Sub £1000 gaming system, striking a good balance between components

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calyx

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Mar 8, 2014
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Hi tom's hardware forum, looking for a bit of buying advice as trying to put together a new gaming system for less than a grand and struggling to know what balance to strike between components to get the best gaming experience.

Currently using a C2Q system with an old AMD HD4870 graphics card at full HD, looking to retain the screen and input devices (and optical drive).

Priorities: playing new games at a decent quality level
Thoughts: Small SSD and 2-3TB drive for boot and virtual RAM, not fussed about getting another 15% from overclocking but don't want to get a PSU that doesn't have a bit of headroom either. Do a bit of VMWare so would like to hit 16GB of RAM if not crazy expensive for fast RAM. Not a die hard AMD, Intel or NVidea fan but have been leaning toward the i7-4770 / GTX 760 combination. As I'm not really looking to OC very much, if at all, I wasn't really sure how much to spend on the mobo, or which brand. Same as with the PSU, don't really have a preference, it's not a part that does any work directly so naturally I want to get the cheapest one that will work reliably playing games.

Here's what I got so far, not the cheapest store so any tips appreciated! Thanks in advance,

Overclockers.co.uk
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £259.99
(£216.66) £259.99
(£216.66)
EVGA GeForce GTX 760 SC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (02G-P4-2762-KR) EVGA GeForce GTX 760 SC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (02G-P4-2762-KR) £193.99
(£161.66) £193.99
(£161.66)
TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD316G1600HC9DC01) TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD316G1600HC9DC01) £109.99
(£91.66) £109.99
(£91.66)
Gigabyte Z87-HD3 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard Gigabyte Z87-HD3 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £82.99
(£69.16) £82.99
(£69.16)
Cooler Master 690 III Advanced Midi-Tower - Window Pure Black Cooler Master 690 III Advanced Midi-Tower - Window Pure Black £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Seagate Barracuda 3TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST3000DM001) HDD Seagate Barracuda 3TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST3000DM001) HDD £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Kingston 60GB SSDNow KC380 Drive mSATA 6Gb/s 1.8" Solid State Hard Drive - (SKC380S3/60G) Kingston 60GB SSDNow KC380 Drive mSATA 6Gb/s 1.8" Solid State Hard Drive - (SKC380S3/60G) £64.99
(£54.16) £64.99
(£54.16)
Corsair Builder Series CX 600w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020060-UK) Corsair Builder Series CX 600w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020060-UK) £62.99
(£52.49) £62.99
(£52.49)
Akasa AK-178-GR 12" Cold Cathode - Green Akasa AK-178-GR 12" Cold Cathode - Green £9.98
(£8.32) £9.98
(£8.32)
Sub Total : £787.43
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
UPS Access Point
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.00
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £159.09
Total : £954.52
 
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A better balance between components would be an i5/GTX 770 combo for gaming:

CPU: i5 4670k - 170£
MB: Gigabyte Ga-Z87x-D3H - 100£
GPU: MSI GTX 770 Gaming 2GB - 240£
RAM: Kingston HyperX Blu 2x4GB 1600 - 66£
SSD: Kingston SSDNow V300 120gb - 60£
Case: CM 690 III - 80£
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 3TB - 80£
PSU: Corsair CX600M - 63£

It all costs around 1030£ including VAT, and will perform much better in games. If you don't plan on overclocking, you can swap the CPU for an i5 4570 and the motherboard for a H87 one, which will save you some money and still perform admirably.


 
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fx 8320 would be plenty for gaming.
cooler master evo is a cheaper alternative to be quiet dark pro 3.

powercolor r9 290 for ~330 pounds is boss, not 290x but still realy good performance, and cooling
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/R9_290X_PCS_Plus/23.html







PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor (£105.59 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Be Quiet DARK ROCK PRO 3 93.3 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler (£65.96 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£98.92 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£99.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£62.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£79.93 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 290 4GB Video Card (£329.99 @ Aria PC)
Case: NZXT H440 (Red/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£104.59 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£64.96 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1012.92
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-08 23:52 GMT+0000)




PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor (£105.59 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H55 57.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£49.18 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£98.92 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£99.99 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£62.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£79.93 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 290 4GB Video Card (£329.99 @ Aria PC)
Case: NZXT H440 (Red/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£104.59 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£64.96 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £996.14
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-08 23:55 GMT+0000)
 
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Thanks 4eyed, have moved some numbers about and found some cheaper components. http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/calyx/saved/3ZGj.

Would be prepared to downgrade from the 4770 to an i5 or something, but not sure about the motherboard, what will the £100 one do that those other ones dont?

Could push for a cheaper GTX 780 if going down to an i5-4670K but it is a fair bit slower than a 4770. If that's where the priority is for games though so be it! http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/calyx/saved/3ZGj

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4570 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£139.19 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 Evo 43.1 CFM CPU Cooler (£15.94 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-D3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£99.44 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£99.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 60GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£38.38 @ Scan.co.uk)
Storage: Toshiba 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£71.99 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card (£380.99 @ Dabs)
Case: Cooler Master CM 690 II (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£80.38 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: XFX TS 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£63.59 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £989.89
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-08 23:55 GMT+0000)
 
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I worry about having 8 cores though, will that deliver the best performance in the real world? I'm sure they're developing more for 8 thread systems these days but it's still a bit away, great value though, not sure I share your desire for a £50 fan though. Nice case though, well worth a few bob more!

Here's the latest one with the H87 chipset, not sure about the model though.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£161.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 Evo 43.1 CFM CPU Cooler (£15.94 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H87-D3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£77.00 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£99.99 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 60GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£38.38 @ Scan.co.uk)
Storage: Toshiba 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£71.99 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card (£380.99 @ Dabs)
Case: Cooler Master CM 690 II (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£80.38 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: XFX TS 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£63.59 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £990.25
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-09 00:15 GMT+0000)
 
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This is probably the best build for an extra 90 quids!
 
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If you're not going to overclock, get the i5 4570 and an H87 motherboard. Basically the only difference between Z and H87 is that H can't overclock and Z can.

The i5 will be insignificantly slower than the i7 in gaming, so don't worry about getting the i7, it is really unnecessary.

In the system you've chosen the only things i would change is the CPU and the PSU. Downgrade the CPU to an i5 4570 if you don't plan on overclocking, it will perform the same as a non-overclocked 4670k for a few quids less. Also, while that PSU will probably be able to handle the 780, i would recommend getting something a bit beefier, maybe a corsair RM650, XFX Core Pro650, or something from seasonic or EVGA.
 
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