£1000 budget gaming rig

[mc1695]

hello i am trying to customize a £1000 budget gaming rig but need some info on whether what i have chosen is a good choice for a gaming pc. this is the spec below


CASE: NZXT M59 Gaming Mid-Tower Case with See-Thru Window
CPU: AMD Phenom™ II X4 955 Quad-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology
Cooling Fan: XtremeGear HDT 120 Xtreme CPU Cooler (5 Heatpipes Direct Core Contact, with rubber rings detachable 120m Neon Fan)
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS M4A87TD EVO AMD 870 Chipset CrossFireX Support DDR3 Socket AM3 ATX w/ 7.1 Audio, GbLAN, IEEE1394a, USB3.0, SATA-III, RAID, 2 Gen2 PCIe, 1 PCIe X1, & 3 PCI
MEMORY: 8GB (4x2GB) PC12800 DDR3/1600mhz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Value Select or Major Brand)
VIDEO CARD: ATI Radeon HD 6870 PCI-E 16X 1GB DDR5 Video Card, Eyefinity 4 capable [+100]
Power Supply Upgrade: 850 Watts Power Supplies [+59] (Cyberpower 850watt High Performance Gaming Power Supply)
Hard Drive: 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16M Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive
Optical Drive: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE. (BLACK COLOR)
SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
LCD Monitor: 24" TFT Active Matrix LCD Display [+107] (BenQ G2420HDBL 24" 5ms 1920x1080, D-sub, DVI, Black Full HD LED Wide Monitor [+22])
Network: ONBOARD 10/1000 NETWORK CARD
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium

any feedback would be useful even if it is to tell me its rubbish and that i should start again. i would prefer to go with amd for the cpu and the graphics card but its not essential if you think i can get the same or better quality for better. btw i am only 16 so i would prefer not to go over budget (£1000) thanks in advance.

 

[striker410]

Not bad.

First thing I see is it's a phenom x4 build. With 1000 pounds, you WILL be able to get a 2500k rig.

Next thing I ask is that you fill out this form: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261222-31-build-advice It will help us help you.

Here's a pretty ideal rig for you.

Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor $225

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard $145

RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C8 $85

Graphics card: EVGA 012-P3-1571-KR GeForce GTX 570 HD w/Display-Port (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card $325 (times 2)

Hard drive: Samsung Desktop Class Spinpoint F3 1 TB SATA 3.0 Gb-s 32 MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare $60

Case: COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $50

Power supply: Antec EarthWatts EA750 750W Continuous Power ATX12V version 2.3 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply $90

Cooling: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler $30

DVD Burner: Sony Optiarc Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA CD/DVD Burner $21

That leaves roughly $300 USD (£183) which should be enough for a 1080p monitor and windows 7.

Notice, I didn't convert prices. However £1,000 equals roughly $1,600 so this is within budget.

 

[mc1695]

probably wasn't very clear in my first post but i am not actually building this myself (although i have experience in part building computers, mainly taking them apart and putting them back together, i am not sure i trust myself enough to be able to build it with damaging any parts) i am actually intending to order it through cyberpower. so i am not sure how possible it is to build it with the parts you have suggested but i will try and see how close to it i can get

 

[mc1695]

i have also filled out that form as well if it helps

Approximate Purchase Date: august

Budget Range: £1000 absolute max no room for negotiation

System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming, music, surfing the internet, watching movies

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, speakers, OS)

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: none, will be using either pcspecialist or cyberpower which gives me the best system for my money. any other custom websites are welcome

Country of Origin: england, UK

Parts Preferences: 24" full hd monitor, good looking case - see through side panel window and blue or red led fans.

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: best value

Monitor Resolution: again best value

 

[striker410]

Aww, I'm sorry to hear that... I would really look into building it yourself. it's super simple, as easy as snapping parts together. You also save a ton of money by buying yourself vs buying through cyberpower.

 

[mc1695]

if i do build it myself will i need to buy anything tools wise i.e. grounding cable etc

 

[striker410]

Nope! Nothing like that. You SHOULD use an anti static wristband, but I never do lol.

Here's an excellent guide that shows how to build your PC: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/274745-31-step-step-guide-building
Check it out, tell me what you think!

 

[mc1695]

its looks really good, very detailed pretty simple to follow. how risky is it to build your own pc first time round

 

[striker410]

Well, not very.

I'll tell you right now, connecting all the Power supply wires to the mobo is the hardest part. But as long as you follow the mobo instructions you should be good. The rest is just snap in/screw in! After that, it's as easy as installing windows 7 and getting drivers installed.

As long as you don't overdo/dont put enough thermal paste on, you should be ok. Not much risk other than plugging in the wrong wires to the wrong places (which is pretty hard to do, mind you.)

 

[mdd1963]

2500k rig should cost about £100-150 more than x4 955 based rig....

(I would try to get the 6950 over 6870 gpu if possible.....)

 

[Motopsychojdn]

+1 on the build it yourself route,
dont be scared by it
Last january I knew very little about building pc's,I had ;mates' at work who took my old broken one, tutted then charged me xxx for a refurb unit, keeping mine, so I figured I wanted in on this little game, I hate paying money and not knowing where its going, so I looked things up,
then I built my first one, a few months later I built my gf one, I refurbished/ fixed mates pc's, Modded mine many times and I'm currently working on my first watercooled Rig with 100% confidence in what I'm doing,
make the leap man, you will never look back, and I guarantee you will never buy a shop pc again,
plus if your near Nottingham, I'm willing to lend a hand if needed
a £600 homebuild will get you much more pc than a £1000 shop bought one, and you will know how to take care of any issues yourself, instead of paying the mysterious geektypes at pc world,
read online guides, get an old unit to play about with, P4's are dirtcheap on egay for a toybox system and have fun
Moto

 

[Motopsychojdn]

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel-core-i5-2500k-unlocked-s1155-sandy-bridge-quad-core-33ghz-gpu-850mhz-6mb-cache-95w-retail
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigabyte-ga-z68ma-d2h-b3-intel-z68-express-s-1155-ddr3-2133-sata-6gb-s-raid-matx-hdmi
quick results from scan.co.uk
a 2500k system needn't be ridiculously expensive
+1 on the 6950 btw, I'm having two of those the Direct cuII versions, they're like challenger tanks on steroids hehe

 

[mc1695]

ok thanks striker i've connected a new psu to a pc before so that should hopefully make it easier and yeah i agree with md the x4 rig would be better for me because price is my main priority. i'll look but both gpu but its depends wether it fits in my budget as to which one i get.

 

[mc1695]

thanks for the advice moto

 

[mc1695]

just wondering does anyone now if new egg delivers to the uk?

 

[mc1695]

also just looked at the 6970 what is the difference between all the different ones, i.e. vtx, asus, sapphire

 

[striker410]

If price is your priority, you can drop to an i5-2400. I would advise against a Phenom X4 build of any kind at your budget, because it will prove to be a bottleneck later on. Here's a benchmark comparing 2500k vs Phenom II x4 955: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/88?vs=288 Pay attention to higher is better/lower is better. As you can see, the 2500k has almost double performance!

When you get to crossfire 6970's if you ever do that, the cpu WILL be a bottleneck. With the 2500k, you really don't have to worry as you can always overclock to insane levels

and don't get me wrong, I'm no intel fanboy. I love my AMD rig to death, but Intel has the clear lead right now.

 

[mc1695]

i have no intention to overclock my system, i am just trying to build a system that will play games at a decent level for a decent price. my last gaming pc as only £300 and that gave a decent enough quality for me although that was 6 years ago this one is just a replacement for it but i decent to update the entire machine instead of replacing the intel cpu that blew up and i cant reuse any of the components from that machine because they're all outdated

 

[striker410]

I would definitely try to get the i5-2400 then. The Phenom II x4 BE is built for overclocking, it would be a shame not to.

Seriously. I know it's a bit more cash, but we will help you make it work! We don't want you to spend your hard earned money on something that is not gonna be worth it.

 

[mc1695]

hmm i dunno, i'll think about it

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Some uk sites for you mate,

Scan.co.uk
Ebuyer.co.uk
Aria.co.uk
Overclockers.co.uk
Pixmania.co.uk
to find best price on components, google 'buy xxx part uk ' and you can work it out from there, sounds daft I know but I've seen £60 variances on Mobos and graphics cards, if your building yourself always hunt down the best price man,
Moto