New Gaming Rig Under £2,000 - Parts Advice

[philhalf]

Hi,

I used to build a lot of computers back in the day, but have been out of it for a few years now and am not sure what's good any more!

I'm looking at building a new gaming rig that will also be used for 3D modelling (3dsmax) and graphics work (Photoshop, Illustrator etc.).
My ideal budget it to keep it under £2,000 and of course get the best quality system I can for my money.

What I have so far is the following:
■Asus Intel Gamer Bundle (Includes P8Z77-V, Intel Core i7-2600K & 8GB DDR3)
■Asus GeForce GTX 690 915MHz 4GB PCI-Express 3.0 HDMI
■Corsair Memory 120GB Force Series 3 SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Solid State Drive
■Zalman Z9 Plus Midi Tower Case
■Antec 750W High Current Gamer 80plus Bronze PSU
■Pioneer DVD-RW 24x SATA Internal
■2x Samsung SyncMaster S24A450BW

I've had a couple of Samsung SyncMaster monitors before and have been really impressed with the quality. The rest of it, I'm really not sure about though...
For the hard drive, I'm only looking at 120GB as I have a 4TB NAS to keep data on so it would only be for OS, game and app installs


Are there any components in there that are a really bad idea? Are there any similar priced alternatives that I'd be better off with? I've tried to do my research, but like I say I'm a bit rusty on this stuff and just looking for a bit of knowledgeable input

Thanks in advance,

Phil

 

[diarmuid]

The only problem I see is that you are buying through dabs.com. Amazon is cheaper and a lot more reliable

 

[philhalf]

The only problem I see is that you are buying through dabs.com. Amazon is cheaper and a lot more reliable

I've used Dabs.com quite a few times in the past and have never had any problems with them.
I'd be shopping around for the parts before I purchase though to make sure I wasn't overpaying, just wanted to make sure the bits I was looking at were sensible

 

[diarmuid]

maybe swap out the antec high current gamer for a corsair GS800.

 

[diarmuid]

And z77 board for a sandy-bridge processor is pointless. Z77 uses PCI-E 3.0. Which you need to run a GTX 690. Sandy-bridge does not support PCI-E 3.0. You need to change the processor to maybe a 3770k. A p8z77-v. A corsair H60. And some corsair vengeance

 

[philhalf]

And z77 board for a sandy-bridge processor is pointless. Z77 uses PCI-E 3.0. Which you need to run a GTX 690. Sandy-bridge does not support PCI-E 3.0. You need to change the processor to maybe a 3770k. A p8z77-v. A corsair H60. And some corsair vengeance

This is the bit that I know nothing about. It was Socket370 last time I did anything like this!
So I've had a look for the bits you suggested (and looked on Amazon as well for a bit of a saving!) and found the following:
■Intel 3rd Generation Core i7-3770K CPU
■Asus P8Z77-V Motherboard
■Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 8GB 1600MHz CL9 DDR3 Vengeance Memory Two Module Kit

Does that look like a reasonable combination?

I've also been looking at the GTX 690 and there appears to be a stock shortage since early May...
Would I be better waiting for the 690 or maybe getting something like 2x GTX 670s instead?

Thanks again for your input.

 

[diarmuid]

To be honest I feel that the GTX 690 is complete overkill unless you are going to be doing 3D gaming and you want something like a stable 50fps in three monitors with 3D enabled. if your going to be doing that go right ahead and buy the 690 but if your juts an average gamer like me. Get a GTX 680 it's half the price. And some time down the line if you feel you need more then get a second to run in SLI.
Is your NAS drive wireless or wired to your computer?
Will you be doing any overclocking?

 

[diarmuid]

This could possibly be a better monitor for you. It uses an IPS panel. IPS panels are used in apple cinema display's they're beautiful. And really good for gaming. might be a better choice than a TFT I personally don't like TFT monitors.

 

[metal orient]

Are you getting 2 monitors to play on at the same time? As it isn't recommended especially for FPS's as the crosshair is in the screen bezel.
If you only plan to use one screen for gaming why not get one higher resolution screen? e.g. 2560x1440
As diarmuid has suggested an IPS screen will make the colours really pop however Dell or HP are the screens i'd go with.

Dependent on what screen setup you go for the graphics recommendation will change as the power of a 690 will only make itself really known over 3 1080p screens.

 

[diarmuid]

Are you getting 2 monitors to play on at the same time? As it isn't recommended especially for FPS's as the crosshair is in the screen bezel.
If you only plan to use one screen for gaming why not get one higher resolution screen? e.g. 2560x1440
As diarmuid has suggested an IPS screen will make the colours really pop however Dell or HP are the screens i'd go with.

Dependent on what screen setup you go for the graphics recommendation will change as the power of a 690 will only make itself really known over 3 1080p screens.

He's would probably need the 3770k as he is using 3dsmax and the export time on that can take forever. So the i7 actually might come in useful there. Dell and HP are better but the LG is cheaper.

 

[philhalf]

Thanks for all of the feedback so far!

To be honest, I'd only be using the one monitor for gaming for now as 2 screens don't really work for most games like you said... I'd be using the second screen more for the graphics work and "general use". I liked the GTX 690 because it allowed the 3 screens which is something I'd be interested in longer term for gaming.

In answer to the other questions, the network will all be wired and I don't have any interest in overclocking at the moment, but might do further down the line if the benefits become necessary.

 

[diarmuid]

If it is wired then you might want to consider a 4 port NIC card so you can do CAD work right off the NAC. It will give you 4 Gigbits if you have 4 ports it will be much faster for the work you want to do