Help building a new desktop

[Jctoll]

Hello everyone, I'm new to this website so please bare with me, And i apologize if I’ve posted in the wrong area etc.

Basically it is time to replace my desktop; I would like to build a smaller tower machine (I think they call them Mid Towers?).

I would like it to run modern RTS game (Total war etc) and be slightly future proof if possible. I have just upgraded my screen/speaker/keyboard etc so just require the base unit.

I would like to only spend around 500-600. Would be looking to construct is in 3-4 weeks time.

Any help would be great as I never built a PC before so my knowledge it lacking.
Thanks

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Do you need a copy of Windows and will you be overclocking?? What is the resolution of your screen??

[Jctoll]

Do you need a copy of Windows and will you be overclocking?? What is the resolution of your screen??

I have a Copy of Windows, I haven't thought about overclocking / not sure how to it, but if it is easy to implement i will consider it. I have a Dell ST222OT 21.5in so 1920 x 1080 at 60 Hz

[Digisword]

Well, £600 is plenty to get a very capable gaming machine if you dont need OS, monitor etc. Im in the process of building a £300 rig and I just need to add a graphics card in a few months and i'll be able to play pretty much any DX11 game out now. I'll try and get a build up for you in a bit but I think there would be many others with more experience than me on these forums.

[Jctoll]

Well, £600 is plenty to get a very capable gaming machine if you dont need OS, monitor etc. Im in the process of building a £300 rig and I just need to add a graphics card in a few months and i'll be able to play pretty much any DX11 game out now. I'll try and get a build up for you in a bit but I think there would be many others with more experience than me on these forums.

Cheers I look forward to seeing your build. Any other builds for 500-600 would be great

[Digisword]

Ive made a little build up for you. It has the new i5 Sandy Bridge CPU which has an unlocked multiplier. It has great performance at stock but it can be overclocked really easily especially with the Z68 board. If you want to overclock however, you will need to add an aftermarket CPU cooler to this build. The graphics card is a 6870 that will handle any game you throw at it right now at high settings. The 8GB Ram will future-proof you for quite a while. The prices below are the ones on Scan.co.uk.

Build:

Case: Asus TA-D21 Black Mid Tower Performance Case w/o PSU - 26.99
RAM: 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 XMS3, PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-27, 1.65V - 54.14
PSU: 520W Antec High Current Gamer. 80Plus Bronze, 135mm Quiet Fan, ATX12V 2.3 EPS12V V2.91 PSU 55.18
DVD Drive: Sony AD-7263S-0B 24x DVD±R, 12xDVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RWx6 ,12xRAM SATA, Black, Labelflash, OEM - 16.76
Hard Drive: 500GB Seagate ST3500413AS Barracuda 7200.12, SATA 6Gb/s, 7200rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.5ms, NCQ - 28.67
Processor: Intel Core i5 2500K Unlocked, S1155, Sandy Bridge, Quad Core, 3.3GHz, GPU 850Mhz, 6MB Cache, 95W OEM - 159.78
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3, Intel Z68 Express, S 1155, DDR3 2133, SATA 6Gb/s, RAID, mATX, HDMI - 106.42
GPU: 1GB XFX HD 6870 Black Edition, 4600MHz GDDR5, GPU 940MHz, 1120 Stream Processors, 2xDVI/HDMI/mDP - 135.22

Total: 599.99

If you wanted to upgrade the build, you might want to invest in a better case, an aftermarket CPU cooler or even upgrade the graphics card to a 6950.

[Jctoll]

Thank you. Looks like a great build does anyone have a build for about 500 so could compare the specs . Thanks again .

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Here are a couple of builds I suggest you look at:

http://forums.hexus.net/2097613-post8.html

In the second build I would get the following PSU instead as it has dropped in price:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/620w-...-fan-atx12v-23

Scan also does special offers too:

http://www.scan.co.uk/todayonly/inde..._icmp=AkaIX3H4

http://www.scan.co.uk/shops/homepage..._icmp=7Uz238zS

[Ryanp]

For 500 change the 6870 to a 6850 the 2500k to a 2500 if you do not plan to over clock and the z68 motherboard to a h67 one if you will not use the realtime graphics changing or overclocking or ssd caching features.

[Jctoll]

Thanks for the info, I will look them all over as I said will be a few weeks before I order will keep anjyone post any more advice would be great

[Digisword]

Well, if I had to downscale this to £500 I would get 4gb ram instead of 8gb (-£30). I would get 6850 instead of 6870 (-£10). Probably get a h67 instead of z68 motherboard (-£30). Dropping the 2500k to 2500 would probably only save about £1 so I don't see any point. Instead, I would get a i5 2300 instead of 2500k (-£20).If you're still not below £500, try an i3 2100 instead of i5 2300 (-£30) but be warned that the performance is quite a bit less.

To be honest, you could edit this built to suit your specific needs. If you want to do heavy gaming, keep the good graphics card but degrade some other aspects of the built. If you just want to play the latest games at high/ medium, you could afford to drop down to say maybe a 6770. Just look around on Scan and see if you can find a deal.

Hope this helps!

[Jctoll]

It looks like a great build. I've decided I will spend around 600+ and get a better machine so your first build or cats second build (really liked the look of that) also I think I will invest a bit more in a case. Thank you every please keep the builds/help coming will keep looking them over for the next two weeks before I buy.

[Jctoll]

Ok after looking at peoples builds, i have trial built this PC could someone look over it see it all compatible etc. Thanks guys

[Jctoll]

Anyone with any thoughts?

The Case isn't changeable as managed to get it off my friend, for cheap. So only the internals that are up for debate, I really don't want to go any higher price than this but am willing to swap and change things it people advice it.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Use 1.5V RAM and make sure you look on the Scan special offers web-pages.

[Jctoll]

Ok I'll change the RAM to 1.5V thanks CAT