Is this a decent config

[AzY]

Case COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard ASUS® P8Z68-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM) 8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card 1.25GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 570 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 500GB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 16MB CACHE
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 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)
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 -
Office Software FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL

I have put this together using configure, is it worth it?, will it play current releases and future ones from years to come on at least a medium setting, can you offer any better alternatives and improvements for my selection

I have minimal experience so any help is great help and will be very great full if you can help, thanks

 

[Fear]

There are a few things that will improve your build like a better case for cooling and getting a performance HDD like the Caviar Black or the Barracuda and make sure you take at least the £5 silver warranty that extends the collect and return from 1 month to a full year, if you post your budget people will have a look to see what they can come up with for you and i am guessing you will just be using this for gaming and general web browsing ?

 

[AzY]

There are a few things that will improve your build like a better case for cooling and getting a performance HDD like the Caviar Black or the Barracuda and make sure you take at least the £5 silver warranty that extends the collect and return from 1 month to a full year, if you post your budget people will have a look to see what they can come up with for you and i am guessing you will just be using this for gaming and general web browsing ?

Ok thanks, well my budget is around 800 and no more than £900, without a monitor, and without a ssd,

I want it for web using, word processing and non 3d gaming, at high settings

I want this build to last for a few years and be able to keep up with new releases at around a medium to low setting if possible.

i think the 750 caviar would be the best choice out of the rest as anything bigger i wont need and will just add to the price

and what graphics card would you recommend, i was thinking a gtx 570 as its a good card now and should be able to keep up with my future requirements at least

if that's not possible and i would have to upgrade or buy another a year or 2 down the line how would i go about it in terms of the motherboard and compatibility, i appreciate all the help you can give, as i have limited knowledge but i am interested in learning more.

 

[Fear]

It is always difficult with PC's and games as you just don't know what is going to happen or when you are going to need a boost to the system but it's normally the GPU that is going to need upgrading 2 or 3 years down the line but as you have said you would be happy playing at medium settings at that point you may even get longer from it and that GTX570 is a really good card so unless there is an unexpected crysis/metro 2033 GPU grinder that gets released you should have nothing to worry about, there are always new advances coming out and even when you wait for the next it gets outdated in 2 minutes by something else so all you can do is buy the best you can afford at the time anyway with the changes i suggested this is what i would get with your budget.

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 912 PLUS MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1.25GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 570 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1[SUP]st[/SUP] Hard Disk
750GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD7502AAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1[SUP]st[/SUP] 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 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)
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 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
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 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £892.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[AzY]

It is always difficult with PC's and games as you just don't know what is going to happen or when you are going to need a boost to the system but it's normally the GPU that is going to need upgrading 2 or 3 years down the line but as you have said you would be happy playing at medium settings at that point you may even get longer from it and that GTX570 is a really good card so unless there is an unexpected crysis/metro 2033 GPU grinder that gets released you should have nothing to worry about, there are always new advances coming out and even when you wait for the next it gets outdated in 2 minutes by something else so all you can do is buy the best you can afford at the time anyway with the changes i suggested this is what i would get with your budget.

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 912 PLUS MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1.25GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 570 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1[SUP]st[/SUP] Hard Disk
750GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD7502AAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1[SUP]st[/SUP] 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 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)
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 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
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 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £892.00 including VAT and delivery.

thanks, with this motherboard allow me in the future to upgrade the gpu

also why have you chosen COOLERMASTER HAF 912 PLUS MID TOWER GAMING CASE
what are the benefits of that over either The PCS Maelstrom T900 Case or InWin MaNA 136 Black Gaming Case in terms of everything, as i want to find the best and cheapest, jsut wondering what it has that is a better choice as i dont mind paying more if its better

again thanks for you help, ill rep you

 

[AzY]

also, what will the difference be between the 2 advanced processor cooling

also with the ram what difference will their be from 1333-1600, in terms of performance and for the future in terms of lasting and coping

 

[Fear]

You can get the Maelstrom T900 case that will be fine i just chose the Haf 912 as it's within your budget and the case is slightly bigger and will provide better airflow to help keep it running cooler.

The Fenrir Evo CPU cooler is quite a lot bigger and will take a few more degrees off the running temp of a CPU but you don't really need it the super quiet cooler you selected in your OP will do a really good job.

The Ram you would not notice any difference on performance unless you run a test in which case the 1600MHz will score higher than the 1333MHz but really the 1600MHz is more for overclocking, though if you went for a case with a side window you might want to pay the extra for the 1600MHz Ram as it looks nicer.

 

[AzY]

You can get the Maelstrom T900 case that will be fine i just chose the Haf 912 as it's within your budget and the case is slightly bigger and will provide better airflow to help keep it running cooler.

The Fenrir Evo CPU cooler is quite a lot bigger and will take a few more degrees off the running temp of a CPU but you don't really need it the super quiet cooler you selected in your OP will do a really good job.

The Ram you would not notice any difference on performance unless you run a test in which case the 1600MHz will score higher than the 1333MHz but really the 1600MHz is more for overclocking, though if you went for a case with a side window you might want to pay the extra for the 1600MHz Ram as it looks nicer.

thanks, will the motherboard allow me to upgrade the gpu in the future

 

[Fear]

You will be able to upgrade your GPU but the extra speed from the new PCIe 3.0 that is out now that the new GPU's will use won't be possible on that motherboard but before you jump ahead and spend more on the motherboard for this reason i read a review testing the new GTX680 and it was said they could not test the new PCIe 3.0 technology because there are no compatible CPU's out at present so with that in mind it is possible that to make use of the new tech you will need to upgrade to the new ivybridge CPU's when they are released which i presume will be PCIe 3.0 capable, if anybody knows anything different to what i have said please correct me.

 

[AzY]

You will be able to upgrade your GPU but the extra speed from the new PCIe 3.0 that is out now that the new GPU's will use won't be possible on that motherboard but before you jump ahead and spend more on the motherboard for this reason i read a review testing the new GTX680 and it was said they could not test the new PCIe 3.0 technology because there are no compatible CPU's out at present so with that in mind it is possible that to make use of the new tech you will need to upgrade to the new ivybridge CPU's when they are released which i presume will be PCIe 3.0 capable, if anybody knows anything different to what i have said please correct me.

ok thanks, when will ivy bridge be comming out, i intend to get the pc in around the summer so i was thinking its best to hold out for ivy bridge for then, with ivy bridge is it going to be a new generation of cpu like i9 or a 3rd gen of i3 i5 and i7 with ivy bridge instead of sandy

and in terms of motherboards whast shall i look out for when getting the ivy bridge cpu that will let me use the slots for the gpu and new gpu upgrades

 

[Fear]

Not sure when the ivybridge will be released but you might find going for that bumps the price up a bit (with it being new)

Really unless you are going to be overclocking i would not worry too much over the motherboard just have a look to see what ports they have when they are released and try to work out what you need ie. SLI capable or how many USB ports and such, just to point out aswell as this happened to my last build i bought a deluxe version of the motherboard and upgraded from vista to windows 7 but i had problems after a while so when i looked for a bios update i found all the boards in the series below mine had been given updates for windows 7 but the deluxe version did not get one so ended up buying a new motherboard so my point is there are no guarantees on future proofing.

 

[AzY]

i dont think i will be doing sli in the future im want to know what i need to look for in terms of upgrading he gpu, and boards that will have usb 3.0 slots because i think usb 3 will be quite an essential thing very soon