Building a £1200 ($1850) Gaming PC

[Springy]

Hi there, been out of the PC loop for a while and looking to splash on a new gaming rig Any help you guys could give would be much appreciated..

Approximate Purchase Date: This week

Budget Range: £1200 (inc tax) (roughly $1850)

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Level Editing, Movies & Web Surfing

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers (Just the PC)

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Scan, Dabs or Amazon UK

Country: England

Parts Preferences: I would like to use an Intel Processor and an Nvidia Graphics Card as I understand that PhysX is only available on Nvidia cards?

Overclocking: Yes, If I can do so safely and quietly

SLI or Crossfire: I would like a motherboard that can support 2 cards for future proofing.

Monitor Resolution: Currently using a TV (1920,1080) But would like to be able to get a good monitor in future so should support higher res.

Additional Comments: I've checked out quite a few new build threads on here, and tried to select parts and manufacturers that are of a high quality and will work well together. I'm horribly out of touch with PC tech though so I may have screwed up, or gone OTT somewhere!

I understand I7's and Hyper threading are unnecessary for gaming rigs at present, but if that's something that would be worth future proofing myself with, that would be good to know.

I would also like the machine to be as quiet as humanly possible. hopefully my spec below is appropriate for that..

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My current Basket at Scan..

Case
Coolermaster Cosmos RC-1000 PURE Black V2 Silent Aluminum Full Tower Silent Performance Case w/o PSU
£143.98

Mobo
Asus P8Z77-V, Intel Z77, S 1155, DDR3, SATA III - 6Gb/s, SATA RAID, PCIe 3.0 (x16), DisplayPort/ DVI-D/ HDMI, ATX
£131.72

CPU
Intel Core i5 3570K,1155, Ivy Bridge, Quad Core, 3.4GHz, 5 GT/s DMI, 650MHz GPU, 6MB Smart Cache, 34x Ratio, 77W, Retail
£178.98

Cooling
Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO, 4 Heat Pipes Direct Contact, with 120mm Quiet Fan LGA775/1155/1156/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/FM1
£25.45

Memory
Corsair Memory 8GB Vengeance Jet Black Low Profile 8GB DDR3 1600 MHz CAS 9 XMP Dual Channel Desktop
£40.56

GFX Card
2GB Gainward GTX 670, 28nm, PCIe 3.0 (x16), 6008MHz GDDR5, GPU 915MHz, Boost 980MHz, Cores 1344, 2x DL DVI, DP, HDMI
£311.60

Storage
1TB Western Digital WD1002FAEX Caviar Black, SATA III 6Gb/s, 7200rpm, 64MB Cache, 8ms
£93.72

SSD
128GB Crucial RealSSD M4, 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s SSD, MLC-Flash, Read 500Mb/s, Write 175Mb/s *New Version*
£88.94

PSU
750W PSU, Corsair Enthusiast Series TX750M, Modular, 85% Eff', 80 PLUS Bronze, SLI/CrossFire, EPS 12V, Quiet Fan, ATX
£89.70

OS
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit SP1, Operating System, Single, - OEM
£71.64

Current Total (with tax and postage) £1185.88


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If you've read this far, thanks very much Any advice, even if it's just "That looks fine" will be much appreciated.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

With editing movies on your list, that's a i7 thing as it benefits from hyperthreading, fast RAM and fast storage. Might wannt think 3770k or 2700k if interested in high overclocking.

I'd improve the card
http://www.guru3d.com/article/asus-geforce-gtx-670-directcu-ii-top-review/23
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-asus-gtx-670-directcu-ii-top-28nm-pcie-30-6008mhz-gddr5-gpu-1058mhz-boost-1137mhz-cores-1344-2xd

and the MoBo
Asus P877 Pro
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-p8z77-v-pro-intel-z77-s-1155-ddr3-sata-iii-6gb-s-d-sub-(vga)-displayport-dvi-i-hdmi-atx

I'd suggest the Mushkin Chronos Deluxe SSD which is $100 here in US and it toasts (both in longevity and performance .... not to mention price) any other consuymer SSD on the market, except of course others with premium toshiba toggle flash (Wildfire, OWC, Vertex 3 Max IOPS) .... so Id suspect 64£ but I cant find it on the sites you listed.

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/4328/mushkin_chronos_deluxe_120gb_solid_state_drive_review/index6.html

And the case is overpriced .....
Corsair Carbide Series 500R White Mid Tower Case
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/corsair-carbide-series-500r-white-mid-tower-gaming-case-w-o-psu

The CPU cooler is great choice ...... for a budget system...... I'd want to pick up at least another 5C, especially with the notoriously hot running Ivy Bridge CPU's (when overclocked) and you can do that with a Hyper 612 PWM or Scythe Mugen 3

http://www.amazon.co.uk/COOLER-MASTER-RR-H612-13FK-R1-Hyper-Cooler/dp/B005I9IHNA/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339257839&sr=8-1-fkmr1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scythe-Mugen-Performance-Quiet-Cooler/dp/B005XMCB0C/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1339257874&sr=1-1

If ya want to pick up 7-10C, consider the Phanteks
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Phanteks-PH-TC14PE-CPU-Cooler-Silver/dp/B005OREE38/ref=sr_1_sc_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1339257695&sr=8-4-spell



If you are in fact looking for "Super Quiet" ....

Antec P193 V3 - £134.59 or P183 V3 £92.48
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Antec-Performance-One-P193-V3/dp/B004INH0F8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1339257438&sr=8-2
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Antec-P183-V3-Tower-compatible/dp/B004H7QICG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339257556&sr=8-1

Antec CP-850
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Antec-CP-850-850W-Power-Supply/dp/B002Q3VQRK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1339257499&sr=8-2

See how the combo works together here to produce an amazingly quiet and cool system.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article971-page7.html

 

[Springy]

Thanks for all the advice, have had a look through it all, a couple of questions..

When i mentioned movies, it was purely watching them I had in mind, rather than creating them so i guess ill be fine without the i7?

The new mobo you've suggested, what does it have that the other asus card didn't? Equally what am i getting with the gtx670 you linked to which is worth the extra £70? Any further info on that would be great

Ill have a look round, see if anywhere in the UK stocks the Chronos ssd.

The extra cooling looks good, will swap that out.

Yeah the case is pricey.. Im a bit of a sucker for those coolermaster ones. So long as its big enough that i can use it for my next pc in a few years time, i dont mind spending the cash. Is there any aspect of that case that should cause concern in terms of future proofing?

Thanks again.

 

[metal orient]

Yeah i5 will be more than enough.

You don't need to upgrade the mobo, it has a few extra bits that you're unlikely to use.

The ASUS 670 is worth the money if you can afford it as it has the best cooler that's practically inaudible at all loads.

On your budget you certainly want a decent cooler.

The case is massive and massive overkill but if you must have it it will be future proof i guess.

 

[jacknhut]

Thanks for all the advice, have had a look through it all, a couple of questions..

When i mentioned movies, it was purely watching them I had in mind, rather than creating them so i guess ill be fine without the i7?

The new mobo you've suggested, what does it have that the other asus card didn't? Equally what am i getting with the gtx670 you linked to which is worth the extra £70? Any further info on that would be great

Ill have a look round, see if anywhere in the UK stocks the Chronos ssd.

The extra cooling looks good, will swap that out.

Yeah the case is pricey.. Im a bit of a sucker for those coolermaster ones. So long as its big enough that i can use it for my next pc in a few years time, i dont mind spending the cash. Is there any aspect of that case that should cause concern in terms of future proofing?

Thanks again.

The Pro version has 2 additional SATA 3 ports, 2 additional USB 3.0 ports, and has 12+4 phases power delivery compared to 8+4 phases power delivery in the V version.