Gaming Rig (£1000-ish)

Caporegime
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Aberdeenshire
Hi Folks,

Just like everyone else in here I'm looking to build my own Gaming PC, ideally with about 2 years of playing new games, and then anothe few years of keepign up with new games (if that makes sense)

I am currently thinking;

Asrock P67 Motherboard

OCuK OEM i7-2700K

560Ti Gigabyte GeForce GTX

Corsair 8Gb (2x4Gb)

OCZ 1kW PSU

Lian Li Midi Tower

SSD OCZ Vertex 160Gb

I don't need a keyboard, mouse or Monitor. Its coming in at £1050, there or there abouts.

I haven't built a rig in over 10 years, so all these developments are new to me. So I just wanted someone to give this an eyeball to see if I have missed anything, or there is a glaring error with what I am speccing.
 
You've selected an OEM CPU, which means it won't come with a CPU So you will need to get an after market cooler. For £25 you can get an A50 or a geid tranquillo. For a bit more you can get a noctuca D14. This will ensure you can get your 2700K upto 5Ghz.

Have you got an optical drive?
Have you any need for a big HDD? or is the SSD space sufficent?

Unless you are planning to go SLI you have no need for a 1KW PSU a 600W-650W PSU will do you fine.

The Asrock Z68 Mobo's come with PCI gen3 compatibility which means it will run the upcoming 7*** series and 6** series GPU's.

The GTX 560ti is a great card; though if you have a bit of extra cash, itll be worth having a GTX 570 instead.

HALT!

I found an error, your case (though it is a georgous case) only accepts mATX and ITX motherboards where as you've linked a ATX motherboard.
You will need to have a look at ATX cases. I do love lian li cases.

This case @ £110 will be great., if you like the look of it.
 
i'd swap the 2700K for the 2500K if your looking to gaming, unless theres a particular reason you've gone for the 2700 ?

well i'd swap the motherboard to a z68 version, have a lok at the asrock extreme 4 gen3, or the gigabyte Z68XP-UD3.

ssd wise have a look at the crucial m4 128gb (£140 at the moment).

case wise check out the corsair carbide 400r or the bit fenix gaming case.
 
Last edited:
i'd swap the 2700K for the 2500K if your looking to gaming, unless theres a particular reason you've gone for the 2700 ?

well i'd swap the motherboard to a z68 version, have a lok at the asrock extreme 4 gen3, or the gigabyte Z68XP-UD3.

ssd wise have a look at the crucial m4 128gb (£140 at the moment).

case wise check out the corsair carbide 400r or the bit fenix gaming case.

THIS

Was about to write pretty much the same thing. But if you cant aford the 128GB just get the 64 and install things you use a lot on it then link it through the Z68 board to that new rapid search or whatever its called feature.
 
I would say this is a better rig than what you put together originally and it incorporates what other have said above:

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 570 OC WINDFORCE 3X 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with FREE Batman: Arkham City PC game** £257.99
(£214.99) £257.99
(£214.99)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £167.99
(£139.99) £167.99
(£139.99)
OCZ ZX Series 1000W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £149.99
(£124.99) £149.99
(£124.99)
Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £149.99
(£124.99) £149.99
(£124.99)
Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3P Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £119.99
(£99.99) £119.99
(£99.99)
Corsair Carbide 400R Midi Tower Case - Black £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £42.98
(£35.82) £42.98
(£35.82)
Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM3) £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
Sub Total : £840.75
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £170.65
Total : £1,023.90


Got a great CPU cooler there too and a PSU that will easily alow for another 570 shud you wish to add another in the future. You could drop the PSU a little and save some money but I wouldn't bother. I'd just overclock that i5 2500k to 5.0Ghz and clock that 570 to 580 levels and boom - nice rig.

Wu
 
Sorry to ask in somebody elses thread but i just bought a 570 and im looking to SLI in the future. Im looking at getting an 850w corsair modular PSU. Reckon its worth upping that to 1000w?
 
[WU-TANG]GZA;20449089 said:
I would say this is a better rig than what you put together originally and it incorporates what other have said above:

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 570 OC WINDFORCE 3X 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with FREE Batman: Arkham City PC game** £257.99
(£214.99) £257.99
(£214.99)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £167.99
(£139.99) £167.99
(£139.99)
OCZ ZX Series 1000W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £149.99
(£124.99) £149.99
(£124.99)
Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £149.99
(£124.99) £149.99
(£124.99)
Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3P Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £119.99
(£99.99) £119.99
(£99.99)
Corsair Carbide 400R Midi Tower Case - Black £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £42.98
(£35.82) £42.98
(£35.82)
Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM3) £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
Sub Total : £840.75
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £170.65
Total : £1,023.90


Got a great CPU cooler there too and a PSU that will easily alow for another 570 shud you wish to add another in the future. You could drop the PSU a little and save some money but I wouldn't bother. I'd just overclock that i5 2500k to 5.0Ghz and clock that 570 to 580 levels and boom - nice rig.

Wu

I went for this list - but got the SOC graphics card, as it has a faster clock speed. And went for the 2133Mhz 2x2Gb ram sticks.

But besides that - thanks for all the help folks!! I even managed to pay with paypal, so I can get Amex points!!
 
Well, kindoff,

The cooler is rather large, and the XMS3 would have been suggested so you can do this,

DSCF2664.jpg


You see how the ram fits under the fan because of the low profile heatsinks.


Other wise you have to do something like this with the mounting of the cooler,

IMG_0767.jpg


The Akasa venom isnt that much different in size to the Titan Fenrir above, mounting the cooler sideways so the fan is below or above doesn't help much as the ram slots on the Gigabyte are a bit closer to the cpu socket than other boards I have used.

My advice?

1) swap the RAM back, all the sandybridge ram guides show that 1600MHz is plenty.

Or

2) swap the cooler for a Antec Kuhler 620.
 
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Nah, went for the 2133Mhz, unfortunately I'm guessing your going to tell me i have done something wrong.

They might be too high (physically) and they are definitely too high price wise man. £90 for 4GB is sooo 2008.

If you can change it, I would and change it to:

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

or if the height isnt an issue hell you could get this for less money:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-310-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517
 
Trying to get the cooler swapped out, my order is in "security validation" so hopefully I might be able to get it changed.
 
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-093-TR&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395 £5 cheaper than the one wu-tang suggested(well until tomorrow night, goes back up wednesday morning), can't tell you which is better tho).

was going to link to the lepa g-series 900w but seems ocuk have removed it from the website, was £130 so £20 cheaper than the ocz and still be able to handle 570 sli.

would suggest the asrock extreme4 gen3 but the price has gone back up to £180, they reduced it to £150 awhile back then increased to £160 and looking today £180.

yes I know its going against what everyone is saying but i2700k oem for easy 5ghz on air(less voltages needed than with i2500k). :)
 
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