First Gaming Build £800 (2560x1440)

[pedror]

My old iMac (late 2009) lacks the energy for the newest games but it's still good for pretty much anything else I need, so I thought of building a PC for gaming and using the iMac as display for it.
This way I would keep the iMac for work and could invest into a somewhat better machine instead of buying another monitor.

With this in mind and trying not to go over £800 this is what I came up with so far:

CPU: AMD FX8320 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009O7YU56) - £116.86
Motherboard: Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0089GN9KU) - £106.99
Memory: G-Skill 8GB Ripjaws X DDR3 2133 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0050119O0) - £63.98
Video Card: MSI Nvidia GTX 770 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00D3XW8MO) - £265.00
HD: Seagate 1TB (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004KRLWBK) - £50.00
SSD: Kingston Technology 120GB (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00A1ZTZOG) - £63.99
PSU: Corsair Gaming Series 2013 Edition GS 800W (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00AMLKAWA) - £89.85
Case: Corsair Carbide Series 200R (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009GXZ8MM) - £47.98
Total: £804.65

Later on I would like to be able to add an extra GTX 770, thats why I'm trying to go with a slightly more powerful PSU and motherboard.

I'm not quite sure if this makes sense or if I'm missing anything, as this is the first time I'm attempting to put a PC together and so would appreciate very much any advice or recommendations to improve or fix what I have so far.
Questions welcome as well.

Cheers!

 

[PepitoTV]

That build does look very good. You may want to add an aftermarket CPU cooler so you can overclock your CPU (or get the FX-8350 for the same money).

 

[pedror]

Sounds good. Thank you very much PepitoTV.

 

[pedror]

I've managed to tweak the build a bit:

CPU: AMD FX8350 (as per PepitoTV advice)
Motherboard: Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0
Memory: Kingston 1866 Predator 2x4GB (these are CL9 instead of CL11)
GPU: MSI GTX770 Lightning 2GB (changed to the lightning version)
HD: Seagate 1TB
SSD: Kingston Hyperx 3K 120GB (it's quicker on paper for the same price)
PSU: XFX Pro 850W (bigger margin to add a second GPU later on)
Case: Corsair Carbide Series 200R

I'm also thinking on adding an headset to the mix: Asus Vulcan Pro ROG.
Seems to match what I need, reasonable sound and mic and good noise cancelling.

I will probably be ordering this over the next couple of days so if you have any last minute comments/advice for the build I would appreciate it.

 

[SuperADJ]

I wonder if a R9 280X might be a better buy than the 770? I had my eye on the Sapphire Toxic variant, which has been receiving great reviews. Here's a link to one:

http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/sapphire-r9-280x-toxic-edition-oc-3gb-review/

I mention this as you said you'd like to SLI in the future, and I worry that with 2 770s you might find yourself hitting a VRAM wall as you'd have the horsepower needed for some great settings at 1440p but not necessarily the VRAM or memory bus to take advantage of that. In contrast, the 280X would not have an issue as far as this is concerned. Of course, generally SLI seems to deliver a smoother experience than Crossfire, but AMD have been making strides in the right direction lately and it seems a viable option.

Additionally, I've read in a few places that despite having a framerate advantage, the 770 actually feels worse than the 280X in some games. Here is a link to a test involving BF4.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/10/10/battlefield_4_beta_performance_preview/4

Not wanting to put you off the 770 - it's fantastic, but just thought I'd throw some other options out there!

 

[pedror]

Thank you for pointing that out.
It's definitely an hard choice and the 280x Toxic looks good.

The 770 is slightly faster and seems better to OC, the 280x has more memory, so in the long run it's about what we think will be the bottleneck, the speed or the memory.

With everything considered, I'm still tending to go with the GTX 770 as it should be a safer option due to the better performance/stability of SLI vs Crossfire.

 

[SuperADJ]

Another option to consider is a pair of 4GB 770s. They don't make a whole lot of sense as a single card (you'd be running out of power before needing more than 2GB of VRAM) but in SLI they are a nice option. Obviously they still have a narrower bus, but if you were able to overclock the memory a little that'd even things up. As the tech they're based on has been around for a while you can get a very good idea as to the performance and scaling in SLI too. Only downside is that the Lightning is not available as a 4GB card. The gaming version with the twin frozr cooler is, though. I believe EVGA offer their ACX cooling solution on a 4GB 770 too.

One final option would be to look at 780s. They aren't a massive jump in price from the 770 4gb anymore due to the price cuts and that'd give you 3GB with a bigger bus as well as GK110 architecture. Getting a second for SLI would complete the picture, and open up options for higher resolution or 144hz gaming later on.

It's so tough choosing, especially with the 290 out soon and Mantle still being an unknown quantity as far as performance increases go. Let us know what you decide and how it goes!

 

[pedror]

The 780 would definitely be the ideal option, shame it's still quite expensive. I might hold on for a good deal and go with it.

This one is tempting: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/3gb-zotac-gtx-780-amp!-28nm-pcie-30-%28x16%29-6008mhz-gddr5-gpu-1006mhz-boost-1059mhz-cores-2304-dport-d

 

[SuperADJ]

I was just going to tell you about that! The card was originally full of potential but handicapped by a poor bios that prevented it from boosting properly. However Zotac have revised it now and it seems like a great card. Even has a 5-year warranty! Plus you could offset some of the cost by selling the game codes if need be.

I'm seriously considering a pair of them! Right now I'd say it's the best dealing around.

 

[pedror]

Seems the deal was a misprice after all.
The R9 290 is out though with a very reasonable base price of $399. I need to see how this is going to translate to GBP but it's looking good.

 

[pedror]

Ended up going with the R9 290. Here's the final spec:

Sapphire Radeon R9 290 4GB GDDR5
AMD FX-8350
Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB
Seagate Barracuda 1TB
ASUS M5A99FX Pro R2.0
Corsair Carbide 200R
XFX Core Edition Pro 850
Crucial Ballistix Elite 8GB (2x4GB) 1866 9CL

Ended up spending £50 more than my initial budget but I think it was worth to upgrade to something equivalent to the 780 instead of the 770 I had initially thought to buy.

 

[Axzevos]

Ended up going with the R9 290. Here's the final spec:

Sapphire Radeon R9 290 4GB GDDR5
AMD FX-8350
Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB
Seagate Barracuda 1TB
ASUS M5A99FX Pro R2.0
Corsair Carbide 200R
XFX Core Edition Pro 850
Crucial Ballistix Elite 8GB (2x4GB) 1866 9CL

Ended up spending £50 more than my initial budget but I think it was worth to upgrade to something equivalent to the 780 instead of the 770 I had initially thought to buy.

Thats great! You will get alot more FPS!

 

[SuperADJ]

Congrats! The 290 looks absolutely awesome, really it's only a shade slower than the 290X which is a lot more expensive. Good job, and I hope you enjoy it.

 

[Spodboyjono]

Hi Pedror

I'm interested in doing the same thing, did you manage to link the PC MiniDisplay port to the late 2009 iMac as a monitor, and does it give you the full 2590x1440 resolution ?

Many thanks