New Build, £2000 budget.

Dogtaguk · 7 Oct 2011 at 11:10

Hey guys. Long time lurker, first time poster.
This will be my 4th PC I've ordered/built from Overclockers. The thing is, I've been that busy with work the past year that Im out of the loop a little bit. Basically have a £2000 budget for the tower alone and £500 for the monitor etc but could possibly go to £2100 for the tower.

These are the specs ive picked out so far:

EVGA GeForce GTX 580 DS SuperClocked 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with FREE Batman: Arkham City PC game** £409.99
Crucial RealSSD M4 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard £299.99
Asus Maximus IV Extreme-Z Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £299.99
Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retai £249.98
OCZ ZX Series 1000W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £149.99
(£124.99)
Corsair Vengeance 12GB (3x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Triple Channel Kit (CMZ12GX3M3A1600C9 £131.99
Cooler Master HAF X Gaming Tower Case - Black (RC-942) £125.99
Corsair Hydro H80 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/LGA2011/AM2/AM £82.99
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD1002FAEX) £64.99
Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM

Sorry if this isnt formatted correctly for the forum, dont know how to post it as neat as you guys.

I have noticed the mobos dont seem to support triple channel ram, am I right? Looked right through all of them and dont see any on the specs. As I said though im a little out of touch.

Would like to know what you think and what you would change. The total so far is a little over £1950. I also need to copy of Windows 7 so that needs taking into account.

Im not 100% on the SSD yet, I may go for a smaller one. Might also up the RAM to 16gb rather than 12gb.

Anyhow people, Advise away!

mp260767 · 7 Oct 2011 at 11:17

what are you likely to be using the system for ?

memory wise your right the setup uses dual channel not triple.

depending on usage/app space needed the 256gb ssd could be swapped for the 128gb.

silver arrow air cooler is another option for cooling.

Dogtaguk · 7 Oct 2011 at 11:19

Gaming mainly.

BF3, Skyrim etc etc.

Basically treating myself as I havent had a pc of my own in years.

stulid · 7 Oct 2011 at 11:23

The motherboard is £300 for something that wont have Gen3 capability when Ivybridge is released.

Dogtaguk · 7 Oct 2011 at 11:24

As I said, Im out the loop mate.

What mobo would you suggest instead?

mp260767 · 7 Oct 2011 at 11:27

have a look at the asrock z68 extreme 7 gen 3 or extreme 4 gen 3 mobo's

what you looking to do monitor wise, would 580gtx in sli be worth consideration ?

stulid · 7 Oct 2011 at 11:27

If you wanted real high-end/overclocking easily over 5GHz+ etc - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-366-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

If you want to keep the Red+Black theme - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-053-AK&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

Dogtaguk · 7 Oct 2011 at 11:31

Only a single monitor set-up. 24" at 1080p.

See I would go for a sli set-up in a heartbeat if I can get the price down in other areas, but I did read that at the moment it isnt worth it unless your running duel monitors. That said, BF3 is going to be spec hungry Ive heard

See, the only thing putting me off the smaller SSD is that I have a huge Steam library and it doesnt give you the option of where you want the games installed.

zaracake · 7 Oct 2011 at 11:37

Maybe go down to a 120gb SSD, knock a few hundred quid of the mobo, and get a 590?

mp260767 · 7 Oct 2011 at 11:40

Dogtaguk said:
See, the only thing putting me off the smaller SSD is that I have a huge Steam library and it doesnt give you the option of where you want the games installed.

fairly certain that you can move the steam library onto another drive, not to sure on the details but other people have done it.

Dogtaguk · 7 Oct 2011 at 11:51

I might go for the 128gb ssd instead then just to knock the price back down a bit.

Im liking stulids suggestions for motherboards, more so since one of them is £100 cheaper and apparently more future proof.

zaracake, are the 590's worth the extra money? Would I be better off with one of them or two 580's?

lee20010 · 7 Oct 2011 at 11:58

Id personally get a 6990 instead of 580

Dogtaguk · 7 Oct 2011 at 12:02

lee20010 said:
Id personally get a 6990 instead of 580

I have ALWAYS bought ATI cards in the past, to the point where I dont think ive ever owned a Nvidia card before. But, I thought with phsX etc it would be worth switching now?

mp260767 · 7 Oct 2011 at 12:03

got sli'd 580GTX's, psu is ocz 850 gold so fine for the sli, down to 128gb ssd and asrock mobo stulid recommended, 16gb memory, no optical drive but wondered if you might want a blue ray drive ?

could swap the 580 sli out for a 6990 and price is a bit cheaper.

also includes win7 oem along with a 1tb storage drive.

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 580 OC Special Edition 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with FREE Batman: Arkham City PC game** £389.99 (£324.99)

Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £249.98 (£208.32)

Asrock Fatal1ty Z68 Pro Gen 3 intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £212.98 (£177.48)

Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £145.99
(£121.66)

Cooler Master HAF X Gaming Tower Case - Black (RC-942) £125.99 (£104.99)

OCZ Z-Series 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £99.98 (£83.32)

Corsair Hydro H80 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/LGA2011/AM2/AM3) £82.99 (£69.16)

Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40 (£57.00)
Options applied to the above product:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £43.99 (£36.66)

Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £113.98 (£94.98)

Sub Total : £1,603.55
Shipping : £16.85
VAT : £324.08
Total : £1,944.48

Dogtaguk · 7 Oct 2011 at 12:15

I like that build but you have only spec'ed 8gb of RAM and I would like at least 12, if not 16gb. Also on my original build I forgot to mention as well as the ssd, there is 2 1tb hdd's there as well.

Is the graphics card you suggested better than the one Ive picked myself?

I have to go to work now people but will be checking in and posting from my phone when I get the chance.

mp260767 · 7 Oct 2011 at 12:33

Dogtaguk said:
I like that build but you have only spec'ed 8gb of RAM and I would like at least 12, if not 16gb. Also on my original build I forgot to mention as well as the ssd, there is 2 1tb hdd's there as well.

Is the graphics card you suggested better than the one Ive picked myself?

I have to go to work now people but will be checking in and posting from my phone when I get the chance.

dahhhh missed the x2 on the memory its 2 8gb kits.

any reason for the 1x1tb's ?

Gammawolf · 7 Oct 2011 at 12:50

mp260767 said:
fairly certain that you can move the steam library onto another drive, not to sure on the details but other people have done it.

Yes the easiest way is to just install steam onto the other drive and everythen then downloads there, or you could install and do some moving of folders and settings but its as easy as cake for the first method.

mp260767 · 7 Oct 2011 at 12:55

Dogtaguk said:
Is the graphics card you suggested better than the one Ive picked myself?

yours has the extra speed i was looking for decentish 580s at a price suitable to sli them.

with the cost i came up with you could sli your original card within budget, as your card is only £20 dearer (per card).

zaracake · 7 Oct 2011 at 13:00

Dogtaguk said:
zaracake, are the 590's worth the extra money? Would I be better off with one of them or two 580's?

2x580 will net you more performance overall, but what you have to ask yourself is if its worth paying 850 ish quid for (more for the 3gb versions)

Or is it worth thinking about the future and getting one 590 (will have no troubles running games for 2 years that I can gurantee you) and then SLI'ing that when it's actually needed 2-3 years from now

And to help you out a bit, i've got a 580, lightning edition from MSI, it runs BF3 fine on ultra on a 32 player server, so a single 590 will be absolutely fine for it.

But that's just an opinion, haven't done much 6990vs590 research but meh, i'm an nvidia fanboy

Dogtaguk · 8 Oct 2011 at 20:36

Hello again.

Dit not want to start a new topic and havent been able to post for a few days because of work. Taken all your advise into account and these are the new specs im thinking of.

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 590 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Gaming Mouse **Supplied with FREE Batman: Arkham City PC game £694.99
Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retai £249.98
Asrock Fatal1ty Z68 Pro Gen 3 intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £212.98
Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £145.99
Cooler Master HAF X Gaming Tower Case - Black (RC-942) £125.99
Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9 £107.99
OCZ Z-Series 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £99.98
Corsair Hydro H80 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/LGA2011/AM2/AM3) £82.99
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD1002FAE) x2 £129.98
Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM

Total : £1948.86

That seems a lot better to me after reading your posts. Swapped the ssd for a smaller one and dropped the 580's for one 590.

Like to know what you think!