New gaming spec - first build

Associate
Joined
21 Mar 2011
Posts
21
I've decided to try gaming on a pc instead of my xbox and looking to play BF3 and COD MW3. This will be my first PC build so not confident knowing which components are going to give me a rig that will cope with current games and into the future.

I already have a Viewsonic TFT 22" monitor at 1920 x 1080, Samsung Spinpoint HD501LJ 7200rpm 500GB hard drive, and hope that both of these will be adequate. I will carry on using my basic keyboard and optical mouse for now, unless budget really allows or are considered essential, and want to focus on getting the best components for my budget. I dont need an OS.

I've never overclocked and dont know whether I need to worry about this at the start, so dont know whether a cooler is important at this time.

I'm not sure whether SLi/crossfire option is a must have, so looking for guidance, and how this affects choice of motherboard and PSU.

As far as cases go I dont have a clue, looks arent important, but adequate space for cards and potential cooler and good air flow are important.

My budget is £700-800.
 
- Overclocking is not that critical, however, with the 2500K being able to easily clock 30% more, it'd be a crime not to :) But all games will play just fine on stock speeds. 3rd party coolers can also help on noise, besides keeping the chip cooler.
- I always keep the SLI / XFire option open. Indeed I have a 6950 x 2 building on its way. Most games are made for single GPUs.

With a £700-£800 budget, you can go 570 / 6950. For a good all round case with loads of space, I would go for the Carbide 400R / 500R.

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6950 TOXIC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £239.99
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £169.99
Asus P8Z68-V Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £124.98
Corsair Carbide 400R Midi Tower Case - Black £79.99
XFX Pro 750W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £79.98
Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £42.98
Zalman CNPS10X-Quiet CPU Cooler (754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1155/1156/1366) £32.99
Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
Total : £803.89

This is not the most 'bang-for-bucks' build, but it's got good quality components. Could maybe save £50 skimping on various things.
 
Last edited:
if you think you'll go sli/crossfire there is space in the budget to up the psu.

could swap over to one of the ati 6950's as per olivier's spec, as bf3 is said to like memory on it's graphics cards.

Asus GeForce GTX 570 DirectCU II 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with FREE Batman: Arkham City PC game** £251.99 (£209.99)

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £169.99 (£141.66)

Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £109.99
(£91.66)

Antec TruePower New Modular 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £69.98 (£58.32)

BitFenix Shinobi Gaming Case - Black £49.99 (£41.66)

Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT51264BA160A) £37.99 (£31.66)

Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99 (£21.66)

LG GH24NS70 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98 (£15.82)

Sub Total : £612.43
Shipping : £12.50
VAT : £124.99
Total : £749.92
 
Definitely want a Intel 2500k CPU, either GTX570 or 6950 2Gb for graphics, 8Gb Corsair 1600mhz RAM, possibly Asus P8P67 PRO motherboard and the rest you can use what's been posted above.
 
generally the cards are pretty much all the same, but double check the graphics card forum just to see whats been said, as some can be a bit quieter than others etc.
 
OK, spent sometime putting this spec together. Will this motherboard be worth investing for the future or would a lower spec be just as good? And will the PSU be good for 2x6950?

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
HIS ATI Radeon HD 6950 IceQ X PLUS Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Dirt3 & Deus Ex PC Games **OcUK Exclusive** HIS ATI Radeon HD 6950 IceQ X PLUS Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Dirt3 & Deus Ex PC Games **OcUK Exclusive** £219.98
(£183.32) £219.98
(£183.32)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £167.99
(£139.99) £167.99
(£139.99)
Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £159.98
(£133.32) £159.98
(£133.32)
Antec TruePower New Modular 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply Antec TruePower New Modular 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £85.99
(£71.66) £85.99
(£71.66)
Cooler Master HAF 912 Plus Case - Black Cooler Master HAF 912 Plus Case - Black £69.98
(£58.32) £69.98
(£58.32)
Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £42.98
(£35.82) £42.98
(£35.82)
Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
(£21.66) £25.99
(£21.66)
Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
(£14.99) £17.99
(£14.99)
Sub Total : £659.08
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £134.32
Total : £805.90
 
I dont think the ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 is probably worth getting so replaced with this Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3P Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard

Would just like to know that it is a good match for rest of components.
 
Back
Top Bottom