 17:12

I'd say you've got a nice spec there.