[Advice] £900 Budget Build Suggestion

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Approximate Purchase Date: Early March.

Budget Range: £900/$1400.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Hard-core gaming, video-editing.

Parts Not Required: Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor, Speakers.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: http://www.scan.co.uk http://www.novatech.co.uk http://www.misco.co.uk

Country: London, United Kingdom

Parts Preferences: Preferably AMD GPU. Open to suggestions.

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: In future, maybe.

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080, 1920x1200

Additional Comments: Will need to include OS.

Thank-you.
 
I wouldn't go with AMD at this budget, especially not for a gaming build. An i3-2100 would outperform pretty much anything AMD have to offer in games. (Including the FX-8120 and 1100T etc.)

An i5-2500k is the best value for money for gaming by far, it overclocks very nicely too. You should be able to get 4.5Ghz with a decent cooler, some manage 5Ghz.

Another thing I'll mention, don't think of SLI/Crossfire as a futureproof upgrade option. By the time your single card doesn't cut it, it will be a bad idea to buy another. For a single monitor you don't need any more than a good single card anyway. It also saves running into unnecessary compatibility and overheating problems.

EDIT: Just added this up on www.aria.co.uk

Intel Core i5-2500k
8GB Mushkin Blackline
Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3P
XFX AMD Radeon HD 6950 2048MB
Crucial m4 128GB
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB
550W XFX Core Edition
Bitfenix Shinobi
Samsung DVD Burner
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit OEM

Total - £901.44 inc VAT and delivery

That would be great for both gaming and video editing

Or if you don't care about the SSD you could drop the HD 6950 and SSD and get an HD 7950.
 

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Hmm, I see where your coming from. I'm looking to be gaming on one monitor, since I think anymore is just overkill, plus those lines in-between really bother me, so yeah, single GPU for me. Also, I wasn't going to go for a AMD CPU, only GPU. I've read the i5's reviews, and that is (for sure), what I will be purchasing. Another thing to note is, a Hard-drive isn't partially required, as I have a 500GB 7200rpm one lying around somewhere, just need to find out how I can format it. Maybe this saves some money for other quality components, or just saves money for my pocket, either way, need a mouse&keyboard too, money could go for that.
Thanks for showing me your suggested build otherwise, quiet something to consider otherwise.

 

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(Can't edit previous post so no choice but to double-post, sorry).
I don't really need an SSD, may consider a 7750. How does it outperform a 6950 though?
 

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i7 2600k
XFX AMD Radeon HD 7950 Double D 3072MB GDDR5
Antec ECO 620w
LG 24x DVD drive
Windows 7
Intel 520 120GB SSD
Hitachi 500GB 7200RPM
Asrock Pro3 Gen3
Kingston HyperX 8GB 1333 1.5V
Cooler Master 212 EVO

You won't have trouble running games on this computer and will load maps really fast with that SSD, if you want to switch to i5 2500k, thats fine too. ATI 7970 is also another choice. I agree with jmstellars that you shouldn't crossfire.
 

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May I ask which website you used, and how much it totaled out to be?
This seems quite the business.
 
The HD 7950 will massively outperform the HD 6950, when comparing to Nvidia cards the HD 6950 2GB is about the same as the GTX 560Ti 2GB. The HD 7950 3GB is slightly better than the GTX 580 3GB while consuming less power.
 

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Hmm, well that may be something to consider. May just wait a little longer, make a little more money, and make a £1000~ budget computer. Really does range. What do you think?
 

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Then that seems like job-done. Look's quite amazing, though I still cant find comparisons of the 6950 & 7950 (Benchmarks).
Is the 7950 faster than the 6970?
 

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Edit:
I've made the build in my basket, and this is what it looks like;
CPU - i5-2500k £129.99
DRAM - 8GB Mushkin Blackline #996995 (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz 9-9-9-24 £29.36
MOBO - Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3P £84.99
PSU - 550W XFX Core Edition 80PLUS Bronze Power Supply £43.00
Drive - Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE DVD Writer £10.47
OEM - MICROSOFT Windows Home Premium 7 SP1 64-bit EN 1pk - OEM [GFC-02050] (Correct version??) £57.95
GPU - MSI AMD Radeon HD 7950 OC Twin Frozr III 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £333.29

+ VAT £139.20 + SHIPPING £6.95
Grand Total; £835.20

Also note, I haven't added a case, will go for the Sharkoon T9, since it looks nice, big, and quite a decent price! (~£50)

Grand Total; £885.20
 
I'd stick with the HD 7950 or HD 7970 personally, the GTX 590 may be slightly better than the HD 7970 but comes with all the disadvantages of SLI/Crossfire.

The HD 7950 is faster than the HD 6970 yeah, by maybe 10-20% or so. (Rough guess)