Spec a system for £1000

bioshockeruk · 23 Oct 2012 at 20:20

Hi guys, firstly i'm new to this forum so I hope this is in the right place, but basically I'm looking to build a custom rig in the next couple of weeks and my budget is £1000.

I'm looking to do a lot of Photoshop work on it and also some light After Effects usage. I do play games but mainly Battlefield 3 & Skyrim, however I'm looking into getting the new NFS title also.

I've been looking into CPUs and it seems that the best bang for buck is with the Phenom from AMD (Black Edition) 965. Maybe you guys could clarify whether this is a good choice or not.

My only definitive requirement is that the system must include a monitor & the NZXT phantom white case (full tower version). My budget can stretch a little but I would rather keep it in the £1000 or under range. I don't need any OS or peripherals.

Thanks in advance guys...

Remote_zero · 23 Oct 2012 at 20:23

Intel all the way at the minute.
I'll spec something up. I'm sure someone will beat me too it tho.

stulid · 23 Oct 2012 at 20:31

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £269.99
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 660 OC Twin Frozr 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £167.99
1 x Dell Studio S2340L 23" IPS Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £161.99
1 x NZXT Phantom Enthusiast USB3.0 Full Tower Case - White £99.98
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC128N/EU) £85.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £83.99
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX550M High Performance 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020001-UK) £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £51.98
1 x GeIL EVO Leggera 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL38GB2133C11DC) £35.99
1 x Samsung SH-224BB/BEBE 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £1,050.58 (includes shipping : £14.75).

• IPS panel screen for the great image quality/colours etc.
• i7 CPU (8 threads)
• Nvidia GFX card features CUDA support (quite a few Adobe programs can use this)

Remote_zero · 23 Oct 2012 at 20:32

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x Dell UltraSharp U2312HM 23" Widescreen LED Monitor - Midnight Grey £179.99
1 x MSI HD 7850 Twin Frozr III OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards w/ Nexuiz & Sleeping Dogs PC Games £149.99
1 x NZXT Phantom Enthusiast USB3.0 Full Tower Case - Pink £99.98
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC128N/EU) £85.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £83.99
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX550M High Performance 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020001-UK) £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £51.98
2 x GeIL EVO Leggera 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL38GB2133C11DC) £35.99 (£71.98)
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011/1366/1155/1156/775/ AMD AM3/AM3+/AM2/AM2+/FM1) £29.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £1,036.98 (includes shipping : £20.10).

There you go. Slightly over, but not by to much.
Loads of fast RAM will help with photoshop, you could get away with just one kit and add the money to getting a better graphics card if you wanted.
I know you said the white phantom, but i think this ones better

Fire_fly · 23 Oct 2012 at 20:36

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £269.99
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 660 OC Twin Frozr 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £167.99
1 x Dell Studio S2240L 22" IPS Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £131.99
1 x NZXT Phantom Enthusiast USB3.0 Full Tower Case - White £99.98
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC128N/EU) £85.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £83.99
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX550M High Performance 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020001-UK) £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £51.98
1 x GeIL EVO Leggera 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (GEL38GB2133C11DC) £35.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011/1366/1155/1156/775/ AMD AM3/AM3+/AM2/AM2+/FM1) £29.99
1 x Samsung SH-224BB/BEBE 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £1,050.56 (includes shipping : £14.75).

stulid · 23 Oct 2012 at 20:39

250Gb HDD, lol

bioshockeruk · 23 Oct 2012 at 20:43

thanks guys looking good so far, just one question, as Intel seems to be a clear choice, this may sound silly, is there much performance difference between the quoted i5 and i7, i know my stuff on amd but Intel's confuse me! lol

stulid · 23 Oct 2012 at 20:44

bioshockeruk said:
thanks guys looking good so far, just one question, as Intel seems to be a clear choice, this may sound silly, is there much performance difference between the quoted i5 and i7, i know my stuff on amd but Intel's confuse me! lol

i5 3570K vs i7 3770K - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/701?vs=551

Fire_fly · 23 Oct 2012 at 20:47

The i7s have hyperthreading which speeds up times processing times on software that takes advantage of it, such as photoshop, and After Effects. Games make little use of HT though so for a purely gaming rig an i5 makes more sense.

bioshockeruk · 23 Oct 2012 at 20:48

I guess that answers it then! well thanks guys, looks like this is probably the build for me, now to decide on case colour...white or pink!!! lmao

Remote_zero · 23 Oct 2012 at 20:48

If you was doing loads of after effects work, then it might be worth it.
The price would shoot up though.

EDIT. way to slow on that one.

bioshockeruk · 23 Oct 2012 at 20:50

Just one other thing, with this rig would it leave much room for upgrades in the future?

Remote_zero · 23 Oct 2012 at 20:53

@stulid
My AX850 came today, i think i'm in love, real high quality product, and i've not even plugged it into anything yet. It even smell nice, lol
Just waiting on my UP5, should be here tomorrow.
Would you mind giving your thoughts on this thread
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18453420
Would appreciate your opinion.

@bioshockeruk. sorry for the hijack.

stulid · 23 Oct 2012 at 20:53

bioshockeruk said:
Just one other thing, with this rig would it leave much room for upgrades in the future?

Add more RAM (unless you get four sticks now)

The PSU's suggested are man enough for a better GFX card.

CPU upgrade? massively unlikely as intel will have a new socket type for the next generation of CPU's and I havent seen anything about a new CPU being released to replace ivybridge.

You can of course overclock the CPU using the Z77 board.

bioshockeruk · 23 Oct 2012 at 20:59

Overclock...not sure if i dare, specially my first time on a NEW cpu lol. maybe ill practice on my old one first! Well, guess ill be ordering, building and munching on my haribo soon enough now...thanks for all the help & suggestions guys...really appreciate it

Fire_fly · 23 Oct 2012 at 21:04

These K series CPUs are very easy top overclock. You just up the multiplier until it's not stable anymore and then up the voltage a little. then repeat until the temp / volts get to high.

You will want to look into buying an aftermarket CPU cooler as these will allow you to overclock high than just the stock cooler supplied with the CPU.

bioshockeruk · 24 Oct 2012 at 02:51

would this Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor be a better choice than the i7 listed above, it's a slightly older architecture but it supports quad channel ddr3 which would be good for future upgrading right? especially with the photoshop and after effects work i do? maybe im wrong not really sure. Any help appreciated...