~£1000 Gaming/All-Rounder

[BiggestMunchkin]

I've been reading these forums for build advice for a few weeks now, and I think I'm about ready to submit myself and my build to the collective hive mind for judgement. Details below, and I thank you in advance for any advice!

Approximate Purchase Date: Next month or so

Budget Range: Flexible limit of £1000 ($1500)

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming (Strategy and RPGs for the most part), office work, some casual audio/video editing.

Parts Not Required: Monitor

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: UK accessible - eBuyer and Amazon seem like the best bet.

Country: UK

Parts Preferences: by brand or type: Defeasible preference for an Intel based system for ease of construction.

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: Probably.

Monitor Resolution: My current monitor is 1080p

Additional Comments:

This is my first PC build, proposed component list below. I've done a decent amount of research and, to be honest, I don't think anything in my build should come as a surprise to anyone, but there are some specific things I'd be hugely grateful for advice on:

(1) - My financial situation is such that it makes sense for me to spend a bit more on a lasting build now rather than have to upgrade sooner, so any advice on maximising overclocking potential, upgradability and other future-proofery will be most welcome.

(2) I've gone for what I take to be a solid mid-range GPU choice of a 7850, but I'd be curious as to whether folks think it would be worthwhile going for something a bit flashier, or even something less.

(3) And finally, although I do have the money to hand, I have a tendency (don't we all) to overspend on this kind of thing. I do want a solid, quality build that will last - but if anyone has any cost cutting tips (suppliers or parts) that won't impact on quality that would be excellent.

And, obviously, if I've made any n00bish errors, I look forward to being summarily corrected. Thanks again for your help, build list to follow:


Intel Core i5 3570K 3.4GHz Socket 1155 6MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor - £180.80

Crucial 128GB M4 SSD - 2.5" SATA-III - Read 500MB/s Write 175MB/s - 3 Year Warranty £86.99


Seagate 2TB BARRACUDA 3.5" SATA-III Hard Drive - 7200RPM 64MB Cache £85.00

OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W Modular PSU Single 12V Rail 135mm Fan £64.29

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium w/SP1 - Licence and media - 1 PC - OEM - DVD - 64-bit £68.44

Microsoft Wireless Desktop 3000 - BlueTrack £32.99

Antec 120mm TrueQuiet Fan £8.60

Antec 1100 Eleven Hundred Case £86.99

Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz CL9 1.5V Non-ECC Unbuffered £38.99

Gigabyte GA-Z77M-D3H Socket 1155 VGA DVI HDMI 8 Channel Audio mATX Motherboard £78.46

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro rev 2 Socket 775, 1156, 1155, 1366, AM2, AM3 Heatpipe CPU Cooler £14.38

Sapphire HD 7850 OC Edition 2GB GDDR5 HDMI DVI Dual Mini DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card £208.98

Sony AD-7261S 24x DVD±RW DL & RAM with LightScribe SATA - OEM Black £14.99

Total: £991.13

Thanks again for reading, I look forward to your comments!

 

[fpoon]

Good build, although the mobo is mATX. Try finding an ATX one like this:
http://www.ebuyer.com/351598-gigabyte-ga-z77-d3h-socket-1155-vga-dvi-hdmi-8-channel-audio-atx-motherboard-ga-z77-d3h
There is a combo on the page.

 

[BiggestMunchkin]

Good build, although the mobo is mATX. Try finding an ATX one like this:
http://www.ebuyer.com/351598-gigabyte-ga-z77-d3h-socket-1155-vga-dvi-hdmi-8-channel-audio-atx-motherboard-ga-z77-d3h
There is a combo on the page.

Good spot, thanks.

 

[fpoon]

However, I've never had a good experience with Gigabyte, so ASUS or Asrock might be better.
I would've recommended this mobo, but it's really expensive in the UK. Typically in the US it sells for about $130 USD.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Z77-Extreme4-Motherboard-Supports-CrossFireX/dp/B007KTY4A6/ref=sr_1_28?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1339617965&sr=1-28

 

[BiggestMunchkin]

Have you got personal experience of that Asrock board? If I'm broaching the £100 mark for an extra £20 I can get an Asus P8Z77-V, and some folk seem to swear by that one.

 

[fpoon]

I haven't, although it has many positive reviews. One thing the Asrock has over the ASUS is that it is capable of full Crossfire/SLI. The ASUS isn't.

 

[BiggestMunchkin]

Good point. I've just done some price/currency comparison and it seems like motherboards sell for about £20-£30 more in the UK than the US across the board, which is annoying. It's odd, since there doesn't seem to be the same discrepancies in prices of GPUs or CPUs. I guess I should slightly revise upwards my mobo budget.

Good spot on the crossfire - though it's confused me slightly. The Asus board says it supports quad and 3-way crossfire/sli, the Asrock says it supports quad, 3-way and regular crossfire/sli. Does this mean what I think it means? The Asus supports three or four boards in crossfire but not two? That just seems silly.

Asrock P8Z77 looks like a winner though!

 

[BiggestMunchkin]

D'Oh, model number mixed up. I meant the Asrock Extreme4 looks like a winner. They don't seem to have it on eBuyer though, which is odd.