Gaming rig recommendations

xirus · 14 Sep 2011 at 11:55

Hi,

I've posted on this forum before and been able to gather some more info on what kind of build I want. Been aiming for around 400 to spend however I can stretch a bit. I have some choices for some of the parts and would like some recommendations (mostly cost effective) or anything else I may have missed. Looking to use this for gaming-starcraft2 and for uni work-programming. I'm interested whether I can use the 'mini-tower' cases in such a rig or not.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated

CPU:
1) Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £94.99
OR
2) Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £109.99

GFX:
1) Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE DIRT3 & Deus Ex PC Games £119.99
OR
2) OcUK GeForce GTX 460 768MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - OEM £85.99

CASE:
1) Fractal Design Arc Mini Tower Case - Black £66.98
OR
2) Cooler Master Elite 360 Mini Tower Case - Black £30.98
OR
3) Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £44.99

PSU:
1) Antec TruePower New Modular 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
OR
2) OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £54.98
OR
3) Lepa W-Series 500W '80 Plus' Power Supply £46.99

MOBO:
1) MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** £64.99
OR
2) Gigabyte H61M-S2V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £49.99

DVD:
Samsung SH-S222AL/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98

HDD:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500413AS) £31.99

RAM:
Corsair Value 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low Voltage Dual-Channel Kit £23.98

stulid · 14 Sep 2011 at 12:01

As you cant overclock the CPU, get the fastest you can, so the 2120.

GFX,

I wouldnt want a 768NB card these days, get a 1GB GTX460 or the 6850,

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-160-EA&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1830
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-041-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1866

CASE,

Get the Zalman, lots of fans fitted as standard and good room inside.

PSU,

Either of those choices are good, the Antec is better and modular cabling.

MOBO,

The MSI has SATA3.0 and USB3.0 so get that.

Reaper 392 · 14 Sep 2011 at 12:05

stulid said:
As you cant overclock the CPU, get the fastest you can, so the 2120.

I wouldnt want a 768NB card these days, get a 1GB GTX460 or the 6850,

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-160-EA&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1830

whichever way you look at it the 1GB 460 just isnt worth the money. because the 1GB OEM card isnt available its only another £5 to get the OcUK 6870

stulid · 14 Sep 2011 at 12:08

Reaper 392 said:
whichever way you look at it the 1GB 460 just isnt worth the money. because the 1GB OEM card isnt available its only another £5 to get the OcUK 6870

?

That EVGA is £120 and the cheapest 6870 is £131.

So NO, get the 1GB GTX460 from EVGA in this case.

xirus · 14 Sep 2011 at 12:23

Thanks for the input, I'm worried about the case though the zalman seems much larger than the cooler master, can't find the dimensions of the fractal though.

stulid · 14 Sep 2011 at 12:25

xirus said:
Thanks for the input, I'm worried about the case though the zalman seems much larger than the cooler master, can't find the dimensions of the fractal though.

http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=product&category=2&prod=59

Case size (WxHxD): 210x405x484mm with front and top bezel in place

This one is small also - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-016-FD&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=1556

Reaper 392 · 14 Sep 2011 at 12:58

stulid said:
?

That EVGA is £120 and the cheapest 6870 is £131.

So NO, get the 1GB GTX460 from EVGA in this case.

ah, i forgot its wednesday today

carry on