Buying a Gaming PC, Advice Needed

[Jeramba]

After a lot of time talking to various people. I've come up with what I hope will be fantastic PC for gaming. Especially for running BF3. My price limit is about £1500-£1600. I'm buying all the components individually and fitting them myself.

I Have replaced CPU, MB, memory and GFX before but never built a machine from scratch.


I'm considering the following....


XFX ATI Radeon 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor -

Dell Professional P2411H 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Midnight Grey

OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-120G)

Asus Maximus IV Gene-Z Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard

Corsair Graphite 600T Midi Tower Case - Black

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-Bit - OEM (FQC-00765)

Corsair Enthusiast Series TX 750W V2 High Performance '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply

LG BH10LS30 10x BluRay-RW / 16 x DVD±RW Drive - Black (OEM)

Logitech G510 Gaming Keyboard (920-002762)

Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9)

Razer DeathAdder Respawn 3500dpi Xtreme Precision Gaming Mouse - Retail

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS)


Does this look a good spec ?


Also out of the following list of graphics cards which would you recommend and why ?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=56&sortby=nameAsc&subid=1752&mfrid=


Thanks

Jeramba

 

[Jordan97]

On that budget I would go for a GTX580.

580 vs 6950

i7 is overkill on a gaming build because games do not use hyper threading.

OCZ are having lots of serious issues lately. I would go with either the Crucial M4, or a Corsair Force GT. The Corsair is the faster of the two, but is more expensive.

Motherboard isn't the best. Go with one of the G3 boards:

MSI

or

ASRock

Both are very good boards and have support for Ivy Bridge when it comes out.

Might want to think about going for an 850W PSU for the option to go SLI/Crossfire in the future. I would recommend this one.


Also, do you really need a 120GB SSD? If it is only going to hold your OS and your games, you would probably have enough room on a 60GB, yes?

 

[Donkeyfumbler]

Stick with the 120gb ssd. Saw an article from a post here that indicated that performance was significantly better for 120gb ssds versus the 64gb ones, regardless of brand. 60 GB will quickly get filled up with OS and programs - 120gb will give you room for a few games.

 

[Jordan97]

How does this look?


YOUR BASKET
1 x Gainward GeForce GTX 580 "GOOD Edition" 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £359.99
1 x BenQ EW2420 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £184.98
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £169.99
1 x Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £169.98
1 x Corsair Graphite 600T Midi Tower Case - Black £129.98
1 x Corsair Force GT 60GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CSSD-F60GBGT-BK) £118.99
1 x OCZ Z-Series 850W '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply £99.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £79.99
1 x Logitech G510 Gaming Keyboard (920-002762) £74.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £53.99
1 x LG CH10LS20 10x BluRay-ROM / 16x DVD±RW Drive - Black (Retail) £52.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £44.99
1 x Razer DeathAdder Respawn 3500dpi Xtreme Precision Gaming Mouse - Retail £44.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
Total : £1,638.47 (includes shipping : £22.20).

Faster GPU, better motherboard, bigger PSU, better HDD and an after market cooler so you can overclock. However, to fit it all in the budget, I have added a smaller SSD, a slightly cheaper monitor, but just as good, i5 instead of i7, won't make any difference anyway, and Win 7 HP.

 

[Reaper 392]

£1600 gaming PC with OS, monitor, mouse and keyboard. consider it done:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 570 OC Twin FrozR III Power Edition 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £254.99
1 x Dell Ultrasharp U2311H 23" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey £239.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £169.99
1 x MSI Z68A-GD65-G3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £159.98
1 x OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-120G) £152.99
1 x Silverstone Raven 3 RV03B-W Full Tower Windowed Case - Black/Gold £124.98
1 x OCZ Z-Series 850W '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply £99.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £79.99
1 x Logitech G510 Gaming Keyboard (920-002762) £74.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £53.99
1 x LG CH10LS20 10x BluRay-ROM / 16x DVD±RW Drive - Black (Retail) £52.99
1 x Thermalright Silver Arrow CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA775/AM2/AM3) £50.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £44.99
1 x Razer DeathAdder Respawn 3500dpi Xtreme Precision Gaming Mouse and FREE Boogie Bug AimB.Pad XL Gaming Mouse Surface £43.99
Total : £1,631.47 (includes shipping : £22.20).

you do realise you can get the same mouse but with a boogie bug XL mouse mat for £1 cheaper. even if you dont want the mouse mat it seems silly not to go fr it

*edit*
also ready for a second 570 when you want a performance upgrade

 

[Jordan97]

Screw my build - Go with Reaper's.

 

[mp260767]

i'd go with most of repears setup, maybe change the 1tb hard drive to a 2tb if just using it for storage.

 

[[WU-TANG]GZA]

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 580 OC Special Edition 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £399.98

OCZ Vertex 3 120GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive (VTX3-25SAT3-120G) £194.99

LG W2363D 23" TRUE 120Hz 3D Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £167.99

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £163.99

Asus P8P67 PRO Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** B3 REVISION ** £139.98

Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced Full Tower Case with USB3.0 - Black £106.99

Corsair Enthusiast Series TX 850W V2 High Performance '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CMPSU-850TXV2UK) £99.98

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £79.99

Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C8) £71.99

Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £44.99

Razer DeathAdder Respawn 3500dpi Xtreme Precision Gaming Mouse and FREE Boogie Bug AimB.Pad XL Gaming Mouse Surface £43.99

Microsoft SideWinder X4 Gaming Keyboard - Retail (JQD-00006) £32.99

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939 / AM2 / AM3 / 775 / 1155/ 1156 / 1366) £18.98

Samsung SH-S222AL/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98


Total : £1,609.46


That's what I would do with £1600. SLI capable Mobo, PSU and case and the card I chose is nice and cool so if/when it is the top card it will stay quite cool.

120Hz (whether achieving 120fps 24/7 or not) is SO the way for gaming. Smooooth

 

[Jordan97]

OCZ SSD's are awful.

Why not spend an extra £10 on the motherboard and get one that is much better and Ivy Bridge compatible?

IMO, that case is ugly.

The PSU is only '80 plus Bronze.' The one I suggested and the one in Reaper's build is the same price and '80 plus Gold.'

Vengeance RAM is a waste of money.

That cooler is ********.

All the other builds have a blu-ray drive in.

 

[seandog]

OCZ SSD's are awful.

Well to be fair thats a wildly broad and in accurate statement, what you mean to say is 'OCZ's SSd's have shown some incompatibility with intel based chipsets, even tho this occurance is around 1% why not change to a different make to save any possible chance'

I personally have the OCZ agility 3 60Gb with a AMD X6 1055t chip and the speeds are amazing, not 1 issue so far and I recommend this to my friend with an intel chip who had 1 instance with a no ssd found issue, he updated to firmware 2.11 and is fine now, compared to the crucial and intel SSD's the OCZ agility series way outperforms them in my eyes

Id recommend the Corsair brand as their read/write speeds are better than the other 2 and are up there with the OCZ ones, thats if you choose not to go with an OCZ in the first place

 

[Jordan97]

Point taken..

 

[[WU-TANG]GZA]

OCZ SSD's are awful.

Why not spend an extra £10 on the motherboard and get one that is much better and Ivy Bridge compatible?

IMO, that case is ugly.

The PSU is only '80 plus Bronze.' The one I suggested and the one in Reaper's build is the same price and '80 plus Gold.'

Vengeance RAM is a waste of money.

That cooler is ********.

All the other builds have a blu-ray drive in.

Angry much?

I also think the case is ugly but it's a far better case than suggested by yourself as they are renowned quality cases on air.

I wouldn't buy Kingston RAM - I'd buy these instead of the ones I specced bcos I didn't see them first time round:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-290-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517


Regarding cooler I could swap it for the Akasa Venom and would still cost the same as your spec which is £30 more than mine and I've got a better GPU.

I also wouldn't spend £184 on a 1920 x 1080 monitor that wasn't 120Hz.

 

[Jordan97]

I didn't mean to come across as angry, sorry.

I simply chose that case as that is what the OP chose and if that is what case he/she likes then why not?

What is wrong with Kingston RAM? It is very high quality and OcUK use it in most of their Ultima rigs.

I've got a better GPU.

At the price of other components.

 

[seandog]

id kinda agree with Jordan on the cooler front tho, i currently have the arctic freezer 7 on my 1055t and even on 1.2625V i can easily reach 62c after 20mins of prime with a nice airy case, maybe just up the scale slightly a bit to the Tranquillo or better for more temp drops

 

[Jeramba]

Some great info guys.....

I like Reaper's machine. Most of you seem to agree on it anyway

I personally quite like the case I chose.

I'm not planning on overclocking (well at least not for a while / if needed). Wondering whether a cheaper cooler would do the job and maybe a 750W PSU ? I'm a bit concerned that 850W is going to use some juice ?

Is Windows 7 home sufficient. Is there any benefit to buying the pro version ?

I'm a bit worried about this SSD issue. I chose OCZ because their Agility 3 series looks like it is faster than all the others....

I'm still unsure about GFX cards. It's not just a case of the card with the fastest clock speed and most memory wins ?

Thanks very much

J

 

[olivier renault]

You saw this?

1 x Corsair PC Starter Bundle 2000c - 600TM Case / TX 850W V2 PSU / H80 CPU Cooler (Cooler Half Price) £259.96
1 x Corsair PC Starter Bundle 3000c - 650D Case / TX 650W V2 PSU / H60 CPU Cooler (Cooler Half Price) £227.95
1 x Corsair PC Starter Bundle 1000c - 600TM Case / TX 650W V2 PSU / H60 CPU Cooler (Cooler Half Price) £217.94



Not sure how much you can save, but then I prefer the H2O and would recommend a 850W for potential GTX 580 SLI.

 

[Jordan97]

maybe a 750W PSU ?

750W won't do it if you are planning on going SLI/Crossfire. If you just stick with one card however, 750W will be fine. The OCZ 850W specced above is 80 Plus Gold don't forget as well, which means it is very efficient.

Is Windows 7 home sufficient. Is there any benefit to buying the pro version ?

There is no speed increase or anything. The only difference is that you can run it in 'Windows XP Mode' which allows you to use older hardware/software that is not compatible with Win 7.

I'm a bit worried about this SSD issue. I chose OCZ because their Agility 3 series looks like it is faster than all the others....

The Corsair Force GT is currently the fastest on the market. (Excluding RevoDrives) The problem with OCZ is that a small percentage of the users have been experiencing frequent BSoD's. They claim to have fixed the issues with their latest firmware, but people are still reporting to be getting the same problems.

I'm still unsure about GFX cards. It's not just a case of the card with the fastest clock speed and most memory wins ?

Not really no. There are lots of other factors to take into account as well such as Shader Clock and number of processors to name just two.

It is easier to just search for a review on the internet of the card you are looking at. It will be compared to several other cards in a variety of tests, and most of the time, the card(s) you are trying to decide on will be there.

Or you can use AnandTech's Bench Tool to compare two GPU's against each other. It also has features for other components as well.

 

[datalol-jack]

There is no speed increase or anything. The only difference is that you can run it in 'Windows XP Mode' which allows you to use older hardware/software that is not compatible with Win 7.

A kind of functionality one can get for free and much better implemented in solutions like VirtualBox, VMWare and the like. Provided you have an XP disc knocking about.

 

[Jordan97]

A kind of functionality one can get for free and much better implemented in solutions like VirtualBox, VMWare and the like. Provided you have an XP disc knocking about.

Exactly. No point in paying the extra for Professional really.

 

[Jeramba]

I've just heard that it might be worth waiting until the AMD Bulldozer comes out ?

Not sure I can wait that long....