New PC - App. £800 budget

[INinja132]

Hey all,

So as the title says, I'm looking to get a new computer, preferably for about the £800 range, but if it makes a big difference then I can push it to £900.

Now I know very little about hardware on the whole beyond what's new and the reviews on here and elsewhere. So, I was looking for a computer which can manage current games on the highest settings, and potentially future games as well, for less than £1000.

This may prove to be impossible, but fortunately I currently have two internal and an external (non-SSD) hard-drives, a decent enough monitor and all the peripherals you can shake a stick at. Hopefully this'll slice the price by a decent amount, although other parts of the internet inform me that I will need a new copy of Windows 7 annoyingly.

Cheers in advance.

[Kamikaze-X]

you can save a fair bit buying a windows 7 upgrade edition. Install it as a clean install then 'upgrade' it over itself. simple.

Anyway, off the top of my head, you can't go wrong with the below:

Core i5 2500K
Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3P
8 BG of Corsair Vengeance DDR3
600W or so PSU (make sure it is a good brand like Enermax, Corsair, Tagan, not no name crap)
AMD 7850 or nVidia GTX560Ti (nVidia are bringing out a 670 soon, but if you waited for every release you would never buy a PC)

case of your choice that is nice and spacious

I would also recommend an aftermarket cooler. I use a Corsair H50 at the moment, and its pretty nice temps wise.

Drop in an SSD from Crucial, you really dont need more than 60GB for your windows install, while you're at it.

[Spider Jerusalem]

that budget should do you just fine, especially if you already have the hard drives (that natural disaster business in the tech corridor of se asia really fucked up the prices).

is your copy of windows 7 oem or retail?

two more questions: what resolution will you be gaming at, and will you be doing a lot of multitasking and/or using multithreaded applications?

anyway, this is what i would put together for that amount:

intel core i5 2500k 3.3ghz
asus p8z68-v gen3
g.skill ripjaw or corsair 8gb ddr3 1600 memory
evga gtx 560ti 448 core gpu or xfx/gigabyte radeon hd 7970 if you want to spend more money (and/or game at a higher resolution)
seasonic m12ii 620w modular psu
corsair carbide 400r case (or if you want a full tower: cooler master haf x rc-942)

with the 560 and the carbide, that's $900 (£565), with the full tower and the 7970, it's $1,280 (£804).

[CMaster]

The core processor/memory/gfx/mobo for the best kit that is worth buying will set you back about £450. (as suggested above i5 2500k/z68/560ti/4-8 gb DDR3). Extra money can go on case, PSU etc if necessary - and either lots of beer, or something fancy like an SSD or a new monitor.

[INinja132]

that budget should do you just fine, especially if you already have the hard drives (that natural disaster business in the tech corridor of se asia really fucked up the prices).

is your copy of windows 7 oem or retail?

Retail I believe.

two more questions: what resolution will you be gaming at, and will you be doing a lot of multitasking and/or using multithreaded applications?
.

My current monitor is 1680x1050, and yeah I generally have loads of things open (Steam, Itunes, Xfire, Chrome etc.)

[Spider Jerusalem]

if your copy is retail, then you should be able to use the same serial key. just uninstall ii from your old machine (thus deactivating it) and re-install it on your new one. you might have to call microsoft, but i can't imagine you'd need to buy a new key.

if you're gaming at that resolution (and plan on staying there), then you'll be perfectly fine with the 560ti. you should be able to make that build for way under your budget.

[INinja132]

Anyone got any recommendations about where to get cheap components from? Overclockers UK seems pretty expensive, but that might just be how much this stuff costs.

[Feldspar]

I use dabs.com to get a base price and then use google to direct me to a price comparison site just to see if there are any real savings to be made.

[INinja132]

Thanks for that.

So, currently, I was looking at something like this (bearing in mind I haven't price hunted all that much):

Motherboard:
Asus-P8Z68-V-PRO-GEN3-Motherboard
£144.30

Processor:
Intel-Sandybridge-i5-2500K-Quad-Core-Processor
£162.50

Case:
276072-corsair-carbide-500r-white-case-cc-9011013-ww
£88.01

PSU:
Seasonic-Modular-Multi-GPU-Technologies-Supported
£89.99

RAM:
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
£39.95

This comes out at a total of £524.75, which is evidently a bit of headroom for a GPU. However, what I was also considering was getting all of this, sticking my current GTX 460 in there for now, and waiting to see what happens to the prices of the other cards, or if anything new and fancy, but still relatively affordable, comes out.

What do you reckon then?

[Feldspar]

That's not far off the specs of my PC, which is running a GTX460 and not having problems at 1920x1080.

Build it, try it, and if you find yourself wanting more graphical clout buy a bigger card. If not, spend the rest of your budget on beer and send it to me. Or buy a new graphics card in a year or so when something you really want to play comes out and it bogs your current card down.

[INinja132]

Aye, I have a feeling that at the mo' I'm getting most of my lag through my old school Quad Core 2 Duo. Might see about investing in an SSD for Windows as well, seeing as everyone seems to be crazy about them.

[Odeon]

SSDs do make a dramatic difference when booting, rebooting, and loading stuff installed on the SSD. If you get one, just be sure to have your BIOS set up to take advantage of TRIM (http://blog.corsair.com/?p=3468 and http://blog.corsair.com/?p=3668).

[CMaster]

That motherboard looks way overpriced. I've seen lots of Z68 mobos for half the price, so unless it has something you particularly need, I'd go for one of the much cheaper ones. Also, a Core 2 Quad, while old, isn't exactly a slouch these days.

According to this, you would indeed see limited benefit in upgrading the graphics card, at least as far as the 560Ti goes. Probably a better bet to save your money now and buy a new card in 12-24 months time.

[INinja132]

I've seen lots of Z68 mobos for half the price, so unless it has something you particularly need, I'd go for one of the much cheaper ones. Also, a Core 2 Quad, while old, isn't exactly a slouch these days.

So maybe something like this? (I don't really know the difference between mobos):
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-P8Z68-V...3138685&sr=1-1

According to this, you would indeed see limited benefit in upgrading the graphics card, at least as far as the 560Ti goes. Probably a better bet to save your money now and buy a new card in 12-24 months time.

Yeah sounds like a plan.

Edit:
Also, this any good for an SSD? Probably just put Windows on it:http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...d=2104&subcat=

[CMaster]

That mobo looks ok in principle (notice that it is still a Z68 chipset, which is the most feature-packed Sandy Bridge chipset). There's rather a lack of detail on the Amazon page there however.

Apparently that SSD is alright, yeah

[INinja132]

That mobo looks ok in principle (notice that it is still a Z68 chipset, which is the most feature-packed Sandy Bridge chipset). There's rather a lack of detail on the Amazon page there however.

Yeah the reviews at Overclockers seem pretty OK with it, but would it be worth paying the extra £30 for this instead do you think?

Apparently that SSD is alright, yeah

Thinking I might go for this SSD instead, there are more customer reviews for it on OC, and it has slightly faster times, plus it's one of the ones they recommend on that site you linked me.

Puts the total cost at 548.74 I think, with the more expensive motherboard at least.

[Spider Jerusalem]

the gen3 is a superior board. i would go with the asus z68-v le (if you want to spend a bit less) or the gen3. but, if you're not planning on using a dual card set up ever (or at least sli, the lx only supports amd's crossfire) and don't really care about overclocking, the asus z68-v lx will suit you just fine.

[Spider Jerusalem]

also, on the ssd side, i really recommend any crucial m4 drive.

[INinja132]

the gen3 is a superior board. i would go with the asus z68-v le (if you want to spend a bit less) or the gen3. but, if you're not planning on using a dual card set up ever (or at least sli, the lx only supports amd's crossfire) and don't really care about overclocking, the asus z68-v lx will suit you just fine.

Well, I would quite like the option to SLI or to overclock at some point, so I think I might spend the extra on a gen3.

also, on the ssd side, i really recommend any crucial m4 drive.

OK, probably go for something like this then.

Thanks for your help everyone, that's it all sorted. Couldn't have done this without you. I'm sure I'll be back here some time in the future to ask for help on graphics cards as well.

[Odeon]

OK, probably go for something like this then.

That's the exact model I am running now. Performance is insane compared to any HDD and so far it has been rock solid. I've only had it for a little over a month now and I haven't used any other SSDs, so it's quite possible that I may not like it as much in the future, but a Tom's Hardware recommendation says A LOT to me.

I use their site for pretty much all hardware recommendations, comparisons, and information when they have it. I didn't even know they'd done a "Best SSD For the Money" article, but I wish I had known before I bought my m4 because it would have saved me a lot of research time!