£1400 (advice on HDD + sound card + gfx)

[staaav]

Case
InWin CENTINAL BUC BLACK GAMING CASE


Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3820 (3.6GHz) 10MB Cache


Motherboard
ASUS® SABERTOOTH X79: SOCKET 2011, R.O.G


Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPERX GENESIS QUAD-DDR3 1866MHz X.M.P(4 x 4GB KIT)


Graphics Card
3GB AMD RADEON™ HD7970 - DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
Free Item

Free Item
FREE DIRT SHOWDOWN GAME with any AMD 7000 Series GPU!


Memory - 1st Hard Disk
2TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 64MB CACHE


1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM


Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT


Power Supply
600W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£59)


Processor Cooling
INTEL SOCKET LGA2011 STANDARD CPU COOLER


Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)


Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs


USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD


Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence


Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)


Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL


Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)


Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)


Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days

[tom_gr7]

whats it for dude? gaming?

looks slightly out of balance.

[staaav]

Yeah gaming, what should I change about it? RAM?

[lady0sheep]

8gb RAM might be enough for gaming (that's what I went for anyway on mine). Also if you have a 1400 budget you could get a lovely new Nvidia card like a 670 or 680.

Edit: I'd also bump up to the silver warranty it's only an extra £5.

[staaav]

Ok. So is there much difference in the 680 and the rad 7970?

[bg92]

For 1400 I would get this

Case
NZXT PHANTOM 410 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3770 (3.4GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V: PCI-E 3.0 READY, WIFI, SLI, CROSSFIREX
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
3GB AMD RADEON™ HD7970 - DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
Free Item
FREE DIRT SHOWDOWN GAME with any AMD 7000 Series GPU!
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 330 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 500MB/sR | 450MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W PRO SERIES™ HX750-80 PLUS® SILVER MODULAR (£114)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,394.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/comput...ivy-bridge-pc/

[lady0sheep]

Probably not much difference but I think the 680 has the edge, there are a lot of comparisons around if you google it.

http://www.techpowerup.com/162498/GT...enchmarks.html

[bg92]

But the 7970 is almost £100 cheaper, and better for higher resolutions.

[kokabel]

I'll say what I was told when I was planning my build and asking various gamer-techy friends - the first thing they pointed out to me was to get an SSD. You have that lovely mobo, RAM and GPU, but you might find the HDD will bottleneck it up a bit, so invest in a small SSD for your OS and any vital programs/games. Then you can store all your files on the HDD. That said, you HDD is quite fancy, but I would still get a small SSD in there, I promise you won't regret it!

Also, drop the trial versions of Microsoft Office and the AntiVirus, that still will just get annoying when it demands to be upgraded and just takes up space. Either get the full version, or just get something free like Open Office when you get the machine if you need those kinds of applications. Plenty of good, free AntiVirus programs out there too.

Probably won't need 16GB RAM if you're just gaming. 8 should cover it fine at this point, unless you're planning to do crazy stuff with photoshop and similar editing programs.

[kokabel]

SSDs are just so much faster than HDD - they're basically the next step in the evolution of storage. Most people pair their Solid State Drive with a big Hard Disk Drive to get the most performance and the most storage, since right now SSDs bigger than 120GB cost an arm and a leg and several teeth. Running your operating system and vital programs from the SSD rather than from the HDD will give you a very noticeable boost in the speed at which these things load and respond.



Skip to about 40 seconds for a fairly straight forward comparison in performance between the two types of drives.