Approximate Purchase Date: After Christmas (during sales)
Budget Range: Trying to stay under £1000, but I can stretch that budget if necessary.
System Usage from Most to Least Important: PC Gaming, live-streaming console gameplay, and general internet surfing.
Parts Not Required: Speakers
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: [url=http://www.ebuyer.com/][/url] (other alternatives are welcome)
Country: UK
Parts Preferences: 24" monitor MAX.
Overclocking: Maybe
SLI or Crossfire: Maybe (unsure)
Monitor Resolution: 1680x1050 and upwards.
Additional Comments: Been a while since I've had a decent PC for gaming, so I'm not entirely sure what the standard is for top-notch systems is nowadays (hence the cluelessness). I'd like the machine to be quiet. I'm not entirely picky about the look of the case, but I wouldn't mind paying for a reasonably priced stylish case. Also looking for a decent headset, and any recommendations on capture devices, baring in mind I want to keep my Xbox 360 connected via HDMI. All help is greatly appreciated!
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
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.
------------------------------i5-3570k, Asrock Z77 Pro4, XFX Pro 650w Core, 2x 4GB Crucial CT2KIT51264BA1339, PowerColor 6850 SCS3, Lian Li PC - K59, Seagate Barracuda 500gb hd, ASUS DRW-24B1ST DVDRW
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.
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.
------------------------------i5-3570k, Asrock Z77 Pro4, XFX Pro 650w Core, 2x 4GB Crucial CT2KIT51264BA1339, PowerColor 6850 SCS3, Lian Li PC - K59, Seagate Barracuda 500gb hd, ASUS DRW-24B1ST DVDRW
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.
------------------------------i5-3570k, Asrock Z77 Pro4, XFX Pro 650w Core, 2x 4GB Crucial CT2KIT51264BA1339, PowerColor 6850 SCS3, Lian Li PC - K59, Seagate Barracuda 500gb hd, ASUS DRW-24B1ST DVDRW
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-asroc [...] d-z68-pro3 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.
Just a suggestion. You can save on the PSU, Go with the OCZ ZS 750 -63 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/750 [...] v-quiet-fa 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.
Just a suggestion.
You can save on the PSU, Go with the OCZ ZS 750 -63
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/750 [...] v-quiet-fa 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.
+1.
IMO XFX units are also a great deal for the money..
XFX P1-650S-UKB9 Pro Series Core Edition 650W Power Supply (PSU)
[url]http://www.scan.co.uk/products/650w-psu-xfx-pro-series-core-edition-p1-650s-ukb9-85-eff-80-plus-bronze-sli-crossfire-eps-12v-fan-at[/ur]
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.
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.
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.
------------------------------i5-3570k, Asrock Z77 Pro4, XFX Pro 650w Core, 2x 4GB Crucial CT2KIT51264BA1339, PowerColor 6850 SCS3, Lian Li PC - K59, Seagate Barracuda 500gb hd, ASUS DRW-24B1ST DVDRW