PC Guts for £550?

[merlinbadman]

Hi all, I need a new CPU, mobo, RAM, GPU, adn PSU for under £550. The PC is used for gaming, trying to make it BF3 worthy. There are a few ways of doing it and am not sure what is best.

What about this (based on THG's $1K system bulder challenge)?

i5 2500K
Gigabyte GA-H61M-S2V-B3 H61 Socket 1155
Corsair 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1333MHz
KFA2 GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 dual DVI miniHDMI PCI-E Graphics Card
CIT 550W Dual 12V Rail PSU - 12cm Fan - 20+4pin 2x SATA


Any ideas? Should I go i7 with an GTX 560 instead?

Many thanks.

 

[cutebeans]

i5-2500k and 580 would be better. Never get the i7-2600k, if you only plan to game.

 

[AdrianPerry]

i5-2500k
P67 or Z68 motherboard (NOT H61/67)
1600MHz CL9 1.v5 RAM
GTX 560Ti
Good Quality 500w PSU (XFX, SeaSonic, Corsair, Antec)

 

[merlinbadman]

Nice, so the i5 2500 is the way to go.

Do the cheaper mobo's run 1600 DDR3? I did look at specs and they only said 800 / 1333.

I will look at a mobo with a better chipset.


This PC is for a freind, thankfully my PC runs BF3 fine.

 

[AdrianPerry]

Nice, so the i5 2500 is the way to go.

Do the cheaper mobo's run 1600 DDR3? I did look at specs and they only said 800 / 1333.

I will look at a mobo with a better chipset.


This PC is for a freind, thankfully my PC runs BF3 fine.

The i5-2500 K is the way to go. Make sure its got that little K next to it so you can over-clock it to its full potential.

No some motherboards will only support up to 1333MHz RAM. Depending on the price difference, and your friends budget, you might be better off going with a cheaper motherboard, and cheaper 1333MHz RAM.

ASRock Extreme3 Gen3 is a great motherboard choice if your friend can afford it. Its one of the cheapest SLI motherboards, with OC RAM supported and with a Z68 chipset and PCI 3.0 ready lanes.

 

[merlinbadman]

Many thanks for the help.