...but she's giving me a pot of loot to replace it with this time. 
The original Athlon-fx she's got is finally showing its age (or dying of embarassment because of the new Bulldozer) so she'll be pinching my rig to play Skyrim on as she doesn't like windows 7. Conseqently, I'm gonna' need a new one.
Since I've generally bought AMD in the past, I have a minimal idea about intel motherboard codes. Consequently I could so with a spec check from the experts.
The rig will mostly be used for gaming (Civ, Skyrim, Total War, Minecraft
) spodding on the 'net and some occasional light graphics. I'll be using 3x 17" monitors @1280x1024 each and the water cooler is mainly for keeping it quiet although the overclocking space is a nice side effect. I also have NAS, so additional storage isn't an issue. I'll be re-using my mouse, keyboard and speakers. Basically a case and contents, looking to spend about £850 + windows 7 (which I may be able to buy cheap through work).
Will probably upgrade to SSD, bigger monitors and crossfire over time.
Your basket
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6950 FLEX 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
(£191.66) £229.99
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail
(£139.99) £167.99
Asus P8Z68-V Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
(£104.15) £124.98
Corsair Enthusiast Series TX650M High Performance 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020002-UK)
(£74.99) £89.99
Antec Kúhler H2O 620 CPU Watercooler
(£45.82) £54.98
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black
(£42.49) £50.99
Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9)
(£39.99) £47.99
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache WD10EALX - OEM
(£39.16) £46.99
LG GH24NS70 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM
(£14.99) £17.99
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050)
(£66.66) £79.99
Sub Total : £759.90
Shipping : £12.50
VAT : £154.48
Total : £926.88
Questions:
Is it worth upping the PSU to 750W for crossfire in the future?
Is there any noticable difference between the Asus board above and this one - MSI Z68A-GD55-G3 ? I've always had good service from Asus motherboards and need a pretty convincing reason to change.
Is it worth paying the extra quid or so for a Retail DVD-rw to get the burning software? I've got some freebie stuff at work and it's rubbish.
Additionally, the PC heading under my GFs desk is a Phenom II 965BE, Asus M4N82E, 4GB DDR2 800MHz RAM, Sapphire HD5770, Corsair 750W PSU. The chip was the fattest quad the motherboard could take. And it has taken everything I've thrown at it without complaint, but would a cheap (c£50-75) motherboard and RAM upgrade be worthwhile or better waiting until it is necessary? GFs gaming at 1280x1024 - Dragon Age/Skyrim/Fallout.
The original Athlon-fx she's got is finally showing its age (or dying of embarassment because of the new Bulldozer) so she'll be pinching my rig to play Skyrim on as she doesn't like windows 7. Conseqently, I'm gonna' need a new one.
Since I've generally bought AMD in the past, I have a minimal idea about intel motherboard codes. Consequently I could so with a spec check from the experts.
The rig will mostly be used for gaming (Civ, Skyrim, Total War, Minecraft
) spodding on the 'net and some occasional light graphics. I'll be using 3x 17" monitors @1280x1024 each and the water cooler is mainly for keeping it quiet although the overclocking space is a nice side effect. I also have NAS, so additional storage isn't an issue. I'll be re-using my mouse, keyboard and speakers. Basically a case and contents, looking to spend about £850 + windows 7 (which I may be able to buy cheap through work).Will probably upgrade to SSD, bigger monitors and crossfire over time.
Your basket
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6950 FLEX 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
(£191.66) £229.99
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail
(£139.99) £167.99
Asus P8Z68-V Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
(£104.15) £124.98
Corsair Enthusiast Series TX650M High Performance 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020002-UK)
(£74.99) £89.99
Antec Kúhler H2O 620 CPU Watercooler
(£45.82) £54.98
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black
(£42.49) £50.99
Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9)
(£39.99) £47.99
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache WD10EALX - OEM
(£39.16) £46.99
LG GH24NS70 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM
(£14.99) £17.99
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050)
(£66.66) £79.99
Sub Total : £759.90
Shipping : £12.50
VAT : £154.48
Total : £926.88
Questions:
Is it worth upping the PSU to 750W for crossfire in the future?
Is there any noticable difference between the Asus board above and this one - MSI Z68A-GD55-G3 ? I've always had good service from Asus motherboards and need a pretty convincing reason to change.
Is it worth paying the extra quid or so for a Retail DVD-rw to get the burning software? I've got some freebie stuff at work and it's rubbish.
Additionally, the PC heading under my GFs desk is a Phenom II 965BE, Asus M4N82E, 4GB DDR2 800MHz RAM, Sapphire HD5770, Corsair 750W PSU. The chip was the fattest quad the motherboard could take. And it has taken everything I've thrown at it without complaint, but would a cheap (c£50-75) motherboard and RAM upgrade be worthwhile or better waiting until it is necessary? GFs gaming at 1280x1024 - Dragon Age/Skyrim/Fallout.
