Which Bundle?

[FAA1]

Hey,

So I'm looking at moving my laptop into retirement as my photography is taking a Semi-pro turn and the laptop is starting to show it's age. I don't mind having a desktop and as I am getting older I want to use it for gaming too. I have built PC's in the past but for work reasons had to have a laptop because it was portable. I have had play at overclocking in the past so I wouldn't be adverse to doing so again but really if i can get a bundle for the money I'd rather have that.

I want to spend somewhere between £850-1000 and I'm basically wondering what the best plan is going forward.

I was thinking of something along the lines of this:

-HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
-Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic
-Corsair 2013 Edition Gamer Series GS 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply
-Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM
-Xigmatek Asgard Midi Tower Case - Black

But this is the question am I better to go with an i7 or i5 haswell and is better to go with 16Gb or 8Gb of RAM?

I understand that the 8Gb and i5 will be perfectly fine for games but I guess photoshop will run better with the i7 16Gb combo?

I was thinking something like a Klondike or Quasar OC'd bundle to finish it off with Windows 8 and a few bits off my older PC but I'm open to any suggestions for that budget Tbh

Thanks in advance guys

 

[Doomedspeed]

I have done two 'build yourself specs'..

One is just a single card system.. It will be amazing for gaming but won't support Xfire/SLI (if your thinking about that route)

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795QC3G2M) **Voltage Unlocked** £185.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £79.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G2400HC11CDC01) £59.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £59.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 200R Compact ATX Case - Black £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £47.99
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 120 REV A (BW) Performance CPU Cooler £24.98
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
Total : £918.48 (includes shipping : £10.50).



THis spec is SLI ready.

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795QC3G2M) **Voltage Unlocked** £185.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £131.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 750W Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (0-761345-06223-7) £99.95
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £79.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black £65.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G2400HC11CDC01) £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £47.99
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 120 REV A (BW) Performance CPU Cooler £24.98
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
Total : £997.93 (includes shipping : £11.75).

 

[FAA1]

Thanks thats awesome,

So you don't think theres much advantage in going for one of the pre overclocked bundles then?

Is there much in the way of performance difference between Graphics cards maufacturers, or is it just a personal choice?

 

[Make]

Overclocked bundles are alright if you want a warranty on the overclock itself.

But you can reach an OC of 4.2-4.4ghz no problem with community help.

The 4.6ghz bundle uses specially binned chips that are guaranteed to reach that high, so for those its very useful if you can afford it.

 

[Doomedspeed]

So you don't think theres much advantage in going for one of the pre overclocked bundles then?

Its upto you really, it just dicates what motherboard RAM and cooler you have, which seems a bit limiting to me..

And as said above the community will be able to help with the OC.. They helped me and i've helped others since. Getting it to 4.2-4.4 should be easy even on that cooler.

It depends how into overclocking you are, if you are i can spec you a better cooler (to deal with bigger overclocks).

Is there much in the way of performance difference between Graphics cards maufacturers, or is it just a personal choice?

Personally choice and preference.. aswell as cooler design.. and Price..

The iceQ is a good balance of all of those.

 

[FAA1]

Ahh that's ideal I'll probably do the overclock myself then. I was thinking of around that figure tbh.

After you mentioned Sli as a possibility I thought about the 760 nvidia cards and think that one of the msi oc cards around the £215 mark would be a good idea so I can upgrade in the future by just buying a second card.

As for cooling I was maybe thinking of one of the closed loop water coolers or is it better just to roll with the air cooler? I guess in theory the liquid would be better as it has more heat capacity....

Once again many thanks.

 

[Doomedspeed]

After you mentioned Sli as a possibility I thought about the 760 nvidia cards and think that one of the msi oc cards around the £215 mark would be a good idea so I can upgrade in the future by just buying a second card.

I meant to put SLI/Xfire.. The 7950 is well setup for Xfire in that spec.. The 7950 outperforms the GTX 760 (even the faster GTX 670) so the 7950 would be my choice under £200

As for cooling I was maybe thinking of one of the closed loop water coolers or is it better just to roll with the air cooler? I guess in theory the liquid would be better as it has more heat capacity....

Once again many thanks.

Watercoolers are better but more expensive..

I think that air cooler will manage a 4.2-4.4 overclock fine but if you want to go with a watercooler you'll need to make sure its compatible with the case. Both the 200R and 300R struggle to take 240mm rad watercoolers so you'd have to go with a 120mm rad cooler like the h80(i)..