Second gaming build... Now? Or wait...

danbt

danbt

danbt

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Joined
11 Jul 2011
Posts
5
Location
England, UK
Hi all. Am looking to build my second gaming pc.

Have a budget of around 700, but if it was going to make a massive difference I could possibly push it to probably 800.

Am facing the usual dilemma of amd or intel and ati or nvidia.

Originally I was thinking definately intel with nvidia, but then a friend said I wouls be stupid to not go for a phenom x6 1100. But im not so sure...

Also is it worth waiting for the amd bulldozer series or?...

I am building this pc ideally for the release of bf3.

So guys, spec me, if possible. Thanks all.

Danbt
 
If it was me I'd probably just buy an Intel system:

GX-255-AS_60.jpg
Asus ATI Radeon HD 6950 DirectCU II 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card£173.99
(£144.99) £173.99
(£144.99)
CP-360-IN_60.jpg
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor£164.99
(£137.49) £164.99
(£137.49)
MB-458-AS_60.jpg
Asus P8Z68-V Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard£129.98
(£108.32) £129.98
(£108.32)
MO-034-BQ_60.jpg
BenQ G2222HDL 21.5" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black£109.99
(£91.66) £109.99
(£91.66)
CA-212-CM_60.jpg
Cooler Master CM-690 II Lite Dominator Case - Black£59.99
(£49.99) £59.99
(£49.99)
CA-042-BQ_60.jpg
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W '80 Plus' Power Supply£44.99
(£37.49) £44.99
(£37.49)
HD-082-SA_60.jpg
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ)£40.99
(£34.16) £40.99
(£34.16)
MY-177-OC_60.jpg
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C7 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3P1333LV4GK)£27.98
(£23.32) £27.98
(£23.32)
CD-046-OT_60.jpg
Sony Optiarc AD-7260S 24x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM£16.98
(£14.15) £16.98
(£14.15)

Sub Total : £641.57
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout)
Shipping : £19.10
VAT is being charged at 20.00%
VAT : £132.13
Total : £792.80
 
Thanks.

Forgot to say, already have monitor, keyboard, mouse.

Just need a tower.

One thing, I know it is not possible to make a "future proof" pc, as technology changes so much, so often.

But would an i5 build become quickly outdated within the next few years? Would it be able to handle newer games.

Or would I be better off getting an i7 ...?

Still unsure about the whole thing.
 
i5 and i7 Sandby Bridge perform the same in games, i7 wins in encoding and stuff.
spec has an option of adding a second gtx 560ti in the future

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 560Ti Twin FrozR II 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £178.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £164.99
1 x MSI P67A-GD53 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** *WITH FREE MSI GRENADE* £104.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £95.99
1 x Lepa B-Series 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply £72.98
1 x BitFenix Shinobi Gaming Windowed Case - Black £56.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £40.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £29.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-7260S 24x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.98
Total : £803.88 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
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Well that seems like a decent build there, but...

I'm inclined to say im not bothered about a SSD, or am I missing the point? Whats the big benefit of having one?

Also, would a better option be to drop the SSD, grab two more sticks of RAM?

And is the i7 not possible in a build of < £800? Or would it not make any difference anyway.

I just don't want to get two years down the line, and not be able to put a game on mid - high graphics without it lagging at all.

Thanks again.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £221.99
1 x XFX ATI Radeon 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £209.99
1 x Asrock Z68 PRO3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £105.98
1 x BitFenix Shinobi Gaming Windowed Case - Black £56.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 620W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £56.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £49.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £40.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-7260S 24x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.98
Total : £800.89 (includes shipping : £12.50).



i7 2600k with 8Gb RAM, but you lose crossfire/sli support and SSD

EDIT: comparison of i5 2500k vs i7 2600k
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=287
you can decide for yourself
 
Last edited:
for gaming id rather have an ssd and crossfire support personally over an i7 and 8gb of ram.

The i7 isn't going to make much difference in games (only encoding and other cpu intensive tasks like that) an ssd doesnt make much difference in terms of gaming but boot up times and internet surfing etc is much smoother and doesnt fragment and get real slow over time so wouldnt want to go back to having an os on a regular hdd after having one. at the moment 4gb to 8gb isnt going to make much difference but thats easily upgradable later.
 
 
Last edited:
Wow. They both seem like really good builds.

Hard to choose now though...

Any reason why no-one has recommended an nvidia graphics card?

I'm probably talking from out of date knowledge here, but I always had heard that nVidia cards beat ATI...?
 
I'd go i5 2500k but then I did :) If you want a card now look at the 6950 2GB, best bang for you buck imo. An SSD is good ot have if you can afford one, I wouldn't go back now.
 
danbt said:
Any reason why no-one has recommended an nvidia graphics card?

I'm probably talking from out of date knowledge here, but I always had heard that nVidia cards beat ATI...?
Click to expand...

It's a price bracket and budget thing.

for £170 a 560ti.
for £200, get a 6950 2GB.
for £250 higher get a 570.

I personally wouldn't bother with a 6870X2, and get a 580. I prefer single GPU cards (noise, heat, power consumption, no SLI / XFire problems, dual GPU will always beat single GPU for the same budget).
 
Last edited:
olivier renault said:
It's a price bracket and budget thing.

for £170 a 560ti.
for £200, get a 6950 2GB.
for £250 higher get a 570.

I personally wouldn't bother with a 6870X2, and get a 580. I prefer single GPU cards (noise, heat, power consumption, no SLI / XFire problems, dual GPU will always beat single GPU for the same budget).
Click to expand...

The 6870X2 is a single card just with the power of two?
 
Are the AMD Bulldozer's gonna be something that is in the price range of what I'm looking at here, or should I forget they are even coming out soon??
 
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I've been playing the waiting game for months, haven't really gained anything in prices or newer components but September could see Bulldozer and 7xxx series GPUs so I am considering waiting just a little while longer :o:(
 
Yeh.

Do you think bulldozer CPUs and 7xxx series GPUs be something that could fit into a max of £800 build?
 
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