Seeking Gaming Rig

[Quickening]

Hi guys =)

A year or so ago I got a new computer for gaming with a budget around £1600 pounds for high end gaming (non 3d) with this spec below, and well, things change so fast in the industry i was hoping for someone with a big heart able to help me to update this build / make new build around same budget. I will give alot of love and many cookies thumbs up to anyone who can help!

Case PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard ASUS® P8P67 PRO (NEW REV 3.0): USB 3.0/SATA 6Gb/s, CrossFireX™ & SLI
Memory (RAM) 8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card 1.5GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 580 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - DX® 11, 3D Vision Ready
2nd Graphics Card NONE
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 120GB INTEL® 320 SERIES SSD, SATA 3 Gb/s (upto 270MB/sR | 130MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk 1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
RAID NONE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive NONE
Memory Card Reader INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply CORSAIR 1000W PRO SERIES (HX1000) 80+ MODULAR PSU (£170)
Processor Cooling COOLIT ECO A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£49)
Sound Card ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities ONBOARD 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
Modem NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND
Floppy Disk Drive NONE
Firewire NONE
TV Card NONE
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 NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor 24" Wide TFT Silver/Black 1920 x1080 2MS D-Sub, DVI, 23.6" Panel (£119)
2nd Monitor NONE
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables 1 x 2 METRE DVI-D CABLE (£5)
Eyefinity / GeForce 3D Vision NONE
Keyboard & Mouse LOGITECH® MK250 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO (£19)
Mouse NONE
Speakers LOGITECH S220 2.1 SILVER/BLACK SPEAKER SYSTEM (£19)
Printer NONE
External Hard Drive NONE
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

Price £1,615.00

best wishes and regards

 

[keynes]

Make a new build? I would just try to upgrade your existing build. Is your GTX 580 struggling? I am sure it should be running games at decent fps, if you want more power add another GTX 580 but I wouldn't recommend purchasing a new pc unless I misundertood you.

 

[Quickening]

Ok thanks for reply Ruben =) added rep to you!

basically you think the spec is still solid? in terms of value for money / more recent technology , nothing new you think i should change?

 

[keynes]

Ok thanks for reply Ruben =) added rep to you!

basically you think the spec is still solid? in terms of value for money / more recent technology , nothing new you think i should change?

It is good but it depends on what your demands are, do you want very high fps? If you wish to upgrade I'd add a 2nd GTX 580 other than that nothing else really.

 

[baron75mk2]

Agree with rubensolo here , your build still looks very solid indeed - i would just add another GTX 580 in sli - you will get great FPS performance gains here for minimal cost & effort.

You have the PSU for it so no problems with power requirements & the case has good cooling for SLI as well

(just a side note , if you infarct do get another GTX580 , then make sure it has the same amount of V-ram as the one you have now , manufacturer does not matter but V-ram is important)

 

[Ash]

Agree with rubensolo here , your build still looks very solid indeed - i would just add another GTX 580 in sli - you will get great FPS performance gains here for minimal cost & effort.

You have the PSU for it so no problems with power requirements & the case has good cooling for SLI as well

(just a side note , if you infarct do get another GTX580 , then make sure it has the same amount of V-ram as the one you have now , manufacturer does not matter but V-ram is important)

Surely he could just contact PCS and they can sell him the exact same model.

 

[keynes]

Surely he could just contact PCS and they can sell him the exact same model.

PCS is not offering the GTX 580 in new builds.

 

[Quickening]

argh guys you are correct I cannot select the exact same gear as last time, however I made a new one for about £1450 pounds. What do you think of this? I think the graphics card is pretty similiar and motherbiard is SLI ready for future upgrades, anything you would change? high end gaming


Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE


Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3550 (3.3GHz) 6MB 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
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
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 ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX750 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£86)


Processor Cooling
COOLIT ECO II A.L.C ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER (£59)


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


Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE


Monitor
IIYAMA E2473HDS 24" LED WIDESCREEN, 2 HDMI/DVI-D 1920x1080 (£159)


Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® K200 USB MEDIA KEYBOARD (£10)


Mouse
LOGITECH® OPTICAL USB MOUSE (£5)


Speakers
LOGITECH S220 2.1 SILVER/BLACK SPEAKER SYSTEM (£19)


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

 

[keynes]

I'd probably downgrade the CPU cooler since you are not OC, the GTX 670 is a good card and the mobo + psu would allow you to add a 2nd one if needed. However I still think your original build is pretty good, there is no massive difference betweem the i5 2500 and the i5 3550 in gaming. If you really want to upgrade the GPU I'd sell the GTX 580 and buy a GTX 670.

 

[baron75mk2]

Why a new build ? - why not just get another GTX 580 ? - lots cheaper , plenty of places you can buy them - it does not have to be the same manufacturer,
Just make sure it has the same amount of ram as the existing one you have.

Dam , i think i have misunderstood , sorry i thought you already owned the first build & were looking for an upgrade

But you can still keep the current build & buy another GTX 580 somewhere else & two of them will blow any Single GTX670/680 setup out of the water , nothing much other than 2 GTX 670s/680s or a GTX690 will touch it. - even then the difference wont be by miles (except possibly for the GTX690 that is)

 

[Ash]

Dam , i think i have misunderstood , sorry i thought you already owned the first build & were looking for an upgrade

I'm pretty sure he does.
Buying another build instead of just adding another GPU is a complete waste of money.

 

[baron75mk2]

I'm pretty sure he does.
Buy another build instead of just adding another GPU is a complete waste of money.

Wasn't for me , almost doubled my performance in games & i guarantee that one GTX 670 will not touch Two GTX 580s

But everyone's entitled to their own opinion

 

[keynes]

Wasn't for me , almost doubled my performance in games & i guarantee that one GTX 670 will not touch Two GTX 580s

But everyone's entitled to their own opinion

I think he agreed with you that SLI is better than building a new rig
But I am also confused by the thread now.
Agree with Baron, adding another card would be better and increase performance significantly and way cheaper than building a new rig.

 

[baron75mk2]

I think he agreed with you that SLI is better than building a new rig
But I am also confused by the thread now.
Agree with Baron, adding another card would be better and increase performance significantly and way cheaper than building a new rig.

I think i was misunderstanding the post sorry ashhol & thanks rubensolo for pointing it out

 

[Ash]

Not got your reading specs on this morning?

I agree, SLIing can boost your performance significantly. Especially if you have the right cards. I have a 6670 and wondering if I should bother Crossfiring them or not.

 

[baron75mk2]

Not got your reading specs on this morning?

I agree, SLIing can boost your performance significantly. Especially if you have the right cards. I have a 6670 and wondering if I should bother Crossfiring them or not.

might be worth a go , but i personally had a lot of bad luck with crossfire , i didn't see much of a performance gain & i had a lot of splitup (screen tear) issues in a lot of in game vids & even in some of the actual 3d stuff (mass effect 2 in the Normandy & devil may cry 4 being the worse offenders for this),

But with nvidia sli i don't get these issues at all - don't get me wrong i like Radeon cards (maybe not the drivers) , but i just don't like crossfire , it seems to have a lot of issues compared to nvidia SLI
( the one thing i hated was having to download "CAP" files all the time for the crossfire profiles , they didn't do much anyway.)

Maybe just getting a more powerful radeon single GPU ? - i cant really recommend crossfire to be honest.

If its a two card setup you want then nvidia SLI is the way to go.

But then this was on two HD 5850s crossfire - maybe that particular model just doesn't crossfire very well ? - don't know.

But as for the split up issue in vids & 3d in crossfire when i was trying to fix this i did read someone with a HD 7970 crossfire setup was having the same issues (something to do with the drivers power management lowering the frequency of one card with low usage vids & graphics in actual gaming environments , makes sense i suppose as one card is going at a lower rate & out of sync with the other card , thus the split up.)

 

[Quickening]

Argh yeh forgive me guys I was unclear in my post, i mean to say the first post build is what I have, and am happy with. I am just trying to buy a more up to date, equivalent version of it for someone else

I was just concerned as im total noob with computers and I could not seem to buy an exact copy of my first computer from PCS

Thanks again to all of you tho, i really do appreciate the feedback and i've read each of the posts and handed out some cookies. regarding the SLi I always tend to lean toward a mobo that can at later date support it in case i need to update, but happy with a strong performing single card at moment

kind regards and thanks again
quick

 

[bigben]

Argh yeh forgive me guys I was unclear in my post, i mean to say the first post build is what I have, and am happy with. I am just trying to buy a more up to date, equivalent version of it for someone else

In which case I would go for this:

Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3550 (3.3GHz) 6MB 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
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
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 ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX750 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£86)
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
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
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: £1,233.00 including VAT and delivery.


Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-ivy-bridge-pc/E6LS3sFO02/

Mine is very similar to this and is brilliant. There is also plenty of room in case/mobo/psu to SLI in the future.

 

[baron75mk2]

In which case I would go for this:

Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3550 (3.3GHz) 6MB 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
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
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 ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX750 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£86)
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
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
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: £1,233.00 including VAT and delivery.


Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-ivy-bridge-pc/E6LS3sFO02/

Mine is very similar to this and is brilliant. There is also plenty of room in case/mobo/psu to SLI in the future.

Yes if its a new build for someone else then this is the build to go for - only thing i would change is the PSU if that person is interested in crossfire / SLI in the future , (something stronger like an 850w , or a 1050 w model)

 

[Quickening]

Ok thanks mates , spec ordered!