Spec me please

Ripper · 27 Aug 2012 at 18:48

Can someone help me out and have a bash at speccing me a new PC please. Need windows and monitor too (23" pref), but not keyboard/mouse. I would prefer it to have a Black bitfenix prodigy case and in total be no more than £600 really but cheaper the better. Will be used for CS:GO predominantly, and typical office work. If it can handle BF3 too then even better.

Work your magic!

Ripper · 27 Aug 2012 at 18:56

Nothing unfortunately no

Ripper · 27 Aug 2012 at 19:29

Think he was pointing out windows rather than the hardware as it's faulty

Ripper · 27 Aug 2012 at 20:15

Idleman said:
Correct.

I think that case you prefer is going to cause problems with the budget.
A decent itx mobo with sata 3 and usb 3.0 is at least £80.

If there's something else available that's similarly sleek/stylish then i'm open to suggestions if it means staying in budget.

Ripper · 27 Aug 2012 at 20:28

What if I went with a BitFenix Merc Beta case? Would that help?

edit: Nice case that coolermaster, think I actually prefer that.

Ripper · 5 Sep 2012 at 20:09

I'm still not completely decided on what to get. I was all set to go for the above but then I saw more prodigy machines in the flesh and it has really made me want to try and sort a machine using that case.

I can go without the monitor/windows for now (but still need to save money for them). I've specced the following:

Thinking of going with an SSD (120gb) for now and then see if I need anything bigger later on. Thoughts? Improvements? Not fussed about overclocking so i'm assumng the stock cooler will be fine?

Ripper · 13 Sep 2012 at 19:06

Really apologise for the constant dithering over this but if this gets the go ahead it will be getting ordered this weekend. Thoughts? Will the mobo/ram/psu be ok? Don't want to spend anymore than that on the PSU, are there any better ones out there for the money? Do I HAVE to go modular?

Ripper · 13 Sep 2012 at 19:17

And it will power everything without any problems? GFX card is OC'd so I wasn't sure.

Ripper · 13 Sep 2012 at 19:34

Ok excellent. Finally, the motherboard and RAM, would I be better off getting something better or will they do the trick? Only looking to play cs go but once i have the pc setup i'll no doubt want to try newer games as well every so often.

Ripper · 14 Sep 2012 at 22:27

Intel core i3 3220 3.3ghz (ivybridge)
Gigabyte B75M-D3V motherboard
MSI HD 7850 OC 1024MB GFX card
8Gb 1600mhz DDR3 ram
Samsung 830 128GB SSD
OCZ ZT-550w modular PSU
Bitfenix merc beta midi tower case
Samsung 22x DVDRW rewriter
TP link 300mbps wireless adapter

Ordered the above. Finally

Ripper · 22 Sep 2012 at 18:18

Set it all up today, not tested it fully yet (just downloading CS:GO whcih will take until the morning with my net). Seems snappy though, first computer with an SSD and it definately shows.

With it being so long since i've built a PC, i've installed the following so far:

drivers
windows update
flash player
steam
anti virus

Am I missing any crucial software?

Windows experience index gives the following scores:

Processor: 7.2
RAM: 7.5
Graphics: 7.9
Gaming graphics: 7.9
HDD: 7.7

That decent enough?