New £1000 Gaming, programming and general purpose computer

[cactusprince]

Approximate Purchase Date: Next week

Budget Range: £1000 maximum

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Movies and general purpose usage, Java programming, Gaming

Parts Not Required: Graphics Card, Speakers

Country: UK

Parts Preferences: No preferences

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: No

Monitor Resolution: 2 x 1920 x 1080

Additional Comments:

My current computer is a homebuilt Asrock dual sata 939 mobo paired with an Athlon x2 3800 OC @ 2.4Ghz and 2GB DDR RAM. I've had this for many years and it has served me very well.
Fairly recently both the graphics card (ati x1900xt 512) and one of my hard drives died. I replaced the graphics card with a gts 250 for £40, but this card is massively bottle necked by the rest of the system. I intend to use this card in the new system for now.
I also got a 1TB external hard drive which will serve as my main data storage drive for the new system.
Anyway, I decided it's finally time to upgrade as I want to do more programming at home on personal projects (My job is a java dev), and I want to play some of the games I missed out on over recent years. The computer will also be used quite a lot for media consumption as well.

My current shopping list is below. I would appreciate any advice/critiques/recommendations from the lovely members of this forum.

Case: Antec One - £44.99

PSU: XFX Pro 550W Core Edition - £44.99

Mobo: Asus p8z68-v lx - £84.02

CPU: Intel i5 2500k - £164.10

HSF: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo - £23.99

RAM: 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair Vengeance LP - £44.99

SSD: OCZ Vertex 3 120GB - £90.15

DVD Drive: Samsung - £15.98

Monitors: 2 x Iiyama prolite e2409hds-1 - £261.80

Keyboard: MS Sidewinder X4 - £29.99

Mouse: Logitech G300 - £24.98

Touch pad: Wacom bamboo pen and touch - £71.44

Headset: Plantronics GameCom 380 - £17.50


Total cost: £918.92

The parts I am not sure on are the mobo and psu. I recently built a similarly specced computer for a friend but it had a corsair ax850 psu and the Asus P8Z68-V GEN3 and had no problems with this.

Depending on what the general consensus on the listed psu and mobo, I would be happy to upgrade them both, given that I do intend to overclock the cpu to at least 4GHz. If the upgrades push over budget, the headset is expendable, and I am happy to get a cheaper keyboard and mouse. Also the wacom bamboo has a pen only version for around £50 which I would be happy with if budget allows.

I realise that the GTS 250 graphics card that will be placed into this system will be underpowered compared to the rest of the components, but I won't be gaming all that often, and there are plenty of games from several years ago that I should be able to enjoy on this card. Gaming will be done on a single monitor only. I don't expect to be able to play dual monitor with this card. The dual monitors are mainly for productivity while programming. If needs be in the future I will add a new graphics card in. I never have any intention of doing SLI/CF.

Right, I think that's enough info. Just want to say hi to the forums, and I look forward to your replies.

 

[Hicks]

Hi there!

You may want to remove the links to competitor sites as this is OCUK's forum. They tend not to like people advertising other companies due to losing custom etc

 

[cactusprince]

Hi there!

You may want to remove the links to competitor sites as this is OCUK's forum. They tend not to like people advertising other companies due to losing custom etc

Done. Thanks for the tip.

 

[mp260767]

Done. Thanks for the tip.

i'd also remove the reference name(s) as well .

consider some of the following:

Mobo: Have a look at the msi/gigabyte z77's (around £80 ish)

CPU: Ivybridge i5-3570K £190

SSD: crucial m4 128gb

memory : GeIL Dragon 8GB (2x4GB)
(the vengeance coolers can cause issues with some coolers due to their height)

 

[DamoC]

I have the same headset as what you've listed. I can't recommend it enough especially for the price, it's really comfy over long usage and the sound quality is extremely good.

 

[cactusprince]

i'd also remove the reference name(s) as well .

consider some of the following:

Mobo: Have a look at the msi/gigabyte z77's (around £80 ish)

CPU: Ivybridge i5-3570K £190

SSD: crucial m4 128gb

memory : GeIL Dragon 8GB (2x4GB)
(the vengeance coolers can cause issues with some coolers due to their height)

Removed the other reference thanks. I had intended to get the low profile vengeance ram so the cooler issue wouldn't have been a problem. Which is better out of the geil and corsair for overclocking.

The crucial m4 looks good and is slightly cheaper

Is the PSU I listed going to be sufficient for the components listed? I calculated everything in a couple of online power calculators and 550W seems more than sufficient, but I know a lot of people go for bigger wattage PSUs.

What advantages does the 3570k give me over the 2500k for the extra money?
What advantages does the Z77 chipset have over Z68 (sorry haven't had a chance to read Z77 mobo reviews yet)? I was leaning towards asus for the mobo because they have very good reputation and I know from reviews that they will overclock well.

 

[cactusprince]

I have the same headset as what you've listed. I can't recommend it enough especially for the price, it's really comfy over long usage and the sound quality is extremely good.

Awesome thanks!