Any improvement on my Spec?

[Luke_Bowman]

So I'm doing a build for a close friend and he has a £600-ish budget and this is why I've spec'd so far:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £181.99
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 560TI Dual Shock Superclocked 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (01G-P3-1567-KR) £167.99
1 x Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case / Antec VP550P 550W '80 Plus' Continuous Power Supply £86.95
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £57.98
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D3V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £47.99
1 x Patriot Viper Xtreme 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PXD38G1600LLK) £37.94
1 x Akasa AK-CC4009EP01 Venom Pico Compact CPU Cooler (Intel LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/AM2/AM2+/AM3/FM1) £16.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-5280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £612.83 (includes shipping : FREE).




Any improvement on performance or price? Thanks.

 

[mp260767]

i'd drop the cpu cooler, drop the memory to 4 gb, gfx card to the ocuk version and use the money saved to get a z77 mobo.

 

[Fire_fly]

As Mp says.

There is no point having that processor with that motherboard, you can't overclock on a H61 board, you need a Z77. Also the processor may not work without a bios update, which you can't do unless you have a processor that already works with that board.

 

[Fire_fly]

I have had a bit of a playaround and have come up with this

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7850 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £190.00
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £99.95
1 x MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £77.38
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £57.98
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £46.98
1 x GeIL Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £37.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-5280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £572.35 (includes shipping : £11.75).



I have dropped the CPU down to an i3 but boosted the GPU to a 7850. This is much better card than the 560ti and most games will not likely notice the difference between the i3 and i5, but he should see an increase in performance with a better graphics card. If your friend wants then it would be a nice upgrade to go to an i5 at a later point as I have speced a Z77 board.

 

[honosuseri]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £181.99
1 x MSI HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £66.98
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £49.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £46.98
1 x GeIL Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £37.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/1156/1155/775/AM3/AM2+/AM2) £32.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-5280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £601.90 (includes shipping : FREE).



Overclock the 6850 as much as you can. What resolution is he playing games at? If it's lowish res (1680x1050 lets say), the 6850 will have an easier life. He can swap it out much later for a better GPU. Remember the Z77 mobo overclocks the i5K CPU and lucidMVP allows the IGP to boost your dedicated GPU

It would be nice to have 2GB of VRAM on the GPU, your 560Ti choice is a 1GB model. The 560ti is better granted than the 6870 but not by much. Considering you can get nigh on 6870 performance from the 6850 with overclocking for much less cash that's what I would do. Spending less on the GPU is allowing for a much more solid core system

6870 vs 560Ti