New pc for brother

TheFool

TheFool

TheFool

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Joined
2 Apr 2011
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130
Location
Bristol
Hey,

my brothers old pc is past its prime (he's had it since 2005 and it wasn't great then, lol :p) so he wants me to build him a new one, mostly for playing games and doing school work. Ideally it needs to be able to play games like shogun 2 and crysis 2 on high-max settings. The budget is £1000 and he needs everything, monitor, keyboard, mouse, headset (no need for speakers) and all components. I'll be (attempting) overclocking it too, so here is what I've come up with so far. What do you think, how good is this system (what games will it likely be able to play at max), what could I upgrade/Downgrade etc.


HIS ATI Radeon 6950 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Games Pack - £179.99

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor with FREE Operation Flashpoint Red River Game - £169.99

MSI P67A-GD53 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** - £109.99

BenQ G2222HDL 21.5" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black - £107.99

Corsair HX 650W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650HXUK) - £103.99

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) - £79.99

Coolermaster HAF 912 Plus Case - Black - £55.98

Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) - £35.99

Microsoft SideWinder X4 Gaming Keyboard - Retail (JQD-00006) - £34.99

Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) - £32.99

Plantronics GameCom 377 Gaming Headset (79731-05) - £24.98

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1155/1156/1366) - £19.99

OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM - £17.99

Gigabyte M6900 3200DPI Gaming Mouse - £14.99


Sub Total : £824.87
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £164.97
Total : £989.84

Thanks for any help guys :)
 
Honestly, that looks a fantastic set up. It's obvious you did your research. You even got an aftermarket cooler.

I'm guessing you're going to try and flash the 6950 to the 6970?
 
Ok, I'll swap the card for the 2048mb version. Interesting thread as well there.

Thanks garido, been reading around a bit, planning on building one for myself when i get the money. Also I am going to try and flash the bios, been reading the very useful thread on this site :)

Edit: if I plan on adding a second 6950 in crossfire should I upgrade the psu or will that be enough?
 
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Kaeo said:
I would suggest upgrading it, definitely. Maybe something like..

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-005-XF&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1497 - Out of stock. ):
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-202-CM - Tis very good. :)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-046-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084 - Tis good but a lot of people complain it's noisy. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...


I think I might upgrade it to that last one (corsair), Looks nice, plus it's not going to keep me awake lol. :p
 
Garido said:
Honestly, that looks a fantastic set up. It's obvious you did your research. You even got an aftermarket cooler.

I'm guessing you're going to try and flash the 6950 to the 6970?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't flash to the 6970. The bios uses different timings and can cause issues on the 6950. It's better to just use the unlocked shader bios and overclock.
 
I went for the 2048 Saphire 6950! Brilliant Card and not that much more.

Could maybe add some more Ram as its going to be used for gaming also.
 
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for a huge gaming system you might as well go all out and get a good sized monitor . Theres some good 24 inch monitors for 135 quid on the website.
 
Nice build and good components.

As for the OS and hard drive, you can save a few quid by using their HD + win 7 bundle.

I would go with the XFX 650W modular, which is a bit cheaper and equally good.

I would upgrade the display to one of the Iiyama 24'' (with HDMI input), which would be £40 more, the jump between 22'' and 24'' is noticeable. I have both side by side, although the 24'' is 1920 x 1200 and the 22'' is 1050p. But is desk space is a concern, 22'' 1080p will do just fine.

In any case, the current build is just fine.
 
Sida said:
I wouldn't flash to the 6970. The bios uses different timings and can cause issues on the 6950. It's better to just use the unlocked shader bios and overclock.
Click to expand...

It's hit and miss. For some (nearly all) of my mates who own 6950s the trick has worked. I'm still stuck with a GTS 250 :P
 
olivier renault said:
Nice build and good components.

As for the OS and hard drive, you can save a few quid by using their HD + win 7 bundle.

I would go with the XFX 650W modular, which is a bit cheaper and equally good.

I would upgrade the display to one of the Iiyama 24'' (with HDMI input), which would be £40 more, the jump between 22'' and 24'' is noticeable. I have both side by side, although the 24'' is 1920 x 1200 and the 22'' is 1050p. But is desk space is a concern, 22'' 1080p will do just fine.

In any case, the current build is just fine.
Click to expand...


Ok, I'll get the OS bundle, XFX 650W and upgrade the display to a 24", just within the budget, thanks for the input.

Just have to run it by him and see what he thinks but looking great at the moment.
 
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