New gaming build £700-£800 London

[The_Bell]

Hi,

I just moved to London from Spain and I'm willing to buy a computer here. The thing is I'm totally new here so I don't really know what are the best places to buy the components.

Here's what I'm looking for:

Purchase date: mid or late september 2012

Budget: £700-£800

System usage: gaming, media viewing and some development work

Monitor: not included in this budget. I plan on buying a Full HD LED TV in which I'll plug the computer

Need to buy a OS: no

Overclocking: no

SLI/Crossfire: no

Preferred parts: Intel CPU and Nvidia GPU

Location: London

Preferred website: actually I have no idea of good component sites in London, so any good advice on this will be appreciated.

Additional comments: obviously for that budget I'm not looking for the definitive gaming machine, but just a box to enjoy actual non very demanding games and some other games I have on Steam (some examples: Skyrim, Batman Arkham City, Fallout 3 / New Vegas, Darksiders) and some MMO things like WoW or SW: TOR

Thanks a lot mates.

 

[g-unit1111]

Here you go:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3450 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor (£143.94 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£109.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£42.00 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£67.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Storage: Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£80.00 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card (£229.81 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Corsair 400R ATX Mid Tower Case (£73.68 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Corsair 650W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£70.38 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: Lite-On DS-8A8SH DVD/CD Writer (£20.75 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £838.54
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-08-15 21:59 BST+0100)

 

[soidier37]

This is a very good build, but for an extra ten pounds more, I would get the 7950 instead.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-054-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=

 

[g-unit1111]

This is a very good build, but for an extra ten pounds more, I would get the 7950 instead.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-054-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=

Wow, that is not much of a difference. The cooling solution isn't that great on that card though, you need at least a two fan configuration for a 7950. I'd suggest this: http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/atiradeongraphicscards/amdhd7950series/11196-10-40g.html

 

[metal orient]

Wow, that is not much of a difference. The cooling solution isn't that great on that card though, you need at least a two fan configuration for a 7950. I'd suggest this: http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/atiradeongraphicscards/amdhd7950series/11196-10-40g.html

A number of reviews would disagree.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7950-review-benchmark,3207-14.html
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=906&Itemid=72&limit=1&limitstart=17
http://www.guru3d.com/article/his-radeon-hd-7950-iceq-turbo-review/24


It's a great, if a little noisy, card and at that price a great deal.

 

[diellur]

For that budget, you can get a solid gaming system, believe it or not. I put this together on the Scan.co.uk website:

Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V LX (£88.76)
CPU: i5-3450 (£143.94)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB (£29.99)
GPU: 3GB XFX HD 7950 (£263.75)
PSU: Corsair Builder Series 600W (£53.52)
HDD: 1TB Seagate Barracuda (£59.87)
SSD: 90GB Corsair Force Series 3 (£64.68)
Chassis: Corsair 300R (£59.16)
Optical: Samsung SH-D163C DVD Reader (£11.75)

TOTAL: £785.61

You're not overclocking, so you don't need a hugely expensive motherboard. CPU is a decent quad-core i5, should do you for years. RAM, nothing to add, just what you need. I'd go with the 7950 right now...Nvidia should release the 660Ti soon, which will see some price drops in the mid-range so you could wait for that. PSU should do you for that build, assuming you don't add a second GPU later (this motherboard can only Crossfire, no SLI, so if you plan to go multi-GPU, get an AMD card). 1TB HDD for storage and a small SSD for a boot drive, decent chassis (although personal preference) and a basic DVD reader.

 

[The_Bell]

Thanks a lot for your help guys, I really appreciate it!

 

[The_Bell]

Could be worth looking at the nre 660Ti from nvidia that was just released? It has a similar price to the 7950.

 

[diellur]

Not 100% sure...I've not read reviews on it yet. If anything, wait a week or two for the 7950 prices to come down as a result of the 660Ti release.