........Help?

Sirgerbil · 22 Nov 2011 at 17:30

Hello all, to cut a long story short about 3 years ago I made my own rig which today is a little dated and I'm looking for a new rig.

I have about £1000 to spend, but I am wondering if it's better to build my own or buy pre-built here on overclockers (I.e are there any good deals for the 1k mark or am I getting a better rig for money by building myself?)

Any help is really appreciated!

fowler002 · 22 Nov 2011 at 17:37

build it yourself?
you could get a decent pre-built for £1k but with self build you'll get better spec in most cases(bar the hdd obviously).

have a read of http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18344018 similar spec to your

GTO656 · 22 Nov 2011 at 17:50

Build yourself much better.

bobbyspangles · 22 Nov 2011 at 18:02

This is pretty quick and rough and i'm sure optimizations can be made but it's a good idea what's available for £1000. I'm sure you'll get plenty of advice here.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £249.98
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £173.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £154.99
1 x MSI Z68A-G45-G3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £114.98
1 x Antec TruePower New Modular 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £69.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £59.99
1 x Cooler Master HAF 912 Case - Black £52.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £39.98
1 x Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/LGA2011) £24.98
1 x Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
Total : £973.46 (includes shipping : £10.50).

Howling · 22 Nov 2011 at 18:04

You'll almost never find a better pre-built than you can make yourself at a similar/lower pricepoint. Luckily you've built one before so you know exactly how to do it ^_^

MissileMoose · 22 Nov 2011 at 18:17

bobbyspangles said:
This is pretty quick and rough and i'm sure optimizations can be made but it's a good idea what's available for £1000. I'm sure you'll get plenty of advice here.

..Snip..

Pair a 64GB Crucial M4 with a 500GB 10,000RPM HDD, that's more than enough. Only get 128GB if you plan on putting more than 2-3 games on it.

Windows 7 SP1 fits perfectly on 64GB with room for a few games.

Edit: Just looked at the price for the 10,000 on OcUK, forget that. Ignore me.

fowler002 · 22 Nov 2011 at 20:48

do you plan on sli? do you need an os?is it just gaming/general usage or will you be encoding etc(things that'll make use of hyperthreading of the 2600k/2700k)?

i2700k oem £250 free bf3
gigabyte z68ap-d3 £85 no sli
kingston hyperx genesis 16gb pc3-12800 1600mhz £72 maybe overkill but good price
corsair a50 £25
antec truepower new modular 650w £70
asus 570 direct cuii £246
corsair carbide 500r £93
seagate barracuda 500gb £60
crucial m4 64gb £86
samsung dvdrw £20
delivery £12.5
total £1018.5 + £12 if you want retail cpu, could knock £32 off if you don't need the 16gb and just 8gb.

if its mainly gaming not requireing hyper threading you can go for the i2500k(save almost £80) and drop ram to 8gb tho hard to argue with the price, put the saving towards the 128gb ssd instead and if still budget left go for the silverstone raven 3(£110)

remember the price is only for tonight as the seagate goes back up ones the remaing 9 get sold(limited numbers being sold for £60, think was 25), plus price of gpu and the ram goes back up tomorrow(you can change to the msi 570 nentioned and there will be different ram for £40).

bobbyspangles the mb is on pre-order plus the msi cashback is over.

Sirgerbil · 23 Nov 2011 at 09:25

It will be pretty much purely for Gaming, my previous rig will be used for all the other crap I do! No OS Required, I didn't really have any intention to SLi, But I suppose I wouldn't mind the option left open to me.

Forgive my naiveness, but I see all these prebuilt rigs boasting they hold an i7, yet people are suggesting an i5....What's the real difference?

Thanks for your help so far. Really appreciated!

drbx19 · 23 Nov 2011 at 10:41

Depends how much time you have...

You could always get a pre-build and ask OCUK to change certain things (i.e. ask for a bigger HDD etc) and they will happily change this for you.. You still have all the freedom as a self-built PC because all OCUK does is build it for you from the same individual parts they would send you if you bought them separately.

You can always use the system configurator to give you some more options

Threepwood · 23 Nov 2011 at 10:54

Built another yourself, using all that knowlage you built up building your last rig.

Unless you had a nightmarish time building your current rig?

Doomedspeed · 23 Nov 2011 at 12:03

Sirgerbil said:
Forgive my naiveness, but I see all these prebuilt rigs boasting they hold an i7, yet people are suggesting an i5....What's the real difference?

'Hyper Threding' is basically it. For gaming the i5 2500k and i7 2600k are on par. The i7 2600k is better at heavy video encoding and processes such as that.

The i5 2500k will be fine for your needs. The i7 2600k isn't really worth the extra £'s.

Sirgerbil · 23 Nov 2011 at 12:35

Doomedspeed said:
'Hyper Threding' is basically it. For gaming the i5 2500k and i7 2600k are on par. The i7 2600k is better at heavy video encoding and processes such as that.

The i5 2500k will be fine for your needs. The i7 2600k isn't really worth the extra £'s.

Right I see!

So considering its been determined that I am purely using this for gaming...I'm ready to buy tonight! Anyone got a solid final build?

Doomedspeed · 23 Nov 2011 at 14:11

bobbyspangles said:
This is pretty quick and rough and i'm sure optimizations can be made but it's a good idea what's available for £1000. I'm sure you'll get plenty of advice here.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £249.98
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £173.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £154.99
1 x MSI Z68A-G45-G3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £114.98
1 x Antec TruePower New Modular 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £69.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £59.99
1 x Cooler Master HAF 912 Case - Black £52.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £39.98
1 x Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/LGA2011) £24.98
1 x Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
Total : £973.46 (includes shipping : £10.50).

I like this spec, though i would think about changing the case, that is a personal choice though.

I would go for Something like this, only because thats what i like. I wouldn't go more than £100 on a case though.

RAM on this spec is good as it won't interfer with CPU cooler. The CPU is great, though you may want to consider this one too.

fowler002 · 23 Nov 2011 at 15:06

Doomedspeed said:
I like this spec, though i would think about changing the case, that is a personal choice though.

I would go for Something like this, only because thats what i like. I wouldn't go more than £100 on a case though.

RAM on this spec is good as it won't interfer with CPU cooler. The CPU is great, though you may want to consider this one too.

so something like

non sli

i2500k oem £156
gigabyte z68ap-d3 £85
corsair xms3 8gb pc3-12800 1600mhz £42
gelid tranquilo £26
antec truepower new modular 650w £70
msi 570 £240
silverstone raven 3 £110
wd blue 500gb £60
crucial m4 128gb £148
samsung dvdrw retail £19
total ~£970 inc delivery

sli

i2500k oem £156
gigabyte z68xp-ud3p £140/asus p8z68-v/gen3 £145
corsair xms3 8gb pc3-12800 1600mhz £42
gelid tranquilo £26
corsair tx850m £114
msi 570 £240
corsair carbide 500r £93
wd blue 500gb £60
crucial m4 128gb £148
samsung dvdrw retail £19
total ~£1050 inc delivery or a bit cheaper if you choose a cheaper case

Doomedspeed · 23 Nov 2011 at 16:19

fowler002 said:
so something like

non sli

i2500k oem £156
gigabyte z68ap-d3 £85
corsair xms3 8gb pc3-12800 1600mhz £42
gelid tranquilo £26
antec truepower new modular 650w £70
msi 570 £240
silverstone raven 3 £110
wd blue 500gb £60
crucial m4 128gb £148
samsung dvdrw retail £19
total ~£970 inc delivery

sli

i2500k oem £156
gigabyte z68xp-ud3p £140/asus p8z68-v/gen3 £145
corsair xms3 8gb pc3-12800 1600mhz £42
gelid tranquilo £26
corsair tx850m £114
msi 570 £240
corsair carbide 500r £93
wd blue 500gb £60
crucial m4 128gb £148
samsung dvdrw retail £19
total ~£1050 inc delivery or a bit cheaper if you choose a cheaper case

No real need for a switch to 850W for SLI. It should be possbile to run GTX 570 SLI on a 650W PSU. The true power PSU's are good for that aswell.
It would be nearing the edge of its output at that point but could definately handle it, no problem. The case choice is upto you.

The MSI Z68A-G45-G3 is a great motherbboard which can handle Xfire/SLI too. So its a cheaper option which lets you keep your options open.

fowler002 · 23 Nov 2011 at 17:02

Doomedspeed said:
No real need for a switch to 850W for SLI. It should be possbile to run GTX 570 SLI on a 650W PSU. The true power PSU's are good for that aswell.
It would be nearing the edge of its output at that point but could definately handle it, no problem. The case choice is upto you.

The MSI Z68A-G45-G3 is a great motherbboard which can handle Xfire/SLI too. So its a cheaper option which lets you keep your options open.

but I'll say again ITS ON PRE ORDER, it doesn't say when it'll be back.

yes the 650w should handle the 570 sli but I'd want 750/850w for some 'headroom'(overclocking, future upgrades etc).

fowler002 · 23 Nov 2011 at 19:51

Sirgerbil still alive?

psu wise if you're not bothered about modular than the xfx pro 850w core edition is on a this week only @£87 £27 cheaper than the corsair suggested.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-005-XF&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=

Sirgerbil · 24 Nov 2011 at 10:12

fowler002 said:
Sirgerbil still alive?

psu wise if you're not bothered about modular than the xfx pro 850w core edition is on a this week only @£87 £27 cheaper than the corsair suggested.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-005-XF&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=

I am indeed!

I was under the impression a modular power supply was better for gaming rigs?

Also with these new black Friday deals, should I be making any changes to the non sli rig to incorporate any bargains?

stulid · 24 Nov 2011 at 10:18

Heres a new build,

• Seasonic made, Silver rated modular PSU
• Gen3 motherboard

fowler002 · 24 Nov 2011 at 11:05

well that's my suggestions made obsolete, sir stulid to the rescue