Budget High End Gaming System

[julius kaizer]

Hi there,

After much consideration I decide to save some money in board and cpu and spend it on the graphic card nut still maintaining a balanced system, so went for this config:

Approximate Purchase Date: TOMORROW

Range: 700/800eur

System Usage: Gaming, Watching Movies, Internet

Not Required: keyboard and mouse Logitech wireless, Asus 19'' lcd monitor, 5.1 Logitech speakers, WinXP OS, 600W Power Supply

Website for Parts: www.pixmania.com

Parts:
CPU INTEL i5-760 - 2,8 GHz - Cache L3 8 MB - 172.56eur
MOBO Gigabite GA-P55-UD6-C - 139.67eur
RAM OCZ Gold 2x2GB DDR3-1333-PC3-10666 (OCZ3G1333LV4GK) - 63,81eur
HDD WD Caviar Blue - 3,5" - 640 GB - 7200 rpm - 16 MB - SATA - 42.56eur
GRAPHICS GIGABYTE GTX 470 Super Overclock - 1280 MB (GV N470SO-13I) - 332,25eur
TOTAL 773,84eur - including shipping

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI: Maybe

Monitor Resolution: 1440x900

Additional Comments:

I want a gaming machine which will not need an upgrade any time sooner.

I though for a long time and decide to go for the cheaper 1156 cpu and mobo, and invest the money saved on a superior Graphic Card.

First I idealized an i7-930+x58mobo+cheap gtx460 system but finally decided for this one).

 

[gkay09]

^ Good setup for a gaming machine IMO...
What is the make of the PSU that you have? Also give the specs of that...
Also the mobo is a very good one, but doesnt have USB3.0/ SATA 6GB/s if that matters...
RAM - Get a different manufacturer as OCZ RAM nowadays are pretty flaky...Corsair/ GSKillz/ Mushkin/ Team/ Patriot...
HDD - The Samsung F3s are faster...
And if you are overclocking, then you might want to get a good aftermarket cooler... CM Hyper 212+ would be a very good choice...

 

[julius kaizer]

I made some sacrifices, the MoBo is better than the alternative (asrock p55 deluxe which isnt even compatible with i5-760, I found out just in time!!!!) in the price range I choosed but although the DDR was a part of this sacrifice (price only) the HDD was not, I saw a transfer data benchmark with 10 hdd and the one I choose was in 3rd or 4th place, loosing just to F1 and some other drive (price also mattered, because it got chepper for me the 640gb instead the 1TB or 1.5TB solutions), unfortunely I cant find this results now...

 

[julius kaizer]

here is the hdd benchmark i was talking about, caviar blue 640 loosing only to barracuda 1.5tb, barracuda 640gb and samsung f1 1tb

 

[gkay09]

^ The F1 and the Seagate 1.5TB are old drives compared to the F3 and the Seagate 7200.12 drives...
Also how much do the Samsung F3 cost?

 

[julius kaizer]

Here the price of the Samsung F3 500gb and WD Caviar Blue 640gb is the same 42eur +/-0.50.

 

[gkay09]

^ Hmm, if you want more storage and are willing to sacrifice some speed, then the WD Blue is fine...

 

[overdr1ve]

Just know that with this system you will have slow read performance because of the average amount of RAM installed, and an incredibly slow hard disk. At the very least consider buying a now-cheap Vertex (1) 30 or 60 GB SSD for the OS and a couple often-played games to sit on.

 

[bbzoe]

I just got a WD hdd with my build and its the only part I'm not impressed with. I love my gigabyte mobo (lower model) and I also love my GTX 460 gfx card, palit sonic plat, if you where thinking about downgrading there.