£400-£450 Gaming Rig, need some expert advice :)

[HARRISON702]

Hello members of Tom's,

I've been looking around making a computer for sometime and now have enough money to build a budget gaming rig (So happy). I have put together some sort of idea for a PC but need some advice. The shopping list I have put together is the following;
I3 2120 CPU
Asus P8Z77-V Lx
Kingston ValueRam 8gb 1333mhz
Corsair 650w PSU
Lancool Full ATX Gaming Case
Seagate SDD 320GB Sata 3 3.5"
Any Cd drive
GPU: undecided, thinking around HD 5850 or similar
I have windows 7 to install so dont need
use for the computer would be gaming, mainly bf3, Day Z and shojun 2 and waiting for RTW2 <--- OMFG. Im going to upgrade the CPU and the GPU at a later stage hence the Z77 board supporting PCI-E 3.0

The questions I need to ask are:
Is this rig good enough for current gaming to a highish standard?
Is the HDD the right form for the mobo as I dont get the form connections for mobo and HDD?

For anyone that replies thank you very much in advance!!

 

[Sakkura]

The questions I need to ask are:
Is this rig good enough for current gaming to a highish standard?
Is the HDD the right form for the mobo as I dont get the form connections for mobo and HDD?

1. As long as you put a good graphics card in, yes. It'll do well in the large majority of games. Your CPU might hold you back slightly in CPU-intensive games like Skyrim, BF3 multiplayer, or MMOs.

2. The SATA connectors are standardized. Since the drive is 3.5" it should also be easy to mount in your case.

PS: You could go with a slightly weaker PSU, something in the 550W range would still run just about any combination of CPU and single-GPU graphics card out there. Only do this if you can actually save some money and still get a quality PSU.

 

[Sakkura]

Also, the resolution you're using will obviously also affect game performance, but that's mostly something that depends on your graphics card. So basically tailor your GPU choice to your resolution and you'll be good to go.

 

[HARRISON702]

Okay thank you guys, also is this motherboard a full ATX board or Mid ATX board?

 

[Sakkura]

Okay thank you guys, also is this motherboard a full ATX board or Mid ATX board?

It's just ATX. I think you're referring to case descriptions; full tower ATX and midi-tower ATX. Full tower is bigger than midi-tower, but both will fit a standard ATX motherboard (and usually the smaller micro-ATX boards too).

 

[HARRISON702]

Okay thank you, last question and I will begin my quest of computer making! Will any sata3 hard drive fit this board or will I need a certain form?

 

[Sakkura]

Any SATA3 hard drive should work with the motherboard. It has two SATA3 slots. There are SATA2 slots as well, which are fine for HDDs.

 

[HARRISON702]

About the lower PSU, will a Corsair HX Series 520 Watt ATX Modular Power Supply PSU, EPS12V, HX520 520W fit the mobo and be surfice?

Thank you

 

[Sakkura]

That's a good fit for your system, as long as you don't plan to use two graphics cards later on.

 

[HARRISON702]

I may do but I will upgrade the psu and cpu if so. thank you everyone you have been very helpful