Building New Pc for around £800, can go up to £900

[rhymer2k]

Hi There,

Currently I have an oldish Dell system bough from the Dell outlet store with the following specs,

Intel Pentium Dual Core processor E5300 @ 2.6 Ghz
5GB RAM (upgraded - different brands)
Radeon 6870 Graphics card (upgraded)
Antec High Current Gamer 520W Power Supply (upgraded)
Dell Ultrasharp U2412M.

As you can see, my system is positively ancient so I'm planning on building a new PC myself for general home use, movies etc but should be able to play the games i have in my Library to a high standard. These include Skyrim, Boderlands 2, Dirt 3, Dues Ex, Arkham Assylum/ City. I do not play Battlefield or Crysis however i am not ruling out getting more graphic intensive games in the future.

I have pondered for a few months on what would count as an upgrade and I'm pretty much set on getting the below.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/DPvw

As a beginner however, i would appreciate some advice/alternatives from more experienced individuals to the items I have in my list. I will be dabbling with overclocking my GPU, CPU and possibly RAM.

For now to keep the cost of my build low, i will keep my current GPU and upgrade later in the year, also i will be keeping my current monitor and PSU. Will 520W be enough for my components? The Patriot RAM has already been purchased

Final Comments: I'm open to buying anywhere in the UK (online), my monitor resolution is 1920x1200, and i prefer a case like the one in my link as opposed to something with a lot of LED's or 'bling'.

Thanks for your help

 

[butremor]

dues ex hahaha lol sorry
so you can save a bit of money by getting simpler z77 chipset mobo, like asrock extreme4 or gigabyte ud3, which still provide good functionality.

yeah that psu should be enough.

 

[rhymer2k]

dues ex hahaha lol sorry
so you can save a bit of money by getting simpler z77 chipset mobo, like asrock extreme4 or gigabyte ud3, which still provide good functionality.

yeah that psu should be enough.

I meant the new Dues Ex: Human revolution..not really graphic intensive I know but its in my steam library lol....yeah i was looking at those two including a similar board from Asus however the Maximus Gene is great at overclocking which is why i wanted it...its only £30 pounds or so more than the ones you suggested though i'm wondering if the difference in performance is worth it...its also a smaller ATX board which has its own drawbacks

 

[butremor]

as far as i know all z77 motherbords are made for overclocking so idk are there really that much differnce for 30 £ ... if you ask me thats just marketing and somewhat false advertising lol... there are also cheaper asus boards if you're set on thsi brand
for example P8Z77-V

 

[diellur]

I've found that the slightly more expensive boards have better OC options, but that depends on how far you want to push your CPU. Your build looks great, although if you're keeping your existing GPU then I'd wait until the next line comes out...7950 is fine for now, but may not be the best choice later on. The PSU is probably OK, but if it's old then it should be replaced...you can get a decent unit for about £50. Probably want to stick about the 650W mark (although 750W would be better if you plan on a multi-GPU system in the future).

I'd save yourself some money on postage and get it all through SCAN, btw. They also provide insurance for when you build it, if you are so inclined.

 

[sanilmahambre]

These are some modifications I've made

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/DUth
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/DUth/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/DUth/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£164.94 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Seidon 120M 86.2 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme6 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£127.85 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair XMS 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£31.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Toshiba 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£130.97 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus USB-N10 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Wi-Fi Adapter (£13.40 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Zalman Z5 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case (£45.70 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer
Total: £514.85
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-16 19:10 GMT+0000)



Original :-

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£164.94 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Enermax ETS-T40-TB 86.7 CFM CPU Cooler (£32.30 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus Maximus V Gene Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£136.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£40.71 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£130.97 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card (£240.97 @ Amazon UK)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus USB-N10 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Wi-Fi Adapter (£13.40 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case (£81.98 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer
Total: £842.26
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-16 19:14 GMT+0000)

 

[rhymer2k]

Thanks Sanilmahambre, replaced the Asus MB with the ASRock which is also very good, plus it has VGA support for my secondary monitor.

I've gone ahead an bought all the items in the list below. MB, CPU cooler and Case were delivered yesterday, receiving the CPU, hardrives and Optical Drive today so hopefully i can build and install OS.



PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/EuXi
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/EuXi/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/EuXi/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£161.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Enermax ETS-T40-TB 86.7 CFM CPU Cooler (£32.20 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme6 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£123.52 @ Dabs)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£39.95 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (£72.20 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£123.95 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card (£235.99 @ Dabs)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case (£79.13 @ Aria PC)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£12.98 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £881.91
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-20 04:31 GMT+0000)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£13.98 @ Dabs)


Video Card: Will be a Sapphire Vapor-X 7950 or a Gigabyte WF3 7950 when the time is right, decided i don't need a 7970 plus I can overclock if needed at all (estimate of £240.00).

Few Questions - Does anyone think the price of the 7950 will go down further? What is the lowest it has ever been..deals etc? If not i prefer to purchase
now and get on with my life lol. Also any advice on which is better among the two i mentioned? What about the equivalent MSI Twin
Frozr card

- I'm a bit worried about my 520W PSU, I think it should do but I'm not sure.


This is my first build ever..so Excited!!