Gaming Spec Advice - £650-700 Budget

[Ewaf]

Hi all,

I've decided now is the time to build a new gaming rig, and since the last spec I received from OcUK lasted me a good 3 years I would love your input once again. (Is Stulid still around? He was extremely helpful 3 years ago! )

Here is a breakdown of requirements:

• Would like to stick to £650 but willing to stretch to £700 for noticable performance gains
• Monitor, OS and Peripherals are NOT required
• I have a 500GB Seagate Barracuda which seems to be in good health, if budget permits I would love an SSD
• I also have an optical drive, this is not needed in the budget.
• Primary uses are gaming, would love the spec to run BF4 well. I understand I wont be able to max BF4 with this budget
• I want to avoid buying into a dead socket if possible, would love Haswell if budget permits.
• I game at 1920 x 1080
• I intend on getting the Corsair Carbide 300R case, but if there are better cases around that price range please let me know.
• Please ignore the cost of the case in the budget (as if I already have it)

I hope that covers everything, really looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with. I am happy to overclock to ensure I get the best bang for my buck (as long as overclocking haswell CPU's is relatively straight forward? Not clued up on current stuff at all.).

Thanks in advance.

EDIT - Purchased So Far:
Intel Core i5-4670K
Gigabyte Z87-D3HP
Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA
Corsair Builder Series CX 600w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply
Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual CHannel Kit

Left to buy:
Case
Graphics card

 

[DaleTheWhale]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £197.99
1 x MSI HD 7950 Twin Frozr III Boost Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **NEW REVISION** with FREE GAMES £189.95
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £103.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual CHannel Kit (PV38G213C1K) £65.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
Total : £704.89 (includes shipping : FREE).



Missing: Optical Drive, Aftermarket Cooler.

 

[Ewaf]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £197.99
1 x MSI HD 7950 Twin Frozr III Boost Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **NEW REVISION** with FREE GAMES £189.95
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £103.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual CHannel Kit (PV38G213C1K) £65.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
Total : £704.89 (includes shipping : FREE).



Missing: Optical Drive, Aftermarket Cooler.

Wow, that was quick. You also reminded me that I already have an optical drive too, so edited the original post.

Do you have any recommendation for an after market cooler? How easy is it to overclock that CPU?

 

[Doomedspeed]

Wow, that was quick. You also reminded me that I already have an optical drive too, so edited the original post.

Do you have any recommendation for an after market cooler? How easy is it to overclock that CPU?

Noctua D14 will ift and is a beast of a cooler.. They are pretty simple to Overclock, shoudl be able to hit 4.4

The OP says you game at 1440 x 1080p, that doesn't make sense, can you confirm which it is?

 

[Ewaf]

Noctua D14 will ift and is a beast of a cooler.. They are pretty simple to Overclock, shoudl be able to hit 4.4

The OP says you game at 1440 x 1080p, that doesn't make sense, can you confirm which it is?

The Noctua looks great. Err yea I cocked up there.. its 1920 x 1080! Will amend!

 

[Ewaf]

Is there an alternative to that noctua cooler? More I look at it the more I dislike the two tone brown

 

[Ewaf]

Would love some further advice on specs before I take the plunge!

 

[danewesley]

You can get the phanteks although its more expensive but is an amazing cooler, there is a corsair h100 refurbished model for like £45, would look ace in the build, comes with a 90 day guarantee.

 

[Ewaf]

Doesn't look like the h100 fits in a corsair 300R?

Looking for some more Haswell Specs peeps

 

[Ewaf]

Someone advised me that I should drop the SSD in favour for a better graphics card. Thoughts on this?

 

[teppic]

To get a better card you'd go to the 7970 - but it's not worth dropping the SSD for, a 7950 overclocked is as fast as a stock 7970 anyway.

 

[Fulax]

Recently put an SSD in my laptop - can't recommend them enough.

 

[stulid]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £197.99
1 x MSI HD 7950 Twin Frozr III Boost Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **NEW REVISION** with FREE GAMES £189.95
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £103.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual CHannel Kit (PV38G213C1K) £65.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
Total : £704.89 (includes shipping : FREE).



Missing: Optical Drive, Aftermarket Cooler.

Yeah I'm still around.

The above spec is about as good as it gets, me personally would be trying this RAM,

YOUR BASKET
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit (TXD38G2666HC11CDC01) £65.99
Total : £74.69 (includes shipping : £7.25).

 

[Ewaf]

Many thanks for poking your head in stulid. Any reasoning behind ram choice?

 

[stulid]

Many thanks for poking your head in stulid. Any reasoning behind ram choice?

Stupid speed really for the price.

 

[Ewaf]

I see. I have just put together the build on a compatibility checker, and I get the following:

Team Xtreem 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2666 Memory operating voltage of 1.65V exceeds the Intel Haswell CPU recommended maximum of 1.5V+5% (1.575V). This memory module may run at a reduced clock rate to meet the 1.5V voltage recommendation, or may require running at a voltage greater than the Intel recommended maximum.

Any idea if this is correct? Any other possible issues I may encounter with this build?

Many thanks

 

[Doomedspeed]

I'd personal go weitht he Viper RAM, that runs at 1.5v (so no issues there) and is low profile.. Im not a fan of high profile RAM.

 

[FRAGMAYO]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £197.99
1 x MSI HD 7950 Twin Frozr III Boost Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **NEW REVISION** with FREE GAMES £189.95
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £103.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual CHannel Kit (PV38G213C1K) £65.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
Total : £704.89 (includes shipping : FREE).



Missing: Optical Drive, Aftermarket Cooler.

I am looking at this spec too, as it is looks around about the same as what im looking for.

I was looking at the PSU and it says nothing about it being a haswell compatible PSU?

Could someone please cure my confusion

Thanks

 

[Ewaf]

Hmm good point, would also like some clarification on the PSU and Haswell.

 

[stulid]

That PSU is fine, most PSU's are fine with Haswell, this whole "Haswell compatible" thing was blown out of proportion early on in the chipsets/CPU life.