£600-800 Gaming PC

[Sparda187]

Hey guys, this is my first EVER build. I've never really had a kick ass computer so what I'm going for is the biggest bang for buck I can get.

Approximate Purchase Date: preferably within the next couple of weeks, early August at the latest

Budget Range: £600-800

System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming, surfing the internet, general basic usage e.g. word processing etc.

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Sites that deliver to the UK is my only requirement.

Country: UK

Parts Preferences: Intel CPU, anything else goes

Overclocking: Yes, will use some light CPU overclocking as I want this system to last a good long while

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe in the future when my GPU can't cut it anymore.

Monitor Resolution: Intend to use my TV at least to begin with (HD 1440x900) with a view to upgrading to a Asus PA238Q monitor eventually (1920×1080, 23")

Additional Comments: I would like a reasonably quiet PC, and I need to buy an OS.

OK so these are the parts I'm thinking about:

CPU: Intel Core i5 3570K Quad Core IvyBridge Processor ~ £170

CPU cooler: Noctua NH-D14 ~ £55 (maybe I'm overspending on this a little and should go for a cheaper alternative like the 212?)

Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ~ £95 OR GA-Z77X-UD3H ~ £104 (which do you guys think?)

GPU: AMD Radeon HD 6870 ~ £95

PSU: Corsair AX750 or Seasonic X-750 (appaently they're the same?) ~£106-118
But either of these PSUs are overkill for what I'll be using them for tbh. Would I be better saving a bit of cash and going for a smaller PSU?

RAM: Corsair 8gb (2x4gb) Ddr3 1600mhz Low Profile Vengeance Memory Kit ~ £50

Case: Cooler Master Storm Enforcer ~ £60
Plus I think I'll need an extra 200mm fan and 120mm fan, any recommendations? Also will everthing fit in this case OK? I'm looking at you NH-D14 lol.

Cheap DVD writer ~ £20

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATAIII 6Gb/s 16MB Cache 3.5 inch Internal Hard Drive OEM ~£52

Windows 7 Home Premium ~ £60

Total ~ £770 with a little left over for a couple of extra fans if needed.

Anything I've missed or anything you'd do differently? Thanks a lot!

 

[metal orient]

Put a build together over 3 stores aria.co.uk, amazon.co.uk and dabs.com:

aria.co.uk
MICROSOFT Windows Home Premium 7 SP1 64-bit EN 1pk - OEM [GFC-02050]
Fractal Design Core 3000 Black Midi Tower Chassis #45752
Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail
£297.41

amazon.co.uk:
Xigmatek CAC-SXHH6-U02 Aegir SD128264
£34.56

dabs.com:

Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) Ballistix Sport DDR3 1600MHz CL9 1.5v 240pin
Quicklinx:7Y8SWS00 | Mfr#: BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU
Due in 1-2 days £34.99 £34.99

Sapphire Technology ATI Radeon 7850 860MHz 2GB PCI-Express 3.0 HDMI
Quicklinx:80T9WS00 | Mfr#: 11200-00-20G
In stock £179.98 £179.98

XFX 650W XXX Edition Single Rail Semi Modular PSU
Quicklinx:7TCZQ200 | Mfr#: P1-650X-NLH9
Due in 1-2 weeks £77.98 £77.98

Seagate 1TB Barracuda SATA 6Gb/s 64MB 7200RPM Hard Drive
Quicklinx:7XD5Q200 | Mfr#: ST1000DM003
In stock £64.99 £64.99

Gigabyte Z77-D3H S1155 Intel Z77 DDR3 ATX
Quicklinx:800VQ200 | Mfr#: GA-Z77-D3H
In stock £79.99 £79.99

£439.32

Total Price (with VAT and P&P): £771.29

For that £1 price increase you get a 1TB drive and a much beefier GPU. Also 650W will be more than enough to CFX two 7850's and the rest of your system.

 

[Sparda187]

Thanks for the reply! Some very interesting options. I've never heard of the Xigmatek CAC-SXHH6-U02 Aegir before but after researching it a little I saw a couple of benchmarks where it actually outperformed the Noctua NH-D14 I was going to use and at a much better price so thanks for bringing that to my attention.

What would I miss out on by going for the D3H over the UD3H? I've read D3H doesn't support SLI and I read that UD3H swaps two of the SATA 6gbps connectors for 2xeSATA 6gbps, but is there anything else? How would it affect overclocking the CPU?

And how do both of these compare to the ASRock Z77 Extreme4? I think of all the components you need to build a PC the motherboard is more confusing than all of the rest put together!

 

[metal orient]

The motherboard is certainly the most complicated part of the build and affects pretty much everything.

The D3H doesn't support SLI but if you went with the 7850 that's not a problem as it does support crossfire. However the UD3H does have the better PCIe split with a x8/x8 configuration rather than a x16/x4 of the D3H.
This shouldn't be a problem with PCIe3.0 as x4 bandwidth is roughly equal to x8 for PCIe 2. which is still fine for today's graphics cards but later on down the road you may regret it.

The Ud3H has an extra storage controller so gains 2 esata but loses no sata ports because of it.

The UD3H would be better for the heavier overclocks but i'm sure the D3H will be fine as well.

I think it's quite hard to compare the D3H with the other boards as they cost £30-40 more than it and certainly offers the best value of the 3, if it weren't for the x4 PCIe slot i would say the D3H hands down. On the other hand do you really want to Crossfire as you get more problems with drivers and a single bigger card is often the best approach.

Of the other 2 again it's a tough choice as i do like all the options Gigabyte is giving you with the mSATA, 3 PCIe x 16 slots (not all x16 bandwidth though), better back panel selection but I question how much use they would actually be and it is £10 on top of the Asrock board (which is £30 more than the D3H). The asrock board does have more fan mounts and chunkier heatsinks which would be good for keeping the mosfets cooler when you overclock.

Very tricky, I would probably go for the Asrock board as it is cheaper and I have an Asrock board which has been a beauty so far, so i'm probably a little biased.

 

[Sparda187]

That's a good point, there's no guarantee that I ever will crossfire, I know loads of people that have built a system with crossfire in the future in mind but have never actually done it for one reason or another. I think I probably will go for the Gigabyte Z77-D3H in the end, just checked some reviews and it seems to overclock very well so the only thing holding me back is that pesky x4 PCIe slot.

One more thing, do you know if there is a difference between the Sapphire and the HIS 7850? Because the HIS is ~ £20 less.

 

[metal orient]

if you could link to the HIS card that would be great

 

[Sparda187]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HIS-HD-7850-2GB-GDDR5-DVI-HDMI-Dual-Mini-DisplayPort-PCI-E-Graphics-Card-/290727135184#vi-content

Also I just noticed this bundle I'd like your opinion on:

Intel Core I5 3570K 3.4Ghz Quad Core Ivybridge CPU Processor - BX80637I53570K - Socket 1155
Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H Intel Z77 DDR3 ATX HDMI Motherboard - Socket 1155
Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 High Performance CPU Cooler
8GB Corsair Vengeance LP DDR3 1600MHz RAM Memory
+ CPU overclock to 4.4GHz
All for £355. What do you think?

 

[metal orient]

If you could provide a link to the bundle that would help.

Initial thoughts on the 7850 are that it's a very basic cooler, probably going to run fairly warm as the heatsink is quite small, unfortunately i cannot find any reviews that i can cross-reference with other coolers to say for certain as i don't know the test conditions. I myself would shy away from this particular card and go with the sapphire one. Seller looks trustworthy though.

Bundle isn't great value, if you directly compare the components in the build i selected you get a worse cooler and spend £30 for the overclocking. I find half the fun is in the building so i wouldn't go for it myself.

 

[Sparda187]

Bundle: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-i5-3570k-4-4GHz-Overclocked/dp/B00843OC86

Oh yes! I must have added up the numbers wrong the first time round. The bundle clearly isn't worth buying compared to the individual components.

 

[metal orient]

You could go with this graphics card though (from the same ebay seller):
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HIS-HD-7850-IceQ-X-Edition-/270998924843?pt=UK_Computing_Computer_Components_Graphics_Video_TV_Cards_TW&hash=item3f18cb6e2b#ht_2980wt_1396

 

[Sparda187]

Nice find, do you think it would still be covered by the 2 year manufacturer's warranty? On the website it says you have to prove you bought it from an official reseller and I emailed the seller and they said it had a 2 year warranty because they bought direct from HIS yet it says on the HIS website that they have no official ebay resellers. :S I'd email HIS but I can't find an e-mail address for them. This is where I'm getting all of this stuff from:
http://www.hisdigital.com/un/support-71.shtml

Might just play it safe and go for the Sapphire one you found since it's my first build.

 

[metal orient]

Probably the best idea, at least you're definitely safe.

 

[Sparda187]

What do you think of the Antec Three Hundred Two case? It's around the same price as the case you suggested but also has USB 3.0 which is a big bonus. The reviews suggest it's a good case for cooling but that it's a bit noisy, which I don't think I'd mind too much. Even if it is too noisy I could always turn down the fans with the fan controller.

 

[metal orient]

I understand where you're coming from on the USB 3.0 and i was exactly the same as you thinking that I needed them but I have to say I have never used any USB 3 ports yet (at USB 3 speeds anyway) as I don't have any thing that can do it and I just plug things in the back.

If you wanted you could always get a front panel USB 3.0 adaptor e.g.:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-054-BX&campaign=pcm/googleshopping

or

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004FLEFVU/ref=asc_df_B004FLEFVU8419014?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&tag=googlecouk06-21&linkCode=asn&creative=22206&creativeASIN=B004FLEFVU

I do think the fractal case is a lot nicer than the antec one and you get one more fan with the fractal but it is your choice.