New Computer Build

[Deleted]

From your post, it seems as though you are planning to build the system yourself. A shame about your budget. Although it is huge, its slightly short of a few hundred pounds to get the absolute enthusiast items.

From Ebuyer

CPU: Intel Core I7 2600k 3.4GHz Socket 1155 8MB Cache Retail Box Processor
Mobo: MSI P67A-GD65 P67 Socket 1155 GB LAN 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard
GPU: PALIT GTX 580 1536MB GDDR5 Dual DVI Mini HDMI Out PCI-E Graphics Card
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz CL9 1.5V Non-ECC Unbuffered
PSU: Corsair Professional Series AX850 850W Modular PSU - 80plus Gold Certified
Case: Fractal Design Define XL Black
SSD: OCZ 60GB Vertex 2E SSD 2.5" SATA-II Read = 285MB/s, Write = 275MB/s 50,000 IOPS
HDD: Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache
DVD: Samsung SH-S223L 22x DVD±RW DL & RAM with LightScribe SATA Optical Drive - OEM Black
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate - Complete package (Full Retail) - 1 PC - DVD - 32/64-bit

Total cost and including delivery is £1504.43

The MSI mobo for this week is currently offering 20% VAT cashback. Now Ebuyer is the only retailer not stating this on their website, so check with them since it looks like a manufacturer deal, rather than a retail one. This mobo supports multi GPUs and has a nice one button OC feature.

The system build includes an OS, which is a huge chunk of your budget, so instead of an after market heatsink and fan, the build sticks with the very decent stock cooler and should withstand the auto overclock, should you wish to use the MSI "OC Genie II" feature on your mobo.

The Fractal Case is huge, perhaps too big for your needs. But out of all the high end cases, its one of the most affordable.


Also check Aria, OverclockersUK and Scan to compare prices.

Aria have an excellent prebuilt machine, with the following components

CPU: Intel® 2nd Generation Core™ i7-2600K Overclocked @ 4.80GHz - Eight Thread CPU
Ram: 4GB Mushkin Ridgeback 2000MHz 7-10-8-27
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4 Intel P67 (Socket LGA1155) DDR3 PCI-Express Motherboard - SLI Certified
GPU: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 580 1536MB Graphics Card
CPU Cooler(air): Corsair Cooling Air Series A70 CPU Cooler - 2x 120mm in push/pull
Case: BitFenix Colossus Venom Edition Full Tower PC Chassis
PSU XFX Pro Series 850W Single Rail PSU - GeForce® GTX 580 SLI Certified
SSD 40GB Mushkin Callisto deluxe 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (Boot drive)
HDD 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 HDD (Storage drive)
Blue Ray/DVD: Samsung Blu-Ray SH-B123L/RSBP 12x BD-ROM / 16x DVD Writer Drive.

The price is £1399.99 before any delivery costs.

The downside is that the PSU is not as highly regarded as the above, its SSD storage is smaller and it comes with less RAM(but very credible and excellent RAM). It also appears that no OS has been installed, but check to see if its possible to have an OEM installed for an additional cost. However the case itself is an eye opener and is excellently built, the Mobo is as good/similar to the MSI/Asus Pro mobos out there in terms of features and multi GPU support, the CPU comes pre-overclocked with an aftermarket Heatsink and Fan and it comes with a Blue-Ray Drive.

They also disclaim

Please note that adding in additional memory to the spare slots will require new BIOS settings and the maximum clock speed attainable may be significantly reduced. Updating the BIOS will disable and remove the Overclock.

[Margret]

Thanks for the post Drudgery. Was very helpful and appreciated!

Aye, I was thinking the same tbh. I do think I could push past the £1500, closer to £2,000 if I had too. Tbf, I would rather go 'all out' knowing it will be very good and last me quite a while. Would have to be careful money wise for a few months, but would be worth it :P

Will check the other sites also Thanks again.

---------- Post added 2011-01-16 at 04:20 PM ----------

After a fair bit of time comparing bits and bobs I have..

PSU: Corsair AX 850 850W http://www.ebuyer.com/product/227503
Case: Fractal Design Define XL Black http://www.ebuyer.com/product/252605
Mobo: ASUS P8P67 Deluxe P67 1155 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/250412
Hard Drive: Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB SATAII 7200Rpm 32Mb http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173804
Graphics Card: VTX3D Radeon HD 6950, 2GB GDDR5
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8Gb (2x4) DDR3 1600Mhz 1.5v http://www.ebuyer.com/product/248846
Processor: i7 2600k 3.4 1155 8mb http://www.ebuyer.com/product/252535
SSD: Corsair Force 120Gb http://www.ebuyer.com/product/237098
DVD Writer: Samsung SH-S223L 22x DVD±RW DL & RAM with LightScribe SATA Optical Drive http://www.ebuyer.com/product/188958
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
Cooling: Corsair Cooling Air Series A70 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/226440

So guys, what do you think?

I think it's finally getting to a decent specc now, however I was unsure about what cooling I may need? I'm also still under budget, so again if anybody notices any upgrades please say :P

[Deleted]

Isnt watercooling all the rage nowadays and what about an even better card if yo got cash

Would this help or am i talking crap :P

[Deleted]

Noctua NH-D14, is probably one of the best air coolers around and should fit your Mobo comfortably.

You are paying £34 more than the Corsair A70, but given the numerous accolades that the Noctua has recieved its probably worth it.

Now i'm not sure how much this gives you to play with and I have no idea where you are buying that VTX3D 6950, but my guess is that its probably one of the cheapest 6950s here in the UK. Do you plan on flashing it to a 6970?

So this gives you around £60-£80 to play around with. There are a few options.

If you don't fancy flashing the bios of the 6950 and you want decent out of the box performance then the 6970s/GTX570s are an excellent purchase. All brands perform similarly, even the superclocked EVGA GTX570 version. That would probably eat up the rest of your budget. Alternatively, you can keep the 6950 in the build and get a better SSD, such as the Crucial C300. The read speed alone is enough to warrant the purchase at an extra £20 cost.

Lastly, if you are willing to squeeze your budget or make some sacrifices on some of the components, you could look into trying to fit the GTX580 into your budget. This means buying a cheaper Mobo (but just as reliable) such as the Asus P8P67Pro/Gigabyte UD4/MSI GD65 or for even more savings the ASRock P67 Extreme4, which costs significantly less. Other savings could be made from reducing the PSU to a Corsair 850HX, which is still a 80+ Silver certified PSU and has an excellent reputation. Also using a cheaper case such as the Fractal R3 or the very successful and highly regarded Antec 900 case, which should net you another saving of around £30-£40. In short, the GTX580 will give you the biggest performance in games that are GPU bound around the 1900x1200 resolution.

Lastly for no performance gain whatsoever, you could instead purchase a Blue-Ray DVD drive, a new set of speakers, a new keyboard and mouse...or just sit on the money instead. Whatever you decide, the components you have decided to go for are not only excellent, but they should last you a good number of years to come.

[Margret]

Hey mate, thanks again for the info!

Good news is I am able to bump my budget up a few hundred pounds more, basically £2,000 now. Atm, the cost is around £1400 mark.

Hm, I have heard good things about the C300 today tbh on a video I watched, if you recommend it I shall go and check the pricing now and add it to my specc.

Quick question, does the GTX580 out-do the HD5970's? With the new higher budget I am willing to go 'all out' :P

EDIT: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/225805 Is the SSD you were referring to mate?

The fan aswel btw, though awesome, it appears to be very large, will it easily fit in the case you mentioned earlier :P (Fractal Design Define XL Black)

[vesseblah]

Hm, I have heard good things about the C300 today tbh on a video I watched, if you recommend it I shall go and check the pricing now and add it to my specc.

Quick question, does the GTX580 out-do the HD5970's? With the new higher budget I am willing to go 'all out' :P

C300 is the only SSD currently on market that supports SATA3, and it's significantly faster than any other discs that are capped by SATA2 speeds, so if you're shopping for SSD's, it's great choice.

I think Radeon 5970 is bit faster than GTX580 in theory since it's dual GPU card and works internally with Crossfire, but games that don't work with Crossfire (like WoW) work better with GTX580. So... There's no definite answer to that. I would take single card, like GTX570 instead for high end computer, you can always add in second one later if needed.

[Margret]

Oh I see, I'll definitely add the C300 to my specc then

Ah. Although I won't be playing much WoW (having a slight break) in the coming weeks, I definitely see your point. I'm currently looking at reviews of the HD5970, GTX570 and 580 now. Eugh, they all seem very nice =\

Thanks again for the info btw guys.

[Deleted]

In short, no. Currently the 5970 is the fastest card on the market and prices can be found for around £450 and upwards. Would I personally purchase it over the GTX580? No. The GTX580 is currently the fastest single GPU card there is and therefore it has a wider compatability for games. Since its also the newest card out there, driver support will be strong for this card compared to the support the 5970 will recieve from AMD.

However, with that budget you have there are a number of dual GPU setups that you can go for.

The 6950/6970 or the GTX570.

Personally, if I had your budget, I would probably dive into the 6950 setup, since in terms of real world performance there isn't much noticeable difference, especially when you running demanding games like Metro 2033 on very high detail settings and 1920x1200 resolution at an average of 50FPS+ and outperforming the mighty GTX580. More importantly prices for a dual 6950 setup should very close to that of a single GTX580.

However there have been excellent reviews of the 6970 in crossfire as well as the GTX570s in SLI, which show between 30-90+% scalability in current games. This would seriously push your budget to the £2000 mark though but again it will give you the biggest performance in current games at the 1920x1200 resolution and significantly outperform a single GTX580.

[Margret]

Lmao damn, 5970 is expensive D:

Also, I've read they have improved from the GTX 480 and reduced the overall temp of the GTX 580, but will the temperature still be an 'issue'?

=\ Sorry about all the questions. Just trying to make sure I understand everything thoroughly. :P <3 for the info so far.

[vesseblah]

Also, I've read they have improved from the GTX 480 and reduced the overall temp of the GTX 580, but will the temperature still be an 'issue'?

GTX480 is hottest current card. GTX5xx run much quieter, cooler and lower power drain. 570 is few % slower than 480, and 580 faster.

[wildemu]

Radeon HD 6850 is the most affordable high-tier video card in the market now but also delivers a great punch performance-wise (less than 200 us). It's a good one if you need to reduce your budget on the card.