~£850 gaming machine

ThomBassmonkey

ThomBassmonkey

ThomBassmonkey

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Ok, for the benefit of those that have read my other couple of threads, I managed to do a deal so I got £500 cash instead of vouchers, added to that I have had a bit of money come in so my budget's gone up now.

On the flip side, I would much prefer a prebuilt, I'm still considering building my own but I don't think I have the confidence and since my budget's gone up, I'd rather get a prebuilt.

How does this setup look for about £840?

Please review the components you have selected and then click on the continue to add the system to your shopping basket.

Case: Xigmatek Asgard Case
Power Supply: Non-Modular 700W Power Supply (80 Plus Certified)
Processor: Core i5 2500K 6MB Cache Socket 1155
CPU Cooler: Titan Fenrir EVO CPU Cooler
Optimisation and tuning: Overclocked, tuned and cable management
Graphics Card 1: Radeon HD6950 2GB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Memory: 8GB Corsair DDR3 1600MHz C9 Dual Channel Memory Kit (2 x 4GB)
Motherboard: Asus P8P67 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) Motherboard
Hard Disk Drive One: Samsung 1TB Spinpoint F3 32MB Cache SATA II Hard Disk Drive
Optical Drive One: Blu-Ray Reader & DVD-Rom Combo Drive
Sound Card: Onboard HD 7.1 Audio
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)


I'm also waiting for a quote for a cataclysm Hellscream from OcUK with a 2gb 6950 and 8th ram, any ideas how they'd compare? I still don't really understand the differences in mobos, memory etc.

If I was going to go for a self build, what kind of specs would I be looking at comparatively similar money? If it's a massive step up, I'm still prepared to go that way.

Thanks very much. Sorry about multiple posts, I just don't have a lot of cash generally and need to get this right, :)
 
I think you're looking at saving probably £150 if you self build it, which means room for a 128gb SSD... but I'll let the people who spec machines up, spec one up :) *points at stulid*
 
Thats actually an ok price for all that gear.

I'm also waiting for a quote for a cataclysm Hellscream from OcUK with a 2gb 6950 and 8th ram, any ideas how they'd compare?
Click to expand...

It will be better, the case is better etc,

-------------------------------------

To build yourself,


Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
OcUK ATI Radeon 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE DIRT3 PC Game £191.99
(£159.99) £191.99
(£159.99)
MSI Z68A-GD65-G3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £159.98
(£133.32) £159.98
(£133.32)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £155.99
(£129.99) £155.99
(£129.99)
Lepa B-Series 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply £74.98
(£62.48) £74.98
(£62.48)
Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
(£57.00) £68.40
(£57.00)
Options applied to the above product:
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £30.98
(£25.82) £30.98
(£25.82)
BitFenix Shinobi Gaming Case - Black £49.99
(£41.66) £49.99
(£41.66)
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £47.99
(£39.99) £47.99
(£39.99)
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1155/1156/1366) £22.99
(£19.16) £22.99
(£19.16)
Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
(£14.16) £16.99
(£14.16)
Sub Total : £683.57
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £13.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £139.46
Total : £836.78

So theres a modular 750W PSU thats enough for a second 6950 card for Crossfire.

And a Gen3 Z68 board.
 
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Thanks guys.

I just rang up the place that sells that package and they suggests upgrading the mobo to the "pro" version in case I ever decide to get a 2nd 6950, that'll only be an extra £17, they also offer a 850w modular power supply for an extra £21, are they worth doing? I don't know whether or not I'd go with a 2nd GPU, but for £39 it seems a better idea to get a better computer now than having to spend hundreds later if I do want a second one.

Edit: also, what kind of benefits does a better case provide? Sorry, I'm really not clued up on this stuff. :)

Also, will I see the difference between C7 and C9 memory? I have the choice of 8gb c9 or 4gb c7, from what the guy was saying, I'm moving towards the 8gb since it seems like that would make more of a performance improvement, especially for the long term.

Thanks!
 
Last edited:
I just rang up the place that sells that package and they suggests upgrading the mobo to the "pro" version in case I ever decide to get a 2nd 6950, that'll only be an extra £17, they also offer a 850w modular power supply for an extra £21, are they worth doing?
Click to expand...

Yep, better to have it and not need it, than want it and not have it.

what kind of benefits does a better case provide?
Click to expand...

Better build quality with thicker materials so theres less rattles and noise, better airflow etc.

Also, will I see the difference between C7 and C9 memory? I have the choice of 8gb c9 or 4gb c7,
Click to expand...

All the Sandybridge RAM guides on the internet show that memory speed and timings make little difference to performance, do stick to any 1600mhz ram with modest timings.
 
This is an interesting threasd for me, as in about a months time I'm going to be putting together a new pc, (my first new one in about 8 years...)

Will be hoping that someone (I'm looking at you stulid) will help me spec something when the time comes...think my budget will be much the same...

I had saved a thread with a spec you did a couple of months or so ago, and noticed that some of the prices have changed massively...one being the motherboard which at the time you specced was £115...it's now £193...Ouch!!
 
valve90210 said:
This is an interesting threasd for me, as in about a months time I'm going to be putting together a new pc, (my first new one in about 8 years...)

Will be hoping that someone (I'm looking at you stulid) will help me spec something when the time comes...think my budget will be much the same...

Just post a thread the day before or the same day you are ready to order, then you will get the best advice for that moment in time.

I had saved a thread with a spec you did a couple of months or so ago, and noticed that some of the prices have changed massively...one being the motherboard which at the time you specced was £115...it's now £193...Ouch!!Sounds cheap, buy two:D
Click to expand...
 
stulid said:
Just post a thread the day before or the same day you are ready to order, then you will get the best advice for that moment in time.
Click to expand...

That's my plan, though watching all the threads I can to get an idea of the kind of builds that are about at the moment as I am so many years out of date it's unreal...is a geforce 4 still good???...lol ;)
 
Thanks Stulid!

I'll go for the 8gb ram, 850w modular PSU and pro mobo then. To be honest, my original budget was gonna be about £650, so I'm already well beyond that, the next case up in the options I have is about £40 more, so assuming there's nothing wrong with the one in my current spec, I'll stick with that. Maybe if I do get another 6950 and want more air flow, I'll upgrade that too then.

That build will come to £876, that includes over clocking and some other services before it sets off, so it seems alright to me and will save me a job. :) fingers crossed, I'll be ordering tomorrow and get it within a week, exciting stuff.
 
normally its nice to post some build pics but since your going pre-built how about an unwrapping? like a nerdy strip tease :D

*edit*dont forget the GPU comes seperate and will need ur gentle hand to place it in
 
Haha, I'll see how it goes. I think it comes fully assembled from them, I know that they do boot it up to do various checks that it's all working, it'd be pointless doing that if it wasn't fully assembled. I've no problems fitting a GPU if needed though. :) if I can contain my excitement long enough to get my camera (assuming I din't forget) then I'll take some porn for you. ;)
 
Ah, fair enough. Shouldn't be a problem. :)

I'm still uming and ahing about this, now I'm leaning more towards the cheaper 700w PSU and original mobo, giving up the bluray and getting a 6970 instead of the 6950. I'll maybe lose the ability to upgrade by adding a GPU but it should be a better initial build and there's no garuantee that I'll go CF in the future anyway.
 
Thanks!

How safe is the flashing? I've seen it mentioned before, but I really want 0% risk before I set out to do something like that, especially as it invalidates the warranty. The machine will be overclocked anyway, from that link it looks like you're over clocking the 6950 to reach speeds of the 6970, meaning that an over clocked 6970 is going to be faster than a 6950 whatever you do?

Thanks for the link on the PSU, I'll definitely stick with the 700w then. I might be a bit flash and splash out on the pro mobo, then hopefully I'll be ok to CF whichever GPU I end up with without any other mods.
 
Don't worry about flashing, the rev1 boards that were able to do this are like hens teeth and chances are if you get one of them at this stage go buy a lottery ticket cos it's ur day of days
 
Ok, this'll probably be my last question as I'm probably thinking about this too much now.

I've just noticed that in the package, I can pick either a 2gb 6970 or 1280mb 570 for the same price. The benchmarks seem to show they're roughly the same depending on what's being played, the 570 seems to get the edge currently on a few more games but for the sake of future proofing the machine (with extra VRAM) and multi display (I use two 1680x1050s at the moment but with a more powerful computer will be looking to hook it up to my full hd tv, not looking for 3 monitors at once, but I'll be running two where possible), it sounds like the 6970 will run everything smoothly and the VRAM will be better in the long term.

Is that a safe assumption?

Thanks again!
 
I'm not buying a second card at the moment, just going with one for now then maybe a second in the future, they are the same price though (whether I get one or two).

That review seems to confirm what I was thinking though that the memory in the 570 would potentially hold it back in the future while in the present it only performs slightly better than the 6970 on average.
 
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