Gaming System for £1200

[Arkone]

Hi all,

I am looking to purchase a new gaming PC over the next week or so. I have listed my planned build below.

I am interested to hear if anyone has any thoughts about the balance of the build (i.e. could I spend the money any better). I also wasn't sure if a 650W PSU would be sufficient if I was to get a second gfx card in the future?

My number one priority is not having to worry about FPS for a little while!

Thanks in advance for any responses.

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Approximate Purchase Date: Within next 2 weeks

Budget Range: Around £1200

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming

Parts Not Required: Keyboard, Mouse, Speakers

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: ebuyer.com

Country: UK

Parts Preferences: 24" Monitor, Mid Tower Case

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

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Intel Core i7 3770 3.4GHz Socket 1155 8MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor (£230)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/349023

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro rev 2 Socket 775, 1156, 1155, 1366, AM2, AM3 Heatpipe CPU Cooler (£15)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176157

Asus P8Z77-V LX Socket 1155 VGA DVI HDMI 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard (£95)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/363228

Corsair 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz Vengeance "low Profile" Memory Kit CL9 1.5V (£85)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/274037

Sapphire HD 7870 GHZ OC Edition 2GB GDDR5 HDMI DVI Dual Mini DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card (£260)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/349750

Corsair TX 650W V2 PSU - 80plus Bronze Certified (£65)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/257232

Antec 300 Three Hundred Two Case - with USB3.0 (£55)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/341398

SAMSUNG 128GB 830 Series SSD - 2.5" SATA-III - PC UPGRADE KIT (£135)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/318421

Seagate 500GB 3.5" SATA-III 6Gb/s Barracuda Hard Drive 7200RPM 16MB Cache (£55)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/272944

Asus VE247H LED LCD 23.6" HDMI Monitor (£150)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/263935

 

[gamingboy]

That build seems quite good, although you might want to grab yourself a bigger hard drive (or maybe not, If you don't like to store large amounts of... raw video). And you might also want to look into the Sandy Bridge line of processors, they are most likely going to drop in price now that Ivy Bridge is out.

 

[azeem40]

Bad news; your MOBO does not allow for CF/SLI. You need a MOBO with 2 PCIe 3.0 slots running at x8/x8.

 

[Arkone]

Ah good spot, thanks Azeem! Guess I will switch that out for this,

Asus P8Z77-V PRO Z77 Socket 1155 8 Channel HD Audio ATX Motherboard (£150)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/363229

If I was to add a second 7870 in a 6 months time, would the 650W be ok, or would I need something more powerful?

I have taken a look at the price difference if I was to switch to Sandy Bridge and there doesn't seem to be much of one right now, so I think I might as well stick with Ivy. I think if I want to save on the CPU I would need to drop to an i5...would this cause noticeable FPS difference?

Thanks both.

 

[Silvune]

I'd suggest dropping down to the Asus P8Z77-V (non PRO version) as the only differences I can see between the two boards is that the PRO version has 2 extra USB3 ports and more power phases, which is only useful for overclocking.

The i7 offers no more gaming performance than the i5, so you might as well save the money there.

16GB is overkill for gaming, you would not notice the difference between 8GB and 16GB and is again a worthwhile saving.

A 650W PSU is plenty for a system with two 7870s, especially if you are not overclocking or doing anything more intensive than gaming. Maybe if you were overclocking or going to be stress testing often or running something like Folding@Home then it would be worthwhile getting a 750W unit.
However the Corsair TX650 V2 doesn't have enough connectors for more than one 7870.
The XFX Pro 650W Core Edition uses the same internal design but does come with enough connectors for two 7870s.

 

[Arkone]

Thanks Silvune, that's really helpful.

Here is what I am planning as final then, when the frames start to drop I will add in a second 7870, hoping that should do for a while

Intel Core i5 3550 3.3GHz Socket 1155 6MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor (£165)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/349025

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro rev 2 Socket 775, 1156, 1155, 1366, AM2, AM3 Heatpipe CPU Cooler (£15)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176157

Asus P8Z77-V Socket 1155 VGA DVI DisplayPort HDMI 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard (£132)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/363230

Corsair 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz Low Profile Vengeance Memory Kit CL9 1.5V (£40)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/274035

Sapphire HD 7870 GHZ OC Edition 2GB GDDR5 HDMI DVI Dual Mini DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card (£260)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/349750

Corsair TX 750W V2 PSU - 80plus Bronze Certified (£80)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/257233

Antec 300 Three Hundred Two Case - with USB3.0 (£55)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/341398

SAMSUNG 128GB 830 Series SSD - 2.5" SATA-III - PC UPGRADE KIT (£135)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/318421

Seagate 500GB 3.5" SATA-III 6Gb/s Barracuda Hard Drive 7200RPM 16MB Cache (£55)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/272944

Asus VE247H LED LCD 23.6" HDMI Monitor (£150)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/263935