New Gaming Rig. £1000 Budget. Input please.

Readycheck

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Good morning all.

I'm looking to build a new Gaming rig (Within the next 6 months touch wood, should nothing actually blow up between now and then). If there's something epic due to be released in the next 6 months, please let me know, so that I can delay the rig building.

I've had 3 rigs over the past 15 years. All of which have seen me through 5 years with only a few parts replaced here and there. All built by the same friend of mine, who I don't have much contact with anymore sadly (so here I am). I have another friend who's pretty clued up, and will build my system for me, but I'd like to gather some input here before I start putting together a shopping list.

Requirements: Gaming (Run all current titles on Ultra spec pref, and 25 man Warcraft)
Budget: £1000
Not required: Peripherals. Hard Drives. Operating System.
Notes: PC wont be travelling to LANS or anything, so size/weight are unimportant.

To begin with, the 3 x Cases that I've been eyeing up are

Coolermaster HAF X
Fractal Design R4
NZXT (Not sure which model is currently best)

Can anybody make any solid part suggestions, case feedback or any of the other?

Thank you very much in advance. Hoping to become a regular visitor to these forums. I'm a software nut but when it comes to Hardware, I'm pretty useless.

Thanks




### Below are the specs of my Girlfriend's new PC selected and built by the friend (9 months ago) that will possibly be building my new system. From the shopping list, you can tell me if you have faith in his ability or wouldn't trust him with £1000 of my money ###

120GB Crucial M500 2.5" 6GB/s Inter 1 £76.12
2GB Gigabyte GTX 660 Windforce 2X, 1 £127.66
Cooler Master HAF 912 Plus, Black M 1 £53.91
600W Corsair Builder Series CX CP-9 1 £47.60
"Z77 Gamer" Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.50GHz DDR3 Ivybridge Overclocked Bundle 1 £316.66

After VAT and some other rubbish bla bla it came to £880.

It seems to run like a dream without any problems so do I presume he's clued up? Not to sound nasty, because I do have faith in him, but my PC hardware knowledge is laughable so he could tell me a system that runs on Rice Krispies is good and I'd have no choice but to believe him
 
Solution
Keeping the motherboard (which looks great to me) will give you the option to upgrade the CPU to overclock later. If you want to look into overclocking the CPU, you should consider a K version which I think will add about £30 on to your build to swap out the 4570 for a 4670k or you can knock about £100 off the mobo to get an H87 and forget about overclocking. At which point the after market cpu cooler is more to be confident that your system is cool enough than it is to make sure you don't overheat while trying out overclocking. I could be wrong however.

Personally, I think what you've got is great with plenty of freedom for stuff down the line. I am going with a K version because I am curious about overclocking and intend to try...

Seeking Solace

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120GB Crucial M500 2.5" 6GB/s Inter 1 £76.12
2GB Gigabyte GTX 660 Windforce 2X, 1 £127.66
Cooler Master HAF 912 Plus, Black M 1 £53.91
600W Corsair Builder Series CX CP-9 1 £47.60
"Z77 Gamer" Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.50GHz DDR3 Ivybridge Overclocked Bundle 1 £316.66

Decent SSD, GPU would have been decent for 9 months ago, almost a year old, same goes for the MoBo/CPU and good case. Could have chosen a better CPU.

Since you are still 6 months away, I went overbudget because the GTX 8__ series is expected to be announced and so you should keep an eye out on price drops and deals, 6 months is a considerable time to wait for a build, so you can get an idea of what to look out for, but definitely ask for more component advice in the last month of your wait.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4570 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£137.03 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£25.45 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£104.00 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£68.09 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Video Card (£557.74 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case (£79.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£67.86 @ CCL Computers)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£11.72 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£79.95 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1131.83
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-24 11:51 GMT+0000)
 

Readycheck

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Forgot to mention, Operating system is not required either so that brings the price pretty close!

6 months isn't set in stone, and I'll definitely bump this topic on the week that I decide to buy, but thank you very much for such a detailed reply.

I'm certainly interested in the Case choice. What are the Defining pros or the Fractal vs CM vs NZXT?

£560 for the GFX card alone...just wow. My girlfriends PC seems rocksolid atm, and her GFX card cost around £150 I think. what's the extra £400 on the GFX card going to do for me? For an additional £400 I'd be expecting the characters to be running around on my desk in full 3d and shooting each other. I'm interested to wait for the 8_ series. Would certainly make sense to hang fire if something new is on the horizon.
 

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The case is a personal choice, I like the window of the R4, and that it blocks the view of the Drive racks. Big, plenty of room, easy to cool. The other two are great choices too, so you should definitely check all three and decide what you like. (Newegg has videos of the R4 and I think the other two as well if you look them up)

The 780ti is the current high end gaming gpu with the 8xx series expected later this year. With a 780ti, I think you should be able to run 3 1080p monitors with no trouble if that's what you wanted. The 780ti is better than, for instance, two 760s in SLI and completely obliterates your girlfriends rig.
Otherwise, it'll blow away any game you throw at it for a good while. There's a good chance prices for the 780 will drop when the 8xx series is released. Though mostly it's bragging rights, for your price range it's what I would go for, to see a nice big 780ti through the window of my case. You could go for a 770 and probably not notice the performance difference. 780ti should last you longer though for future games.
 

Readycheck

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I have no doubts that it's more powerful that my partners GFX card, but if hers is running games at Ultra spec, I just wonder what differences I would notice for the additional £400. Is it mainly a case of how long into the future it will stay above water?

I may wait for the 8_ series period, but it depends on a few other things. ATM I'm running a single monitor setup but I'd certainly like to move to a Triple monitor setup in the future.

Are 3 monitors really that Amazing? I'm currently using (I think) a Benq 22" which is fantastic quality and only about £100 so I could easily spend another £200 to convert to Triple if it's going to be that epic.

Thank you again for your input

Also

http://www.ebuyer.com/613016-gigabyte-gtx-780-ti-3gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-hdmi-displayport-pci-e-graphics-gv-n78toc-3gd?utm_source=google&utm_medium=products&gclid=CImIsLjJq70CFdHLtAodqQMAeQ

Is that the same card but a ton cheaper? Cheers
 

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Certainly looks to be the same, partpicker gets strange about some listings no idea why.

Yeah, on a 22" a 770 would do just as well I think and even run 3 monitors. As I said, a 780ti would mostly be for bragging rights, I know I'd certainly be bragging ^_^
 

Readycheck

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http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/Readycheck/saved/49yZ

After flicking through many forums and grabbing many pieces of advice, I've revised the past list to the above, and I can happily report that it's £750 after tweaks.

Can anyone offer inout / feedback, and/or confirm it will smash the current gaming market with minimal ease? My PC wouldn't boot this morning so it seems that god wants me to have a new PC

At the moment for an OS drive I have

Hard Drive: Crucial M5000 120GB SSD

Still new in the box. Should I be using something else? Friend of mine mentioned that a newer generation is out and mine may be a little outdated for the build
 

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The 212 EVO comes with Thermal Paste in a syringe, it's really up to you if you want to look around for a "better" paste, but the one with it will be fine. Thermal paste is a heat conductive material that is applied to the heat sink when you install it on the CPU, it gets pressed into the imperfect areas between the heat sink and cpu to transfer heat better.

Build looks good. Ram will be fine.

After thought: Since you aren't interested in overclocking, you might consider dropping down a level on the board to an H87, if you want to save a bit more money, otherwise that is a very solid board and looks good.
 

Readycheck

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never really looked into overclocking. would it be an option down the line? i have friends who overclock frequently

what differences would i notice between the x87/h87? at £750 im quite satisfied and happy to keep the upgrade if it will give me options in the future.
 

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Keeping the motherboard (which looks great to me) will give you the option to upgrade the CPU to overclock later. If you want to look into overclocking the CPU, you should consider a K version which I think will add about £30 on to your build to swap out the 4570 for a 4670k or you can knock about £100 off the mobo to get an H87 and forget about overclocking. At which point the after market cpu cooler is more to be confident that your system is cool enough than it is to make sure you don't overheat while trying out overclocking. I could be wrong however.

Personally, I think what you've got is great with plenty of freedom for stuff down the line. I am going with a K version because I am curious about overclocking and intend to try it out.

The differences in the boards are usually the features, you get more features with a z87 (including easier overclocking from what I'm reading), though I couldn't tell you specifically, and wholly, what.
 
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Readycheck

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Or perhaps swap it for

Gigabyte GA-Z87X-D3H LGA 1150 Intel Z87 @ $144.99

Recommended on TS build list. although I'm not sure wether to skimp another £100 if it will limit my options further down the line. should i be aiming for the better board to overclock?
 

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If you are curious about overclocking, you could go straight for the 4670K rather than decide to upgrade later and have fun seeing what you can get out of your system. It adds about £50 onto your recent updated list but that comes from the extra to go for the ability to overclock the CPU (about £30 extra for the 4670k) and an extra £20 gets you the 4GB GTX 760 from Gigabyte.

Remember, at the end of the day you are considering brands, you can look up reviews and other's experiences of the card and decide what looks great to you. My planned build will have Gigabyte's 770 version.

Ask your friend what he thinks of the Gigabyte windforce version of the 760.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£166.99 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£26.98 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth Z87 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£173.29 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£63.49 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 760 4GB Video Card (£215.98 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Titanium Grey) ATX Mid Tower Case (£82.25 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£67.86 @ CCL Computers)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£11.72 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £808.56
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-25 19:39 GMT+0000)
 

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PSU should be coming with all the cables you need. Modular and Semi Modular designs just tell you that you can unplug all cables from the PSU (modular) or most of them apart from the main power cables (semi). Makes for nicer cable management. Non modular PSU leave you tucking unused cables out of the way, not a HUGE issue in a case as spacious as the R4.