Help spec a noob a gaming PC!

ciyan

ciyan

ciyan

Associate
Joined
15 Oct 2005
Posts
197
Hi guys,

Ok, so I haven't really been into PC hardware for about... 6 years? So I'm really not confident on choosing the components. I reckon I should be able to build it though, it's still fairly easy, right?

So I've got around £900 to spend and would like something that can play the latest games well. I could push that a bit if it's necessary though. I've had a look at the thread that's stickied at the top, and I'd prefer not to go over £1000, but could I essentially just stick to that?

Also, I've heard there's a problem with the new intel sandy bridge motherboards. What's actually the advantage of the new motherboards? Can I not go with an older chipset? I'm never going to over clock so dont think the sandy bridge motherboards need to be for me. Am I right, or am I completely missing something? This is actually what worries me with the spec in stickied thread, wouldn't steering clear of sandy bridge be best for now?

Thank you so much guys!
 
Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
KFA2 GeForce GTX 560Ti EX OC Edition 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £204.98
(£170.82) £204.98
(£170.82)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £189.98
(£158.32) £189.98
(£158.32)
Asus P8P67 PRO Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) £151.99
(£126.66) £151.99
(£126.66)
Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1) £89.99
(£74.99) £89.99
(£74.99)
XFX Pro 750W Core Edition Power Supply £73.99
(£61.66) £73.99
(£61.66)
Coolermaster CM-690 II Lite Dominator Case - Black £61.26
(£51.05) £61.26
(£51.05)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £44.99
(£37.49) £44.99
(£37.49)
GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Dual Channel (GVP34GB1600C9DC) £31.98
(£26.65) £31.98
(£26.65)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.19
(£10.99) £13.19
(£10.99)
Sub Total : £718.63
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £145.83
Total : £874.96

the sandybridge issue affects some of the SATA2.0 ports, luckily the ASUS board above has loads of better SATA3.0 you can use instead, plus you can always send the board back for a replacement once the issue is sorted out.

and basically Sandybridge is better than anything else.
 
Last edited:
And the other good thing with Asus is theyre offering first year advance replacement on RMAs, result
Great build above, Id be tempted to change the gfx card to the gigabyte SOC, but theyre already overdue so not 100% sure what the stock position on them is, might be worth checking with the shop if they are just slightly late or delayed indefinitely, if the former Id wait, if latter then just go with the KFA
 
I'm really not keen on building my computer twice though! Frankly, it's gonna take me an entire day to build it the first time round, so i'd rather not do it twice! Also, why the 64gb sold state drive? For the OS?

So i'll have 4 working SATA ports with this board? Three will be taken up by the hard drives and the dvd drive, so that'll leave 1 free. What's the chance i'll need to use another two?
 
For the £200 mark, surely the HD6950 is the better choice?

Already beats the GTX560, by a fair margin, and when flashed (yes I know its not guaranteed) to a HD6970 it's a very very fast card indeed, and can be CFd later in the future.

Also has less power draw, and from the benchmark I've seen runs slightly cooler.

Wouldn't alter a thing with the rest of Stulids spec though, pretty much spot on.
 
Ok, so I think i'm gonna go with pretty much stulid's spec, so thanks a lot stulid. My one and only curiosity however is with the graphics card. Wouldn't it be better to go with the GTX 480 for just £3 more, or even the Radeon 6950? Both seem to score equal to, or higher, in the vast majority of benchmarks i've seen and they cost just a few pounds more.

Or does everyone agree with the 560ti?

Thanks guys.
 
ciyan said:
Ok, so I think i'm gonna go with pretty much stulid's spec, so thanks a lot stulid. My one and only curiosity however is with the graphics card. Wouldn't it be better to go with the GTX 480 for just £3 more, or even the Radeon 6950? Both seem to score equal to, or higher, in the vast majority of benchmarks i've seen and they cost just a few pounds more.

Or does everyone agree with the 560ti?

Thanks guys.
Click to expand...

I am just redoing the spec, as its been a few days and prices have changed.
 
ok then.

with the GTX560ti

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560Ti OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £191.99
(£159.99) £191.99
(£159.99)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £184.99
(£154.16) £184.99
(£154.16)
Asus P8P67 PRO Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) £144.98
(£120.82) £144.98
(£120.82)
Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1) £95.99
(£79.99) £95.99
(£79.99)
XFX Pro 650W Core Edition Power Supply £68.99
(£57.49) £68.99
(£57.49)
Coolermaster CM-690 II Lite Dominator Case - Black £58.99
(£49.16) £58.99
(£49.16)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM 1yr Warranty (ST31000518AS) £37.99
(£31.66) £37.99
(£31.66)
OCZ Special OPS 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3SOE1600LV4GK) £25.99
(£21.66) £25.99
(£21.66)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.98
(£11.65) £13.98
(£11.65)
Sub Total : £686.58
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.25
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £139.57
Total : £837.40

the motherboard does sli, and the psu has plenty of power to run two of the cards.
 
with a GTX480

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Asus GeForce GTX 480 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Far Cry 2 £207.98
(£173.32) £207.98
(£173.32)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £184.99
(£154.16) £184.99
(£154.16)
Asus P8P67 PRO Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) £144.98
(£120.82) £144.98
(£120.82)
Corsair HX 850W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-850HXUK) £140.99
(£117.49) £140.99
(£117.49)
Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1) £95.99
(£79.99) £95.99
(£79.99)
Coolermaster CM-690 II Lite Dominator Case - Black £58.99
(£49.16) £58.99
(£49.16)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM 1yr Warranty (ST31000518AS) £37.99
(£31.66) £37.99
(£31.66)
OCZ Special OPS 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3SOE1600LV4GK) £25.99
(£21.66) £25.99
(£21.66)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.98
(£11.65) £13.98
(£11.65)
Sub Total : £759.91
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £154.08
Total : £924.49

you need a bigger psu to run two GTX480's in sli, so have swapped to a modular 850w psu.
 
again with a GTX480

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Asus GeForce GTX 480 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Far Cry 2 £207.98
(£173.32) £207.98
(£173.32)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £184.99
(£154.16) £184.99
(£154.16)
MSI P67A-C45 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) £104.99
(£87.49) £104.99
(£87.49)
Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1) £95.99
(£79.99) £95.99
(£79.99)
Antec TruePower New Modular 650W Power Supply £89.99
(£74.99) £89.99
(£74.99)
Coolermaster CM-690 II Lite Dominator Case - Black £58.99
(£49.16) £58.99
(£49.16)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM 1yr Warranty (ST31000518AS) £37.99
(£31.66) £37.99
(£31.66)
OCZ Special OPS 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3SOE1600LV4GK) £25.99
(£21.66) £25.99
(£21.66)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.98
(£11.65) £13.98
(£11.65)
Sub Total : £684.08
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.25
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £139.07
Total : £834.40

but the motherboard only supports a single graphics card, and have altered the psu accordingly.
 
Cool. One last (I promise!) question though. The motherboard in your last spec only has 2 working sata ports, thanks to the mother board issue, right? So could I swap that out for one of the asus ones with 4 6gb/s SATA ports? Or would I need to change other components?
 
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