Spec me a replacement gaming build / upgrade.

JoeF1

JoeF1

JoeF1

Soldato
Joined
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Posts
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Location
West Yorkshire
Hi Guys, looking for some of your advice please. Guy at work wants to treat his son for passing his exams with an upgrade. He has a budget of £3-400 but will go a little higher if its worth the step up. He was a little vague telling me the current specs but below is what he printed out for me.

Current setup:

  • GFX - ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series (1GB)
  • Generic Sata 2 HDD
  • MoBo - Gigabyte EX58-UD3R
  • CPU - Intel Core i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz
  • 6Gb DDR3

He hasn't told me what power supply they currently have so to be safe please could you add one, also he hasn't told me what existing case so i think it would be a good idea to spec a tower too. It doesn't have to be anything pretty as it will be under the desk.

He also doesn't know what games he plays but with him telling me he needs to drop frames to play them im guessing they are GFX heavy so please can you guild it to a gaming spec if possible.

He isn't bothered about a faster HDD yet and doesn't need any monitors etc.

Thanks guys :)
 
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I have managed to spec a pretty decent one for £60 over budget. I know i'm aiming a little high but any thing we could save on the below?

I could drop him down to an i3 maybe?

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 960 Gaming 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - Red £167.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £152.99
1 x Asus Z97-K Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £89.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Savage Red 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX324C11SRK2/8) £53.99
Total : £478.45 (includes shipping : £11.25 Ex.VAT).

 
I'd be looking at this, and overclocking that 920. Now, I know it's a little over budget, but he could re-coup some of that cost by flogging his 6gb ram kit.

Also, there is a 250gb ssd in there: I know you said he isn't bothered for a faster drive, but it makes such a massive difference, and can help with some games in which you might experience judder due to slower streaming texture *cough*arkham knight*cough*, not to mention it makes such a world of difference to the whole computing experience, I cannot recommend a better upgrade to someone who doesn't have one.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Zotac GeForce GTX 970 Gaming Edition 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (ZT-90101-10P) £239.99
1 x Crucial BX100 250GB SSD SATA 6Gbps 7mm Solid State Drive (CT250BX100SSD1) £79.99
1 x EVGA 600W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (100-B1-0600-KR) £47.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Fury Red 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX318C10FRK2/8) £41.99
1 x Prolimatech 81 CPU Cooler - 120mm £34.99
Total : £454.55 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).

 
JoeF1 said:
I have managed to spec a pretty decent one for £60 over budget. I know i'm aiming a little high but any thing we could save on the below?

I could drop him down to an i3 maybe?

*snip*
Click to expand...
Use the memory I linked and save a tenner.

use https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-071-KF&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=2379
to save nearly another tenner.

Drop to a h97 board such as this: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-274-MS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=2813 to save another 30 quid. Don't need to be on z97 with that i5 as he won't be able to overclock.

Personally, I'd keep him on the i7 920 and get the 970 I linked along with the ssd. Even if he doesn't overclock it, (the cpu), the gains would be more substantial in gaming than going i3/i5 & gtx 960
 
implosiveturnip said:
Use the memory I linked and save a tenner.

use https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-071-KF&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=2379
to save nearly another tenner.

Drop to a h97 board such as this: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-274-MS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=2813 to save another 30 quid. Don't need to be on z97 with that i5 as he won't be able to overclock.

Personally, I'd keep him on the i7 920 and get the 970 I linked along with the ssd. Even if he doesn't overclock it, (the cpu), the gains would be more substantial in gaming than going i3/i5 & gtx 960
Click to expand...

Hi there.

Thanks for your replies. I have just spoken to him with what you have said and he would prefer to have everything new (cutting the budget abit thin) so i think im going to have to do the below:

Still waiting on him to tell me his PSU spec and i 100% agree with the SSD. Will try to convince him this is the way to go. Hows this look?

YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 960 Mini OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - Retail (96NPH8DND8VZ) £158.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £152.99
1 x Asrock H97 Pro4 Intel H97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £69.95
1 x Kingston HyperX Fury Red 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX318C10FRK2/8) £41.99
Total : £433.51 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).

 
I can't post baskets anymore, how annoying!

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-010-AS

for the cpu, board and ram, this will do fine. usb 3? check! Sata 6gb/s? check! Pci-e x16? check!


With the 960, It comes to £377.92. And you get free postage.

Unless there's any fancy bits with the h/z97 boards, or if he will overclock in the future, I'd go with that bundle, as frankly, it's a steal. Might even be able to go for a stronger GPU, or leaves some budget for new PSU or SSD ;)
 
That looks quite good actually! Thanks for the link.

I had the problem with the basket on chrome too. Had to manually use the javascript to copy & paste mine. With it being Micro ATX i will have to add a case in to suit which is no biggy i guess.
 
I like the look of that bundle too, might buy it for the GF! :o

The good thing about Micro ATX is you can still stick it in an ATX case...
 
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