Gaming PC for under £1000

pseudo86

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Jun 22, 2010
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I am trying to put together a gaming PC that will last for at least 3 years for somewhere in the region of £750 - £1000. I already have a monitor (22", and I don't see myself going above 24" in the future), but suggestions for mouse/keyboard are welcome (I don't need anything ridiculous, just sturdy). I have been snooping around a bit on this website and some others and have put together the following list. I would love to get some feedback on it.

Corsair TX Series 650W ATX2.2 SLI/Crossfire Compliant Power Supply £ 78.71

Samsung HD103SJ SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 3.5" Hard Drive £ 51.69

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium English Retail Version 32 Bit + 64 Bit £ 93.99

Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) Processor - Retail £ 162.14

Samsung SH-S223C 22x Internal DVD±R/RW SATA Drive - Black £ 15.26

Patriot Viper II "Sector 5" 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit £ 93.99

Xigmatek Utgard Midi Tower Gaming Case - Black £ 64.50

Asus P7P55D-E Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 PCI-Express Motherboard £ 129.24

XFX Radeon HD 5850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - Games Edition! £ 246.74

Total (with VAT and delivery): £ 951.52

My concerns at the moment are mostly about whether its worth upping to a 5870, is an i-7 worth it, do I need non-stock cooling, and whether I've made the right RAM selection. Also, I'm in the UK - I've put together this price list from aria.co.uk, but does anyone else have a better recommendation for a retailer?

Thanks in advance,
pseudo86
 

cygone

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Oct 30, 2009
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Wow, 1st person i have seen, that wrote 'ive been looking around' and actually has a good build.

not perfect tho,

Change the Ram to corsair ballistix 2x2gb kit.

case - thats your opinion, but what about an antec 900 or a CM 690 II?
 
Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/197546
AMD Phenom II X4 955
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/190673
G-Skill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz/PC3-12800
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/180490
Samsung SH-S223
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145450
Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173804
Sapphire HD 5870 1GB
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/199644
Antec TruePower New 650W Modular
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159920
Coolermaster HAF 922
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164961
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64

£974.02
 
A 5870 will have a better chance of lasting three years imo.

This is probably the set cygone was referring to: Crucial 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz/PC3-10600 Ballistix Memory Kit CL7 (7-7-7-24) 1.65V £87

That motherboard only has one PCI-E slot that is fast enough to put a graphics card into. If you're only going to be installing one graphics card (a 5850/5870) then you will only need a quality 550W PSU (Corsair VX Series 550W). Perhaps if you think you will replace that with a yet to be released card then stick with a 650W PSU. This is another good one: XFX 650W XXX Edition Single Rail Modular £70.

The Xigmatek Utgard is a very good case for the price.
 

cygone

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Oct 30, 2009
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It is indeed Silvune, i would pick up the 12400 / 1600MHz tho, as it is littery only a couple of quid more.

you really cant go wrong with a corsair 650w modular psu, and in honesty if u want it to last 3yrs, then the best upgrade latter down the line is either a better GPU or to xfire your current, imo its not worth the cost to go from a 5850 to a 5870. A 5850 is in the realms or normality not insanity for cost/performance.

And a I5-750 + 5850 is better than an X4-955 + 5870 for both desktop and gaming. If you have the money intel is the better choice

 
The XFX on ebuyer is the cheapest and highest quality (as high as the Truepower 650, HX650 etc) 650W PSU that you are likely to find, and actually modular unlike the Corsair TX.
And a I5-750 + 5850 is better than an X4-955 + 5870 for both desktop and gaming.
A system with a Phenom II X4 955 + 5870 will have higher framerates than a system with i5-750 + 5850, so the above doesn't really make sense. The i5 is definitely the better CPU, maybe it's performance level will be higher for longer, but for gaming they are pretty even and the CPU isn't nearly as important in gaming as the GPU.

pseudo86 if you're going to be overclocking then yes you'd want to look at non-stock cooling. The other possible reason is if you want the system to be as quiet as possible.
 

pseudo86

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Jun 22, 2010
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Thanks for all advice guys. Based on what's been said here and things I've heard elsewhere my current shopping list looks as follows:

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound £ 6.45

Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) Processor - Retail £ 159.79

Samsung HD103SJ SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 3.5" Hard Drive £ 51.69

Samsung SH-S223C 22x Internal DVD±R/RW SATA Drive - Black £ 15.26

Titan TTC-NK85TZ Fenrir V2 (Socket 939/AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1156/LGA1366) CPU Cooler £ 35.24

Xigmatek Utgard Midi Tower Gaming Case - Black £ 64.50

ASUS P7P55D Evo iP55 Socket LGA 1156 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard £126.75

Asus ATI Radeon EAH5850 DirectCU 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £ 252.61

G-Skill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz/PC3-12800 Ripjaw Memory Kit CL7(7-8-7-24) 1.65V £85.87

XFX 650W XXX Edition Single Rail Modular PSU - 13.5cm Fan 6x SATA 4x PCI-E £59.56

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium - Complete package - 1 PC - DVD - English - United Kingdom £74.88

Total (inc. VAT and shipping): £ 987.34

This seems like a reasonable compromise all round, given budget constraints. Besides what you guys have recommended, I have gone for a slightly more expensive version of the motherboard as it has better crossfire potential in the future. I'm not sure whether that's something I will actually need/want to do but for an extra £20 it seemed stupid not to. I've also decided to get an aftermarket cooler as I've been told that the stock Intel ones aren't that good. If there's any final comments or anything I'd love to hear them, otherwise I'll be ordering up when I get paid on tuesday (oh happy days!).

Once again, thanks for the advice,
pseudo86
 

tb boy

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Sep 4, 2009
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That seems like a great setup. It's pretty much the standard very popular but very good i5 750/5850 build. Solid choice of components all round.

I can recommend the Xigmatek Utgard case, im using it at the moment, it looks great, has decent tool-less systems, good cooling capability & the built-in fan controllers are great for getting a good balance of cooling vs noise.