£600 Gaming PC (UK PRICES PLEASE)

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peco

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Going to be using this for all the latest games, and all the other general stuff.

Please recommend a system, ebuyer or amazon uk or another good UK retailer preferably please.
 
AdrianPerry

AdrianPerry

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www.SCAN.co.uk is probably your best friend for UK based purchases. Its usually worth checking Ebuyer aswell as sometimes one site has a deal on, and the other doesnt.

Ok a £600 Build:

CPU i5-2500k £154 (SCAN)
CPU cooler Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro rev2 £15 (not necessarily needed, depends if you want to Overclock or not) (Ebuyer)
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 Z68 £125 (SCAN)
RAM Corsair Vengeance 8GB £41 (SCAN)
PSU 500w Corsair Builder Series £45 (SCAN or Ebuyer)
GPU Gigabyte GTX 560 Ti OC Edition £170 (SCAN)
Optical Drive LiteOn iHAS224 24x DVD±RW £15 (Ebuyer)
HDD Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 £40 (SCAN)

£605 without case

A few money-savers;
Cheaper Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 £106
4GB RAM instead of 8GB: Corsair Memory XMS3 Classic 4GB £23
 
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peco

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Approximate Purchase Date: Sept 2011


Budget Range: £600


System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming, watching movies


Parts Not Required: mouse


Preferred Website(s) for Parts: amazon uk, ebuyer, whatevers the cheapest


Country of Origin: UK


Parts Preferences: no preference


Overclocking: Maybe - if i can do everything (playing the latest games full-max settings) i want with the standard settings then i wont bother OC


SLI or Crossfire: No - in a few years ill have more money so i could just buy the best GPU out at the time


Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080 - HD GAMING :)


Additional Comments: Need a good 22inch screen
 
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peco

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cool thanks for this

Is there much difference between those 2 motherboards

i was originally going with the ATI 6970 and a 750W PSU but if i can get away with a less powerful GPU like the 560 and obviously a lower PSU that will cut quite a lot from the budget


 
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Silvune

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Both those motherboards support multiple cards, seeing as you don't want to do that I would go for a cheaper motherboard.
Such as this:
Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3-B3 £79
http://www.ebuyer.com/269125-gigabyte-ga-z68a-d3-b3-socket-1155-7-1-channel-audo-atx-motherboard-ga-z68a-d3-b3

Thermaltake Toughpower XT 575W 80Plus Bronze Modular £55
http://www.ebuyer.com/234911-thermaltake-575w-toughpower-xt-modular-psu-tpx-575m
I would recommend getting this PSU due to the higher temperature rating (50C vs 30C), higher efficiency and modularity.
 
AdrianPerry

AdrianPerry

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If you can do a 750w PSU and a 6970 on a £600 budget, go for it :)

Note: 750w is enough for SLI 560Ti's or Crossfire 6970s, 500w is enough for a single card

As for the boards, they are both actually very similar.
 
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peco

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yes this make sense and will save me some money, as long as this build lasts for for the next few years thats all im after. I can build a new system in a few years time so i wont be adding 2 cards etc to keep up with the performance of future technology

thanks for the PSU tip, ill get that one now seeing as im getting a cheaper mobo now



hhahah no way can i do a 750w & 6970 on £600.

im only having the one card so the Thermaltake 575 will do the job
 
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peco

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ok cool, i guess i best get the SSD now seeing as i will be installing windows 7 straight away.

Can you suggest a cheap, decent SSD,

am i right to believe that we only install the OS on an SSD?? or do i want to get a bigger sized SSD to install games on too??
 
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Silvune

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What you can get onto the SSD depends on the size. If it is a 30-40GB drive then it would be the OS and one or two large-ish programs. If it is a 60-80GB drive then you could get the OS plus quite a few programs, and probably a few games. ~120GB would house all programs and lots of games.

Seeing as you have a Z68 chipset motherboard you also have the option of using your SSD as a cache to store the most commonly used programs to help speed them up.
OCZ Vertex 2 40GB £62
http://www.ebuyer.com/232639-ocz-vertex-2-series-40gb-sata-ii-2-5-ssd-oczssd2-2vtx40g

There are a few websites like this:
http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/
Which allow you to customise a build to your liking, but I'm not convinced you will find one of those sites which will be able to match the price/quality of a self build. Plus it is pretty easy to build one yourself, so I'd recommend you do that.
 
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peco

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ok i guess its good practice to build it myself its just that ive got about 1 hour per night to build it after work and i really just want to start using it right away



ive read this regarding the cheaper mobo you sugggested

"The board does not support the Hydra chip that the other z68 boards have enabling the fast trans-coding abilities of your new i7, and i5 processors"

is this something i should be concerned about?
 
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peco

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yes those are out of my budget, i guess i could get one in a few months time and use it as a cache storage like you suggested so thats ok.

I ll just install Win7 on my 1tb hdd, boot time really doesnt bother me too much
 
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Silvune

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The technology/chip/software that enables fast transcoding on Z68 motherboards (with a discrete GPU installed) is called Virtu. Hydra is a technology that allows AMD and Nvidia GPUs to work together.
You should be concerned by the lack of Virtu if you want to rip DVDs and quickly transcode them to something that could be played on a portable video viewing player. However if you do want to do that without a motherboard that has Virtu, then you can just remove the the discrete graphics card and then connect to the motherboard's display connectors. It's a bit of a hassle, but not impossible.
 
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peco

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Is there anything else that this mobo will be lacking in?

I can tell you 99% of what my time on this pc will consist of (luckily i wont ever be ripping dvd's)

Playing games
Surfing on the internet
Email
Downloading
Watching videos
Recording DJ Mixes - I will want get a decent soundcard for my music
Playing music via Serato
Video Calling
Photoshop (nothing extensive)
Audacity minor usage

Thats pretty much it

If this mobo can handle all that then i wont have any problems

ps - thanks for all the help so far, ill be purchasing this next week
 
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Silvune

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It will be able to handle those things fine.

Some would consider 4 USB 2 ports on the back panel as a bit meagre, but there are plenty of internal headers, which can be accessed with 5.25" bay devices. And none of the other Z68 boards I could find under £100 had any more back panel USB 2 ports.

The other thing it could be said to be lacking is a UEFI Bios.
If you want that then the Asrock Z68 Pro3 meets that requirement.
http://www.ebuyer.com/267316-asrock-z68-pro3-socket-1155-8-channel-hd-audio-atx-motherboard-z68-pro3

Turns out the Z68A-D3-B3 doesnt have any display connectors. Obviously not a problem if you always use a discrete video card.

Other than that I can't think of anything it is lacking.
 
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peco

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4 usb ports will be fine, i have serato, keyboard and mouse, so ill have an extra one if needed which is good

Does this mobo come with USB 3.0?? (4 x usb 2.0 & 2 x usb 3.0)

Ive done some research and i cant really see the point of paying an extra £20 for a flashy looking BIOS, i dont ever, ever, ever go into BIOS so it doesnt really bother me.

I think i have now finalized my build with your help.

Are there any other little extras i need to buy when i order it all?? (heatsinks, cables, connectors etc)

Also within the next few month i will likely upgrade the Ram to 12 or 16 gb. Can i fit 4 x 4 gb ram stick on this mobo?? Or do i need buy a 1 x 8gb stick now so i can fit in the other ram at a later stage?

The only thing i need now is a good HD 22" Screen
 
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Silvune

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Yes it comes with USB 3.

Do you mind posting your full build as it is at the moment? That would make it a bit easier for me to access what extras you might need.

You should be able to upgrade to 16GB by just installing another 2x4GB set.
 
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peco

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CPU - i5-2500k - £160

Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3-B3 - £79

RAM - Corsair 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz Vengeance Memory Kit CL9 1.5V - £45

PSU - Corsair 500W CX Series PSU - £45

GPU - Gigabyte GTX 560Ti OC 1GB GDDR5 - £190

Optical Drive - LiteOn iHAS124-19 24x DVD - £14

HDD - Seagate 1TB 3.5" Barracuda SATA-III 6Gb/s Hard Drive - 7200RPM 32MB Cache - £45

Case - Coolermaster HAF 912 Plus Case OR Coolermaster HAF 922 Mid Tower Case - Cant really see much difference between the two.

Total (so far) - £650

Im over budget but i really cant see what i can sacrifice. I guess i could just get a cheaper monitor to make up for it

I did plan on spending around the £720 mark for pc + monitor


 
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Silvune

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G.Skill Ripjaws X 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz CAS9 1.5V F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL £40
http://www.ebuyer.com/264750-g-skill-8gb-2x4gb-ddr3-1600mhz-ripjawsx-memory-kit-cl9-9-9-9-24-1-5v-f3-12800cl9d-8gbxl
Small saving, but it has shorter heatspreaders, which are less likely to cause problems with aftermarket heatsinks if you decide to get one.

There are cheaper GTX 560 Tis available, I think the following is actually the same GPU as the one you've got atm, but is cheaper at scan:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-gigabyte-gtx-560ti-oc-40nm-4000mhz-gddr5-gpu-900mhz-shader-1800mhz-384-cores-dvi-mhdmi

You could also go for a 6870 which you can get for ~£150. Yes it will be step down in performance, but I don't think it will be by that much.

Another small saving would be getting the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB. Which is still one of the fastest 1TB HDDs around. You shouldn't be put off by it 'only' using SATA 3Gbps as mechanical harddrives barely saturate the original SATA spec.

Differences between the 912 and 922 include:
912 has 2.5" drive mounts, removable HDD cage.

You could also get a cheaper case:
Lian Li Lancool PC-K58B £54
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/lian-li-pc-k58b-lancool-dragon-lord-k-series-mid-tower-gaming-case-w-o-psu

Fractal Design Core 3000 £52
http://www.ebuyer.com/270598-fractal-design-core-3000-case-fd-ca-core-3000-bl

Cooler Master CM 690 II Lite £55
http://www.ebuyer.com/221737-coolermaster-cm-690-ii-lite-version-rc-692-kkn3

Antec 100 £42
http://www.ebuyer.com/246639-antec-one-hundred-100-case-0761345-15240-2

If you want to get free shipping at scan and cclonline then make 20 useful posts on bit-tech forums.

I don't think that you need to buy any accessories as everything you need will come with the components.
 
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peco

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Ok cool ill swap round the RAM and HDD based on your suggestions.

Re GPU - yes you are correct it is £10 cheaper but im not sure if im buying all from SCAN or Ebuyer yet. Ive just listed ebuyer prices atm.

£10 less for the case isnt too much of a problem, i really like the look of the HAF 912 so ill get that one.

Ok so i think that is it, i have my build finalised, tyvm for all the help Silvune

Do i need to buy thermal paste for the build?

Ill have to find a screen this weekend too
 
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