£650 - £700 Gaming Pc

[FiestyChips]

Hello, I am a total n00b at computers and I would like to play games like BF3, Minecraft and so on. BF3 should be the most demanding game (I think so )
and as long it can get around 45- 55 fps, I will be pleased.

This is what I have been looking at so far...

Intel FC-LGA12C Core i5-3450 Processor (6M Cache, 3.10 GHz) £142.68

Gigabyte SKT-1155 Z77X-D3H Motherboard £95.16

CiT Vantage Midi Mesh Gaming Case with HD Audio, 4 Fans, Card Reader and No PSU - Black £35.88

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium with Service Pack 1, 64-bit, English, 1 Pack £69.99

EVGA GF GTX 660Ti 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card - £217.49

Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATAIII 6Gb/s 16MB Cache 3.5 inch Internal Hard Drive OEM £44.97

Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 8GB 1600MHz CL9 DDR3 Vengeance Memory Two Module Kit £31.39

(All prices are from Amazon.co.uk)


I also will be doing a lot of presentations, documents etc (Microsoft Office)

Thanks.

 

[FiestyChips]

Oh yeah, sorry if it's in the wrong section, xD

 

[MajinCry]

I say downgrade to a 965 BE, get a custom cooler, OC the CPU, use that money saved for a better PSU.

 

[Brett928S2]

The 660ti will be able to play bf3 on ultra. Cpu not bad no bottle necking you are missing one thing how ever which is you psu you get by with a 500 watt as that card pulls no more than 140 watts on full load but if you place to sli i would got with a 700 -750 gives you room to overclock ect. Ik this gpt that gave me some pc parts for my build you should check it out http://epicrewardz.com/home?refid=634 It allows you to earn money, this way you can buy anything off amazon. They give you $2.50 for sign up that way it can toward your new Gaming rig .

Hi

He is in the UK..... NOTICE THE £ SIGNS...

All the best Brett

 

[13thmonkey]

try scan, ebuyer and aria, I've not found amazon to have great prices

 

[9a3iqa]

I would recommend the HD 7870 over the GTX 660 Ti since overclocked it's faster and is also much cheaper. You can save yourself 30+ pounds.

 

[blazorthon]

http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/pI7u

Have a look at this. i5-3550P, decent H77 motherboard, good Radeon 7950, decent Corsair 8GB DDR3-1600 9-9-9-24 kit, decent Caviar Blue 500GB hard drive, great Samsung 830 128GB SSD (among the fastest and most reliable with an excellent price too), good case, great PSU, and so on. This is right at the budget.

A cheaper version can be made with the next best card for the least money, a Radeon 7870 such as the one in this:
http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/pI8D

Similar performance to the MSI Radeon 7870 Hawk, generally considered to be the best Radeon 7870, but lower price.

 

[stickmansam]

Second the 7870, they perform very similarly but the 7870 is cheaper (seeing them come in at about 20-50 pounds cheaper [found a couple good ) and with more memory bandwidth so will do better at higher resolutions. http://www.hardocp.com/images/articles/1352691741F74TQBhKZT_4_5.png

The rest of the review can be found here
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/11/12/fall_2012_gpu_driver_comparison_roundup/4

You can also try and grab a 7950 as they are priced close the 660ti but offer more performance. You don't seem to have a PSU listed, so rmbr to grab that. Also might check out some other sites as mentioned above to either find lower prices or a good cheap bundle. Scan has a bunch of i5's for cheap on sale here http://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-hardware/all/cpus-intel/core-i5-socket-1155-(ivy-bridge)

 

[blazorthon]

Oops, I forget the OS. Here's an updated set of options to include the OS:
http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/pIZp

http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/pJ2W

 

[stickmansam]

Oops, I forget the OS. Here's an updated set of options to include the OS:
http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/pIZp

http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/pJ2W

^Quick edit to swap for a MSI Twin Forzr 7870 which is cheaper and a cooler looking cooler =P

http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/pKjE

 

[blazorthon]

^Quick edit to swap for a MSI Twin Forzr 7870 which is cheaper and a cooler looking cooler =P

http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/pKjE

It's also slower. The 10 pound price difference isn't worth saving over inferior performance.

 

[stickmansam]

It's also slower. The 10 pound price difference isn't worth saving over inferior performance.

Thanks for pointing that out, did not notice it. It should say OC in the name. But if you are okay with overclocking the the MSI version by 50mhz then you can pocket the extra 10 pounds. If not then the Gigabyte is a good deal.

 

[Djentleman]

Go the 660(non ti) route and buy the 3570k. The difference between both processors is substantial.

 

[blazorthon]

Thanks for pointing that out, did not notice it. It should say OC in the name. But if you are okay with overclocking the the MSI version by 50mhz then you can pocket the extra 10 pounds. If not then the Gigabyte is a good deal.

The Gigabyte can overclock better IIRC and has the superior cooler IIRC. In this situation, you get what you pay for and it's not much more money for an overall superior card. If you want to cut cost a little, then by all means, do so, just realize that it's not like it's free money in this comparison.

 

[stickmansam]

^I think they would overclock about the same(might be wrong but you'll probably see more variation between individual chips than different brands [MSI is just less aggressive with the facotry OC]), and the MSI cooler should be a better [but within the margin of error]
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_660_Twin_Frozr_III/31.html
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Gigabyte/GTX_660_OC/31.html
(They are clocked the same in the review)

 

[blazorthon]

^I think they would overclock about the same(might be wrong but you'll probably see more variation between individual chips than different brands [MSI is just less aggressive with the facotry OC]), and the MSI cooler should be a better [but within the margin of error]
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_660_Twin_Frozr_III/31.html
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Gigabyte/GTX_660_OC/31.html
(They are clocked the same in the review)

Those are GTX 660 reviews. Aren't we talking about Radeon 7870 models?

 

[stickmansam]

Those are GTX 660 reviews. Aren't we talking about Radeon 7870 models?

Ahh it seems the gigabyte 7870 is 3x version not the 2x I thought. You are right then and this means the Gigabyte gives you a better cooler and a larger OC out of the box. My mistake.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_radeon_hd_7870_twinfrozr_iii_oc_review,8.html
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/gigabyte_radeon_hd_7870_oc_review,8.html

 

[FiestyChips]

Ok, so I've heard the Gtx 660ti only has around 10% improved performance over the gtx 660 - is that true?

It also seems like the i5 3350p has the same GHz as the 3450 I originally picked so does that mean there is no difference between them?

Also please try not to post US prices as even if i convert them, they will end up being higher than the US price.

I'm also open to AMD options but aren't they for more budget pcs?

 

[blazorthon]

Ok, so I've heard the Gtx 660ti only has around 10% improved performance over the gtx 660 - is that true?

It also seems like the i5 3350p has the same GHz as the 3450 I originally picked so does that mean there is no difference between them?

Also please try not to post US prices as even if i convert them, they will end up being higher than the US price.

I'm also open to AMD options but aren't they for more budget pcs?

AMD graphics aren't any less high end than Nvidia (usually more so right now), although for gaming, their CPUs often leave much to be desired compared to Intel's i5s.

The 3350P has no integrated graphics. That shouldn't be a huge deal in this situation, but it can be helpful to have integrated graphics just in case of a discrete card's failure.

It is true that the 660 Ti is not a huge improvement over the 660, although 10% might be a little pessimistic. More like 10-15% seems about right. The 660 Ti generally isn't worth buying over the 660, but it's not in of itself bad, just an inferior value compared to the competition.

 

[tdzmuzza]

Try Overclockers UK they have some crazy sales on but not for much longer

 

[stickmansam]

AMD graphics aren't any less high end than Nvidia (usually more so right now), although for gaming, their CPUs often leave much to be desired compared to Intel's i5s.

The 3350P has no integrated graphics. That shouldn't be a huge deal in this situation, but it can be helpful to have integrated graphics just in case of a discrete card's failure.

It is true that the 660 Ti is not a huge improvement over the 660, although 10% might be a little pessimistic. More like 10-15% seems about right. The 660 Ti generally isn't worth buying over the 660, but it's not in of itself bad, just an inferior value compared to the competition.

Agree that Nvidia is just not priced as competively right now vs AMD. Grpahics wise for this generation and espeically at your price point AMD is better than Nvidia, offering similar performance for lower cost.

The 3450 will turbo about 200mhz higher if I am correct so you do get 200 more mhz and integrated graphics for 10 extra pounds.
(Not sure how the extra 200mhz turbo effects OC via turbo muliplier, if someone could calrify that owuld be great)

 

[blazorthon]

I'd have to check to be sure, but I think that the 3450 and 3350 have the same Turbo frequencies. Also, both of these CPUs should lack support for multiplier overclocking. For Intel, that is reserved for their K edition models.

There are multiple settings that can let you control Turbo behavior.

 

[stickmansam]

http://ark.intel.com/products/69114/Intel-Core-i5-3350P-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_30-GHz
http://ark.intel.com/products/65511
I've messed with K series but have never tried changing the turbo multiplier. Heard it works though as sort of a gehtto overclock.

 

[blazorthon]

Ehh, my bad on the Turbo frequencies for the 3350P.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been moved from the section CPU & Components to section Systems by Mousemonkey