Gaming Rig (completely new)

2500k - $219

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I52500K

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Motherboard - $76

ASRock H61DE/S3 LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s ATX Intel Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

RAM - $46

Crucial 8GB Kit (4GBx2), 240-pin DIMM, DDR3 PC3-10600 memory module 1333 CT2KIT51264BD1339

http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=F3...

OS - $108

Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade x64

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows-Home-Premium-Up...

Monitor - $159

ViewSonic VX2253mh-LED Black 22" Full HD HDMI LED Backlight LCD Monitor Slim Design w/Speakers 300 cd/m2 DC 30,000,000:1 (1,000:1)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Keyboard & Mouse - $50

This is generous because I don't want to bother looking these up. You can save most of this allotment.

So far we are at $658 USD from the links I said. A Motherboard, CPU, RAM, OS, Monitor, Keyboard, and Mouse have so far been allotted. That leaves PSU, Case, Hard Drive, and Video Card with about $650 USD remaining.

PSU - $66 after MIR ($694)

XFX Core Edition PRO650W (P1-650S-NLB9) 650W ATX12V 2.2 & ESP12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Case - $55

COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 2011 Reader Choice Award: Best Chassis

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Hard Drive - $197

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1502FAEX 1.5TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

We are at $946 USD now with no video card which is well far away from L1000.

Find those things on your favorite websites then buy whatever video card that makes you happy. You should be able to get a 6850, 6870, or 6950 and have money left over for headset, capture devices, and whatever that other stuff you wanted is.

Not sure if it will fit in the budget, but if you want to go with an excellent crossfire setup instead of one big fat video card (I just stick with 1, but if its your thing) then you might be able to fit in this 2 card 3 core setup

Two 6870 cores on this one card, so you can use the 1x crossfire port to have 3 total cores - $399

PowerColor AX6870X2 2GBD5-2DHG Radeon HD 6870 x2 2GB 2 X 256bit (256bit) GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

+

Some other 6870 - $145ish

For $545 that performs very well graphics wise, better than single cards that cost more and much smoother graphics rendering than most dual card setups.

For £1000.00 I would think you might be able to get a bit more graphics muscle.

Scan is the better place to shop. Maybe not always the best prices, but very easy to navigate and what I normally use for the UK folks... I'm in queue for TOR so let me see if I can throw a build up.

i5 2500K -172
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel-core-i5-2500k-unlo...

Gigabyte Z68 UD5 board... great price - 130
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigabyte-ga-z68x-ud5-b3-...

8GB Corsair RAM - 35
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-%282x4gb%29-corsair-...

Cm Storm Enforcer case -70
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/coolermaster-storm-enfor...

Corsair 750TX PSU -84
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/750w-psu-corsair-enthusi...

6950 2GB -220
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-msi-hd-6950-twin-fro...

Corsair A70 air cooler -33
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/corsair-cooling-air-seri...

1TB Seagate - 95
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1tb-seagate-st31000524as...

DVD - 14
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/samsung-writemaster-sh-s...

Add win 7 Premium 64-bit to that and you have it.

Well, I left the graphics solution open and a wide budget for it so the OP could have a good backbone and see how much money they have left and how much they want to spend on it.

The potential is there to spend all of it on a graphics solution or to spend half and save the rest or whatever the OP wants to do.

I don't think that any graphics solution in this budget is going to beat the 6870x2 + 6870 that I mentioned. But I did offer 6950 and 6850 as other potential options at different price points.

A couple things if you will allow me Raiddinn,

1. You listed an H61 board that will not overclock and has no USB 3.0. It also is not a crossfire board.

2. He lives in the UK and his budget in in pounds not dollars... helps with the budget  

3. Ordering from newegg would not be practical.

Having said that I think there's room for improvement in my build. There are several sites in the UK to shop at:

UK
Microdirect
Aria PC?
Overclockers UK
Misco I need feedback on them... they look good.
Pixmania Just a gadget store but they have some good memory at good prices, and other stuff.
ebuyer
Dabs
http://www.scan.co.uk/

Good example:

For 280 you can get CPU, decent board, and CPU cooler:
http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/GIGA...

Well, I wouldn't suggest going with 2 video cards anyway. If it is a big deal that they do then they can find a board that supports it easy enough or just say they really want to go that route and I will find one that supports it.

Pounds vs dollars... Dollars are afaik at a trade disadvantage vs pounds so anything I quote in dollars should be easy to get for the same amount of pounds if not significantly less pounds even after VAT and all that.

Newegg... Well, I did mention that they are just example prices and the OP can get stuff from whatever place they find the best deal at.

Anyway, the build itself is pretty solid with a 1x video card setup of the OP's choice and should easily fit in the required budget range no matter how you slice it.

I can't in good conscience suggest a full atx board costing twice as much without knowing that the OP is completely sure they want to go with 2 video cards, especially when I don't feel they should go that route with the budget constraints and performance issues and all that.

Thanks, for the suggestions guys.

I've decided I'm going to go with a single video card, just to avoid any issues that might crop up caused by using two. Any particular recommendations? Baring in mind I want this build to be able to run a game like Battlefield 3, on max settings, without any hiccups.

As a deluxe board the Gigabyte UD5 is hard to beat at that price. If you want to save some, the ASROCK Pro3 will allow a decent overclock and performs well
http://www.ebuyer.com/267316-asrock-z68-pro3-socket-115...
Main drawbacks are the number of USB 3.0 ports, no CF or SLI, no fancy heatsinks on the CPU voltage regulation. Oh and the ASRock board has a 2 year warranty while the Gigabyte has 3 year warranty.

As far a game performance they will be identical.

Lol Proxi, I agree with all your points.  

Just a suggestion.
You can save on the PSU, Go with the OCZ ZS 750 -63
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/750w-psu-ocz-technology-...
Pretty solid PSU and it'll perform close if not better than the TX750. Now I agree the 750TX is good, but for the price I think you can do better.

Everything else looks good.

If he's set on the single GPU setup, then he shouldn't get 750W at all.

The Antec partly modular 650W:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/650w-psu-antec-truepower...

or the XFX pro 650W
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/650w-psu-xfx-pro-series-...

But given the price of the Antec I think it's a good deal.

I'm short on time, is the OCZ unit Sirfa? or FSP? I forget.

Might as well go with the OCZ 650w if you put it that way.
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/650w-psu-ocz-technology-...
Cheaper than both those units.

The ZS is Sirtec, Not bad IMO
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=...
JG gave it a 9 (barely) but it performs and it's cheaper than most units in the UK.

The old SXS units, also Sirtech, have been good. I installed a few of them around and never saw an issue.

ModXstream and powerXstream formerly made by Topower.
GameXstream made by FSP.
EvoStream built by 3y.

Sirtec makes PSUs for such brands as Thermaltake, Coolmax, and Highpower.

XFX PSUs are made by Seasonic.

Actually.... Not to go trolling but.

ModXStream depending on the wattage was made by FSP and the EvoStream was OEM'd by FSP as well.

yep it was the old Modstream and Powerstream that were Topower. Here's the full list:

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=205763

So SXS was FSP as well.

Ahhh partially right. Yeah, I was just using this source:
http://realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page1373.htm
Didn't have any of the other Modstream models or Powerstream. XD

Save this link in your favorites.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDArticles&op...

Could we not get a 60GB SSD boot drive in there somewhere?

How is this?

Intel CPU Core i5 Unlocked 2500K Sandy Bridge Quad Core Processor
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel-core-i5-2500k-unlocked-s1155-sndy-bridge-quad-33ghz-hd3000-igp-850mhz-6mb-cache-95w-retail

Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD5-B3 Intel Z68 Express Socket 1155 Motherboard
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigabyte-ga-z68x-ud5-b3-intel-z68-s-1155-ddr3-sata-iii-6gb-s-raid-sata-pcie-20-%28x16%29-atx

Corsair Memory XMS3 8GB DDR3 1600 MHz CAS 9 Dual Channel Desktop
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-%282x4gb%29-corsair-ddr3-xms3-pc3-12800-%281600%29-non-ecc-unbuffered-cas-9-9-9-24-15v

Coolermaster Storm Enforcer SGC-1000-KWN1Black Mid Tower Gaming Case w/o PSU
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/coolermaster-storm-enforcer-black-mid-tower-gaming-case-with-usb-30-w-o-psu

XFX P1-650S-UKB9 Pro Series Core Edition 650W Power Supply (PSU)
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/650w-psu-xfx-pro-series-...

Corsair Cooling Air Series A70 CPU Cooler
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/corsair-cooling-air-series-a70-high-perf-heatpipe-2-fan-cpu-cooler-intel-775-1155-1156-1366-amd-am2-

Seagate ST31000524AS 1TB Hard Drive - HDD
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1tb-seagate-st31000524as-barracuda-720012-sata-6gb-s-7200rpm-32mb-cache-85ms-ncq

SATA 22x DVD Writer SAMSUNG SH-S222AB/BEBE
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/samsung-writemaster-sh-s222ab-bebe-22x-dvdr-12x-dvdr-dvdplusrw-x8-rw-x6-sata-black-oem


I haven't decided on a GPU yet, so I could do with some suggestions for that. Also, if there's anything I'm missing, or needs changing, please let me know.

A 6950 is probably a fine video card and you can most likely fit it below L1000 as I mentioned before.

The rest of the stuff is probably fine too.

What is the budget at in total without the video card and what does the video card cost in GBP?

The items I posted there come to just under 550 GBP in total from that site, but I'll be looking around before I make the purchases to see where I can get the best deals.

Plenty of room for a SSD if you want one then, even with the 6950.

6950s tend to go for 190-230 on that particular site.

XFX HD 6950 2GB GDDR5 Dual DVI Dual Mini DisplayPort HDMI PCI-E Graphics Card
http://www.ebuyer.com/267907-xfx-hd-6950-2gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-dual-mini-displayport-hdmi-pci-e-hd-695x-cnfc

How's that, Raiddinn?

XFX makes good things in general, but for the most part one video card of a given type (like 6950) is just as good as another.

Some are made to be quieter, some made to look cooler, etc, but they are based on very specific design documents from ATI and companies can't stray far from this.

If some other 6950 is cheaper, you can get that instead.