£900 gaming PC

[Silver in Theory]

Hey all, after 2½ years of laptop woes on my Dell XPS M1330 ("gaming" machine, my ass), I've decided that it's time to return to the desktop world - and the performance world.

Here's the setup I'm thinking of buying:

Case:
Antec 300 - £43
(http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143854)

Motherboard:
ASUS P6T SE iX58 Socket 1366 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard - £141
(http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161061)

CPU:
Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz Socket 1366 D0 stepping 8MB Cache OEM - £206
(http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161171)

HSF:
Xigmatek Dark Knight - £36
(http://www.ebuyer.com/product/168248)

RAM:
3x Crucial 2GB DDR3 1333MHz/PC3-10600 Memory CL9 1.5 V Unbuffered Non-ECC - £120
(http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159919)

GPU:
Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 1GB - £221
(http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-Sapphire-HD-5850-PCI-E-20-4000MHz-GDDR5-GPU-725MHz-DisplayPort-2x-DL-DVI-I-HDMI-plus-Dirt2)

HDD:
2x Western Digital 500GB SATAII 7200rpm 16MB cache - £77
(http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124228)

Optical:
LG GH22NS50 22x SATA DVD±RW Dual Layer & RAM - £16
(http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169683)

PSU:
Corsair 550W VX - £63
(http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132563)

Thermal paste:
Arctic Cooling MX-2 - £4
(http://www.ebuyer.com/product/135613)


I'll be running Windows 7 Ultimate. I do intend to overlock. I'm not planning on having Crossfire. I'll also be mounting a fan in the front of the case.

My main concerns: Is the motherboard acceptable?
Is the RAM ok?
Will the PSU be able to handle the above setup?
Will I be able to overlock this rig?

Any advice or opinions?

This all prices out at a bit over £900, and that's about as far as my budget can stretch. If anyone has any ideas of improvements that can be made without exceeding £950, I'd be extremely interested!

 

[MadAdmiral]

What are you planning to do with the computer? This is extremely important to know. [strike]If you're gaming, you could easily drop to an i5-750 and probably afford an HD 5970, and definitely afford an HD 5870.[/strike] Totally didn't notice the name of the thread...

Everything looks alright, except for the WD HDD. Currently, both Samsung Spinpoint F3 and Seagate 7200.12 are better choices. Not only are they faster, quieter, and cooler, they're also cheaper.

 

[Silvune]

You'd be better off with this RAM: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159927 £125 Lower latency. Of course, only if you don't mind the higher voltage.

 

[ansionnachcliste]

That looks like a good build and I'm on the same budget but without an OS and Monitor but if I could stretch, I could try. So without hijacking this thread, is this a good performance PC for gaming? Like high graphic and on screen action gaming?

Thanks.

 

[MadAdmiral]

Decent, but could be better.

Here's what I would change to make it better (in addition to the above).

CPU: i5-750
Mobo: Asus P7P55D-E Pro
RAM: Any 2x2 GB 1600 mhz CAS Latency 7 kit that's cheap
HSF: Coolermaster Hyper 212
GPU: HD 5870

Of course, that depends on the prices over there.

 

[Silver in Theory]

Thanks for the advice MadAdmiral and Silvune.

I'll ditch the WDs and get the Samsung Spinpoints then. Is there any particular reason the i5 750 would be better than the i7 920 for gaming? Or is it just to reduce the cost of that component in order to buy a better GPU? If it makes a difference, I'll also be using Photoshop semi-frequently.

I'm a bit hesitant on switching to that RAM due to the voltage being at the upper limit for the mobo. Would the difference between the CL7 and CL9 RAM be significant?

 

[ansionnachcliste]

If its for just gaming, I've been reading that the AMD Phenom II x4 is just as good or even better than the i5 series of intel. Even for using Photoshop, the AMD would be good, and its cheaper too.

 

[Alvin Smith]

900 British pounds = 1 391.85 U.S. dollars

 

[Silvune]

I believe that the i5 750 has higher minimum framerates, but primarily it is because of the lower price to accomodate a better GPU. And for infrequent use of photoshop it is not worth keeping the i7 920 as the performance difference between them in photoshop is negligible. http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3634&p=11

If you look at this page and look at the game benchmarks ( http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/core-i7-870-1156,review-31748-8.html ), it does not show that the Latency has a consistent impact on performance. So I would say that it does not matter that much, altho it is better to get CAS 7 when you can. Personally I wouldn't be worried about it being on the voltage limit. But you can always try setting the other set at CAS 8 in the bios. Of course if you change to Lynnfield then the RAM game changes a bit as you can look at dual channel sets which might turn out to be better.