Please spec me (pleaseee!)

Soldato
Joined
1 Dec 2006
Posts
16,918
Location
Amsterdam, NL
So, D3 is on it's way... My current machine is now being used by others and is just... Old lol.

I need the following:

  • Able to play games at least 50% detail at 1920x1080 on a 50" plasma (has VGA/HDMI ect ect).
  • Micro tower for easy storage
  • Disk space does not matter as my 'main' computer (non gaming) streams all my stuff on the network
  • Under £500!!! I know, tough eh?
  • Is it possible to play D3 with wireless kb and mouse in bed? haha
  • Finally, I need it to plug into my amp via fibre for surround sound goodness
  • Don't need DVD writer ect ect. Only core components to install OS on, play games and accept usb dongle. Nothing more, nothing less.

Other than that, I do most of my gaming on my 360, but would be nice to play some PC exclusives such as D3 from time to time. I won't be doing anything other than gaming and maybe some naughty browsing due to the 50" plasma making it awsome! Haha. Sure the misses would love it :cool:
 
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Wow, amazing help! I have been out of the building/WC'ing scene since the realm of the GTX 8800's I had in SLI with a E6600 lol.

So any help is very much appreciated.
 
We aim to please.

Have you decided what sort of machine you want? If it's for Diablo 3, I would just get something cheap as it is not very demanding (i3 + gtx460 / HD6850). SSD or HDD is up to you, although if you do not need HDD space, a SSD would be a nice substitution (fast boot, fast load). It will take D3, GW2, and a few other 10GB games.

If it's a general gaming rig (thinking Guild Wars 2), I would look for quad core processor, and some decent graphics (560ti / 6950 / 7850).

And yeah, you can play from the comfort of your own bed with wireless devices. It's purely keyboard and mouse game, and input lag wont matter as much as in a First Person Shooter. Or if you have games that prefer pads, get a XBox wireless controller (with the RF receiver). Logitech probably does some nice ones if you already have the RF keyboard and mouse and looking to keep it tidy.
 
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Edit: Sorry, had my previous response still in a seperate page, file server went down, forgot I even posted!

Anyway, yea, a bit of graphical 'oomph' would be good as no doubt GW2 would come up and as for HDD, will prob get that 500gig HDD, I am not that fussed on loading times, I smoke and drink tea avidly whilst playing games, so the longer the loading times, the better hahahaha.

Okies, upcoming build that I am about to click 'buy' on :)
 
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Well, for £500, you're still stuck really. 460 / 6850, and a i3. It's still very compentent.

Else a 3750K, z77 m-atx (asrock extreme 4 £100), with the sapphire 7850. But that's an extra £150-£160(?).
 
Haha, I can relate well! Smoking and drinking coffee iduring lobby/load times became like a ritual. Terrible habit! :D
I'm thinking of getting a very similar build to idleman's suggested one but i don't know if the i3 would hold back the 7850. Hopefully somebody can enlighten us. I personally wouldn't go for the 460, i'd go for the 6850 (found it going for £75 the other day, gone back up to £100 now)
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x XFX HD 6870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £124.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77M-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £86.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £86.39
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £61.99
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £39.95
1 x Fractal Design Core 1000 Midi Tower Case - Black £32.99
Total : £498.29 (includes shipping : £12.50).



A Z77 gives you option for unlocked 3570K. Which I would add a H60 for overclocking in that case.

A H61 motherboard gives you options for locked quad-core sandy i5-2400. Could be found cheap second hand.
 
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Finally, I need it to plug into my amp via fibre for surround sound goodness

I assume you mean fibre optic? If so then I suspect you are going to need a standalone sound card which has this option.

Stoner81.
 
You know that Motherboard doesn't support any OC'ing right ?

No intention to be honest, not right now. It's simply going to be a slap stick build, sat behind my TV, never turned off, load up games once in a while to play on the plasma, media centre and file server all in one :)

Also, might do a bit of VMWare stuff on it for work, test enviroments ect ect.

So the less to go wrong, the better.
 
But you have a unlocked i5.

Either you go with a motherboard that supports unlocking, or you take a locked quad core that are cheaper.

I hope that PSU is up to the task. You do know it has one PCIE connector, and the 560ti requires two?
 
Changed boards yesterday, and PSU, to the 600W version (are you sure it only has one PCIe connector?). This was due to the 500w being out of stock.

As for the board, when I got the notification about the PSU, I realised I was being a bit of a twit with getting the cheap one so went for this instead:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=mb-061-ak

sadly, i really have not had time to read detail into the items as work had been manic. so you spotting things like the above is fantastic mate. thank you :)

edit: http://www.corsair.com/power-supply...s-cx600-v2-80plus-certified-power-supply.html

PCI-E Connector 2
 
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CX600 is fine. The CX500 will struggle with a 560ti 448, the 600W is fine.

The motherboard should be fine too. I have the Z68 version, full ATX and it's a good board.

it looks like this?

YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 560Ti "448 Edition" FTW 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (012-P3-2066-KR) £179.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £173.99
1 x Asrock Z77 Extreme4 M Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £101.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £89.99
1 x Lian Li PC-A04B Aluminium Midi-Tower Case - Black £82.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 600W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-600CXUKV2) £52.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £39.95
Total : £734.48 (includes shipping : £10.50).



That's a very nice gaming system you got there. Lian Li's rock!

I would maybe add a quiet fan at the top / back for airflow, or a water cooling solution like the H60.

Keep us posted :)
 
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