What is best for hardcore gaming?

Jack Guinea

Jack Guinea

Bright Spark
Hi im new to pc gaming and i was just wondering what would be the best specs possible. My budget is £2800 and i play games like dirt,battlefield,arma,counter strike,cod and gta.
 
Tracker

Tracker

Enthusiast
with a budget like that you could go all out on pretty much whatever you want.

can you be a little more specific : do you need a monitor, keyboard, mouse? Multi-monitors or single monitor? do you want a sound card?
do you need any connectivity options, such as a wireless lan card, or normal lan?
Do you have spatial requirements, can you fit a decent case like a Haf-X or would you prefer one of the smaller cases like a Haf-912?

as a starting guide, the following PC will set you back at exactly £2,500 and includes everything except a mouse/keyboard. Every component is pretty much top of the range and it will play just about any game you want at the highest settings possible, for a single monitor setup you could change the 3gb graphics cards to 1.5gb and save some money, or alternatively go for a multi-monitor setup to utilise the cards extra memory and have a nice surround-view setup. No sound card included as for most uses the motherboards onboard sound will do everything that you need it to. This setup also has a 120gb SDD drive for maximum performance when booting up / multitasking and for a few of your favourite games, and a nice chunky 1tb harddrive to cover you for everything else!

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF-X FULL TOWER GAMING CASE
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core (3.40GHz @ max 4.80GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V PRO: USB 3.0, SATA 6GB/s, NVIDIA®SLI™, ATI®CrossFireX™
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 580 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
2nd Graphics Card
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 580 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB OCZ VERTEX 3 SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 500MB/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 (£36)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1050W PRO SERIES™ HX1050-80 PLUS® SILVER MODULAR (£162)
Processor Cooling
COOLIT ECO II A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£59)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC COOLING MX-3 HIGH THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
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
NZXT INTERNAL USB HEADER (4 Additional Powered Internal USB Ports) (£18)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Monitor
IIYAMA E2710HDS 27" WIDESCREEN, HDMI/DVI-D HD1920x1080(£229)
Surge Protection
6 Socket Compact 2M UFO Surge Protector (£9)
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£69)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £2,500.00 including VAT and delivery.
 
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W

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
Haha, and btw that dvd drive wont write anything, id get the one that at least writes dvds/cds also, id prefer frenchys 3 small monitors as a monitor setup
 
Tracker

Tracker

Enthusiast
co-incidence, or in this case, an element of "great minds think alike", most of the specs suggested i've used in my own build, the GTX580 sli'd is the most powerful graphics solution available for games currently, the 1.5gb being the best option for single monitors or for multi monitor setups the 3gb offer superior performance by way of the extra graphcis memory ( which is a particularly important point when going up high resolutions which eat video memory alive).

the i7-2600k is the best processor available, and dirt cheap compared with top of the range previous generation processors, not quite so good at video encoding but that's not all that important in gaming, 8 threads is fine.

8 gb memory offers best performance / value as does 1600mhz memo when overclocking, 2133 mhz memory or 16gb may offer slight advantages but imo isn't really cost effective and games aren't going to make real use of it anyway.

the mobo is ideal for what he wants, i doubt he'd want the features the R.O.G one offers anyway, and the Haf-x case imo is the best around, have one myself ;3

Wozza, it depends, he may not have the space for three monitors, or not want them! same for the blu ray drive, the blu ray drive is there for blu ray films, will play dvds and should pc games move onto blu-rays in the near future, he'll be covered for that too, my intent was that it was a "base spec" he could tweak to suit his needs, something to get started from when building a high-end gaming monster!
 
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Frenchy

Frenchy

Prolific Poster
it reduces the lifespan of a cpu / gpu / memory (whatever it is your overclocking) and if you dont need it its pointless really. Id say only consider it if you absolutley need the extra power.
 
Tracker

Tracker

Enthusiast
Jack Guinea said:
Thanks for that but i was just wondering does overclocking cause damage or make things break in anyway
Click to expand...

Not if done properly, no.

The main drawback of overclocking is the increased heat and powerdraw from operating the component at a higher setting than from the original manufacturer, this is why you use improved cooling solutions, Cpu coolers like the liquid cooler ECO I or II, or the Titan Fenrir Extreme's air cooling, provided the solution is enough to keep the cpu's temp at a stable rate, then reasonable overclocking won't cause anything to "break". You do trade off some of the chips total expected lifetime for the performance, two identical chips will last X years, overclock one by 10% and it will expire faster than the non overclocked one, all computer components have a limited lifespan and won't run forever. Chances are even overclocked, provided it's cooled adequately and the overclock isn't silly, the chip will become outdated long before it physically stops working anyway, and in the meantime you're gaining a massive performance boost for a small amount extra.

the main difficulty is setting voltages and tweaking the settings correctly, as thats where you're most likely to cause damage or encounter problems, but get it done by PCS and they'll do it all for you, and it'll all be done, tested and covered under your warranty, do it yourself and it won't be covered under warranty!

for non overclocked CPU's, you're probably looking at the i7-2600, which is essentially the same chip, but without the unlocked multipliers that allow you to overclock.
 
Frenchy

Frenchy

Prolific Poster
Tracker said:
Not if done properly, no.
Click to expand...

I disagree, even if done properly, lifespan of the cpu is shortened. Obviously not as much as if you don't give it proper cooling, but the cpu is working harder no matter how cool you make it which leads to shorter life.
 
Tracker

Tracker

Enthusiast
Frenchy said:
I disagree, even if done properly, lifespan of the cpu is shortened. Obviously not as much as if you don't give it proper cooling, but the cpu is working harder no matter how cool you make it which leads to shorter life.
Click to expand...

The phrase used was "cause damage / anything to break", Reduction in potential lifetime isn't what i'd classify as damage / breakage. You'll have less lifetime yes ( as i highlighted in my post) but when overclocked properly, a cpu or component will neither break, nor cause damage to itself, or anything within the case.
 
Frenchy

Frenchy

Prolific Poster
Tracker said:
The phrase used was "cause damage / anything to break", Reduction in potential lifetime isn't what i'd classify as damage / breakage. You'll have less lifetime yes ( as i highlighted in my post) but when overclocked properly, a cpu or component will neither break, nor cause damage to itself, or anything within the case.
Click to expand...

We difffer on definition of damage then lol.

I would msot deffinately cause a reduction on lifetime as damage. Anything that causes something to last a shorter period of time than its original lifetime is damage.
 
Tracker

Tracker

Enthusiast
Frenchy said:
We difffer on definition of damage then lol.

I would msot deffinately cause a reduction on lifetime as damage. Anything that causes something to last a shorter period of time than its original lifetime is damage.
Click to expand...

I suppose, my background is the insurance industry and thats where alot of my definitions are from, Damage is damage, wear and tear is wear and tear, through your definitions use of ANY tool or component is "damage", in any case the thread is riding off on a tangent so best to leave it there, the guys questions have been answered :3
 
tom_gr7

tom_gr7

Life Serving
Jack Guinea said:
So if i dont get the overclocked cpu whoch will be the best for max graphics on things like battlefield
Click to expand...

If you don't wanna overclock go for the i7 2600 (i have one and it's great for gaming, including BF3 Alpha)

For GPU I have a 3gb gtx580 and its a beast on a 42inch tv! Although the 1.5gb version is great for a single monitor, i opted for the 3gb version it because it didn't cost me much more than the 1.5gb version. With your budget you could opt for a gtx 590! or a 6990!

Are you planning on using just one monitor?
 
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