Hi guys, little help please?

bradUK · 15 Jul 2013 at 10:10

Hopefully the first post of many :-)

I'm looking to get a gaming rig and have a budget of around £1200 just for the tower. I'll primarily be playing fps games with a focus on Arma 2 and 3.

I've spent hours pouring over the system configurator and weighing up between the options or getting a titan pre built for around the same money. I'm now more confused than ever! My last pc was a win 98 with 8meg of ram lol

I'm torn between the 3gig 7950 or one of the 2gig GTX's which seem to perform with better frame rates.

Sorry for yet another "spec me" thread but I'm completely stumped. Basically, spend my money!

Cheers.

snips86x · 15 Jul 2013 at 10:19

I would recommend one of the 7950's which give you the £150 worth of games. You can sell some of the codes for £10-15 each to make some money back. Can't spec as I'm as work, but will try later.

You happy to build yourself?
So you need everything? Monitor, mouse, K/B, OS?

bradUK · 15 Jul 2013 at 10:22

I wouldn't be confident building myself and I'll be getting all the peripherals off the missus for my birthday bless her! It would need an OS though.

Cheers mate.

Supermellow · 15 Jul 2013 at 10:51

bradUK said:
I wouldn't be confident building myself and I'll be getting all the peripherals off the missus for my birthday bless her! It would need an OS though.

Cheers mate.

There are many guides on YouTube on building a PC, you should check out a few videos before ruling it out as you will get a bit more scope with the build.

It seems pretty daunting to begin with but when you see that all the connectors are different sizes and only fit where they're supposed to go it's not as bad as it seems.

bradUK · 15 Jul 2013 at 11:04

Supermellow said:
There are many guides on YouTube on building a PC, you should check out a few videos before ruling it out as you will get a bit more scope with the build.

It seems pretty daunting to begin with but when you see that all the connectors are different sizes and only fit where they're supposed to go it's not as bad as it seems.

I'm actually an electrician so I'd probably be able to have a stab at it! Come to think of it I'd quite enjoy it. Just worried that nothing would happen when I turn it on lol.

snips86x · 15 Jul 2013 at 11:06

Supermellow said:
There are many guides on YouTube on building a PC, you should check out a few videos before ruling it out as you will get a bit more scope with the build.

It seems pretty daunting to begin with but when you see that all the connectors are different sizes and only fit where they're supposed to go it's not as bad as it seems.

On of of that, you can post here with your questions and always request help from someone who is local to you. Alternatively, you can request OcUK to build for you, but this would come at a price.

Supermellow · 15 Jul 2013 at 11:13

bradUK said:
I'm actually an electrician so I'd probably be able to have a stab at it! Come to think of it I'd quite enjoy it. Just worried that nothing would happen when I turn it on lol.

You'll always hear more horror stories of forums etc... As no one complains when it works but I would imagine failure rates on equipment is pretty slim these days.

Have a search around the forums as there many posts with links to good guides for building a PC and as I've found by trawling through the forums all the guys here are great and always willing to help.

Good luck with the build.

DaleTheWhale · 15 Jul 2013 at 12:41

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7950 Twin Frozr III Boost Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **NEW REVISION** £249.95
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £197.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-HD3 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £95.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD120BW) £83.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £79.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £74.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (TXD38G2400HC10QDC01) £59.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Windowed Case - Black £59.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020059-UK) £54.98
1 x Corsair Hydro H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler *Manufacturer Refurbished Unit - 90 Day Guarantee £39.95
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £1,042.63 (includes shipping : £23.20).

Left it at 1k to make sure if you wanted OC to build it for you, as they will charge around £150 I would imagine, if you build yourself, you could up some of the parts. But that systems will run very well.

bradUK · 15 Jul 2013 at 13:08

Thanks guys. I'm leaning towards a self build now :-)

TheReaperGuy, is that including VAT? Very reasonable price! On the first boot will the OS look for all the latest drivers or will I be doing a bit of hunting?

DaleTheWhale · 15 Jul 2013 at 13:31

Graphics card, motherboard will come with most drivers, however it's best to install the LAN drivers & then get them from manufacturer websites (Catalyst Control Centre, Motherboard drivers, SSD firmware, HDD firmware etc etc) to get the most up to date.

bradUK · 16 Jul 2013 at 10:40

So, I've got a better understanding of which direction the build is going. What are people's views on gfx cards?

I'm not sure whether to go 7950 3gig or a Nvidia 670?

Thanks for the help guys :-)

snips86x · 16 Jul 2013 at 10:46

bradUK said:
So, I've got a better understanding of which direction the build is going. What are people's views on gfx cards?

I'm not sure whether to go 7950 3gig or a Nvidia 670?

Thanks for the help guys

I've been having issues with the new nVidia drivers as have many others. For this, and the fact you get £150 of free games, it would have to be the 7950.

bradUK · 17 Jul 2013 at 08:23

So I'm going 7950. Would you recommend the twin frozr or the iceQ boost?

DaleTheWhale · 17 Jul 2013 at 08:24

iceQ if you plan to ever go crossfire in the future, twin frozr, if you won't be.

Reason: The iceQ has a better fan to handle the heat of 2 cards that close together, it is an exhaust fan where as the others aren't so they draw in heat, especially the top card.

Doomedspeed · 17 Jul 2013 at 08:35

ThaReaperGuy said:
iceQ if you plan to ever go crossfire in the future, twin frozr, if you won't be.

Reason: The iceQ has a better fan to handle the heat of 2 cards that close together, it is an exhaust fan where as the others aren't so they draw in heat, especially the top card.

well said.

rear Exhausting GPUs are good to have even if your only using one card. Keeps the air flowing the right way.

bradUK · 17 Jul 2013 at 09:06

And finally, should I go with the X2 variant? As far as I can tell the core runs 25MHz quicker. Is it worth the extra few quid? It still looks as though it exhausts too?

I really appreciate the help guys.