Could you Spec me a powerful Gaming computer Budget £2000

[Suspect13]

I have a budget of £2000. This must include everything as this is the total budget. It must be powerful enough to be up to date for at least 4 years if not 6. It must have a very powerful graphics card so that all games can be played on high, not just now but also in future. It must include a large monitor. There are debates about the i5 and i7 processor (for gaming) but whichever you think will be the one for the future. Otherwise i leave the spec up to you with the budget I have.

thanks

 

[mjallan123]

Nothing that you buy today will be up-to-date in 4 years, let alone 6 years. Even if you buy a 6 core Gulftown, Quad SLI GTX 580s and 16Gb of ram, in 4 years something will be far better. Such is the nature of computer hardware.

For £2000 you can get a cracking PC though. I'd go with a Core i5 2600k, GTX 580, 8Gb of ram and a 256Gb SSD as well as all the other bits and pieces you'll need.

You should be able to get all that for under £1500 which leaves you £500 to upgrade a little further down the line if you need to.

 

[Ak!ta]

Ok i have included speakers, headset and mouse mat as you said you wanted the full monty !!


YOUR BASKET
2 x Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6950 TOXIC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE DIRT3 & Deus Ex Games £239.99 (£479.98)
1 x Corsair Gaming Audio Series SP2500 High-Power 2.1 PC Speaker System - 232 Watts RMS £179.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £167.99
1 x BenQ G2420HDBL 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £159.98
1 x BeQuiet Dark Power Pro P9 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £154.99
1 x Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £154.98
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £134.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 650D Gaming Midi Tower - Black £124.99
1 x Logitech G510 Gaming Keyboard (920-002762) £73.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £47.99
1 x LG CH10LS20 10x BluRay-ROM / 16x DVD±RW Drive - Black (Retail) £52.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £49.99
1 x Razer DeathAdder Respawn 3500dpi Xtreme Precision Gaming Mouse and FREE Boogie Bug AimB.Pad XL Gaming Mouse Surface £42.98
1 x Corsair Gaming Audio Series HS1A Analogue Gaming Headset £39.98
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £22.98
Total : £1,990.25 (includes shipping : £27.55).



Or you could go for the OCZ Z-Series 850W '80 Plus Gold' which is currently going for £92.99, and bring the price down by £61 ?

 

[Gregry254]

Nothing that you buy today will be up-to-date in 4 years, let alone 6 years.

He is right about technology moving fast. I built a decent spec PC 3 years ago and just had to upgrade last week so I can play BF3 on highest/ultra when it comes out.

If you are thinking about the future you will need a motherboard that is compatible with Ivy Bridge (Intel's next generation of processors which are due out next year) and PCI-E 3.0 which the next generation of graphics cards will be using (these should be released in a few weeks/months).

So something like:

i5 2500k - £160
Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 - £150
8GB 1600mhz RAM - £50
ATI 6950 - £200
throw in a decent power supply and case and that will last you 2 years at least for £1000 ish

Then when it begins to struggle you use that £1000 you have from this build to upgrade the CPU and graphics card or even build another system with what ever is out at the time?

 

[Ak!ta]

This is true nothing is really future proof for an extended time, however by selecting certain parts you can limit the need to upgrade as often. Also your peripherals should still be ok in a few years !

 

[Ak!ta]

Revised cheaper option. You can add another GPU at a later date if you feel the need !!


YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6950 TOXIC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE DIRT3 & Deus Ex Games £239.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £167.99
1 x BenQ G2420HDBL 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £159.98
1 x Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £154.98
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £134.99
1 x OCZ Z-Series 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £92.99
1 x Logitech Z523 2.1 Speaker System (980-000320) £69.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £47.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi Gaming Windowed Case - Black £56.99
1 x LG CH10LS20 10x BluRay-ROM / 16x DVD±RW Drive - Black (Retail) £52.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £49.99
1 x Razer DeathAdder Respawn 3500dpi Xtreme Precision Gaming Mouse and FREE Boogie Bug AimB.Pad XL Gaming Mouse Surface £42.98
1 x Corsair Gaming Audio Series HS1A Analogue Gaming Headset £39.98
1 x Microsoft SideWinder X4 Gaming Keyboard - Retail (JQD-00006) £34.98
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £22.98
Total : £1,471.25 (includes shipping : £27.55).

 

[olivier renault]

My contribution.


YOUR BASKET
2 x Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6950 TOXIC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE DIRT3 & Deus Ex Games £239.99 (£479.98)
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £167.99
1 x IIyama Prolite E2473HDS 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £161.99
1 x Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £154.98
1 x Corsair HX 850W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-850HXUK) £139.99
1 x Lancool Dragon-Lord PC-K62 Mid Tower Case with Window - Black £82.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £47.99
1 x Corsair Gaming Audio Series HS1 USB Gaming Headset £59.99
1 x Samsung SH-B123L/RSBP 12x BluRay ROM DVDRW DL & RAM Lightscribe SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (Retail) £52.80
1 x Thermalright Silver Arrow CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA775/AM2/AM3) £50.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £49.99
1 x Microsoft SideWinder X4 Gaming Keyboard - Retail (JQD-00006) £34.98
1 x Logitech G400 3600DPI Gaming Mouse (910-002279) £30.98
1 x Asus Xonar DG 5.1 PCI Sound Card with built in Headphone Amp £25.99
Total : £1,636.67 (includes shipping : £22.20).



You can always replace the GPU with a 580, the screen, the CPU with 2600K, the case with whatever, the PSU with a HX1050, or whatever if you feel you need more power, add SSD...

For gaming right now, the 2500K makes a lot more sense than the 2600K. Who knows in the future, but by then we'll be well into IvyBridge, which will out-perform either. Hence the gen 3 motherboard, and cheaper CPU. Besides, I would be surprised if in 3 years, games are so demanding a 2500K would struggle. The GPU is another matter, although to be perfectly honest, a 480 still holds its ground (It's between a 580 and a 570). A 580, a 570, or twin-6950 looks pretty future proof really. Single 580 / 570, and add one later (while the new gen comes out and these are getting cheaper), would seem the thing to do, since right now they will handle anything. I suppose the test will be Battlefield 3, then we'll know for sure.

But really, there are many ways to skin a cat with that budget. Post a build you like, and then we can tweak it.

 

[King Damager]

Been wanting to do a spec similar to this for a while


YOUR BASKET
2 x HIS ATI Radeon HD 6970 IceQ Turbo 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE DIRT3 & Deus Ex PC Games £279.98 (£559.96)
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £167.99
1 x Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £154.98
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £134.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 650D Gaming Midi Tower - Black £124.99
1 x OCZ Z-Series 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £92.99
3 x OcUK V-Line 221V2SB 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £83.99 (£251.97)
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £47.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £47.99
1 x Razer DeathAdder Respawn 3500 DPI Xtreme Precision Left Handed Edition Gaming Mouse - Retail £46.99
1 x Corsair Gaming Audio Series HS1A Analogue Gaming Headset £39.98
1 x Microsoft SideWinder X4 Gaming Keyboard - Retail (JQD-00006) £34.98
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £22.98
1 x Asus Xonar DG 5.1 PCI Sound Card with built in Headphone Amp - OEM £20.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222AL/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £1,835.16 (includes shipping : FREE).




6970 Xfire eyefinity

I did consider trying to fit 2 580's and 3D surround in instead, but 3D isn't supposed to be all it's made out to be....

As has already been said, you can't build a PC that'll last 6 years, but hopefully IVY and PCI3.0 support from the Mobo should minimise the parts you want to replace.

kd

 

[gari]

This is true nothing is really future proof for an extended time, however by selecting certain parts you can limit the need to upgrade as often. Also your peripherals should still be ok in a few years !

for example. you could ditch intel and build an amd system and have it much much much easier to upgrade in the future. pesky intel needing a new mobo every time they release a new chip!!

 

[fowler002]

for example. you could ditch intel and build an amd system and have it much much much easier to upgrade in the future. pesky intel needing a new mobo every time they release a new chip!!

and end up with a vastly inferior and slower pc
will have to see if bulldozer closes the gap at all.

 

[gari]

have you watched linus tech tips on youtube? he ran a intel v amd ultimate test, ther was not much difference, however, if some1 has got the funds to buy a 2k computer i dont supose they are bothered about needing to change the whole lot when they decide to upgrade

 

[Reaper 392]

damager, you do realise that the 6950 toxic can be made into a 6970 as well dont you?

@Suspect13: got a few questions

do you plan to do anything other than gaming and general use with the PC (video editing, recording your gaming, major photoshop work, cad/cam, etc)

also, would watercooling be any interest to you or would you prefer air cooling?

 

[IvanDobskey]

No way would I spend that much on a PC when you can get something that is 90% as good for half the price. If I had to spend that much, i'd put half of it into the monitor and get a top spec 30 incher.

 

[King Damager]

damager, you do realise that the 6950 toxic can be made into a 6970 as well dont you?

@suspect13: got a few questions

do you plan to do anything other than gaming and general use with the PC (video editing, recording your gaming, major photoshop work, cad/cam, etc)

also, would watercooling be any interest to you or would you prefer air cooling?

I forget which can be unlocked now a days...

kd

 

[Reaper 392]

I forget which can be unlocked now a days...

kd

the toxic is the only one unless you get lucky with a second hand one

 

[fowler002]

No way would I spend that much on a PC when you can get something that is 90% as good for half the price. If I had to spend that much, i'd put half of it into the monitor and get a top spec 30 incher.

little over half the budget on a screen? would need at least 2x 6950 2gb to get playable rate without turning down the detail too much, and thats £400+ of the budget, i2500k, mb(decent mb not one of the cheap ones), ram, cooler and psu(need at least a 650w but ideally 750w+ and non chepo ones cost £70+) thats another £400-£500 only leaving £100-£200 (or less if you go with 6950 toxics, 570s or even 580s) for os, hdd, case etc.

would be better off with u2711 or similar for one big screen or couple of smaller ones(u2412m?).


though with the new cards due out in the next 3-6months might be better to go for a cheaper card to tide you over and get the best one/s you can afford when they come out.

 

[olivier renault]

No way would I spend that much on a PC when you can get something that is 90% as good for half the price. If I had to spend that much, i'd put half of it into the monitor and get a top spec 30 incher.

yeah right...

Wait, I need display. Oh ****, £150. Then keyboard and mouse. Something that works... hmm about £70? I need OS too. ouch, £70, I'll stick with OEM. What about a nice set of cans or speakers? £50. Hey, SSDs are cool... £130. Fact is, without the barebones, you'll be running £400, £500 for all the rest. But in theory yes, the rest don't need to be more than £800-£1000. Still, nice components are nice. I wouldn't cheapen out on the case, PSU, motherboard just to get 'value' (OCZ PSU, No thanks). Unless you are indeed restricted by your budget.

 

[1uke]

Things I would change are try go for a coolermaster or corsair psu not ocz as from my experience they can be very loud. I would also recommend getting the biggest monitor for your budget maybe a dell ultrasharp 27" I have the 30" version and love it!! And surely to help furture proof his system and aid with cooling a full tower case like a Cooler Master HAF X Gaming Tower Case would be more suitable? Plus I think at least 2tb of hardrive space would help with video storage and photo storage etc. Plus maybe you should think about a external backup harddrive for those precious photos etc you don't want to ever lose and to help transfer things from computer to laptop etc. Almost forgot if I were getting the sandybridge cpu I would want a awsome cooler like a corsair hydro h100 to help get a nice stable 4.8ghz overclock. Might have to shrink the size of a ssd to fit these in but surely you dont need a big ssd for just a os?

 

[Hyburnate]

Dis my go

YOUR BASKET
2 x Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6950 TOXIC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE DIRT3 & Deus Ex Games £239.99 (£479.98)
1 x Asrock Fatal1ty Z68 Pro Gen 3 intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £209.98
1 x Corsair Professional Series AX850 High Performance 850W Modular '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply (CMPSU-850AXUK) £169.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £167.99
1 x IIyama Prolite X2472HD 24" Premium VA Panel Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £149.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 650D Gaming Midi Tower - Black £124.99
1 x Asus Xonar D2X 7.1 PCI-E Sound Card £86.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H80 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/LGA2011/AM2/AM3) £79.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £73.99
1 x Logitech G510 Gaming Keyboard (920-002762) £73.98
1 x Samsung SH-B123L/RSBP 12x BluRay ROM DVDRW DL & RAM Lightscribe SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (Retail) £52.80
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £47.99
1 x Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.C 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (0F10383) £38.99
1 x Razer Abyssus Mirror 3500 DPI Optical Gaming Mouse £34.99
1 x Boogie Bug AimB.Pad XL Gaming Mouse Surface £12.98
Total : £1,912.25 (includes shipping : £22.20).

 

[Reaper 392]

Things I would change are try go for a coolermaster or corsair psu not ocz as from my experience they can be very loud.

the OCZ that has been recommended hasnt had any complaints about the noise in the reviews, its been highly recommended in most places with the only problem being the price (which OcUK has taken care of ). i would also steer clear of coolermaster PSU's. theres nothing technichally wrong with them, but you can get a hell of a lot better. Antec, corsair, lepa, corsair and some OCZ's are the ones you want to go for if your buying from OcUK

I would also recommend getting the biggest monitor for your budget maybe a dell ultrasharp 27" I have the 30" version and love it!!

*jealous*

And surely to help furture proof his system and aid with cooling a full tower case like a Cooler Master HAF X Gaming Tower Case would be more suitable?

the only slightly questionable case recommendation size wise so far is the bitfenix shinobi, however OcUK has proved that its quite happy with dual graphics card builds. dont get me wrong, the coolermaster HAF X is a great case but so are the others that have been recommended

Plus I think at least 2tb of hardrive space would help with video storage and photo storage etc. Plus maybe you should think about a external backup harddrive for those precious photos etc you don't want to ever lose and to help transfer things from computer to laptop etc.

nice thought

Almost forgot if I were getting the sandybridge cpu I would want a awsome cooler like a corsair hydro h100 to help get a nice stable 4.8ghz overclock.

great cooler, yes, corsair H100, no. its WAY too expensive for what it is. you could get proper watercooling for about that money which will be far better than the H100. i'd recommend the themalright silver arrow if you wanted to do air cooling, or the OcUK h2flo and a couple of decent fans if you really wanted a prebuilt watercooler.
or, with the budget the OP has he could go for watercooling everything (which is why i asked if the OP was interested in watercooling)

might have to shrink the size of a ssd to fit these in but surely you dont need a big ssd for just a os?

the reason everyone on OcUK generally recommends a big SSD is because its not just for the OS. you can use it for your favourite games and most common programs, as well as the drive for the OS and 20GB for intel's smartcaching

ps. i'm trying my best to say this in a way that doesnt make me seem patronising, but i'm failing miserably, so please dont take offence at my criticisms