New Gaming PC UK

[ragerness]

Hey all,

I'm going to be buying a new gaming pc soon, and I have chosen out my parts, but don't have a lot of experience in parts. Any input or improvements you guys can provide would be greatly appreciated, one thing I am worried about is all the parts fitting in the case which I have already bought, but if needed I can buy a new one. Thanks for taking the time to read and Help its much appreciated.

Approximate Purchase Date: e.g.: Next two weeks

Budget Range: Around £1300

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Recording Game play, General use.

Are you buying a monitor: Yes


Parts to Upgrade:

GPU: EVGA GTX660Ti NVIDIA Graphics Card - 2GB - £239.59

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/evga-gtx-660-ti-28nm-6008mhz-gddr5-gpu-915mhz-boost-980mhz-cores-1344-2x-dl-dvi-dp-hdmi

PSU: OCZ ZX Series 1000W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply - £152.52

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1000w-ocz-technology-zx-series-full-modular-80-plus-gold-92-eff-eps-12v-1-x-140mm-fan-atx-v22-psu

RAM: Corsair Memory Vengeance Black 8GB DDR3 1600 MHz - £36.96

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-%282x4gb%29-corsair-ddr3-vengeance-jet-black-pc3-12800-%281600%29-non-ecc-cas-9-9-9-24-xmp-150v

MotherBoard: Asus MAXIMUS V GENE Intel Z77 Socket 1155 Ivybridge Ready Motherboard - £149.72

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-maximus-v-gene-intel-z77-s-1155-ddr3-sata-iii-6gb-s-pcie-30-%28x16%29-displayport-hdmi-micro-atx

CPU: Intel CPU Core i7 3770K Quad Core Ivy Bridge Processor - £251.94

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel-core-i7-3770k-s1155-ivy-bridge-quad-core-35ghz-5-gt-s-dmi-650mhz-gpu-8mb-smart-cache-35x-ratio

Case: Sharkoon T9 ATX Midi Tower Case - £53.15

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sharkoon-ATX-Midi-Tower-Case/dp/B004REHPD0/ref=pd_sim_sbs_computers_2

SSD: 256GB Corsair Performance Series P256 2.5" SSD - £119.10

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/256gb-corsair-performance-series-p256-ssd-mlc-flash-25-read-220mb-s-write-200mb-s-trim

HDD: 1TB Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.D SATA III - 6Gb/s Hard Drive - £65.98 (Will this Bottleneck my computer?)

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1tb-hitachi-0f13180-deskstar-7k1000d-35-hdd-sata-iii-6gb-s-7200rpm-32mb-cache-8ms-ncq-oem

Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro - £14.78

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Arctic-Cooling-Freezer-Rev-2-Cooler/dp/B002G392ZI/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1347297475&sr=1-1

Windows: Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM - £75.24

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/microsoft-windows-7-home-premium-64-bit-sp1-operating-system-single-oem

Monitor: LG W2442PE-BF LCD 24 inch - £182.19

http://www.amazon.co.uk/LG-W2442PE-BF-inch-Wide-Monitor/dp/B003MZRR9C/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1347298317&sr=8-2

Do you need to buy OS: Yes
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: (e.g.: Scan.co.uk, Ebuyer.co.uk -- to show us selection & pricing)

Location: UK

Parts Preferences: Intel CPU

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: SLI

Your Monitor Resolution: getting 1080p

Thanks for taking the time to look and help, If theirs anything that should be changed please let me know, I will be using this mainly for Gaming and Recording games, but want to get the maximum power and upgrade ability.

Thankyou

 

[malbluff]

There are a few things that need consideration. Firstly, do you NEED i7. It gives no benefit in gaming (over i5). The only things which benefit, from i7, are high-end photography, and design, and then you need to be doing a lot of it to justify the cost. Otherwise, it's honestly a waste of money.
Secondly, I note you mention SLi. There are two considerations there. The Maximus Gene is a brilliant board, for the computer enthusiast. It's not ideal for SLi, unless you are planning to water cool. Much better to have an ATX board, which gives more space, between graphics cards. If you are not INTENDING SLi, in the NEAR future, you don't need more than 500/550w maximum power supply. If you are going to add 2nd card fairly soon, it's worth having 750w power supply. 1000w is way too much, and would be inefficient. You need to change RAM to a low profile type eg Gskill Ares, to avoid a possible physical clash, with cooler. I understand the attraction of Evga, for their good support, but there are several more powerful GTX660Ti's.

 

[ragerness]

Hi there,

I'm going to go with this i5 instead.

Intel CPU Core i5 3570K Quad Core IvyBridge
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/29-4intel-core-i5-3570k-s-1155-ivy-bridge-quad-core-34ghz-5-gt-s-dmi-650mhz-gpu-6mb-smart-cache-34x-

As with the memory, How would this do? I'm just going to buy the memory of google shopping.

G.Skill ARES 8 GB : 2 x 4 GB Memory - DIMM 240-pin - 2133 MHz ( PC3-17000 ) - 1.5 V

If I'm not going to be using SLI should I still go with and ATX? or stick with the Maximus Gene? Is their any 660 you could recommend? Or should I use the money from downgrading from my PSU and processor to buy a 670? I think ill get a 750w just in-case I do decide to add cards in the future.

Thanks for the reply and help

 

[malbluff]

Hi there,

I'm going to go with this i5 instead.

Intel CPU Core i5 3570K Quad Core IvyBridge
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/29-4intel-core-i5-3570k-s-1155-ivy-bridge-quad-core-34ghz-5-gt-s-dmi-650mhz-gpu-6mb-smart-cache-34x-

As with the memory, How would this do? I'm just going to buy the memory of google shopping.

G.Skill ARES 8 GB : 2 x 4 GB Memory - DIMM 240-pin - 2133 MHz ( PC3-17000 ) - 1.5 V

If I'm not going to be using SLI should I still go with and ATX? or stick with the Maximus Gene? Is their any 660 you could recommend? Or should I use the money from downgrading from my PSU and processor to buy a 670? I think ill get a 750w just in-case I do decide to add cards in the future.

Thanks for the reply and help

A lot of this boils down to how experienced you are, or your interest in learning. If your only interest is in what a PC will do, you really don't NEED the sophistication of a RoG board. They are intended for the enthusiast, who wants to spend the time to squeeze every last ounce out of his system. Other than that, you are better off with a conventional Z77 board, Asus if you want top quality, the V Pro, or Sabretooth, if you want the best of them. Much more user friendly. Even if you are going RoG, the benefit of 2133 MHz RAM, is marginal. If going with a conventional board, stick with 1600 MHz, 2133 gains you next to nothing.
When it comes to chosing which 660Ti, there's a huge choice. Some manufacturers, like Asus, have got up to SIX different versions. They haven't been around long enough to really judge which is best. The Asus TOP, MSI TwinFrozr, or Zotac, or Gigabyte Windrush, are likely to vie for top honours, in different ways. If you google "which gtx 660ti", you'll find comparasons, of SOME of them.
When it comes to considering a jump to a GTX670, you've got to compare like with like. Some of the top 660Ti's are better, and more expensive, than basic 670's. Like for like, there's a fairly small performance gap, in most games, at 1920x1080. The GTX 670 has more of a lead, at 2560x1600 resoltion, so is certainly worth considing, for high res monitors.

 

[ragerness]

So I've decided to go with this new motherboard

Asus P8Z77-M PRO Intel Z77 Socket 1155 Ivybridge Ready Motherboard

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-p8z77-m-pro-intel-z77-s-1155-ddr3-sata-iii-6gb-s-pcie-30-%28x16%29-d-sub-%28vga%29-dvi-d-hdmi-micro-atx

I did some research and I've just deciding to go with this

Asus GTX660 Ti NVIDIA Graphics Card - 2GB

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-asus-gtx-660-ti-directcu-ii-oc-28nm-6008mhz-gddr5-gpu-967mhz-boost-1058mhz-cores-1344-2x-dl-dvi-

Ill be getting the 1600 MHz ram too.

May end up buying a new case, one with more room, as Im worried that the GPU wont fit in along with the processor cooler.
Also will me having a 1tb HDD to store my games and game recordings on be too much? Or could I go up to 1.5tb?

 

[malbluff]

GPU looks fine, and as an OC Asus, pretty good value. There are so many variations, it's difficult to compair, but seems good choice. Cases are a very prsonal thing. It's you that's going to be living with it. Best way, is for you to pick a couple you like "look of", and we can then advise if one is "better". Corsair, Fractal, Antec, are usually good, for build etc.
For HDD, it's stuff like video/films, that eat up space. Unless you've got a lot of that, you certainly don't need more than 1TB. Unless you want to put a LOT of games, on it, you don't really need 256GB of SSD, either. It's more cost effective to put stuff that doesn't need the speed of SSD, on conventional HDD.

 

[ragerness]

Do you think that the case I currently have could fit everything in it? Including a CPU fan, Or should I invest in a larger case?

 

[malbluff]

Seems decent case. Everything will fit. Only slight criticism I see is that fans are on noisy side. You can, of course change them, if it becomes an issue.

 

[ragerness]

Ill most likely change them then, Thanks so much for all your help.