High end gaming PC

[marcusriv]

Hi I'm looking for a high-end level PC for gaming (i.e maxing out the settings of current and future games). I have been messing around with the configure tool and looking at default system builds but I'm not sure what to choose. Intel i7 CPU and Nvidia GPU I'd require as I've always used these companies. My budget is up to £1500.
I have arranged a quote for the MP3 Extreme PC system but it's early days yet and am open to suggestion.

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 922 MID TOWER 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)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (4 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 680 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd 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
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX750 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£86)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H40 Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler (£39)
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 8 Standard Edition 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
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
PCS EXTRA-CARE DIAMOND DELIVERY - MON-FRI, PRE-NOON (£9)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,392.00 including VAT and delivery.

The only thing I changed was power supply.

Not sure about Windows 8 either.

 

[Toxophilix]

With your budget, and if the machine is purely for gaming, then I would want to go for 2 x GTX-670s in SLI. The 670 is only a little behind the 680 in performance and is considerably cheaper. 2 of them will be markedly superior to one 680. (I get that you are probably thinking of adding a second 680, hence going for one at the outset, but I still think with this kind of budget that the 670 gives better value, and I think 2 670s will give outstanding FPS throughout the lifetime of the PC - by the time those GPUs are struggling the whole system will be getting obsolete.)

You can dial back the CPU to an i5 3570 as it appears current games do not make use of hyperthreading. (Future games might, I suppose, especially games of the CPU-intensive type.) You shouldn't need liquid cooling for the CPU if you are not overclocking. The triple-copper-heatpipe seems like a good option that is an upgrade on the stock cooler.

You can also go with 8GB if the machine is for gaming alone. That's easily upgraded to 16 in the future if it should become an issue.

In the spec below I've made these changes and also upped the PSU to the "Pro" version. That's a bit frivolous perhaps. I have one of these PSUs and love the quietness and the lack of spurious cables inside the case. But you could easily dial that back to the "Enthusiast" model and free up ££.

I also chose the non-wifi version of the motherboard. That was just a mistake as I guess you need the wifi or you wouldn't have chosen it yourself. You could consider the homeplug option though.

Oh, and I've made the HDD into a WD Caviar Black.

Regarding Windows 8, my personal (strong) preference is for 7, but I suggest taking a look at 8 before choosing, if you can. You might like it.

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 922 MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3570 (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V LK: PCI-E 3.0 READY, SLI, CROSSFIREX
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 670 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
2nd Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 670 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
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
CORSAIR 750W PRO SERIES™ HX750-80 PLUS® GOLD MODULAR (£119)
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 (£79)
Office Software
FREE 60 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 2010 Professional Edition
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
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 7 to 9 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,477.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-ivy-bridge-pc/r5MEzEwXSr/

 

[marcusriv]

Cheers for fast reply. Never had two GPU's before!! Excuse my ignorance but what is the difference between a wi-fi and non wi-fi mother board? Homeplug version?
The PC I have at the moment which is 2 years old has an i7 2600 which is OC'd to 3.40 GHZ. Would the i5 be a step up from this?

 

[sted]

WiFi is generally less relable than Homeplugs. Home plugs aren't apart of the motherboard. You plug one in the wall near the router, connect them via ethernet, then put the second plug in near your Desktop and also connect them via ethernet.

 

[Toxophilix]

Cheers for fast reply. Never had two GPU's before!! Excuse my ignorance but what is the difference between a wi-fi and non wi-fi mother board? Homeplug version?
The PC I have at the moment which is 2 years old has an i7 2600 which is OC'd to 3.40 GHZ. Would the i5 be a step up from this?

The motherboard you had chosen has a built-in wifi adapter and comes with an antenna you plug in at the back. It will give a decent quality connection to a wireless router. However, you can probably get a better connection with a wire, which homeplugs, or a long ethernet cable (but then you might trip over it) can provide.

Regarding the CPUs, if you compare the two purely as processors (without considering the job they are supposed to do) then the i5 3570 is at best a side-grade from the i7 2600. It actually has lower benchmark scores - http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-3570+@+3.40GHz - but it is more energy-efficient (meaning less heat inside your case) and it supports PCIe 3.0 (not a huge deal though). But ... the 2600 (and i7 processors in general) have better benchmark scores because they have the HyperThreading technology which essentially allows the CPU to simulate having more cores than it actually does physically. So, both are quad-core CPUs but the i7 can provide eight virtual cores, whereas the i5 is limited to the four cores it really has. The reason the i5 3570 is seen as the best choice for gaming, right now, is that there is no game currently available that actually uses more than four cores anyway (and many probably use fewer), so the presence or absence of HyperThreading is immaterial. That's what I mean, though, when I say that future games might take advantage of HT: they might utilize more than four cores, if you have them (I couldn't say how likely that is tbh).

To come to the point: if it's important to you to know that your new CPU is better in all areas than your existing one then you should go for the 3770. It won't give better gaming performance than the 3570 but it is a more powerful processor and would be useful if you do anything besides gaming that is very CPU-intensive, such as video-rendering.

Also, though, you could perhaps post your existing spec to this thread. It's quite relevant as it could be the case that the best option for you is a mid-life upgrade for your current rig. The point there is that the current Intel processor generation, Ivy Bridge, is only a slight upgrade over the Sandy Bridge generation that you already have (it's a "tick" as opposed to a "tock" in Intel's parlance). However, the Haswell generation (coming later in 2013 - don't think they've announced a date) is supposedly going to be a tock - ie a bigger upgrade - so you might want to wait for that.