Advice on Building a gaming pc

first of all hi and thank you to everyyone who helped my build my fiirst pc.

right ok i want to build a gaming pc

ive got about 2k to spend

so first bit what would be a good tower and mboard

also is there a good power supply with long leads or will i have to buy connectors to
make them longer

hopefully i will have enough money for a decent moniter as well

and was looking into getting 12g ram just to fill the slots up and help comp run better

so thts it to start then after that just need gcard and hard drive and dvd cd rom

thats all i thunk but im sure i have missed something.

look forward for the help .

thanks Dark

You don't need to spend £2000 to get a decent gaming system.

I would look to spend less and then keep around £500 for graphics cards upgrades over the next few years. This way you will have better gaming performance over the lifespan of the build IMHO.

12GB of RAM is not needed for modern games when 4GB will do. TBH,if you get 8GB now you will be fine for years.

A Core i7 is also not really needed for a gaming build as a Core i5 will do the job fine.

Also,are you going to overclock??

TBH,your current system would still do the job.

I would overclock the Q6600 and get a better graphics card.

AMD Bulldozer is being released in the next few months and will probably affect the pricing of current CPUs too.

tbh the system i got was my first home build and although ive only had one ever problem(then it turns out dident put enough paste between heatsink and prosesser).

and wanted another better system as my young one now uses the comp more and i suppose it one way of gettting another and at least if one packs up ill have the other as back up.

Do want to run a dual card setup or just one more powerful card??

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH

Do want to run a dual card setup or just one more powerful card??

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duel would be good but 1 is also good

so tbh not sure as 2 as an option what sort of price diff would be 1 or 2?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Darkclone

duel would be good but 1 is also good

so tbh not sure as 2 as an option what sort of price diff would be 1 or 2?

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You can buy a cheaper motherboard. You can get a P67 single card motherboard for around £100 whereas the ones which can run two cards are nearer £150.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH

You can buy a cheaper motherboard. You can get a P67 single card motherboard for around £100 whereas the ones which can run two cards are nearer £150.

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if its roughly about 50ish between the 2 m board then duel would more to suit me tbh

Are you going to overclock or do you keep the CPU running at stock speeds??

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH

Are you going to overclock or do you keep the CPU running at stock speeds??

---

i suppose i should look into overclock at some point (tbh bit nervous to do so )but i may as well to have the option to do so.

You can get free postage from Scan BTW but they will get the Core i5 2500K on the 26th of January as opposed to the 19th of January for Ebuyer.

I consider the following build:

Intel Core i5 2500K ~ £185

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/251596

For a gaming computer the Core i7 2600K is not worth the extra outlay IMHO.

Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz CL9 1.5V ~ £98

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/248846

Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4 ~ £154

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/247073

This can do both symmetrical SLI and Crossfire at PCI-E 2.0 8X. It also USB3.0 and SATA3.0 too.

Corsair CWCH50-1 Cooling Hydro Series H50 High-performance CPU Cooler ~ £55

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/177411

Sapphire HD 6950 2GB ~ £240

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/250396

This has the potential to be unlocked to an HD6970 2GB. A pair of HD6950 2GB cards in Crossfire is faster than a GTX580 AFAIK.

Corsair Professional Series AX750 750W Modular PSU ~ £134

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/227500

There are cheaper PSUs available but the this unit is based on the Seasonic X-750.

Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB Hard Drive ~ £40

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173804

CM Storm Sniper Black Edition Case - With Windowed Side Panel ~ £112

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/221748

OR

CM Storm Sniper Black Case ~ £131

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/221748

Windows 7 Retail ~ £115

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/168373

LiteOn IHAS124-19~ £12

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176026

The total comes to around £1145 to £1164.


You may want to add an appropriate SSD but I am not so clued up on these ATM. The Corsair ones do seem to having issues ATM.

A 120GB SSD should be around £180.

Also,do you need a colour accurate monitor or one which is more optimised for gaming??

A colour accurate 24" monitor will be around £300 to £500. A gaming optimised 24" monitor should be under £300 IIRC.

Edit!!

You could probably get a cheaper air cooler for the CPU as the Core i5 2500K does not run that hot it seems.

Well many of the p67 more expensive motherboard has automatic overclocking features which work quite well.

The Asus system seem to be best, the MSI system is good but not quite so good, the gigabyte one is probably the weakest.

first of all thank you for taking the time to produce the list that u have.

i will look at it in depth tomorrow

only one question i have at the moment is as the i5 processer is out on the 26th

also there is a i7 also out on the same day i no the i7 is a bit more expensive but would that be a bit better?

AFAIK the Asus P67 motherboards are having issues ATM.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Darkclone

first of all thank you for taking the time to produce the list that u have.

i will look at it in depth tomorrow

only one question i have at the moment is as the i5 processer is out on the 26th

also there is a i7 also out on the same day i no the i7 is a bit more expensive but would that be a bit better?

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Like I said in post 10 Ebuyer has the CPUs out on the 19th and also that a Core i7 2600K is not worth an extra £80 IMHO.

SSDs are just releasing the new generation now. Perhaps install on the HDD and wait a couple of months ?
Otherwise I can recommend the Vertex 2e Bigfoot.

ok had a good look and all i need now is a moniter i suppose i need a gaming moniter over 23 if poss

and just need to wait for processercomes in stock and ill make an order :)

This 23" monitor looks good for the price:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/23-de...cp-displayport

It is both colour accurate and will be fine for gaming it seems:

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_u2311h.htm

This monitor is not colour accurate but is a 120HZ monitor:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/24-be...cd-m-2-ms-vesa

thank you once again for the moniter list

glad i got a couple of days to make a choice

i have decided one thing lol i want at least a 24

so i had better get searching :)

If you are not worried about absolute colour accuracy the BenQ XL2410T I suggested earlier should do the job.

Here are some reviews of the monitor:

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/benq_xl2410t.htm

http://apcmag.com/first-look-the-benq-xl2410t-.htm

http://www.techtree.com/India/Review...113-630-1.html

yup had a read of the moniter looks good only down side is

i will have to wait until the end of the month.

oh one quick question would the processer be ok with the heat sink for the moment

until i look into the overclocking or just fit the one u have posted ??

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Darkclone

yup had a read of the moniter looks good only down side is

i will have to wait until the end of the month.

oh one quick question would the processer be ok with the heat sink for the moment

until i look into the overclocking or just fit the one u have posted ??

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The stock heatsink should be fine.

There maybe cheaper aftermarket coolers too but the Corsair H50 is supposed to be decent.

If you want to save a bit more money you could also consider these PSUs too:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/750w-...-120mm-pwm-fan

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/750w-...-year-warranty

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/750w-...-12v-140mm-fan

hey cat tbh the list u have allready given me is cool

just one question is this case ok just wanted it to stand out abit (i was on ebuyer and saw this case

ive only got a name as linking have never been one of my strong points (lol)

this one.........Antec
Antec Dark Fleet DF-85 Case - No PSU

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Darkclone

hey cat tbh the list u have allready given me is cool

just one question is this case ok just wanted it to stand out abit (i was on ebuyer and saw this case

ive only got a name as linking have never been one of my strong points (lol)

this one.........Antec
Antec Dark Fleet DF-85 Case - No PSU

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Your right! It does stand out!

It seems to get decent reviews though:

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/artic...se-Review/1033

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cas...fleet-review/1

Here are two smaller versions of the case which are much cheaper:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/226655

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/226653

These cases are decent too but are very expensive:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/silve...t-swap-capable

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/silve...se-without-psu

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/silve...window-w-o-psu

Edit!!

This case also stands out:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/240814

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/240815

The case gets decent reviews:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cas...-case-review/1

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/artic...se-Review/1060

nice cases think im going to go with the phantom black

also was just making a list ready for ordering tomorrow and the m board and ram is out of stock lol

so just making sure looked on scan

LN36552 ram

LN36343 mboard

these are the same as u posted

thanks dark

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Darkclone

nice cases think im going to go with the phantom black

also was just making a list ready for ordering tomorrow and the m board and ram is out of stock lol

so just making sure looked on scan

LN36552 ram

LN36343 mboard

these are the same as u posted

thanks dark

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The motherboard seems to be the one I suggested.

However,the RAM is the wrong set as 16GB is OTT. An 8GB set such as the following should do the job:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-(...-9-24-xmp-150v

The HD6950 2GB can be had for under £230 too:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/250399

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-m...-dvi-mhdmi-mdp

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-x...vi-hdmi-2x-mdp

The MSI HD6950 2GB card would be the one to get it seems as it has the best warranty:

http://forums.hexus.net/graphics-car...arranty-2.html

However,the GTX560 is being released next week which could mean lower prices.

OTH,the current HD6950 2GB cards which have a good chance of being unlocked to an HD6970 2GB maybe replaced too.

Remember to check the Scan Today Only and Shop Offers web pages. You also have free Scan postage BTW.

Just going to throw a curve ball at you

If you fancy dipping into 3d then the Zalman trimon is probably the best option out
http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/gaming/trimon
Not exactly cheap and you will need to buy the extra drivers for it (although you can use the nvidia 3d driver for nvidia cards)
http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/pro...zm-iz3d-driver
However it has one big advantage over other "3d" monitors, i's non-flickering, it uses polarised light and non-flickering glasses/snap on lenses (same as a cinema) so no sync issues and it's far less headache inducing.

pob255 thank you for your suggestion but i dont think

i could sit at comp with a pair of specs so the extra features on the moniter would be wasted.

so one final question im going to have 2 g cards so is the 750 w power supply ok

or should i be looking at the 1000w instead ????

i no its a bit more but without getting the cooler at this stage i will have the extra i think??

thinking of

235559 or 235557 or 143019 (from ebuyer)

With a socket 1336 Core i7 920 running at 3.33GHZ and a pair of HD6970 2GB cards power consumption is around 600W:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4061/a...eon-hd-6950/12

600W seems to be around the same power consumption for a similar system:

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1488/18/

AFAIK,the power consumption is measured at the plug.

However,a Sandy Bridge Core i5 and a pair of HD6950 2GB cards will consume less power.

So a decent 750W PSU will be fine TBH.

If you get an 850W unit it will be OTT but I suppose this would mean that at least you know the system won't come even close to stressing it too much.

This 850W PSU is a slightly older design from 2007 but has got good reviews:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129282

These 850W PSUs also have good reviews:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164951

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/227503

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/850w-...-12v-140mm-fan

All the PSUs I suggested have modular cabling so will be more expensive than an equivalent non-modular PSU in many cases.

One thing you might need to check is if the HD6950 2GB will fit fine in the NZXT Phantom case. AFAIK,it should be fine but it would be worth confirming this though.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH

One thing you might need to check is if the HD6950 2GB will fit fine in the NZXT Phantom case. AFAIK,it should be fine but it would be worth confirming this though.

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was think this also looked at the reviews of the case and found this

This case supports video cards up to 14.5” (370 mm) long.

looking on ebuyer the powercolor spec i think this is the size of the card

Board Dimensions 275mmx111.2mmx38mm

so im guessing it will be ok??

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Darkclone

was think this also looked at the reviews of the case and found this

This case supports video cards up to 14.5” (370 mm) long.

looking on ebuyer the powercolor spec i think this is the size of the card

Board Dimensions 275mmx111.2mmx38mm

so im guessing it will be ok??

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It looks so!

lol just about to order the stuff and then the processer is out of stock how lucky am i so

after a look i came up with on scan (LN 36731) i no its more expensive but will it be ok for the m board????

http://www.nzxt.com/new/images/_uplo...y/_MG_9099.jpg
That's an Asus Area 5890 300mm graphics card in it.
The Phantom is designed to take an EATX motherboard and still have plenty of space beside the motherboard to run cables.

Lovely choice of case btw :)

thanks Pob255

nice pic btw and looks like the same psu im gunna be getting

all i need to no now is about the processer and il be parting with my money lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Darkclone

lol just about to order the stuff and then the processer is out of stock how lucky am i so

after a look i came up with on scan (LN 36731) i no its more expensive but will it be ok for the m board????

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I wouldn't get the Core i7 2600k for a gaming build when it costs so much more than a Core i5 2500k.

Here is an OEM version of the Core i5 2500k for around £167:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel...-cache-95w-oem

You will need to buy a cooler though.

The Phantom is a great case, just beware though of trying to route the 8 pin power cable threw the top back hole. It is a very tight fit with my Corsair AX750 and gave up routing it through this after a lot of pain.

lol now im thinking how i built my first one lol

so another question how do u no which cooler will fit the mb

i have really got alot of catching up to do lol:vacant:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by planet436

The Phantom is a great case, just beware though of trying to route the 8 pin power cable threw the top back hole. It is a very tight fit with my Corsair AX750 and gave up routing it through this after a lot of pain.

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thanks for the tip planet

lol ok hopefully i read it right

came up with this

LN28632 (scan)
AC-FREEZER7-PRO-REV2

right decided to go for the first one u posted cat

was unsure about liquid cooling but have to take the step

This would be the cheapest cooler I would go for:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/akasa...6-1366-am2-am3

The following cooler is meant to be quite decent too:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/therm...am3-cpu-cooler

OTH,you may have noticed how big and heavy some of these air coolers are so the H50 in theory should be a bit easier to mount.

Another thing!

AFAIK,socket 1156 and 1155 share the same mounting holes for the coolers. It might be worth checking with Scan to be sure though.

The picture which Pob255 posted of the NZXT Phantom shows an H50 or a similar unit mounted to the CPU.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH

The picture which Pob255 posted of the NZXT Phantom shows an H50 or a similar unit mounted to the CPU.

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yup looks like it just to update all ordered so should get everythig tomorrow

so thanks alot cat for the time u have taken to reply ill update as things go ahead

and also thanks to the ohters that had posted.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Darkclone

yup looks like it just to update all ordered so should get everythig tomorrow

so thanks alot cat for the time u have taken to reply ill update as things go ahead

and also thanks to the ohters that had posted.

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Once everything is up and running it would be nice if you can post some pictures of the build too.

Cat - having read all that. I think you're a damn saint. (and one with an encyclopaedic memory for PC components) :bowdown:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH

Once everything is up and running it would be nice if you can post some pictures of the build too.

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sure ill get the camera ready :)

That cooler is a 240rad not a 120 rad (ie it takes 2x 120mm fans on it) So it's not an h50
It's more to show off that it can mount a 240 rad in the top if you remove the top fan.

The H50 should fit nicely on the rear fan slot, however as far as I remember you cannot then fit a 200mm fan on the side panel as it gets in the way.

Don't get the ACF7p cooler if you want to overclock, for a low cost cooler the coolermaster hyper 212+ is a much better http://www.scan.co.uk/products/coole...m2-am2plus-am3

I'd agree with cat's choices as good coolers I'd also add the Sycthe Mugen2 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/scyth...m2plus-and-940 (although you need to get additional clips to fit it on socket 1156/1155 or the Scythe Yasya http://www.scan.co.uk/products/scyth...iet-cpu-cooler
Also the Akasa Venom http://www.scan.co.uk/products/akasa...56-lga1366-am3
Most of Scan's £35-40 coolers would be good.
The Corsair H50 and H70 are also worth a look.

EDIT: tip for routing the 4/8pin EPS cable, mount the psu before the motherboard and feed that cable through before putting the motherboard in, removing the top fan can also help, put it back before putting in the motherboard.
If you're using a large air cooler fit that on the motherboard while it's out side the case, if you've gone for a self contained water cooler like the h50 then fit that after you've put the motherboard in, fit a rad first then the waterblock/pump unit.

pob in the end i went for

Corsair CWCH50-1 Cooling Hydro Series H50 High-performance CPU Cooler

so as all the bits arrived today im gunna start building tomorrow if all goes well :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pob255

That cooler is a 240rad not a 120 rad (ie it takes 2x 120mm fans on it) So it's not an h50
It's more to show off that it can mount a 240 rad in the top if you remove the top fan.

The H50 should fit nicely on the rear fan slot, however as far as I remember you cannot then fit a 200mm fan on the side panel as it gets in the way.

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http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...gb-s-sata-raid

the back plate does not line up with the holes on the back of the m board so im going to have another look but i
dont think i have got it wrong.

if im reading this right should i have ordered the

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/corsa...66-775-am2-am3

instead of the

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/corsa...lus-am3-new-v2

right it turns out it does fit but the back plate has to fit an angle for all
the holes to line up.

ill post some pics when i get time