Building a friend a gaming/video editing system £700-£800

Which is more important for the end user? Gaming or Video editing?

If the primary use is going to be editing, rendering and encoding video footage by all means stick with the i7-2600k. If the primary use is going to be gaming, you'll be better off with the i5-2500k and use the saved money to upgrade the graphics card (upgrade to something like 560Ti or 6950).

HDD? Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB is recommended (£40 ish)
Optical Drive? DVD-RW (£20 ish)
Case? £varies

You could also save some money and get a cheaper motherboard, something like:
http://www.ebuyer.com/267504-gigabyte-ga-z68x-ud3h-b3-z...
Which still supports SLI/Crossfire
or even cheaper: http://www.ebuyer.com/267506-gigabyte-ga-z68a-d3h-b3-z6...

If you want a modular PSU:
Thermaltake Toughpower XT 675W 80Plus Bronze Modular £66
http://www.ebuyer.com/234912-thermaltake-675w-toughpowe...

Thanks Perry for the speedy reply. His main intention is to video edit, use Photoshop, render models, etc. I don't know what the actual reality will be.   .

Good choice taking on the i7-2600k then as it performs better in video rendering due to the Hyperthreading technology.

Is your friend likely to be using dual cards (crossfire) at any point in the future? You could save quite abit of money on the motherboard and PSU if the answer is no.

If the answer is yes, you could still save a little:
£109 Gigabyte Motherboard (with SLI support)
http://www.ebuyer.com/267506-gigabyte-ga-z68a-d3h-b3-z6...

He won't be getting any more gpus. The reason I picked that board was because I like asus, it's features but I wish they had a Z68 board with only one pci gpu slot.

They do....well they have this one thats much cheaper. It doesnt have SLI support but it does still support crossfire. (dual ATI cards)

£113
ASUS P8Z68-v LE
http://www.ebuyer.com/274522-asus-p8z68-v-le-z68-socket...

You could even go with this at £95 (P67 motherboard) - unless you planned on using that 60GB SSD as a cache in which case you need z68.
http://www.ebuyer.com/261057-asus-p8p67-m-r3-0-socket-1...

Saving up to £55 on the motherboard would also allow for that 6850 to be upgraded to a 6870:
£140 http://www.ebuyer.com/279585-xfx-hd-6870-900mhz-1gb-gdd...
or the Sapphire version if you prefer:
£143 http://www.ebuyer.com/271292-sapphire-hd-6870-1gb-gddr5...

I've also been hearing some questionable things about OCZ's SSD and their fail rates recently over the last few days.
This 64GB Crucial M4 might be a better choice and its a few ££ cheaper and has some really great reviews
£80 http://www.ebuyer.com/264770-crucial-64gb-2-5-m4-ssd-sa...

Slighty cheaper PSU, but still more than enough power for your build, and its Modular which i deem to be a huge advantage:
Antec True Power 550w
£59 http://www.ebuyer.com/159918-antec-truepower-new-550w-m...

or if Modular doesn't make much difference to you, 600w Corsair:
£52 http://www.ebuyer.com/269259-corsair-600w-cx-series-v2-...

So to summarise:

ASUS P8Z68-v LE £113
Intel i7-2600k £235
Corsair Vengeance 8GB 1600MHz CL9 £45
Sapphire 6870 £143
Crucial M4 SSD £80
Antec True Power Modular PSU £59

Total: £675 (all prices from www.EBUYER.co.uk)


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HDD? Samsung SpintPoint F3 1TB (seems to be sold out on ebuyer) £45 or less
Optical Drive? LG GH22NS70 22x DVD±RW £14
Case? Mid-Tower ATX of your choice

Didn't see these mentioned in the initial post, not sure if they are required?

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