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Building my first system need advice please!

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Hi there all.. new to the forum but iv been creeping behind the scenes for a while now, this forum has been invaluable in terms of what i have learned, although i now need a bit of specific advice and more of a confirmation that im doing the right thing before i take the plunge and spend a lot of cash!

I used to be a pretty hardcore PC computer gamer, only really since the ps3 has came out and my pc has struggled to keep up with the likes of cyrsis and ghost recon that i stopped being a pc gamer and turned to the console.

I have had custom built PC's for the last decade (my brother built my last two but now hes got a job as a project manager for HP hes slightly less interested!) anyway the time has came to upgrade and i have decided to attempt to build it myself.

I want the PC mainly as an office computer but I feel like i want to get back to pc gaming and so want the capability and power to cope with anything i want to throw at it, so the current configuration is based around that principle, i will not be overclocking but i want the option in a few years to squeeze a bit more life out of it. My budget is around £800>

the things that im really struggling with at the moment are the PSU, Motherboard and Graphics Card.

anyway the configuration i have at the moment is the following, any advice you can give me i would be eternally grateful...


SPECS:

Case - Thermaltake chaser mk 1
CPU - Intel i5 Quad Core 3570k 1155 socket (thinking of possibly overclocking in the future)
Motherboard - ????? something on the z77 chipset?
Graphics - AMD Raedon 7850 HD 2GB or 7870?? ADVISE PLEASE??

looking at this: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-xfx-radeon-hd-7870-d...
Optical drives - 1 x Blu Ray Rw, 1 x DVD Rw (from my old machine)
RAM - Corsair Vengence 16GB (2 x 8GB8 1600
Storage - 1TB SATA-3 HDD
PSU - ?? not even sure how i work this out, but was thinking with the amount of fans and equipment im using 600w?

like i said any ideas, tips etc would be greatly appreciated, many thanks in advance.

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With that budget I think you can get a pretty nice pc, I don't know much in your currency but, ill try help you out.

The CPU is nice
Mobo asrock extreme 6
Ram is good
Graphics maybe you could get even a 7950 on your budget (but the 7870 is better than 7850)
Maybe you could also get ssd, which will boost performance
Psu, something like corsair hx650 is nice, but there are cheaper options

600watt should be enough... I like to do 650to750watt cuz it feels a little easier.

thanks so much for the quick reply... with the motherboard i want wifi so i dont have to plug in a usb dongle on the exterior...from what iv seen the p8z77-v deluxe seems to be the only one to offer this, but if thats all i will benefit off paying £100 more than a budget board then i may aswell buy a Wireless adaptor separately for £20.. i will look into your suggestion of the asrock though so thank you.

In terms of GPU i realise the 7870 is better, what im trying to determine; is the extra money well spent? (think the difference is about £20 or less)
there seems to be so many different makes and modles of the 7870 (sapphire, gigabyte etc) and quite a bit of difference in price (£150-200) any comments on the best one etc?

I asked my brother about SSD and he seems to think that HDD on SATA 3 is nearly as quick, i have heard that it makes a difference in how fast the comp boots up etc, is it really worth doing in your opinion?



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bit the bullet and ordered the following components

Case - Thermaltake chaser mk 1
CPU - Intel i5 Quad Core 3570k 1155 socket
Motherboard - ASUS P8Z77 -V PRO
Graphics - 2GB XFX Radeon HD 7870 Double Dissipation Edition
Optical drives - 1 x Blu Ray Rw, 1 x DVD Rw (from my old machine)
RAM - Corsair Vengence 16GB (2 x 8GB)
Storage - using the 232GB HDD from my old system to save money (upgrading later)
PSU - 650W Corsair Enthusiast Series 650TX

Total cost:£778.24

any thoughts, comments?

i was always under the impression you cant have "too much" ram? As i said i am not just thinking of what i need tomorrow i want to try and make it as future proof as possible for the budget im on, so have tried to keep in mind 'expanding' in the future, also from the reviews i have read the case is very good on the stock fans, not thinking about cold water cooling so the most id consider at this time is to stick another fan on it... do you think i would need to do this? bare in mind that i will not be OC anything for a couple of years (at which time ill look into water cooling systems) Motherboard was £130 which I didnt think was bad when weighing it up in comparison with similar, on looks alone it is a clear winner among others i have seen, and i get my wish of built in wifi! apparently the fan controller is really good too...

what do you think to the graphics card? im hoping it will do me for now and in a few years if needed i can buy the same again and use on the xfire?

The video card is good. I don't buy into that "adding another card after a couple of years" trick. After 2-3 years, if you feel like it's not good enough at that time, upgrade and get something different entirely. Keep your expectations realistic though
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