Bf3 build £1000-£1200

Yoyoman2000 · Mar 14, 2012

dathtom · Mar 14, 2012

As much as I would love to say that this would do the job, running BF3 on ultra is a big ask on any system. You'll certainly get some good fps on high, but I wouldn't expect this build to run it smoothly on ultra.

Yoyoman2000 · Mar 14, 2012

dathtom :

I suppose high would do...

TheQuack45 · Mar 14, 2012

If I'm correct, I read that Crossfiring or SLIing 2 $175 (in this case)video cards would give you better performance than one $350 dollar video card. Is this correct, or is the book that I read that from (Building the Perfect PC 3rd Edition) wrong/outdated? And yeah, Ultra is extremely tough for a computer to manage. If what I read is right, two $175 cards might be able to manage to give you enough horsepower to get BF3 on ultra with good FPS.

Silvune · Mar 14, 2012

The Noctua NH-U12P SE2 is a good CPU heatsink, so you can keep that if you want, but I think you can save some money without sacrificing performance by getting this:
Thermalright True Spirit 140 £38
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/thermalright-true-spirit-140mm-fan-with-6x-copper-heat-pipes-for-socket-1366-1155-775-and-am2-am3
However with this you would be unlikely to be able to use a large side panel fan on the NZXT Phantom.

The GS800 is not well priced for the performance/power/features it offers. You don't even need that much wattage if you are not going to crossfire (the Asus P8Z68-V LX has a sub-optimal PCIe lane split of x16/x4, x8/x8 is preferred). If you change the motherboard to one with a x8/x8 split or if you are just going to ignore the potential bottleneck then a good 750W unit is what you want:

Corsair TX750 V2 80Plus Bronze £80
http://www.ebuyer.com/257233-corsair-tx-750w-v2-psu-80plus-bronze-certified-cmpsu-750txv2uk
Or the XFX Pro 750W Core Edition if you can find it cheaper.

Thermaltake Toughpower XT 775W 80Plus Silver Modular £80
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/775w-psu-thermaltake-tpx-775mpcuk-modular-89-eff-80-plus-bronze-sli-crossfire-eps-12v-fan-atx-v23

XFX Pro 750W XXX Edition 80Plus Silver £89
http://www.cclonline.com/product/71546/P1-750B-UKB9/Power-Supplies/XFX-XXX-Edition-750w-Silver-80-/PSU0278/

If you abandon the idea of Crossfire then for a similar price this is a fantastic unit:
NZXT Hale90 650W 80Plus Gold Modular £93
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/650w-psu-nzxt-hale90-hale90650m-modular-90eff-80-plus-gold-sli-crossfire-eps-12v-quiet-fan-atx-v22
However if you don't want the best of the best you could save ~£40 on the PSU, which could be put into getting a GPU with a better cooling solution.

Nothing really wrong with WD Caviar Blues, but based on the SPCR review of the 3TB version I would get the following:
Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200RPM ST500DM002 £59
http://www.ebuyer.com/272944-seagate-500gb-3-5-sata-iii-6gb-s-barracuda-hard-drive-7200rpm-16mb-cache-st500dm002

1600x900 isn't that demanding of a resolution, so I would think that a 7950 would easily handle that.
http://www.techspot.com/review/458-battlefield-3-performance/page3.html
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/02/21/sapphire_radeon_hd_7950_oc_video_card_review/5
In fact these two reviews show cards roughly equal to 7950s running BF3 on ultra with high minimum and average FPS with larger resolutions.

dathtom · Mar 15, 2012

If I'm correct, I read that Crossfiring or SLIing 2 $175 (in this case)video cards would give you better performance than one $350 dollar video card. Is this correct, or is the book that I read that from (Building the Perfect PC 3rd Edition) wrong/outdated? And yeah, Ultra is extremely tough for a computer to manage. If what I read is right, two $175 cards might be able to manage to give you enough horsepower to get BF3 on ultra with good FPS.

I have to agree, I believe that 2 x GTX560's would be better than a single 7950. Not sure about pricing though as you live in the US, but performance would be better as the GTX 560 is the best Price-to-Performance card on the market right now.

dathtom · Mar 15, 2012

If I'm correct, I read that Crossfiring or SLIing 2 $175 (in this case)video cards would give you better performance than one $350 dollar video card. Is this correct, or is the book that I read that from (Building the Perfect PC 3rd Edition) wrong/outdated? And yeah, Ultra is extremely tough for a computer to manage. If what I read is right, two $175 cards might be able to manage to give you enough horsepower to get BF3 on ultra with good FPS.

I have to agree, I believe that 2 x GTX560's would be better than a single 7950. Not sure about pricing though as you live in the US, but performance would be better as the GTX 560 is the best Price-to-Performance card on the market right now.

serialkiller · Mar 15, 2012

6870 is the best price-performance ratio gpu.

A 6870 will max out any game at 1600x900 except bf3 and metro 2033 at ultra where a 560 ti or 6950 can provide a smooth game at the safer side a gtx 570 or hd 6970 is all u need.but i would suggest to wait for few days for 7870 which perform like 580 and cost around 300 usd

Yoyoman2000 · Mar 15, 2012

Thank you for all of the quick replies!

@Silvune
Thanks with the PSU suggestions. I think I will go with the corsair 750w as I hear it is a good make and I have seen a couple of favorable reviews. Will that CPU cooler manage a clock of 4.4ghz on the 2500k? Can you also help me about an mb as all of the ones I seem to find are x16, x4.

I suppose I may have to get SLI/Crossfire after all. I originally didn't think into it because it causes a bucket load of heat problems and micro-stuttering. In the budget I set out I could probably get either 2 560ti s or 2 hd 6870 s.

http://www.ebuyer.com/254405-asus-gtx-560ti-directcu-ii-1gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-mini-hdmi-pci-e-engtx560-ti-dcii-2di-1gd5

http://www.ebuyer.com/248745-powercolor-hd-6870-1gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-hdmi-dual-mini-displayport-pci-e-ax6870-1gbd5-2dh

I understand that some motherboards support crossfire and others SLI. Would I need to get a different mb for ether of those setups? Or should I stick with the 7950 and OC? That monitor isn't even 1080p so maybe it could run bf3 very well. Or maybe not.

badjad05 · Mar 15, 2012

That 7950 is overkill dude.

Yoyoman2000 · Mar 15, 2012

badjad05 :

I plan to keep this system for at least 3-4yrs (with upgrades)

(on another note when does the 7850/70 come out?)

dathtom · Mar 15, 2012

I plan to keep this system for at least 3-4yrs (with upgrades)

(on another note when does the 7850/70 come out?)

I believe it is allredy out.

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/graphics-cards/amd-radeon-hd-7850-1068373/review

Yoyoman2000 · Mar 15, 2012

dathtom :

That was a paper release, wasn't it?

azeem40 · Mar 15, 2012

The 7850 is out, but it is not on newegg or amazon yet. I have looked up on google that there are 3 sellers near me that sell it.

Yoyoman2000 · Mar 15, 2012

azeem40 :

I cannot find it at any UK retailers; the sapphire website said tomorrow.

azeem40 · Mar 15, 2012

These are the ones selling them: http://www.shopblt.com/cgi-bin/shop/shop.cgi?action=enter&thispage=0110040015012_BNG7991P.shtml&order_id=!ORDERID!

http://www.provantage.com/sapphire-technology-11200-01-20g~7SAPP06P.htm

sinthoras · Mar 15, 2012

dathtom :

I think I drank too much beer tonight..

How can you say 7950 will not run bf3 ultra smoothly when hd 6970 is recommended for the ideal experience @ bf3 ultra settings 1920 x 1080p

Silvune · Mar 15, 2012

Yoyoman2000 :

Yes both the Noctua and the Thermalright cooler I suggested should easily allow an OC of 4.4GHz.

I think you should go with a single powerful graphics card, rather than CF/SLI, this is to avoid increased heat and noise output. You can also think about upgrade options; if you buy one card you have the option to just replace it or you can add another one. Having to get rid of two graphics cards when they don't meet your requirements anymore would be more of a hassle IMO.

Most 1155 motherboards support both SLI and CF, there are exceptions, to double check you would go to the vendor's product page.

This is the cheapest 1155 motherboard on ebuyer which has the optimum x8/x8 split @ £90:
Gigabyte P67X-UD3
http://www.ebuyer.com/265918-gigabyte-ga-p67x-ud3-p67-socket-1155-7-1-channel-hd-audio-atx-motherboard-ga-p67x-ud3-b3

If you want a Z68 board then:
Gigabyte Z68A-D3H £105
http://www.ebuyer.com/267506-gigabyte-ga-z68a-d3h-b3-z68-socket-1155-8-channel-audio-atx-motherboard-ga-z68a-d3h-b3

But for £2 more I think this is worthwhile, if you don't mind the absence of display outputs:
Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 £107
http://www.ebuyer.com/271792-gigabyte-ga-z68xp-ud3-z68-socket-1155-onboard-hdmi-7-1-channel-audio-atx-motherboard-ga-z68xp-ud3

Some more links which show 7950/7870s running BF3 on ultra with high framerates, again at higher resolutions:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5625/amd-radeon-hd-7870-ghz-edition-radeon-hd-7850-review-rounding-out-southern-islands/11
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2012/03/05/amd-radeon-hd-7870-2gb-review/5

peep1988 · Apr 10, 2012

Yoyoman2000 :

I saw a gtx 480 on sale on amazon for 230 bucks on amazon its performance is the same as a gtx 570 so if you got 2 of the 480 in sli that would be beast

Bf3 build £1000-£1200

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