£1000 gaming pc advice

[raceway99]

hi im going to build a gaming pc in about 1-2 months have £1000 budget and need advice on which components to get

my current choice:


cheers for your help
raceway99

EDIT: forgot to add these

total price is £1005.98

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would ask advice closer to the date you intend to purchase the components. Regarding the choices you have made the rest of the PC would be a bottleneck to the graphics card and an HD5970 would not fit in the case you have specified and the PSU would not be powerful enough IMHO.

[raceway99]

I would ask advice closer to the date you intend to purchase the components.

Will do that aswell just wanted a rough idea of components

an HD5970 would not fit in the case

are you sure because coolermasters website list the case as being 400mm long and there arent any hdd bays in the way (providing it goes in the top slot)

the rest of the PC would be a bottleneck to the graphics card

which components would you suggest to get the most from the 5970?

again cheers for the help and the insanely quick reply

[matty-hodgson]

i'd suggest you wait for Fermi if you're gonna be spending £550 on a graphics card. they're out in a couple of months and should offer good performance.
also, i5 or i7 at least.

[Terbinator]

For £1000 You may as well go Core i5/7. Is the 5970 really necessary, i would of thought a 5870 would easily suffice.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Will do that aswell just wanted a rough idea of components



are you sure because coolermasters website list the case as being 400mm long and there arent any hdd bays in the way (providing it goes in the top slot)





which components would you suggest to get the most from the 5970?

again cheers for the help and the insanely quick reply

I would go for a Phenom II X4 955BE or at least a Phenom II X4 945. Basically a Phenom II X4 at around 2.8GHZ will not bottleneck an HD5970 from what I have read. The Athlon II processors lack L3 cache which means that gaming performance drops.

I would be going with at least a decent 650W or 750W PSU.

I would say at least one of the following PSUs:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/650W-...Silent-Fan-PSU

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/750W-...-80plus-Bronze

Also it maybe better value for money to go for a pair of HD5850 1GB cards in Crossfire with even a 790X motherboard.

If you intend to go for a single HD5870 you should go for a Core i5 or Core i7 build. You maybe able to fit in a pair of HD5850 cards into a Core i5 build but it will cost more for having Crossfire.

TBH,wait until you are going to actually buy the components!!

It would be prudent to wait another 2 to 3 months as Nvidia will releasing their new DX11 cards,AMD will be releasing the 890 series chipset and Phenom II X6 chips and the pricing of even currently available components will most probably change.

[raceway99]

cheers for replys

think ill wait until phenom II X6 is out then get an X4 or i5

wat would be the advantage is crossfired 5850s - they cost the same, have same amount of ram, have same clock speed but the 5970 has 320 more stream processors

@CAT-THE-FIFTH

just curious why did you choose those PSU's over the cheaper 650W antec earthwatts or corsair?

also would a core i5 750 work in a h55 mobo?

cheers
raceway99

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

cheers for replys

think ill wait until phenom II X6 is out then get an X4 or i5

wat would be the advantage is crossfired 5850s - they cost the same, have same amount of ram, have same clock speed but the 5970 has 320 more stream processors

@CAT-THE-FIFTH

just curious why did you choose those PSU's over the cheaper 650W antec earthwatts or corsair?

also would a core i5 750 work in a h55 mobo?

cheers
raceway99

If the Crossfired setup costs the same as HD5970 then I would go for this instead.

The Antecs have got good reviews from jonnyguru:

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php...Story&reid=113

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php...Story&reid=140

The Earthwatts are decent but are a cheaper range.

The Antecs I mentioned are also modular which means less cable mess in the case.

If you don't mind going for a non-modular PSU they tend to be cheaper.

[raceway99]

soz didn't notice they were modular

what do you think of all the other components?

cheers
raceway99

p.s. sorry for the millions of questions but ive never built a pc before

[Domestic_Ginger]

The tower cooler will not leave enough space for a fan in the highest place on the size panel btw so you should only need 3. Gor a grand I would look at a nicer case coming with more fans.

Good choice to get a more powerful system.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

soz didn't notice they were modular

what do you think of all the other components?

cheers
raceway99

p.s. sorry for the millions of questions but ive never built a pc before

I would probably go for an AM3 motherboard and DDR3 but like I said things could change in the next few months. Luckily current AMD Phenom II and Athlon II processors can use both DDR2 and DDR3 meaning there is flexibility in what motherboards and RAM you can get.

With the Thermalright cooler I assume you are going to use one of the 120MM fans you have listed??

I would also make sure about whether you can fit the HD5970 in the case as it is a very long graphics card indeed!

[raceway99]

I would probably go for an AM3 motherboard and DDR3 but like I said things could change in the next few months. Luckily current AMD Phenom II and Athlon II processors can use both DDR2 and DDR3 meaning there is flexibility in what motherboards and RAM you can get.

With the Thermalright cooler I assume you are going to use one of the 120MM fans you have listed??

I would also make sure about whether you can fit the HD5970 in the case as it is a very long graphics card indeed!

actually i was gonna use two fans in a push/pull, will this work?

i was gonna go for ddr3 but read somewhere that the actual speed of RAM is clock speed / latency (making the ddr2 listed a little bit faster and a lot cheaper than ddr3 1600 cl8). Is this a good way to work out the speed?

i'll e-mail coolermaster about getting a 5970 in that case

cheers
raceway99

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

actually i was gonna use two fans in a push/pull, will this work?

i was gonna go for ddr3 but read somewhere that the actual speed of RAM is clock speed / latency (making the ddr2 listed a little bit faster and a lot cheaper than ddr3 1600 cl8). Is this a good way to work out the speed?

i'll e-mail coolermaster about getting a 5970 in that case

cheers
raceway99

This article should be useful for you to read:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ddr3,2319.html

TBH,whether you choose PC2-8500 DDR2 or faster DDR3 is dependent on cost. DDR3 would be probably better in the long term as it could be possible that future AMD processors will be DDR3 only. OTH, this is dependent on how long the socket lasts and this is the same with Intel too!

Another DDR2 motherboard to consider is the Asus M3A78-T which has been on special offer on Scan few times in the last couple of weeks for under £60:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-...A-RAID-ATX-VGA

[raceway99]

cheers for all the help especially CAT-THE-FIFTH

think you've answered all my questions and i'll post again when i have enough money

cheers
raceway99