Gaming PC - ~£750

[Snails]

Hi,


My old PC is in need of replacement. I am looking to spend about £750 and the computer will be used for mainly gaming.

I don't mind self building. I already have a monitor, mouse and keyboard. I will need everything else, including an operating system

Any suggestions on pre-built systems or components for a self build? I am a little out of touch!

Thanks.

 

[Addicted]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £239.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 400R Midi Tower Case - Black £84.98
1 x XFX Pro 650W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £69.98
1 x Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit £49.99
Total : £752.93 (includes shipping : £12.50).

Rough spec - I'd perhaps change the XFX PSU to a Corsair one (or Seasonic if you can stretch), I also haven't included an OS as I am unsure which one you'd go for.

 

[Snails]

Are the ATI cards better than the equivalent nvidia, which in this case is the 660ti I think.

I need an operating system, what is worth removing it downgrading to bring it with budget??

 

[Addicted]

Better value for money, and at current yep they're outperforming Nvidia ones (they were slower until some crazy driver updates increasing performance by around 15-20%).

You could downgrade the case, I've just bought this for my brother:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-049-NX

Looks to be a really nice case for the money (there's a black one too), so that's £40.

If you need more saved let me know & I'll see what else we can strip (probably downgrade the mobo for an alternative Z77 chipset one will be the winner).

 

[Snails]

Is it possible to get a less expensive Z77 motherboard that still has 2 PCI Express x16 slots?


Also any recommendations on heatsinks? I would like to overclock and keep things cool.

 

[Addicted]

Yep - you could go as cheap as this - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-202-MS

But i'd be a bit concerned about the position of those capacitors right by the CPU (making mounting a cooler difficult for some).

Perhaps something like this?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-514-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=2261

Tbh any Z77 should be fine!

In terms of CPU cooler depends which route you want to take - water cooled (either open or closed loop - open needs a big budget, closed can be as cheap as £40), or a traditional air cooler like this: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-102-TR&groupid=701&catid=2330

I run the above cooler on my server, keeps so quiet the fan is on very very low.

 

[Uncle_Gravy]

No complaints again that list, that's really good spec right there for the cash.

With the Heatsink, the arctic Cooler freezer 7 pro has fantastic cooling performance and cheap (Got it cheaper then overclockers at £12)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-035-AR

Got my i7 3770k clocked at 4.40Ghz and on prime it runs highish 60s on full load (which not many systems will ever see)

Plus with that Samsung green ram (Fantastic overclocker btw) is ultra low profile so it won't be in the way of any cooler you get.

 

[Addicted]

No complaints again that list, that's really good spec right there for the cash.

With the Heatsink, the arctic Cooler freezer 7 pro has fantastic cooling performance and cheap (Got it cheaper then overclockers at £12)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-035-AR

Got my i7 3770k clocked at 4.40Ghz and on prime it runs highish 60s on full load (which not many systems will ever see)

Plus with that Samsung green ram (Fantastic overclocker btw) is ultra low profile so it won't be in the way of any cooler you get.

Good shout on that cooler too, nice and cheap also!

And I can't believe how small the RAM is, it's ridiculous. It's only as tall as the ram slot itself!

 

[richy22]

My rig wasn't far off that price if I hadnt spent money on silly shiny things (LED RAM)

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

AMD 7950 is a blistering card.

I am so impressed with the one I got which was the HIS 7950 with some free games (it was a different offer a few months ago). Literally rapes anything graphical I have thrown at it and has placed the bottleneck firmly on my CPU. The cooler on the HIS card is comparitively quiet under load too.

People on the OC forums were bleating on about VFM with the 7950s on offer, quite frankly I thought £230 notes was a lot of money to spend on a card but after trying it, no regrets.

 

[Snails]

Sorry, in my phone.

I don't know what to cut back in. The card seems like the obvious choice.

 

[Uncle_Gravy]

On my rig i'm still running a amd 6850, its a very good card, i'm running skyrim on ultra, BF3 on high/Ultra settings, its still a very good performer.

That in mind, I would expect the 7870 would be a good performer http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-099-GI&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=411 But for that extra peace of mind of a slight future proof, i'd try and aim for the 7950.

Also is the 2tb necessary? I've got a alot of Steam games, about 10gb worth of music and I've only used 300gb of my 500gb Hard drive.

 

[JaredHasNoBrain]

I would recommend a 6950 2GB Version, bought it for £140 iirc. Great card!

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

For teh extra hundred quid for the extra future proofing the 7950 offers you'd be silly not to imo. Also includes some freebie games.

And for the price of hard drives I wouldn't bother not getting 2TB either. Such a pita having to order new HDDs when yours is getting full. I've got 3 in my rig now. A Vertex2 SSD 60gb from when they were a fortune for the OS and primary apps, a 2nd 1TB drive that filled up pretty quick and a new 2TB drive that's dealing with the overflow.

Appreciate when you're working with an initial budget you've got to save somewhere, but as you said you've already got a monitor/mouse/keyboard a £750 budget for the rig is generous imo.

 

[Uncle_Gravy]

also the gigabyte 7950's come with two games, you could (if you wanted too) sell them on for 20-£25 each, potential 40-£50 back in your pocket.

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

In all fairness that offer extends to all the 7 series cards from the looks of things being an AMD offer rather than a Gigabyte offer. I would certainly consider the HIS card, not seen a bad review other than the direct RMA procedure with HIS however if you purchase through Overclockers they have stated on their forums you can deal with OC.co.uk regarding RMAs rather than dealing with HIS.

And don't kid yourself that you'll sell the games lol. That was my excuse for spending £230 on a card (seems it was on a better offer before) was that I could recoup £50 from sale of the games, but the vouchers on ebay are ten a penny and go for like £20 for the lot.

 

[Snails]

I am looking beyond Overclockers to help bring the cost down. I have found a 7950 on Pinxmania.co.uk (which i have used before) for £190??! However it looks like a generic item. Are there any brands I should avoid?


Found this Sapphire?
http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/129...&gclid=CLvMr8SMh7YCFYfJtAod2EUAjA#srcid=11270

They also have the 3570k for £169.99 inc postage

 

[BigDaveRotary]

Just something to consider. I have found overclockers exceptional when delivering and quality of service.

I ordered my Qpad MX-85 Saturday, fulling expecting delivery today (Tuesday). It was delivered 4:30 Monday. One of the reasons I always go back to get my kit. Unless there is a truely stellar price difference.

 

[Snails]

If Overclockers get a seal of approval then I might use them for everything. I'm going to up my budget slightly, I've spent less this month than expected :-D Does anybody have experience of B grade stock on overclockers? I see lots of spec threads on there make mention of 'b grade' items?

 

[Uncle_Gravy]

Personally I wouldn't touch B grade cards, even if they are well priced, You risk only having limited warranty and even though it says they come with games they won't.

Not worth it imo.

 

[kaz19880]

this is my current gaming pc
http://valid.canardpc.com/2737918
altho im currently waiting to purchase a decent sized SSD and a 660ti graphics card

that bundle so far cost me £350 minus case and tenner for the graphics card its a great setup havent tried anthing major BUT so far ive hammered the cpu as much as possible and only seems to get about 23% on high graphics with multipal clients running of aruaonline which is a private server of an mmorpg i play

 

[Addicted]

I wouldn't touch B-grade or Pixmania - there's other places like Scan/Ebuyer though which you could try.

I'd also stick with the 7 series card, otherwise you'll need to upgrade again pretty soon. As above you could sell the two games you get for £25 ish, so that recoupes some money.

I can't view that imagine clearly at all - can you redo your basket image so we can see the cost? There will be places we can save on, but I can't view it as it's too small!

 

[iain187]

Just something to consider. I have found overclockers exceptional when delivering and quality of service.

I ordered my Qpad MX-85 Saturday, fulling expecting delivery today (Tuesday). It was delivered 4:30 Monday. One of the reasons I always go back to get my kit. Unless there is a truely stellar price difference.

I've had an awful experience with overclockers.

i took a faulty mobo back to them (constant BSOD after 2 mins of getting into windows iirc, swapped every other part of the system/re installed windows etc - knew it was mobo for the purpose of this story)

The CPU socket was a weird one where the pins for the processor were on the mobo not the CPU - I was passing stoke so i hand delivered it - they rang me back saying I'd bent the pins in the CPU socket on the mobo and basically blamed me (how a mobo with bent pins even gets to windows I have no idea)

I hand delivered it and they accepted it was in good condition when they took it (I had this in writing) yet still wouldn't admit to f**king up themselves.

I had to threaten legal action before anyone took notice and eventually got my money back.


will never use them again anyway... but that is just 1 experience

 

[Snails]

I will redo the basket this evening. I have it saved at home. I think it came in at £824 without a DVD drive. I'll avoid 'b grade' based on the above advice.

 

[kaz19880]

ive always had a thing for amd juice so for me id be saving money getting an amd fx8350 n spending the saved cash on graphics n ram i got my mobo cpu n 16gb ram for 300quid including 3yrs no quibble warrenty

 

[Addicted]

For a medium budget like this going AMD would just lose performance, I can see why it's favourable on the lower end (much better spec than the equiv i3's - got one as a server), but for medium-high spec machines the i5+ outperform the new AMD's by quite a margin, so no point skimping really!

 

[Snails]

Here is the spec I am aiming for:

	Sapphire HD 7950 Boost 3072MB PCI-Express Graphics Card (11196-19-20G) with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games		£239.99 (£199.99)
	Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail		£199.99 (£166.66)
	MSI Z77A-G45 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard		£89.99 (£74.99)
	Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403)		£79.99 (£66.66)
	Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD		£69.98 (£58.32)
	Corsair 2013 Edition Gamer Series GS 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020063-UK)		£66.95 (£55.79)
	Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit		£49.99 (£41.66)
	Xigmatek Pantheon Mid Tower Case - Black		£39.98 (£33.32)
	Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2)		£19.99 (£16.66)
	Thermalright Chill Factor 3 Tube (4g) Thermal Paste		£4.99 (£4.16)
		Sub Total :	£718.21
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with: DPD Next Day Parcel (This can be changed during checkout)	Shipping :	£11.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00%	VAT :	£145.99
	Total :	£875.95

However and almost identical specification on Amazon.co.uk is £75 and this is with Amazon being the supplier of all the items and not marketplace sellers





Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 8GB 1600MHz CL9 DDR3 Vengeance Memory Two Module Kit- Corsair £44.98
You save:£66.56 ( 59%)

Akasa AK-455-5G Thermal Compound- Akasa
£4.89

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 CPU Cooler- Arctic Cooling
£17.29
You save:£5.27 ( 23%)

Zalman Z11 Midi Tower Case (ATX, M-ATX, Supports Bottom PSU Installation, Dust Filters for Front and Bottom of System and PSU)- Zalman
£44.99

Corsair CX750 Builder Series CX 750W ATX/EPS 80 PLUS Bronze PSU- Corsair
£63.85
You save:£32.69 ( 33%)

WD Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive - WD1002FAEX- Western Digital
£68.82

Microsoft Windows 8 64 bit OEM, WN7-00403, English Version- Microsoft Software; DVD-ROM
£66.99

MSI Z77MA-G45 Motherboard (Intel Z77, Micro-ATX, RAID, SATA, Gigabite LAN, Socket LGA1155)- MSI COMPUTER
£78.99

Intel 3rd Generation Core i5-3570K CPU (4 x 3.40GHz, Ivy Bridge, Socket 1155, 6Mb L3 Cache, Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0)- Intel
£169.59
You save:£21.40 ( 11%)

Sapphire 11196-09-40G HD7950 3GB Vapox-X Graphics Card- SAPPHIRE
£244.87
You save:£129.71 ( 34%)









Subtotal: £805.26

 

[BigDaveRotary]

How much is next day delivery from Amazon? It won't be £75 obviously, but don't forget that.

 

[Snails]

No rush for the components, I won't have time to put it together until easter weekend onwards :-D

Any changes you'd recommend to either spec?

 

[Snails]

Almost considering sacking the self build off when I came across this:

http://www.palicomp.co.uk/gaming-pcs/alpha-inferno.html

3570k at 4.7ghz
16gb of ram
2tb +120 gb ssd
660ti or the 7950 for £10.

The only things I don't like are the case and the lack of cooler, but I can replace both of them in a month's time?

 

[Addicted]

Cheap SSD - wouldn't touch anything except Crucial M4/Samsung 830/840.
Seagate are also a nogo for me, too many failures (but that's a personal thing)
Case is naff!
Wouldn't touch a Powercool PSU with a bargepole.

The 660ti is slow as bawls, no comparison to 7950. I dont get why you'd go for that when it's £50 more expensive than the build you linked above :S and highly inferior components.

Stick building your own, it will still work out cheaper.

 

[GiT]

Not an option to save more, await Haswell and go from there?

 

[Snails]

You have pretty much confirmed all my reservations about the Palicomp! I guessed the only way they could out it together for the price was to use low end components.

 

[Gray]

Cheap SSD - wouldn't touch anything except Crucial M4/Samsung 830/840.
Seagate are also a nogo for me, too many failures (but that's a personal thing)
Case is naff!
Wouldn't touch a Powercool PSU with a bargepole.

The 660ti is slow as bawls, no comparison to 7950. I dont get why you'd go for that when it's £50 more expensive than the build you linked above :S and highly inferior components.

Stick building your own, it will still work out cheaper.

All of this.

 

[Snails]

Purchased it all this afternoon, now just have to sit and wait. It is pretty much as above. £7.16 for the fastest delivery option with Amazon!

Bioshock Infinite and Sleeping Dogs free with the graphics card

 

[Semtax]

Enjoy mate. Nothing like a nice new PC to game on. Have to make one for my friend soon so im trying to catch up with whats good myself.

 

[Addicted]

Sounds good

That new PC feeling is awesome!

Don't forget to set the Sata mode to AHCI over IDE also! (So many people do, so just in case )

 

[Snails]

It's been 5 years! I'm looking forward to it, shame about the bank holidays it won't be with me til mid week.

Also went for the Zalman Z9 case, it received good reviews and comes with a number of fans.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004FPQL0E/?tag=cliospnet01-21