New gaming build, first timer, spec and advice please!

Scroob

Scroob

Scroob

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Joined
15 Dec 2011
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3
Good morning,

I am hoping for some help regarding a new build that I hope to order within the next few days.

I have been out of the pc gaming scene for a number of years now (except wow) so hopefully have a lot of games to catch up on.

I have never built my own pc before but as I only have a budget of around £600 - £650 I think this is the best route to go down. I don't need a monitor, mouse, keyboard or speakers but do require an operating system, hard drive, and cd drive along with all the other usual parts.

Basically the main use of my new PC will be gaming. I will also have some extra funds in a few months so was perhaps thinking of just getting a SSD now and a bigger HD in a couple of months. (I'm assuming a small (60G?) drive would be large enough for Windows and a few games?) as well as maybe an i3 now and a better graphics card and then upgrade to an i5 when further funds are available but i'm unsure how much difference these kind of things would make which is why I would really like some help from the much more experienced guys on here :)

Any help would be really appreciated!
 
Hi there,


Heres something I just put together for you.


Untitled-152.png



You can use the voucher code CMdouble to get £20 off the PSU+Case combination.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18347004

That brings it to £650±

------------------

If you exchange the 500Gb HDD for a 64Gb SSD - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-008-CR

Then your looking at around £660-670
 
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Thanks for taking the time and putting something together for me.

Just a couple of questions:

1. How would this kind of set-up fair running games like BF3, Guild War 2, Diablo 3 – I’m guessing it will run them all ok but not at max settings?

2. If I spent a little more and went for the i5 would I need a different motherboard or is the one you have selected ok?

3. In the future if I wanted to update the graphics card would my PSU been able to cope with something like http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-142-PC&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752 or a more powerful 560ti card?
 
1) Depends on the resolution of your monitor a lot, heres a BF3 test showing various cards and CPU's
http://www.guru3d.com/article/battlefield-3-vga-and-cpu-performance-benchmark-test/

If you look at all the resolutions below 1920X1200 you will see the GTX560ti beating a 6950, but as the resolution increase the extra memory capacity of a 2GB 6950 pulls ahead.



2) Keep the same board, it is also ready for Ivybridge when they are released. If you get a "K" CPU with its unlocked multiplier then this board allows the adjustment of that to allow easy overclocking.
http://www.kitguru.net/components/m...-z68ap-d3-z68-review-bargain-buy-of-the-year/
http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/gigabyte_ga_z68ap_d3_review,1.html
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc...herboards/gigabyte-ga-z68ap-d3-1026263/review
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2011/10/11/gigabyte-ga-z68ap-d3-review/1
Click to expand...



3) You would need more power for more power hungry cards, the motherboard is also only ok for a single GFX card, it doesn't support SLI, it does do Crossfire but at a worse 16X/4X bandwidth for the two slots, better boards divide the bandwidth evenly (8X/8X) and also support SLI. If a single GFX card is all your interested in then its spot on.
 
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My monitor resolution is 1920 x 1200 so I can see from that link that the 560ti does indeed perform well on high settings.

I am happy with just one GFX card to be honest, however I would like a powerful enough PSU now so that I won't have the hassle of replacing when I purchase a more powerful GFX card in the future.

Could you please recommend one that would be suitable from a performance / cheapish price point of view?

If I could revise my overall budget to say £700 - £750 would you recommend any other changes?

Thanks for your help btw guys ;)
 
Some really nice suggestions for you there i think ... I personally would avoid buying a normal mechanical HD right now due the VERY inflated prices an SSD is such a better performer to, if you have storage HD's already then a 60Gig SSD is perfect. As for the PSU i would go for a 750w of a good quality brand with high 80plus rating.
 
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