My cousin has £800 to spend - please help him spec a PC

[knowlesy]

Hi so my cousin is wanting a PC spec worth of 800 pound goodness, hes wanting to play the usual BF3 (when its out), C&C generals/3, StarCraft 2 after using my PC for the last year so can you help me and him with a spec

 

[stulid]

Whats needed to be included? operating system? monitor/keyboard/mouse/speakers?

 

[grandmaster]

for now, pick up the 16gb ram from ocuk front page, whichis for £85.
hurry it up. theyre gonna go when people get back from work and stuff.

 

[knowlesy]

Whats needed to be included? operating system? monitor/keyboard/mouse/speakers?

sorry, should have been more specific, just your bog standard case kit Ive given him a microsoft inteli explorer 4 mouse and dell silent keyboard he has his own headphones and just bought a screen and win 7 so hes fine for that.

case
mobo
ram
hdd (looking at at least 120 so ssd is possible as he has a spare 320 sata from his old pc for storage)
gfx - reasonable
sound card - on board should do
psu

now he's looking more towards the pre-built ocuk pcs as they've been tested and any "mess" on with them, if it does happen he doesn't have to annoy me

 

[stulid]

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
MSI GeForce GTX 570 OC Twin FrozR III Power Edition 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with FREE Batman: Arkham City PC game** £269.99
(£224.99) £269.99
(£224.99)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £175.99
(£146.66) £175.99
(£146.66)
OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-120G) £119.99
(£99.99) £119.99
(£99.99)
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £85.98
(£71.65) £85.98
(£71.65)
Antec TruePower New Modular 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £64.98
(£54.15) £64.98
(£54.15)
BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £32.99
(£27.49) £32.99
(£27.49)
Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £26.99
(£22.49) £26.99
(£22.49)
Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
(£14.99) £17.99
(£14.99)
Sub Total : £662.41
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £134.98
Total : £809.89


The motherboard hasthe usual; Z68 features of Lucid Virtu/Quicksync and SSD caching. It also performs and overclocks well,

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2011/10/11/gigabyte-ga-z68ap-d3-review/1
http://www.kitguru.net/components/m...-z68ap-d3-z68-review-bargain-buy-of-the-year/

You will get around 4GHz with the stock heatsink supplied with the chip and with a bigger aftermarket heatsink you will obviously go higher, but you mileage will vary.

SLI isnt an option for this motherboard or the PSU, for that you wuld need a 750W+ PSU and a different motherboard.

 

[stulid]

If a pre-built is preferred?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-179-OE&groupid=43&catid=2040&subcat=1444

If you mss with some of the options with that such as GTX570+60GB SSD or GTX460+120GB SSD

 

[Hyburnate]

Look at the alienware thread and my post in there, swap out the hard drive and win 7 for the good ol' 120Gig SSD

 

[stulid]

But I would do this,

Get a 60GB SSD+8GB RAM and have a SLI option later

 

[Hyburnate]

Yeah that is pretty amazing Stulid, but surely 2 570s running at an OC speed would bake in that case xD

 

[stulid]

Add a 120mm fan to the front for £2-3

 

[Hyburnate]

. I'm buying one of them cases when I get a couple more quid, just for the looks and the amazing value for money. Stulids is a (Y)