Hi everyone, Just want to buy a new system ready for battlefield 3 and saw the warbird 570k reviewed in custom pc magazine and they said it was great value. However the review is now 2 months old! The price is £999.99 Inc VAT with a £16 delivery charge. I used to build my own systems but am not a great techie and my systems never ever seemed to be stable and solid probably due to my lack of tweaking with the settings as I do not know how to do this. I just thought maybe this time I should just leave it to the professionals this time, they overclock the system and turn it into a really good gaming system Here are the specs Intels brand new, 2nd generation Core architecture processors are performance personified. A stunning new design.When you do a simple clock-to-clock analysis, you can easily find cases where Intels new chips are as much as 30% faster than the previous generation. Everything is faster: Rendering, gaming & encoding are all deeply affected. FULL SYSTEM SPECS PC CASE - FT03 CASE POWER SUPPLY - 550W PSU MOTHERBOARD - INTEL P67 CHIPSET MOTHERBOARD (B3 Revision) PROCESSOR - CORE i5-2500K - QUAD CORE - SANDYBRIDGE OVERCLOCKED - YES - 4.6Ghz CPU COOLER - CONTAC 29 CPU COOLER MEMORY ONE - 4GB DDR3 - 1600Mhz MEMORY MEMORY TWO - NONE - UPGRADE OPTION SOLID STATE DRIVE - NONE - UPGRADE OPTIONS HARD DRIVE - 2TB SATAII OPTICAL DRIVER - DVD REWRITER GRAPHICS CARD ONE - GEFORCE GTX 570 - 1280MB GRAPHICS GRAPHICS MODE - SINGLE CARD SOUND - 5.1 CHANNEL OPERATING SYSTEM - WINDOWS 7 HOME PREMIUM Pre Installed (Licence Only) Would really appreciate any advice guys Cheers Ross
http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/configurePrd.asp?idproduct=1110 i5 2500k overclocked to 4.7ghz Thermaltake Frio Asus P8Z68-V 4GB *1600mhz* 500gb sata III drive *no second hard drive* Corsair TX650W Windows 7 64 bit Now I chose a CM storm enforcer as the case, but thats down to you, all that came to £846 with 3 years warranty.
The system would be capable but overpriced. A couple of major failings in it too. It's sole HD is a 2TB which means a media 5400RPM drive=slow and it would manifest in thing such as really long boot times, slow game loading and random lag in windows. Self building you could be putting an SSD in at that price range. The PSU isn't named so likely unbranded? An Intel motherboard rather than one of the motherboard manufacturers version. Not a good idea. Self build it. Cheaper and a much nicer system to. Over clocking isn't even needed by you to get the same system. Modern board will have an auto overclock which can boost a 2500k to 4.5ghz and you can easily buy a pre overclocked graphic card.
I don't see why an Intel motherboard is a poor idea, it's got a better warranty than the third parties and they're normally super stable. I ran a BadAxe for a long time and was very pleased. It even overclocked well.
definitely build your own - especially round the 2500k chip - very little to go wrong with setting up, and you can always rely on the forums for help.
Thanks everyone for the help really appreciate it, I will build my own system then Any reccomendations for around £1000 excluding monitor? Cheers Ross
*Breaths in* Prices are estimates - please allow +/- £5 either way Case - Fractal Design Define R3 - £80 PSU - Corsair TX650w - £80 MB - MSI P67A-GD53 - £110 CPU - Core i5 2500k oem - £155 RAM - 8GB DDR3 PC12800 - £50 Cooler - Gelid Tranquillo - £25 GPU - HD6950 2GB - £200 SSD (Boot) - Crucial M4 or Agility 3 60GB - £90 HD (Storage) - Samsung SP F3 1TB - £40 Optical Drive - DVD-RW - £15 OS - Win 7 HP OEM - £70 Total Spend - £915 Take you time to build everything and you should be fine. Leave EVERYTHING stock in the bios (bar AHCI in the bios - for the SSD) and let the system fully bed in. An i5 2500k stock, coupled with a stock HD6950 is a pretty potent machine anyway, you shouldn't *have* to overclock out of the box. If I was builing this system personally (it is very similar to my main Gaming PC) I would swap out the 60GB SSD for a "slower" 120GB Vertex 2E or trade up to a Z68 motherboard to take advantage of the SRT. The former gives you enough room for the OS, primary programs and 4-5 games whilst the latter gives you 80-90% of the benefits of an SSD without the size drawback. The total price of just over £900 allows scope for more storage space, a dedicated sound card or a Blu Ray RW drive. I have merely built what I think to be a solid base system that will happily handle 1080p without breaking too much of a sweat. *Exhales* EDIT: Derp - I forgot the RAM.....
That would be a bloody good build, like mine but with crazy good graphics and an SSD. I would question going for OEM parts as I'd assume it limits upgrades or resells, though perhaps that isn't an issue for you. Also, as an owner of the FT03, if you decide you like it's looks and interesting build design you need a 'micro-ATX' motherboard, I'd go for an ASUS P8P67M-Pro (around £105), consider your CPU cooler carefully (as there isn't exactly a chasm of spare space inside an FT03) and make sure you get a modular PSU with a good warranty and great reviews. Also you would need a slot loading slim DVD Drive (around £30) and a connector for it (around £5). Finally, I assume you'd like some RAM with that? I'd suggest 8GB of DDR3 1600MHz (don't go lower and don't bother going higher as it isn't worth it), get good timings (don't go bigger than 9-9-9-24). Also, make sure you get the 1.5v RAM, not the older 1.65v as the extra voltage isn't required with intel's sandybridge processors (the i5 and the like). This will cost you somewhere around £50-£70. Get a good make (like Corsair) too. Hope that helps!
If you can go over budget. Then this system will future proof you for a long time. GTX 470 at £137 is a steal. So 2 of these will beat a GTX 580. I have also allowed a good water cooler to keep the 2500 temps right down, for a higher OC. A big CM HAF case gives great air flow, so everything stays nice and cool. LG IPS monitor will give you a great gaming experience, whist giving you good accurate colours. SSD for a boot drive, and a 2TB HDD for plenty of storage. This set up will max out any game with maximum AA. (Probably Crysis 1 as well). Cheers, Simon.
xaser build is perfect true_gamer's is a bit more enthusiast rather than user friendly/easy to use that you seem to want. As said that machine is so powerful that overclocking isn't even necessary. At most you'd be able to bump AA from 4x to 8x or something in a game like BF3.
Ah cheers simon and xaser, I think I will go for xasers build bit debating whether to go for 2 of the 460's or the 2gb 6950, what's everyones thinking on this? Also I think i will go for the z68 motherboard if I get this shall I keep the same ssd card you listed In your original post? Cheers for the help Ross
Cheers simon and xaser, I think I will go for xasers build but am debating whether to go for 2 x 470 cards or the 2gb card xaser listed, what's everyone's thinking of this? Also I think I will upgrade the motherboard to the z68 if so shall I stick with the 60gb ssd you mentioned? Thanks for your help Ross
