New Gaming PC £1000+

[SirShanson]

Approximate Purchase Date: August-September 2012
Budget Range: £1000+ (Lower is better, if a part conveys a significant difference I will pay)
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, I also throw TV/Movies onto a "40 Samsung TV opposite my bed while I continue to use my PC (laptop at the moment) for other things.
Parts Not Required: Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor (I might buy), Blu-Ray/DVD
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Overclock.co.uk, Amazon.co.uk, Aria.co.uk
Country: England
Overclocking: At some point in the future, not initially while hardware outweights game requirements.
SLI or Crossfire: No
Monitor Resolution: 1920x1200 possibily 2560x1600

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Main Parts

CPU: i7-3770K CPU (4 x 3.50GHz 8Mb L3 Cache) - £249.59
Motherboard: MSI Z77A-GD65 - £136.79
Case: NZXT Phantom USB 3.0 - £103.99
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 670 OC 2GB - £328.39
SSD: Samsung SSD 830 128Gb - £92.66
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB - £145.09
RAM: Corsair LP Vengeance 16GB 1600MHz CL9 - £84.59
Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 - £58.50
PSU: Corsair TX750 Enthusiast Series 750W - £83.19

Total: £1282.79

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Extras/Upgrades/Alternatives

RAM: Corsair LP Vengeance 16GB 1600MHz CL7 - £131.96
GPU: GTX 680 - £400-490
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A couple things I'm not certain on include, the PSU, GPU and RAM.

Will 750W be enough to run this setup or is it a safer bet to go with 850W? Also can anyone recommend any other PSUs besides the one I have chosen?

With the RAM, is it at all worth getting ones with lower CAS Latency, I've heard mixed reviews all over, for gaming will there be any difference?

Is it worth upgrading to a GTX 680 for the price? Which brand should I go with as well?

Any other thoughts are welcome. I might add a monitor and other choices too when I get home as I'm considering buying some other extras at the time though I can just mooch some off my friend if I don't buy one.

 

[Rise and Shine]

You don't need an i7 for gaming, the HT doesn't make any difference in gaming, you should get an i5 3570k. It isn't worth uprgrading to a 680, the difference between these two is just 5%, and the price increase is 100 € and that's reference. The one you got costs as much as a reference card, but has three fans, a mild OC and much more OC headroom. You also don't need 16 GB of RAM, 8 GB is fine and 1600 MHz too, you don't need all of that to max out every game out there in the present and maybe in the future, as a minimum you'd need a comp that costs 1200 € or so, dunno how many pounds that is, but should be almost the same. And you could save some more money by getting an Asrock Z77 Extreme4.

 

[SirShanson]

Not really worried about price that much so downgrading isn't a prevalent idea in my mind. When I say I game I do also run things in the background a lot of the time so for example with my friend's setup at the moment he can play SC2, BF3 etc etc on max while his second screen streams a movie for us and his third screen has a browser open for YouTube looking up information for the game and so on.

I heard hyperthreading can come into play for if you are doing something like that, i.e. running multiple programs at once. So that's perhaps why I'm willing to spend a little more even for a 3rd Gen i7 with less OC capability than a 2nd Gen.

RAM, for the price I may as well just get the 16GB to avoid ever hitting any trouble. There are cases where I hit the 8Gb on my laptop for example so having headroom is nice.

Agreed with the 680 though, that's exactly what I had thought. Since the performance increase is minimal. If needs be in a few years time I can always buy a second 670 or something anyway.

Why do you recommend the AsRock Z77? I made my choice of Mobo based on the Z77 reviews posted here as a toss up between the three cards recommended at the end the MSI seemed to have the better options for me but I've seen posted reasons for different cards by people so interested to hear why you chose that one.

 

[Rise and Shine]

Okey dokey, I don't really know how HT could affect that kind of thing, playing BF3 while doing two more things. It is said though that HT slowens some games and even stutters them, but I've seen that in the BF3 MP component HT DOES smooth the game, so you'd better be safe than sorry and grab an i7. And the 16 GB of RAM might help the multitasking, too. The Asrock is great bang for the buck and also has great OC, from what I've heard. But if it's better for you, then go ahead.

 

[SirShanson]

Can anyone recommend a good PSU by the way?

Looking at the charts available here on TH the one I have chosen doesn't seem too efficient. Could someone please recommend one around the 750W mark, sound level doesn't matter.

Thanks.