Mid-high Range Gaming and Web Browsing

[thoben]

So I've been looking to upgrade my from my Dell Inspiron which is now getting a bit dated.

I was originally looking at getting one of those Alienware X-51s, they looked good and seemed to be "specced" quite well, all things considered, for my requirements. But my Dad pointed me towards this site and I have summarily put together this build.

Basically I'm looking for a build that will meet my gaming requirements for the next few years with perhaps just the odd GPU improvement if necessary. I don't need to be running something like Battlefield 3 on Ultra and in 1080p but I've got a pre-order on Company of Heroes 2 and would like to see some quality visuals from it.

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 912 PLUS MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Potential of this case seemed good, and I quite liked the styling as well. Basically a wide range of improvements over the SFF of the X-51.

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3770K (3.5GHz) 8MB Cache
My brother suggested the overclocked version of this processor and it wasn't much more expensive than the normal 3770.

Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Not entirely sure on the Motherboard. Feedback would be evry much appreciated here along with any suggestions for a better or more suitable one.

Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (4 x 4GB KIT)
£20ish to double my memory from 8GB? Why not.

Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 660 Ti - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Any advice here would be great. Based my choice on getting a better version of what is available in the X-51.

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 330 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 500MB/sR | 450MB/sW)

2nd Hard Disk
1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE

Double HDD selection on the advice of my Brother. Run games off the SSD and use the 1Tb drive for general storage.

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
12x BLU-RAY RE-WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW
Wanted a Blu-Ray drive and my Dad suggested getting the Re-Writer variant of what was on offer

Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)
Room for expansion was the thought here. My Inspiron lacked a power surplus so was difficult to upgrade. I don't think this system build here takes more than 450W.

Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)
Wasn't entirely sure on this choice. Again advice would be great if there is something more suitable.

Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Came as standard, didn't think I would need any more than this.

Network Facilities
DUAL-BAND WIRELESS 802.11N 450Mbps PCI-E CARD (£35)
Dual Band upgrade suggested by Dad

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

Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL

Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® G110 GAMING KEYBOARD WITH BACKLIGHTING (£69)

Mouse
LOGITECH® G500 LASER GAMING MOUSE (£45)

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 9 to 11 working days


Price: £1,291.00 including VAT and delivery.

£1,291 is reaching the top end of my budget. ideally I wouldn't want to spend more than £1,300

Thanks in advance for any help and feedback offered.

 

[keynes]

My brother suggested the overclocked version of this processor and it wasn't much more expensive than the normal 3770.

Most games are gpu intensive and there is no need for overclocking, not sure whether or not company of heroes is cpu intensive. If you plan to overclock the cpu you would need to upgrade your cpu cooler.

Not entirely sure on the Motherboard. Feedback would be evry much appreciated here along with any suggestions for a better or more suitable one.

If you want to SLI you need to upgrade the motherboard and PSU to at leasr 750w.

Any advice here would be great. Based my choice on getting a better version of what is available in the X-51

For gaming, depending on what games you play, I'd suggest the GTX 670.

Double HDD selection on the advice of my Brother. Run games off the SSD and use the 1Tb drive for general storage.

A caviar black will be faster. If you are planning to run games from the SSD it depends on how many games you have and their size. Some games occupy more than 20gb.

 

[thoben]

Thanks for the feedback.

Ruben, I don't plan on overclocking so I guess I don't need that feature in my CPU. Tiberias subsequently suggested an i5-3570. Now I've heard of the debates regarding what is better for gaming i7 or i5 processors, but is it worth going with the normal i7-3770 instead of the i5? The i7 is the top of the range CPU from intel is it not?

Would either of you recommend using two GPUs? I would definitely consider changing the motherboard and PSU if there is a notable performance change for the increased cost. Also could this be done further down the line? I'm already pretty close to my budget, but start saving again and i could potentially upgrade and add an additional GPU later.

Thank you for the Caviar Black HDD suggestion, I can see Tiberias added that to the improved spec. I don't have many games, and only tend to play World of Tanks and Company of Heroes to be honest, so capacity on the SSD should be alright with the 180GB Intel 330 series Tiberias added.

I've not heard of Homeplugs before. I use a BT Home Hub currently, do they interface with that?

Would it be worth splashing a bit more cash on the Geforce GTX 690 for the GPU?

Again thanks for your help, really appreciate it. Only ever bought Dell before, so this would be a refreshing change to get one built from the ground up

 

[keynes]

Would it be worth splashing a bit more cash on the Geforce GTX 690 for the GPU?

No, a pair of GTX 670 will provide close performance and be significantly cheaper.

I've not heard of Homeplugs before. I use a BT Home Hub currently, do they interface with that?

You need one close to the router and one close to your pc.

I've heard of the debates regarding what is better for gaming i7 or i5 processors, but is it worth going with the normal i7-3770 instead of the i5? The i7 is the top of the range CPU from intel is it not?

It depends on your budget and your intended use, if you are planning to run more cpu intensive programmes then the i7 will be a better choice.

 

[thoben]

Thanks for getting back to me again.

Other than gaming, which as you said is usually GPU not CPU intensive, I can't think of anything else I will do that is CPU intensive. So the i5 should be fine. The Hyperthreading of the i7 is not really needed for my requirements.

Updated Spec is:

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 912 PLUS MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3570 (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V: PCI-E 3.0 READY, WIFI, 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
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
12x BLU-RAY RE-WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW
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
2 x HomePlug 200Mbps - Turn any Electrical Socket into a Network (£38)
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
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® G110 GAMING KEYBOARD WITH BACKLIGHTING (£69)
Mouse
LOGITECH® G500 LASER GAMING MOUSE (£45)
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 9 to 11 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,301.00 including VAT and delivery.

Basically the only change from what Tiberias posted earlier is the Motherboard. I chose the SLI version to give myself the option in the future. I did look to see the cost of a dual GTX670 build with the uprated PSU but it was way over my budget.

With this option, I should be able to afford it when it comes to upgrading in the future. Will just have to get saving again for the additional £400.

Thanks for the help Ruben and Tiberias, much appreciated.

 

[keynes]

Basically the only change from what Tiberias posted earlier is the Motherboard. I chose the SLI version to give myself the option in the future. I did look to see the cost of a dual GTX670 build with the uprated PSU but it was way over my budget.

If you are planning to SLI in the future you would need to upgrade the PSU to 750w.

 

[thoben]

Checked your suggestions in the build, dropping the keyboard and mouse and going third party for those looks like a good plan, and I'll be able to get a 750W PSU in there well inside my budget now.

Do either of you know the particular differences between the Corsair Pro and Enthusiast series'? Particularly the difference between the two 750W versions? Would it be worth going for the Pro series 750W over the enthusiast?

 

[keynes]

Do either of you know the particular differences between the Corsair Pro and Enthusiast series'? Particularly the difference between the two 750W versions? Would it be worth going for the Pro series 750W over the enthusiast?

I think the main difference is the more expensive one is modular.

 

[thoben]

Hi guys sorry for the very late reply.

Just wanted to thank you both Rubensolo and Tiberias for the help. Your advice was invaluable as I'm sure it is for many people using PC Specialist. I rated both your reputations up, a small gesture of my appreciation

I just have one more question.

As you know I've gone for a build that will allow me to add an additional GPU in the future with the SLI capable motherboard. Will it be a simple case of slotting the additional GPU into one of the PCI-E slots, or is there some additional set-up required?

Thanks in advance.

 

[keynes]

Hi guys sorry for the very late reply.

Just wanted to thank you both Rubensolo and Tiberias for the help. Your advice was invaluable as I'm sure it is for many people using PC Specialist. I rated both your reputations up, a small gesture of my appreciation

I just have one more question.

As you know I've gone for a build that will allow me to add an additional GPU in the future with the SLI capable motherboard. Will it be a simple case of slotting the additional GPU into one of the PCI-E slots, or is there some additional set-up required?

Thanks in advance.

Fitting the new GPU and using a SLI bridge that should be provided in your welcome pack. Then you can enable SLI by going to nvidia control panel.