Hi, ill start by saying i have been planning to write this thread for some time but feel ive found the appropriate place, finally. My build is based around a £2500 all inclusive budget. Unfortunately with more than one of my desired components not available yet, there is some leeway here. Due to the nature of the project there is always a little extra if absolutely essential. The primary function of the PC will be for gaming but it will also feature as a media center providing output for a Full HD projector and home theatre surround sound. No single component is set in stone the reason for me posting is to get the best value and performance and i am very willing to accept advice and debate individual aspects. Considerations Yes i will be over clocking No i will no be reusing any old parts Processor The new i7-980 series look perfect but if uk pricing exceeds £650 it will be tough to stay on budget. Any info on overclock, real world performance, pricing ect would help a lot. i7-930 now available looks like a given but will it out perform the 920 d0 stepping OCed? Again info very welcome. (£238) Motherboard Asus ROG rampage iii extreme should be available mid march seems like the perfect base for my build with all the new features and going by track record should be tough to better. est £300 Video Card At the moment the plan is to go with a single GF100 with the option to double up in the future. Again due for release in march. est £350-400 **Thats it with the unreleased hardware Storage, Optical and RAM Boot drive SSD this seems a bit over the top and will probably try find a £200 model but its SATA III and boasts 350B read speeds! 128GB Crucial RealSSD C300 2.5-inch (£380) Cutting a little money and using the more practical 64GB Corsair Nova Series, 64MB DDR2, 2.5" SSD, SATA II, Read 215MB/s, Write 130MB/s, Retail(£155) Capacity drives. Now here id like to hear opinions of raid 5/3/1+0 over plain raid 0, drives would be identical and this seems like a fairly good option but a possible penny saving area. 1.5TB Seagate ST31500341AS Barracuda 7200.11, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm, 32MB Cache, 8 ms, NCQ (£92 ea) As for the ram its slightly dependant on the 980x possible being limited on ram speeds but the plan is to go with 6GB should be enough and using any more than 3 slots has negative effects on overclocks, i think... if not then i might up it a little as i do have the tendency to push multitasking limits. Im going for higher frequency to help with overclocks but my knowledge here is very limited if this wont help im sure someone will belittle me! 6GB(3x2GB) Corsair Dominator GT, DDR3 PC3-16000(2000), NonECC Unbuffered, CAS 8, DHX, XMP, DF, 1.65V (£238) I will be using the PC as the primary BD player so a decent drive is needed. Do i really need dvd RW? dont remember ever burning a dvd and cant think why i would and i have a laptop that can if need be so i think going with just a plain BD/DVD reader is ok but i can only find ones made by liteon and ive never heard of them. Should i go with it or just get a low end LG that does it all? LiteOn IHOS104-37 4xBlu-Ray, 8x DVD Reader OEM inc Software (£54) Case, PS and cooling Out of all the cases ive seen the Haf 932 seems like it has great space and i quite like the look. If you can give me a reason to change it, im listening. Coolermaster HAF 932 Black, High Air Flow Tower Case w/o PSU (New Version) (£107) For the power supply the choice lies in going modular or not. For now im going with modular but its a possible place to save a few quid come the chop. 850W Corsair CMPSU-850HXUK, ATX, EPS12V, Modular, UK Version - 7 Year Warranty (£128) The plan is to go for water cooling but this is one of the areas ill be looking to use a price control. I havent looked to much in to fully custom cooling yet but it will depend on budget. I do however quite like the look of the new CoolIT products Vantage ALC (124$ ~ £85) but ive not seen any reviews on actual performance. For now im just gunna say ~£100 on all cooling extras and go from there if i find the money. Monitors and Peripherals For the monitors im going with a dual screen set up. The decision here lies in getting identical screens or 1 high quality central screen with a secondary for auxiliary content. The only real reason i can consider for identical screens is for theatrics dual screening games. I have a projector for movie content and i think super wide screening games is more of a gimmick than a tool. So the plan is to go with a large main screen with gaming response times ect and a secondary smaller screen. My knowledge of screens being rather limited im open to suggestions looking to spend no more than £450 total here. Mouse GIGABYTE GM-M8000X Rubber Black 7 Buttons USB Wired Laser Gaming Mouse (£45) Keyboard Logitech G19 Keyboard for Gaming Wired Keyboard (£120) Budget and review If estimated prices hold up and the full 450 is used on screens and 100 on cooling total price comes to 2469 and i feel i have a lot of room to manoeuvre to add in custom cooling or the 980 should i pick that route. Thanks in advance for any input Chris(Thinkplay)
