As a fair amount of other people appear to have decided, It's time for a new build and Sandy Bridge fits the bill. Scan Basket I'm pretty confident about everything except the case, mostly due to cooling concerns. The extra fan is for the side panel of the Define R3 to improve airflow to the GPU, leaving the rear case fan to deal with the OC'd 2500k. Hopefully this will provide adequate cooling under load while keeping the system quite quiet when I'm not gaming. Suggestions are gratefully appreciated!
Looks good. Case is expensive for m tastes, but then I tend to be on a tighter budget so stick to a HAF 912+ price range. Personal opinion for me is to go with the GTX 570 but then that is mostly based on Nvidia favoritism. Depending on resolution the 2gb from the 6970 may be helpful. Only thing I would change based on more than personal preference is actually the motherboard. I believe for £1 more you can get the MSI board with SLI capability. Having said that, you will only have 2 x 6gb/s SATA sockets so that may matter. Also, if you were to go with an SLI board you would need at least 750W PSU. So essentially all I am suggesting is a few tweaks based on opinion, the build you have is a solid one. Just remember to keep an eye on the Today only deals as HDDs, RAM and i5 2500K with a mobo is often on sale
Thanks, I hadn't noticed the today only deals changed at lunchtime My choice of GPU was mostly based on AMD/ATI favouritism, I play games at 1920x1080 but am looking to add another monitor in the near future or possibly go to 3 screens, which is where the extra memory earns its keep. If I do go the Nvidia route, that looks like the way forward!
No need to just be Nvidia route. The board does SLI and Crossfire. Though again, a 750W PSU would be wanted. But it means one day you could have TWO 6970s
