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UK Version of Mid-Range System Build

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pgBhRUeX

Junior Member
Hey guys,

Basically I'm looking at a UK version of the Attention Mid-Range System Builders thread, with the same budget and to be used for gaming.

Here's the details:

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. Gaming

2. What YOUR budget is. £1000

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from. UK

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc. No just the latest tech, bang for buck & future proof as possible

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are. Already got gaming mouse,keyboard,headset and a basic monitor (looking to upgrade that)

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds. Definitely overclocking. Nothing extreme though.

8. What resolution will you be using? Not sure. Looking to upgrade to a 23/24" 120hz monitor with the lowest input lag/ghosting etc. so I'd guess at 1080 (1920x1080?)

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?End of next month

This budget is just for the PC, not other stuff like software needed and monitor etc.
 
It seems £1 > $1. Here's a £1K no-compromises gaming build, including a monitor!

CPU: i5-3750k £177.8
Mobo: ASRock Z77 Extreme 4 £112.52
RAM: Corsair 8GB DDR3-1600 £28
GPU: Sapphire 7950 3GB £241.61
SSD : Samsung 830 128GB £79.98
HDD : 2TB Seagate 7200RPM £77.04
DVD : LiteOn £13.54
PSU: Seasonic 620W £76.34
Case: NZXT Source 210 £44.38
Monitor: Asus 24” 2ms £147.6
Total: £998.81

Where "no compromises" means you could easily go with some cheaper parts without noticing much difference. Like you don't really need a Seasonic PSU. You could easily go with a cheaper mobo if you want. Probably don't need that 2TB HDD either.

The one place where you could spend a little more is on a £150 256GB SSD.
 
The BenQ is an inch larger and has a much better stand, so it's a no brainer IMHO. The Samsung RAM is definitely nice, but it is not worth double the Corsair that Ken linked. Finally, the Mugen 3 is definitely a good cooler, but unless you are a real stickler for low noise, the Hyper 212+ is a better value.
 
Cool thanks. What's the Nvidia option in this price range? (Haven't followed it much recently, links to comparisons/benchmarks etc. much appreciated)
 
Oops forgot to add I'll be looking for a soundcard, is the asus xonar still the best budget one? (I have PC360 and would like a card with an amp to handle them, ~50ohm iirc? and 5.1 etc.)
 
Why are you looking for a 5.1 card if you mainly use headphones? At any rate, yes the Xonar DG or DGX (PCI and PCIe respectively) are where it's at for low cost sound cards.
 
Cheers, yeah majority will be headphones, on board sound won't be able to drive them properly or do Dolby headphone will it?

I'm also thinking about spending a bit more on the GPU. Any thoughts on this graphics card: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti 3GB

BF3 will be my most played game. What's the best card at the next price level? (Roughly up to £300).

Much appreciated.
 
pgBhRUeX said:
Cheers, yeah majority will be headphones, on board sound won't be able to drive them properly or do Dolby headphone will it?
Click to expand...

You will definitely get benefit from the amp in the DG/DGX. I was just wondering why you specified 5.1.

pgBhRUeX said:
I'm also thinking about spending a bit more on the GPU. Any thoughts on this graphics card: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti 3GB

BF3 will be my most played game. What's the best card at the next price level? (Roughly up to £300).
Click to expand...

Avoid EVGA cards. They're generally overpriced and have poor coolers. Nvidia does typically do better than AMD in BF3, so the GTX 660 Ti makes sense if that's your primary game (though AMD crushes them in other games). This MSI looks good.

The next highest card would be the GTX 670 but you should study the Bench very carefully before deciding if the extra money is worth it or not.
 
Thanks (I do also have a 5.1 system).

Given that I will be getting the BenQ monitor (and so probably playing at 1080?) would a better GPU be overkill?
 
For a 1920x1080 monitor running at 60Hz, yes a better GPU would be overkill. If you do get a 120 Hz monitor however I think you could stand to get a better video card, I wouldn't say it's really worth the cost but a stronger card could easily get better framerates for your higher refresh rate monitor.
 
Good point, I'll definitely be looking for max fps to play at 120hz. Gonna go with the 670 unless there's anything else I should be looking at?
 
For the price the 7970's seem to be a tad better or worse than the 670, however you can play around with overclocking on a 7970 whereas a 670 is locked at whatever you get the card at, though I would personally avoid those high "boost" cards as they throttle up the core voltage quite a lot and do this weird intermittent spiking to keep power usage under control.

But which card is better for you depends on the games as the Anandtech benchmarks show, some games just scale better off the 7970 while others just work better on the 670. For overall gaming, I'd side with the 7970 actually purely because you can overclock it a bit more later on, but that' just my opinion on the matter.
 
Ok so the build is shaping up as follows:


CPU: i5-3750k £177.8
Mobo: ASRock Z77 Extreme 4 £112.52
RAM: Samsung 8GB DDR3-1600 £48.6
GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 Windforce 2GB £323
SSD : Samsung 830 256GB £149.1
HDD : 2TB Seagate 7200RPM £77.04
DVD : LiteOn £13.54
PSU: Seasonic 620W £76.34
Case: NZXT Source 220 £47.06
Cooler: Coolermaster Hyper 212 Quiet CPU Cooler £19.16

Total: £1044.16

Case is obviously subjective, haven't fully decided on that yet.

Any criticism on the graphics card? ( Are these alternatives? Sappire 7970 3GB, Gigabyte 7970 3GB, and ScanFX / VTX3D 7970 3GB ? )

Which soundcard would be better, the PCI or PCIe? (In terms of space on the mobo etc.?)

Toying with this Blu-ray drive but is seems quite expensive, is that the going price of these drives?


Thanks for all the help so far
 
I'd say a single 670 can play a lot of games at 1080p at high enough FPS to benefit from 120z, provided you turn down settings and overclock the CPU to avoid bottlenecking. You only need an average of 100fps or so to really see the difference, you don't need constant 120fps.

Not that I've tested the 670 myself... But I play BF3 on 1080p at high settings 55-60fps on a 560 Ti and i7-920. A 670 is at least 50% faster, you should be able to get 100fps average on medium settings
 
Last edited:
Sorry perhaps I phrased it wrong, lehtv kind of summed up what I was meant to be asking (e.g. for online multiplayer I don't mind turning settings down to get the best out of 120hz). I'm mostly into FPS and looking to get into the competitive side (CS:GO etc. which I don't think will be as taxing?), but I'd like all the eye candy for single player. (Coming from consoles it's obviously going to be a massive step up).

On a sidenote is the SLI a good potential upgrade path? (E.g. in a few months maybe, then I'd be able to max settings and play 120 fps /hz ?)
 
Yes, if you have the cash, 670 SLI for 1080p @ 120hz is a potential upgrade path. It will be even more important to OC the CPU properly.
 
OK how would the 660 perform in SLI? I'm reading mixed opinions on SLI/Crossfire. I really want to get the most out of my new 120hz monitor.
 
pgBhRUeX said:
Cheers, yeah majority will be headphones, on board sound won't be able to drive them properly or do Dolby headphone will it?

I'm also thinking about spending a bit more on the GPU. Any thoughts on this graphics card: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti 3GB

BF3 will be my most played game. What's the best card at the next price level? (Roughly up to £300).

Much appreciated.
Click to expand...

Xonar will give much more volume than onboard, but if you use Foobar for music playing, there are driver issues with Foobar + Xonar cards which mess up the Foobar volume.
 
Well since not many reviews were published with 660 Ti SLI performance listed, I came across this review from benchmarkreviews.com, not sure how thorough they are with their testing but they pulled roughly the same numbers in BF3 with a single 660 Ti as AT's review so I assume it's close enough. Seems that at 1920x1080 with everything pretty much cranked up to max, 660 Ti SLI will get you near the refresh rate of your monitor.
 
pgBhRUeX said:
OK how would the 660 perform in SLI? I'm reading mixed opinions on SLI/Crossfire. I really want to get the most out of my new 120hz monitor.
Click to expand...

The thing to be aware of when contemplating SLI or Crossfire with midrange cards is that 1+1 != 2. You have to ask yourself, "would I be OK with the performance of only a single card?" If the answer to that is "no", then you should get higher-end cards. The reason for that is that SLI and Crossfire are not perfect technologies and will crap out on you from time to time, often on new releases that haven't yet been optimized.
 
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