Gaming Build, Budget ~£900, sanity check required please

[Smurfeus]

Hi,

I'm looking at building a new gaming PC and have put together something which fits my budget. This forum has been so helpful while doing this, but I just wanted someone more experienced to give a look over to check I'm not making any mistakes. I am looking at playing games on high settings at 1920x1080, but with the build having reasonable longevity.

Here's my proposed build:
PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/QRvD
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/QRvD/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/QRvD/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£167.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.50 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£104.19 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair XMS 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£31.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Sandisk Ultra 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£65.00 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card (£239.66 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Cooler Master HAF XM (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£92.34 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: Corsair Enthusiast 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£89.08 @ CCL Computers)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£11.13 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£68.39 @ Aria PC)
Total: £894.27
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-15 16:44 BST+0100)

A couple of notes/questions:
- I wasn't sure whether to go Windows 7 or 8? I'm thinking 7 because it's more mature etc. but is it worth going for 8 in a future-proofing sense in your opinions?
- I've gone for the power supply because it was highly recommended and I would like to OC this build and have the option to go for a crossfire setup in the future, is this adequate for the job/can I get away with less?
- Am I right in thinking that I will need a PCI-IDE card to be able to connect up some older hard drives from my current computer because the motherboard doesn't have an IDE slot?
- Are there any obvious cost savings that can be made?

Any and all help will be much appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[mcnumpty23]

looks pretty good--other than should be 2 x 4gb ram for dual channel

personally i havent had any issues with windows 8

others have so thats a personal choice

that psu should be fine for crossfire--i wouldnt go lower as you want to overclock

and yes something like a PCI-IDE card

 

[dragox]

i would recomend http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-004-XF psu. got it in my machine with i7 920, and 2x 7950's.

if your not using the IDE drives constantly i would recomend getting an external usb connector. or getting a sata drive and using a machine that has sata+ide to dd the drives.

 

[Swordkd]

Your build is definitely fine. I swapped out a couple of parts for either better performance or aesthetics or money savings. I changed the case to go with something that is a very good, and quiet case(less money too). The PSU is a bit more expensive, but it's semi-modular, and worth paying a little more for. I did drop the SSD, but upped the video card. You can add the SSD later, but it doesn't improve performance in gaming. Makes the load screens quicker, but you don't get smother gameplay, faster frame rates or anything like that.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£167.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.50 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4-M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£100.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£38.91 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Hitachi Deskstar 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£34.79 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card (£294.00 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case (£89.99 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: XFX 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£73.99 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-222AB DVD/CD Writer (£16.25 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£68.39 @ Aria PC)
Total: £909.80
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-15 17:19 BST+0100)

 

[Smurfeus]

Thank you very much for the feedback guys

 

[fuzzytom]

Is this a good deal for £905.60?
(It will be pre-built)

CPU: NEW! Intel Core i5 3570K
CPU Overclocking: 4.3Ghz - Moderate Overclock
CPU Cooler: Xigmatek Loki SDS963
Operating System: Windows 8 (64-bit)
Motherboard: NEW! Gigabyte Z77-HD3
RAM: 8GB Corsair 1600mhz Vengeance (2x4GB)
Hard Drive: 1TB S-ATAIII 6.0Gb/s
Optical Drive: 22x DVD±RW DL S-ATA
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 2GB
Sound card: Onboard 7.1 Audio
Case: NEW! Coolermaster 690 II Advanced NVIDIA
PSU: NEW! 650W Corsair VS
Warranty: 3 Year SureCare Warranty