Spec check ... sub £750.

VaderDSL · 7 Sep 2011 at 20:33

Been really craving gaming again ever since selling off my old 775 stuff last year. And since winter is approaching, need something for the long cold nights

Not looking to spend a whole lot, under £750 due to receiving a deposit back from the flat I lived in.

Was thinking about the following, gaming on 27" screen 1920X1200, playing source games, civ 5, STO, Eve, nothing too taxing, possibly BF3 when it comes out.

I have retail windows 7 home premium and a basic keyboard/mouse which I may replace with something better.

Only real extravagance there is the cooler, always liked TR stuff.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £167.99
1 x OcUK ATI Radeon HD 6870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Deus Ex PC Game £124.98
1 x Asrock Z68 PRO3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £99.98
1 x Lancool Dragon-Lord PC-K62 Mid Tower Case with Window - Black £82.99
1 x Antec TruePower New Modular 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £72.98
1 x Thermalright Archon CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/AM2/AM3) £44.99
1 x Corsair Gaming Audio Series HS1A Analogue Gaming Headset £39.98
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £33.98
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £29.99
1 x LG GH22NS70 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £729.86 (includes shipping : £12.50).

Many thanks!

RJC · 7 Sep 2011 at 20:43

Looking good, only thought is have a look at the Gigabyte board below:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=mb-368-gi&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/z68xp-ud3-dz68db,review-32228-19.html

VaderDSL · 7 Sep 2011 at 20:52

Cheers

something to think about, the Gigabyte does look a bit better spec'd.

King Damager · 7 Sep 2011 at 20:54

You could downgrade the Archon to a Gelid Tranquillo and up your Mobo to an ASrock Extreme 4 Gen 3 - would still be in the £750 I think once you take off shipping

kd

RJC · 7 Sep 2011 at 20:55

The Gigabyte does seem good value for money, SLI & Crossfire ready.

Do you need a fan for the cooler.

VaderDSL · 7 Sep 2011 at 20:56

Cheers King Damager, that was another option I looked at, will the Tranquillo be good enough for a 4-4.2ghz over clock?

Having a decent board is definitely something to think about. How certain is it that these Z68 with the PCI-E 3.0 chips will support Ivy Bridge?

The archon comes with a 140mm fan RJC so at least that's something. I might end up simply spending the extra on a better mobo though.

RJC · 7 Sep 2011 at 20:57

I believe your pretty safe.

The Gelid does get good reviews and should be able to handle 4.4GHZ without issues

King Damager · 7 Sep 2011 at 21:02

http://www.techpowerup.com/151718/MSI-Calls-Bluff-on-Gigabyte-s-PCIe-Gen-3-Ready-Claim.html

This might help explain some of the questions regarding Gen 3 - Look through the powerpoint. Gigabyte are yet to respond, but the ASRock Gen3's I believe have the hardware architecture that MSI talk about. Again, however there isn't really any guarantee until Ivy/PCI3.0 actually comes out.. but presumably ASRock are telling the truth..

kd

olivier renault · 7 Sep 2011 at 21:23

ouch. And the war begins.