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- 2 Mar 2008
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- 574
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I’ve graduated and got a job, so it’s time to start planting money into a nice new system to replace my current four year old rig that’s lasted me through being poor 
It’s going to take some catching up as I’ve been doing my best to ignore all the OcUK newsletters, and hardware advances.
The new build will mainly be for gaming but will also be used as my main media PC, as the system is connected to a TV and monitor.
I fancy something smaller and more discreet than my current case as it takes up too much room and gets a bit suffocated in its desk recess.
This is my current (4 year old) rig:
Apart from the HDD’s I don’t think there is really anything in there worth keeping or M/M’ing.
I’m looking at getting an i5 2500k, as I want to try a bit of Oc’ing now, so will be looking at whatever air cooler I can squeeze in an SFF case.
Will be giving any shoe box case consideration or any smaller standard ATX, so all recommendations will be noted.
Only really want a single GPU, I always think two is a bit excessive, and don’t want it to be too power hungry as it’ll be on all the time.
Really want to try out an SSD, so that’ll go on the list. Will also want a third HDD (2TB) seems they’re quite reasonable atm.
I imagine most onboard sound is now better than the HDA X-Mystique, and don’t really use the DDL anymore, would a replacement card be worth it?
OS not needed, still have student license W7 and Ubuntu dual boot.
This is what I'm considering (No longer SFF) (to buy):
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7950 Twin Frozr III OC V2 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Sleeping Dogs PC Game £263.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £108.98
1 x Patriot Viper Xtreme 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Quad Channel Kit (PXQ316G1600LLQK) £71.99
Total : £456.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).
This is what I already have:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 3TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM - OEM £158.99
1 x Corsair Professional Series AX750 High Performance 750W Modular '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply (CMPSU-750AXUK) £129.98
1 x Corsair Hydro H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/LGA2011/AM2/AM3) (CWCH100) £85.98
1 x Fractal Design Arc Midi Tower Case - Black £79.99
1 x Kingston 120GB SSDNow V+200 Drive SATA 6Gb/s - (SVP200S3/120G) £79.99
Total : £719.93 (includes shipping : FREE).
This is work in progress so will update the OP as well as the thread as I get more ideas on what I want and available budget.
It’s going to take some catching up as I’ve been doing my best to ignore all the OcUK newsletters, and hardware advances.The new build will mainly be for gaming but will also be used as my main media PC, as the system is connected to a TV and monitor.
I fancy something smaller and more discreet than my current case as it takes up too much room and gets a bit suffocated in its desk recess.
This is my current (4 year old) rig:
I've never had much luck oc’ing, I don’t think the parts I bought lended themselves to oc’ing, as the GPU was pre clocked and the CPU was a Windsor. However any advice on how to give it a go now wouldn’t go amiss, may try something mad seems it’s probably all going to go to waste.
Apart from the HDD’s I don’t think there is really anything in there worth keeping or M/M’ing.
I’m looking at getting an i5 2500k, as I want to try a bit of Oc’ing now, so will be looking at whatever air cooler I can squeeze in an SFF case.
Will be giving any shoe box case consideration or any smaller standard ATX, so all recommendations will be noted.
Only really want a single GPU, I always think two is a bit excessive, and don’t want it to be too power hungry as it’ll be on all the time.
Really want to try out an SSD, so that’ll go on the list. Will also want a third HDD (2TB) seems they’re quite reasonable atm.
I imagine most onboard sound is now better than the HDA X-Mystique, and don’t really use the DDL anymore, would a replacement card be worth it?
OS not needed, still have student license W7 and Ubuntu dual boot.
This is what I'm considering (No longer SFF) (to buy):
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7950 Twin Frozr III OC V2 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Sleeping Dogs PC Game £263.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £108.98
1 x Patriot Viper Xtreme 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Quad Channel Kit (PXQ316G1600LLQK) £71.99
Total : £456.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).
This is what I already have:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 3TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM - OEM £158.99
1 x Corsair Professional Series AX750 High Performance 750W Modular '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply (CMPSU-750AXUK) £129.98
1 x Corsair Hydro H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/LGA2011/AM2/AM3) (CWCH100) £85.98
1 x Fractal Design Arc Midi Tower Case - Black £79.99
1 x Kingston 120GB SSDNow V+200 Drive SATA 6Gb/s - (SVP200S3/120G) £79.99
Total : £719.93 (includes shipping : FREE).
This is work in progress so will update the OP as well as the thread as I get more ideas on what I want and available budget.
Last edited:
