Gaming machine

Katsumoto

Katsumoto

Katsumoto

Associate
Joined
28 May 2012
Posts
400
Location
England
So the time is here. I have the money if I want to buy this thing now. But recently I have become worried. I have never had much hardware knowledge and never assembled a PC, so for the price of what I want i'd have OCUK build it for me. I simply do not trust myself with the price of the components...

Below is my spec. Fairly sure it'll be plenty good enough. Opted for the AMD 7970 simply because I was looking at a GTX 670 but then realised it wasn't a huge price leap to the 7970 which presumably is a better GPU in general. Didn't go for a 680 because that's another price leap. If anyone knows of a better spec via the configuration thing on the ocuk site or another decent, similarly priced pre-built system with the odd upgrade let me know.

Budget £2000 including peripherals and monitor. Also operating system.


YOUR BASKET
1 x "Ultima 9300i Prism" Intel Core i7 3820 3.60GHz @ 4.20GHz DDR3 Quad Core System £814.94
- 1 x System 12 Months Standard Warranty £0.00
- 1 x FREE PANDA 180 Day Trial Anti Virus £0.00
- 1 x Intel 330 Series 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £95.99
- 1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £83.99
- 1 x Asus HD 7970 DirectCU II 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - AMD 3 for FREE Promotion £339.95
- 1 x Asus PCE-N53 300Mbps Dual-Band Wireless-N600 PCI-E Adapter £35.98
- 1 x CM Storm Trooper Full Tower Gaming Case - Black £109.98
1 x Dell UltraSharp U2410 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey £359.99
1 x Saitek Cyborg R.A.T. 7 5600 DPI Gaming Mouse £76.99
1 x Saitek Cyborg V7 Illuminated Gaming Keyboard £54.98
1 x Creative A60 2.0 Speaker System (51MF1635AA001) £14.99
1 x Razer Goliathus Omega Fragged Control Gaming Mouse Pad £13.99
Total : £2,034.41 (includes shipping : £27.20).



*Does anyone know if the motherboard supports HDMI?

Also I have one alterate so far:


YOUR BASKET
1 x "Titan 8600i Polar" Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.30GHz DDR3 Quad Core System £1450.00
- 1 x NZXT Phantom 410 Enthusiast Midi Tower Case - White £84.98
- 1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £83.99
- 1 x Opt Out of FREE AV Software £0.00
- 1 x No Sound Card Upgrade £0.00
- 1 x System 12 Months Standard Warranty £0.00
- 1 x No Graphics Card Upgrade £0.00
- 1 x Asus PCE-N15 300Mbps 802.11B/G/N Wireless PCI-E Network Adapter £29.99
1 x Dell UltraSharp U2410 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey £359.99
1 x Saitek Cyborg R.A.T. 7 5600 DPI Gaming Mouse £76.99
1 x Saitek Cyborg V7 Illuminated Gaming Keyboard £54.98
1 x Creative A60 2.0 Speaker System (51MF1635AA001) £14.99
1 x Razer Goliathus Omega Fragged Control Gaming Mouse Pad £13.99
Total : £2,202.54 (includes shipping : £27.20).

 
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After having a quick play around for £2000 this is what I came up with if you chose to go down the self build route.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 680 WindForce 3x OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £429.95
1 x Dell UltraSharp U2410 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey £359.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT256M4SSD2) £158.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard with FREE BOOGIE BUG XXL GAMING MOUSE MAT £129.98
1 x Corsair HX 850W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-850HXUK) £121.99
1 x NZXT Phantom 410 Enthusiast Midi Tower Case - White £84.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £83.99
1 x Saitek Cyborg R.A.T. 7 5600 DPI Gaming Mouse £76.99
1 x Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler - Silver (Socket LGA 2011/1155/1156/1366/775/AMD AM2/2+/AM3) £66.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £65.99
2 x Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit £59.99 (119.98)
1 x Saitek Cyborg V7 Illuminated Gaming Keyboard £54.98
1 x Creative T3130 2.1 Speaker System (51MF0395AA003) £34.99
1 x LG GH24NS90 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
Total : £2,021.82 (includes shipping : £27.55).



This was just me having a quick play around, given more time it could be made even better. The PSU is over kill but it will let you go SLI later on without any problems.

May I ask what has caused your concern with trying to self build? As I had similar concerns when getting my first gaming PC a few years ago, I didn't have the confidence to build my own so I bought a prebuilt system from OcUK, I ended up paying more than I should have for the system. Also the concerns that I had about self building it turned into a an unwillingness to tinker around with it to much for fear of breaking it. Since I have build my new computer (sooner than I hoped to given the price of the old one) I'm am more willing to tinker around with it and have a much better understanding of how everything works.
 
I don't know enough about monitors etc. to do a full spec but like above there is not difference with i5 and i7 for gaming.
This is really the only processor anyone would recommend for gaming:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99

The 7970 is actually worse than the 670 at stock speeds but when both are overclocked the 7970 is slightly better.

You can get it OEM for £12 cheaper.

I would get either
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7970 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - AMD 3 for FREE Promotion £349.99


OR
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 Windforce 3X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £339.95



I would self build if I was you, as it can be around £120 cheaper, but if you have up to £2k to spend then you might want to spend extra on having them build it.
 
Fire_fly said:
This was just me having a quick play around, given more time it could be made even better. The PSU is over kill but it will let you go SLI later on without any problems.

May I ask what has caused your concern with trying to self build? As I had similar concerns when getting my first gaming PC a few years ago, I didn't have the confidence to build my own so I bought a prebuilt system from OcUK, I ended up paying more than I should have for the system. Also the concerns that I had about self building it turned into a an unwillingness to tinker around with it to much for fear of breaking it. Since I have build my new computer (sooner than I hoped to given the price of the old one) I'm am more willing to tinker around with it and have a much better understanding of how everything works.
Click to expand...

The price of it if I mess up. I'd happily try my hand at a cheap system in the £400 region. I'm known as the least practical man in the world in my house lol, great mind for theory or thinking critically and making things up but actually doing stuff (that isn't squash/ice hockey) i'm awful.
 
Have a read of, and watch some guilds. It is not that difficult just read through all of your instructions before you begin.
 
If you can build it yourself (which isn't hard, I've recently completed my first build and it's amazingly simple) you can get this:


YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - SLI PACK with FREE Max Payne 3 PC DVD Game & NVIDIA GPU Keyring £630.00
1 x Dell UltraSharp U2412M 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Midnight Grey £227.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Asus P8Z77-V PRO Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £159.98
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC256N/EU) £147.98
1 x Corsair HX 750W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-750HXUK) £99.98
1 x NZXT Phantom 410 Enthusiast Midi Tower Case - White £84.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £83.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £69.95
1 x Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler - Blue (Socket LGA 2011/1155/1156/1366/775/AMD AM2/2+/AM3) £66.98
1 x Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit £59.99
1 x Saitek Cyborg V7 Illuminated Gaming Keyboard £54.98
1 x Logitech G500 5700DPI Gaming Mouse (910-001262) £36.98
1 x Creative T3130 2.1 Speaker System (51MF0395AA003) £34.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/RSMS 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black/Silver/Biege) - Retail £17.99
Total : £1,996.25 (includes shipping : £32.90).



Awesome screen, Sli 670's which is incredibly powerful, i5 (obviously), one of the best cpu air coolers, great case, large ssd, large amound of storage, good keyboard/mouse, awesome ram... all for a smidgen under 2k

I'm still getting my head around Sli 670's...

Enjoy :)
 
Coming down to system config vs pre-built. Can you get system-configuration specced systems on finance does anyone know? That way I can also afford a car.

Anyway here is what it appears to have come down to.


YOUR BASKET
1 x "Ultima 9550i Tyrannosaur MKIII" Intel Core i7 3770K 3.50GHz @ 4.50GHz DDR3 Quad Core Ivybridge Nvidia GTX 680 System £1554.98
- 1 x Intel 330 Series 60GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £49.99
- 1 x FREE PANDA 180 Day Trial Anti Virus £0.00
- 1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £83.99
- 1 x System 12 Months Standard Warranty £0.00
- 1 x No Graphics Card Upgrade £0.00
- 1 x NZXT Phantom Enthusiast USB3.0 Full Tower Case - Black £99.98
1 x Intel Z77 Ivybridge 10200i Configurator - Extreme Gaming System £1906.64
- No Security Software
- Monitor Not Selected
- System build fan. Sharkoon 2000rpm Golf Ball (temporarily out of stock)
- Full Cable Management
- TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless-N USB Adapter (TL-WN821N)
- No Case Mods Wanted
- Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050)
- OCZ ZX Series 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply
- Onboard Sound Card (ZERO COST)
- Hitachi CH10N-BL Blu-Ray Reader / DVD±RW Drive - OEM
- No RAID Option (ZERO Cost)
- Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003)
- SanDisk Ultra SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA II Solid State Hard Drive - (SDSSDH-120G-G25)
- KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
- KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
- Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10)
- Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
- Prolimatech Genesis Mega Performing CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1366/1155/1156/AMD AM2/ AM2+/AM3)
- No Overclocking Options (Zero Cost)
- Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail
- NZXT Phantom Enthusiast USB3.0 Full Tower Case - Black
1 x Razer Goliathus Omega Fragged Control Gaming Mouse Pad £13.99
Total : £3,744.98 (includes shipping : £29.50).



I'm still not comfortable building myself. Once purchased i'll learn the ins and outs for upgrades etc but for now, no. Which one do you guys think is better? I think my own spec from the config but can I get that on finance?

*Edit: I'd have a sata 3 SSD on the config build, little mistake there.
* Yes I decided to up the budget a little.
 
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