New build advice required

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5 Dec 2012
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54
Hello :)

I'm planning on building myself a new system having been limited to a laptop and ps3 for a year or two. It's a good four or five years since I built a PC so I'm a bit out of the loop when it comes to components.

I have been doing quite a bit of research and already purchased a monitor and 8GB of RAM thanks to OCUK daily deals! I already have the Samsung SSD ready to transfer from my laptop.

I'll mainly be picking parts up over a number of weeks as I like to buy things that are on offer (but only if they fit in with my original plans!).

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC256N/EU) £149.99
1 x Asus VN247H 24"Widescreen Super Narrow Bezel LED Monitor - Black £149.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £31.99
Total : £603.95 (includes shipping : £10.00).



This is what I've come up with so far. My biggest problem is what proportion of my budget to allocate to specific parts. I'll mainly be playing Skyrim, Fallout 3 and similar games. I was looking at the 7850 for the GPU. Would I be better off going for a cheaper CPU and changing the 7850 for a 7950?

Once I've got the core components worked out I'll move on to PSU, case, optical drive, cooler, etc.
 
Thanks. I'm looking to save money wherever possible but like most people I'd like the best price/performance ratio!

Although I've built about 4/5 systems in the past I've never done any overclocking. I've seen some people advising putting as much money as possible into the GPU and less into the CPU and then others saying just overclock the GPU!
 
Stick with the 3570k and the 7850, you can clock a decent 7850 to 7950 stock speeds with little effort.

Trie but firstly its not just the speed that matters. The 7950 will offer a lot more at stock, while being cooler. That card can also be over clocked to insane speeds.

7950's are at a great price point too.

I just don't want you to get the impression that over clocking a 7850 is better then a 7950, because its not.
 
I don't think I can justify getting the 7950 so I'm going to stick with the 7850.

Here's where I'm up to...

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Sapphire HD 7850 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ FARCRY3 & Sleeping Dogs PC Games £169.99
1 x Asus VN247H 24"Widescreen Super Narrow Bezel LED Monitor - Black £149.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC256N/EU) £149.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £99.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £31.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £26.99
Total : £821.52 (includes shipping : £10.50).



Any thoughts or comments? Still stumped when it comes to cases.
PSU will probably be Corsair although I don't know what power I'll need. I'm guessing around 500W?
 
switch 7850 for the below gigabyte one

faster clock speed, really good cooling. UK RMA and its cheaper. ad it has 3 years warranty not 2.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-100-GI&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=411

P.S 500 watts will be plenty you could run off a good 400 watt tbh

Zalaman case is good looking case, with plenty of fans pre-installed and comes with fan controller. overall a good case.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ FARCRY3, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showdown PC Games £161.99
1 x PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III Series 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply - White £59.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £52.99
Total : £289.07 (includes shipping : £11.75).

 
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:p Already ordered the monitor this morning! Got the RAM for 19.99 a couple of days ago too!

I'm not fussed about getting everything at once if I can save a bit of money to see what deals come on. The mrs didn't want me ordering til after christmas anyway!:rolleyes:
 
7850 is a steal at that price. however in other locations of the internet i have seen a 7950 go for £199.99 if you can find them on sale and get them for that sort of price it is worth stretching to the 7950
 
Cheers- I'll keep an eye out over the next few days.

I've seen the 2GB Sapphire 7850 for 149.99.

One quick question - are the bundled games an OCUK thing or are they included in the standard retail box?
 
not 100% sure on that tbh, i would assume they come in retail box and are redeemable via steam. i can find out later on for definite if you like as my friend just got the msi 7850.

99% sure codes are in box.
 
Yeah if you could let us know that'd be great!

Obviously they're not a deal-breaker but they would be a nice bonus. Especially as I have no PC games at the moment!
 
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