First time gaming build, £1000-£1500

[andysh_92]

Approximate Purchase Date: hopefully before end of the month

Budget Range: would like to spend around £1000, would be willing to push to £1500 if i would see much difference
google says this is around roughly $1600-$2400

System Usage: gaming. (already have a laptop which use for everything, this would be purely for games)

Parts Not Required: monitor ( plan on hooking up to tv) keyboard and mouse not required but if anyone has any special suggestions im all ears

Preferred Website(s) for Parts:

Country: UK (england)

Parts Preferences: none

Overclocking: not entirely sure on the whole process but would consider if i understood and would see benefits

SLI or Crossfire: not entirely sure on the whole process but would consider if i understood and would see benefits

Monitor Resolution: 50" full HD plasma tv

Additional Comments: would be running things like RTS, SWTOR ( believe these are the system req ) and ARMA 3 ( still in development but have released some system reqs. )

would like to be able to play these ^ on pretty high settings

 

[jmsellars1]

For the CPU I would certainly go with Intel at this budget, AMD just don't have anything that can even compete. I'd wait a week or so for the new Ivy bridge processors and grab the i5-3570K. Not a huge jump in performance from current chips but they run a bit cooler and should be around the same price anyway. I wouldn't consider an i7 for a pure gaming build at any budget. You wouldn't even notice the performance difference because i7's aren't really designed for gaming.

You should be able to get something like this within budget:

i5-3570K
8GB RAM
Any Z77 Motherboard
GTX 680 2GB
Case of choice
Decent ~550W PSU (XFX Core 550W is a good one)
Any DVD Writer

Total should be around £1200 or so and it should easily play even the latest of games on ultra high settings.

Some good UK sites include:

www.aria.co.uk
www.ebuyer.com
www.microdirect.co.uk
www.scan.co.uk

 

[andysh_92]

thanks!

after a day looking around this sorta set up is pretty much what i had decided on. But motherboard + psu choices were still confusing me haha.

With the ram is there any difference between 2 x4GB or a straight 8GB etc?
also with the ivy bridges running cooler (and the fact you've not listed anything) i take it i can get away with stock cooling?

 

[Blarg44]

thanks!

after a day looking around this sorta set up is pretty much what i had decided on. But motherboard + psu choices were still confusing me haha.

With the ram is there any difference between 2 x4GB or a straight 8GB etc?
also with the ivy bridges running cooler (and the fact you've not listed anything) i take it i can get away with stock cooling?

If you are going to overclock then you will need better cooling.
If you are not then stock should be fine but you might want to get an after-market cooler to be quieter and generally better. Also if you are not going to then you do not need the unlocked cpu (the 'k' versions).

 

[Why_Me]

For a single card build (no option to add another graphics card later on) then it would be a mobo and psu like this one down below.

http://www.dabs.com/products/asrock-z77-pro-4-s1155-intel-z77-ddr6-atx-80XM.html?refs=4294943314-50568&src=3 £89.98
ASRock Z77 Pro 4 S1155 Intel Z77 DDR6 ATX

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/550w-psu-xfx-pro-series-core-edition-p1-550s-ukb9-85-eff-80-plus-bronze-sli-crossfire-eps-12v-fan-at £47.46 Inc VAT
XFX Pro Series Core Edition P1-550S-UKB9 550W Power Supply (PSU)

For a dual card set up (option to add another one of those graphic cards later one) then look at this mobo and psu.

http://www.dabs.com/products/asrock-z77-extreme-4-s1155-intel-z77-ddr3-atx-80XR.html?refs=4294943314-50568&src=3 £109.99 Inc VAT
ASRock Z77 Extreme 4 S1155 Intel Z77 DDR3 ATX

Non modular cable system psu down below.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/850w-psu-xfx-pro-series-core-edition-p1-850s-ukb9-85-eff-80-plus-bronze-sli-crossfire-eps-12v-fan-at £87.42 Inc VAT
XFX P1-850S-UKB9 Pro Series Core Edition 850W Power Supply (PSU)

Modular cable system psu down below

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/850w-xfx-xxx-p1-850b-ukb9-psu-88-eff-80-plus-silver-sli-crossfire-eps-12v-fan-atx-v22 £106.62 Inc VAT
XFX XXX Edition 850w Silver 80+

This cpu is due for release April 29th.

http://www.guru3d.com/news/intel-ivy-bridge-gets-prelaunch-price-cut/ $212 USD
Intel Ivy Bridge i5 3750K 3.4Ghz

A cpu cooler to help keep the temps down

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/cooling/cpucoolers/rr-212e-16pk-r1.html £29.99 inc vat
Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler

Seeing how you do most everything on your laptop I see no reason to add a storage drive to a pure gaming build. This 240GB SSD should suffice just fine.

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Storage/Hard+Drives+-+SSD/100GB+-+260GB+SSD/Mushkin+Chronos+240GB+2.5%22+SATA-III+Solid+State+Hard+Drive+?productId=49034 £169.99 inc. VAT
Mushkin Chronos 240GB 2.5" SATA-III Solid State Hard Drive

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/corsair-carbide-series-400r-black-mid-tower-gaming-case-w-o-psu £77.28 Inc VAT
Corsair Carbide Series 400R Black Mid Tower Computer Case

http://www.corsair.com/pc-cases/carbide-series-pc-case/carbide-series-400r-mid-tower-case.html <----- a better look at that case

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-(2x4gb)-corsair-ddr3-vengeance-jet-black-lp-pc3-12800-(1600)-non-ecc-cas-9-9-9-24-xmp-15v £39.74 Inc VAT
Corsair Memory 8GB Vengeance Jet Black Low Profile 8GB DDR3 1600 MHz CAS 9 XMP Dual Channel Desktop

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/opticaldrives/satadvdwriters/gh24ns70.auaa.html £13.98 inc vat
LG GH24NS70 DVD+/-RW SuperMulti 24x SATA Internal GH24NS70.AUAA

http://www.dabs.com/products/pny-geforce-gtx-680-1006mhz-2gb-pci-express-3-0-hdmi-80BY.html?refs=4294943480&src=3 £409.99
PNY GeForce GTX 680 1006MHz 2GB PCI-Express 3.0 HDMI

To lower the price on this build look at any of these two cards down below. A 750w psu will suffice in powering two of those cards.

http://www.dabs.com/products/sapphire-technology-ati-radeon-7870-1000mhz-2gb-pci-express-3-0-hdmi-80T7.html?refs=55570000-4294943360&src=3 £259.99 Inc VAT
Sapphire Technology ATI Radeon 7870 1000MHz 2GB PCI-Express 3.0 HDMI

http://www.dabs.com/products/asus-ati-radeon-7870-1010mhz-2gb-pci-express-3-0-hdmi-directcu-ii-818Y.html?refs=55570000-4294943360&src=3 £279.99
Asus ATI Radeon 7870 1010MHz 2GB PCI-Express 3.0 HDMI DirectCU II

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/HD_7870_Direct_Cu_II/ <----- Review with benchmarks for that Asus 7870

http://www.dabs.com/products/microsoft-windows-home-premium-7-sp1-64-bit-en-1pk-oei-oem-dvd-7J00.html?q=windows%207%20oem&src=16 £69.99
Microsoft Windows Home Premium 7 SP1 64-bit EN 1pk OEM DVD