Is this a good gaming rig?

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JakeTheSnake1991

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Mar 19, 2013
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So i've just been given £800 off my grandparents as they have just sold their house and thought id build a gaming pc from scratch for the first time. I'm still researching into it right now, but I'd just thought id post what I was thinking of constructing. Feedback on how "future proof" and good/bad it is would be appreciated. Also could you recommend any components that I could replace to maybe save some money or that you think would be an improvement.

i5-3570K CPU £170

Gigabyte H77N-WIFI Motherboard £80

Kingston KHX1600C9D3LK2/8GX 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 £40

Corsair TX650V2 Enthusiast Series 650W £70

Samsung 24x SATA DVD Writer £15

SilverStone SST-NT07-1156 36.5mm Nitrogon CPU Cooler £25

EVGA GeForce GTX 660 SC 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card £160

BitFenix ​​Prodigy Mini-ITX case £65

Windows 8 £65


All in all in comes to about £700, Ideally I wouldn't want to spend that much but its not a huge problem. Thanks for your feedback.
 
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bruniss

bruniss

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Feb 28, 2013
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Nice rig! Only two things: I would overclock that I5 and therefore get better cooling:

Deep Cool Gamer Storm (great and cheap heatsink) 33 bucks on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Logisys-Gamer-Storm-Cooling-MC6002GS/dp/B007G6XX4G/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1363695428&sr=8-2&keywords=deepcool+gamer+storm

I would also get a better case:

NZXT Temepst 410 Elite (awesome space and cooling):

http://www.amazon.com/Nzxt-Technologies-Tempest-Elite-Airflow/dp/B005MMW4FA/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363695512&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=nzxt+cempest

If you are not overclocking then the heatsink is not neccessary. But if you do then you'll see tremendous perfomance improvement. What you could do if you want to save for the time being is get the heatsink later and overclock once you get it. The I5 is practically meant to be OCed. Mine is at a steady 4.2 Ghz with that heatsink and in that case and it works beautifully.
 
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simon12

simon12

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May 18, 2010
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The bad points are:
You are buying an unlocked CPU with a motherboard that cannot overclock and a case and cooling also not suited to it.
You are sacrificing performance and spending more to get the system in an ITX case.
I suggest if you want to keep the ITX case then get the cheapest Ivy bridge i5 and spend more on the GPU. If you go to a m-ATX form factor you could overclock the 3570K and spend an extra £50+ on the graphics card which should get you a Radeon 7950 and a better allround gaming experience. Also sho paround I am sure you can get some of those components cheaper, check Aria Ebuyer Novatech Ginger6 Scan Pixmania etc.
 
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J

jesot

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Dec 19, 2008
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Meh... The BitFenix case he chose is pretty incredible for cooling options. The case is completely modular and can fit a bajillion fans.

My only issue with the Prodigy case is it kind of defeats the purpose of mini-ITX in a lot of ways because it's not very small. It's a really nice case, though and I am contemplating picking one up when I build my next computer in a few months.
 
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J

jesot

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Dec 19, 2008
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i7 isn't useful for gaming unless you're streaming while gaming. Not to mention it's incredibly more expensive. The specs he's chosen make for a solid machine.

Could switch the mobo to something like an ASRock Z77E-ITX to get overclocking potential to get more out of the CPU for longer.

My advice is that you can likely more GPU for the money and ITX might not be the best platform for a gaming rig to start out with. The Coolermaster 212 Evo is highly regarded around here for a CPU cooler. I have no experience with Silverstone cooling.

If you go with that case, make sure you take advantage of all the places you can put fans.
 
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