Final spec check:

Qel · 5 Feb 2013 at 08:16

OK, my brother is looking to upgrade/get a new pc. Mainly for Planetside 2 but also Skyrim, BF3, WoW etc, possibly a little light photoshop and general office stuff. Using 1440x900 resolution at the moment, may change in the future. Looking to order in the next week or so. For reference his current PC has a Q6600, Ati 5770 and 8gb ddr 2.

Some things to preface it with:

SSD - I know people will say get one, it will probably be a future addition in a month or two, but not right at the moment.
Hard drives - he has two 1tb drives from an old pc so will be using those for the time being at least.
He has a Corsair TX650M PSU doing nothing at the moment so I was hoping that would be good enough for the spec below?

Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail

Asus P8Z77-V LX Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard

Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit - is 2x 8gb or 4x 4gb a better way to go/any difference at all?

Samsung SH-224BB/BEBE 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM

Antec P183 V3 Super Midi Tower Case - Gun Metal Black

Antec TrueQuiet 120 120mm Case Fan - Thinking I'd put two of these in as front intake fans, possibly remove the top hard drive cage which I may need to for the graphics card anyway.

Comes to £733.40

So, I hope that will work ok and be a worthwhile improvement for him, welcome suggestions but please aim to keep it under £800 if you change anything (and please give a reason for the changes).

Thanks.

Doomedspeed · 5 Feb 2013 at 08:33

That's a good start. Though I would make a few changes.

Swap the motherboard for the z77 d3h. Cheaper and better, won loads of awards.

Get low profile Ram. The ram you picked is tall and could clash with an air cooler.

Get an after market air cooler. These are quieter and provide much better cooling for your CPU. The 612s is a good cooler at a good price.

I love the case you've picked.

Qel · 5 Feb 2013 at 09:34

Thanks for the reply.

I'll swap to the same ram but low profile, same price anyway, and look at the cooler later.

On the MB I'm sure I read somewhere that those boards had issues with the 7950 in some way? Have always bought Asus previously so in what way is the Gigabyte better for my purposes? Not necessarily against changing it, just want to know the reasoning behind that statement.

Thanks.

Doomedspeed · 5 Feb 2013 at 12:09

Low profile RAM is always better, normally cheaper too..

I don't know how it could have an issue with a specific GPU, that seems odd. I have a gigabyte board myself and can say that i would buy another from them, i have has zero issues with it.

Gigabyte also has UK Customer Service centres and UK RMA, so if things do go wrong, replacing the board will be easy.

It also has many reviewer plaudits, which fills me with conidence.

Qel · 5 Feb 2013 at 15:49

Ok thanks for the suggestions.

Qel · 5 Feb 2013 at 19:20

Anyone else with anything to add? PSU ok etc?

Idleman · 5 Feb 2013 at 20:15

Change mobo and added an aftermarket cooler. LP ram so it would`nt interfere with the cooler. The 300R because I think it is a better all round case than the 183.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £239.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x GeIL EVO Leggera 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL316GB1600C9DC) £79.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black £64.99
1 x Noctua NH-U12P SE2 Dual Fan Quiet CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £52.99
1 x Samsung SH-224BB/BEBE 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £20.99
Total : £733.93 (includes shipping : £12.50).