High Spec Gaming PC on the "cheap(ish)"

[gavmac]

Hi All,

I posted a few weeks ago and was helped out with a spec for a gaming pc. Going on recommendations and after reading other posts, I'm hoping this revised version will max out current games as well as keeping costs to a minimum. I think I've made it up to be easily upgradable if I need to add an extra GPU or HDD in the future. Also, I'll be connecting it up to a TV rather than a monitor.

If anyone has any comments as to how to reduce the price without the performance suffering, or on anything I may have missed, please let me know.

Thanks in advance.

Case
CORSAIR VENGEANCE® C70 BLACK 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 SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 X 4GB)
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
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
4x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ROM (£27)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler (£19)
Sound Card
Asus Xonar DG 5.1 SoundCard & Headphone AMP (Award Winner) (£24)
Network Facilities
2 x HomePlug 200Mbps - Turn any Electrical Socket into a Network (£38)
USB Options
2 PORT USB 3.0 INTERNAL PCI-EX CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Cable Tidy
JML 1.5M Zip Cable Tidy - Professional Cable Management For Your PC (£4)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

Price: £1,241.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[keynes]

If you planning to add a 2nd GTX 670 you will need to upgrade your PSU to 750w.

 

[keynes]

If anyone has any comments as to how to reduce the price without the performance suffering

An SSD is not essential and you could try the onboard audio first rather than adding a soundcard.

 

[gavmac]

Yeah, adding another gtx 670 was the plan, PSU changed.

Was going to take the hit on the SSD now for the OS rather than faffing with a re-install at a later date.

Good point with the audio, will upgrade after if it needs it.

Thanks for your help, much appreciated.

 

[Grimezy]

Your build is very similar to mine. I can vouch for the CPU, GPU and ram amount and the caviar black seems to be a good drive. I've had my build for around 6 months and it's handled everything I've thrown at it on pretty much max settings.

I would stick with the SSD as like you said, you won't have to faff about with a re-install. Onboard audio should be fine like Keynes said; I actually just bought a Steelseries Siberia V2 headset (USB version) which has its own built in soundcard designed to pick up on 'key' gaming noises in greater depth so I wouldn't say you'd be lost without one. On the other hand, £24 isn't a huge price to pay and if you think you'll see benefits from it then go for it. I don't have any problems with my onboard though when using through 2.1 speakers or headset