Spec check pls! :D

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Hello good people. What do you reckon to the below? ANY input whatsoever is much appreciated. I was hoping for a budget of around 900 ish. If you think I could save money on anything, or even improve anything by adding another £30 or something, please add.

nice one. much appreciated as always!

Antec 100 One Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £43.99


Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £173.99

Asus P8P67 PRO Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £149.99

Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £39.98

MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £209.99

OCZ StealthXStream 2 700W Power Supply £60.98

BeQuiet Dark Rock Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366, AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / 754 / 939 / 940) £54.98

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM 1yr Warranty (ST31000528AS) £37.99

Corsair Force 60GB F60 2.5" SATA-ll Solid State Drive (CSSD-F60GB2-BRKT) £91.19

total: 876
 
Instead of the Dark Rock Pro, you could go with the Thermalright Frio? It'll save you £20.
Also, go for a Samsung F3 1TB HDD, its faster. I would wait before buying a SSD - the newer generation of Sandforce controllers are around the corner, these would be double the read/write speeds of the F60.
 
Sony Optiarc AD-7260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM
£16.99 inc VAT
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-046-OT&groupid=701&catid=10&subcat=951

and i like this case better...

Coolermaster CM-690 II Lite Dominator Case - Black [RC-692-KKN3]
This Week Only Offer
was £62.99 inc VAT
£57.98 inc VAT
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-212-CM&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=


I'm alright for the drive, and yes good choice - it was a toss up between the CM and the Antec 100. I couldnt decide. Why do you like it better, any reason?
 
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CM is a little bigger and has removalable tool-free HDD cages. I personally think it looks better too, but its a personal choice. :)
 
thanks people. I'm not great with psus, is the one ive chosen a good one and is 700w enough. Also, not sure I can xfire with another 6950 in the future on that board..?
 
I think if you want to crossfire than you should have either 750W-850W. With the P67 chipset I'm not sure if you'll recieve full x16 bandwidth in both PCI slots (which I think) means you won't be running those cards at full power.

I could be wrong.
 
I would do three things,

I would get 2x4gb ram (so 8gb total). change the PSU to something like a tx or hx 750/850 and finally I would change the mobo since you can get something better for more ££ or something cheaper which will also satisfy your needs, personally I don't middle ground is the way to go - but that is only opinion.

Change PSU and get more ram would be immediate choices for me. Also as said above ditch the SSD for now, and maybe even get a better GFX with the money left over ?
 
Instead of the Dark Rock Pro, you could go with the Thermalright Frio? It'll save you £20.
Also, go for a Samsung F3 1TB HDD, its faster. I would wait before buying a SSD - the newer generation of Sandforce controllers are around the corner, these would be double the read/write speeds of the F60.

I'm going to go ahead and assume the first part was a typo (as it's £10 cheaper :p) but good call, it actually performs better - even at low fan speed.

WUT?! @ 2nd point though. The Seagate drives are the fastest mech drives around atm - and its cheaper! :)

Again agree with waiting before getting an SSD - prices should be around £1/GB - so much more reasonable.

PSU wise I'd be looking at this: Antec TruePower 750W - it's fully modular and has more amps on the 12v rails - so can allow for more power. It's also a more reputable brand and made by the best PSU makers around.

coldfused is correct, you'll only get 8x/8x in CF mode - but seeing as you'll only suffer 2% loss in performance it won't make a difference! :D

Motherboard choice is good, it's a capable overclocker, does symmentrical CF and SLI and has good cooling. It's also B3 revision!
 
OK, build now looks like this. (by the way, this will be mainly used for gaming and want it to last a good few years)

what you think? sticking with 4gb ram as only use it for gaming (Corsair XMS3 decent enough right?)



MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £209.99

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £173.99

Asus P8P67 PRO Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £149.99

Antec TruePower New Modular 750W Power Supply - With FREE 3D Mark 2011 Advance £87.98

Coolermaster CM-690 II Advanced Dominator Case - Black £69.98

Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £39.98

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM 1yr Warranty (ST31000528AS) £37.99
(£31.66)
Asus Xonar DG 5.1 PCI Sound Card with built in Headphone Amp - OEM £20.99

Thermaltake Frio CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3) £42.98

total: 850.
 
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Loving it. Could beef up the soundcard if you wanted - but unless you're an utter audiophile it won't make the slightest bit of difference.
 
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