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£1000 gaming PC advice

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February 9, 2013 5:54:52 PM

Hey all,

I'm seeking advice on my gaming PC build. My existing PC is incapable of running the strategy games I like to play these days (Empire: Total War, CIV 5, CoH/M2TW w/ high detail) and is just slow, loud and crap overall, so I've put aside 1000 British pounds to create a PC that will last me.

I've been lurking these forums for some weeks now, and you lot seem to know what you're on about. Please give your expert opinions on my build:

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core £239.99

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM £56.23

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H ATX LGA1155 £149.72

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 £75.32

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM £57.59

Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7950 3GB £259.99

Case: Cooler Master HAF 922 ATX Mid Tower £79.99

Power Supply: OCZ 650W ATX12V £71.99

Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer £11.40

Total: £1002.22

I don't require a monitor or any other peripherals, and I already own a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate. I may overclock the CPU but not massively. Same with the GPU.

Obviously, I'm British, so any replacements need to be available here.

More about : 1000 gaming advice

February 9, 2013 5:59:50 PM

Change the cpu for the i5-3570k, you don't need the i7, for gaming, the hyper threading of the i7 doesn't get used in gaming for benefit of it.
Also 8GB of ram will do for gaming, get a 7970 with the savings or a 120/128GB ssd.
The rest seems fine.
February 9, 2013 6:11:27 PM

This should do you better for £1000

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£163.19 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£25.45 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£101.98 @ Dabs)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£42.96 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£80.54 @ Scan.co.uk)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£88.20 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card (£296.15 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced ATX Full Tower Case (£107.96 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: XFX 650W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£73.14 @ Aria PC)
Optical Drive: Samsung SN-208DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£17.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Total: £997.56
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-09 20:11 GMT+0000)
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February 9, 2013 6:24:50 PM

Thanks for the swift replies :) 

Is the SSD really necessary? I had originally chosen one alongside a HDD but later cut it out and used the savings to improve the CPU and mobo.

As for RAM, if not used for gaming, what benefits would 16GB have over 8GB?
February 9, 2013 6:27:33 PM

None, 8GB is suffice, unless you want a ram disk.
The ssd is optional, it won't bring more fps, but it will improve the loading of the games and os.
February 9, 2013 6:28:57 PM

Should I install the OS and games to the SSD then, and keep big stuff like video/photos on the HDD?
February 9, 2013 6:48:51 PM

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£163.19 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£25.45 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: MSI Z77A-G41 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£62.99 @ Novatech)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£67.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£49.14 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) (£259.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) (£259.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Case: Silverstone SST-RL01B-USB 3.0 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£35.16 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£67.90 @ Dabs)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£11.40 @ Aria PC)
Total: £1003.20
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-09 20:48 GMT+0000)
February 9, 2013 7:13:49 PM

Two 7950's seems a bit of an odd way to go. It will generate lots of unnecessary heat. a 7970 would be better.

Also the mobo you selected only supports xfire on x4/x4, a mobo that could run x8/x8 would be better, that is, if xfiring was really necessary, which it isn't in this build.
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