Max £1000 gaming build opinions?

[IEvans]

Hi everyone, first time posting so hopefully I don't mess anything up...

I'm looking at finally retiring my iMac and replacing it with a much more capable machine, for a maximum of £1000.

I've been toying with the plan for a while so I have a build on paper. Any criticisms, advice, opinions would be much appreciated!

• i5 4570
• Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 CPU cooler
• Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z87
• Gigabyte GTX 770 OC Windforce
• 8GB Corsair Vengeance Low Profile
• 500GB Seagate Barracuda
• 120GB PNY XLR8 SSD
• 650W XFX XXX PSU
• Corsair Carbide 300R

I've included Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit, a NIC and optical drive into the budget. These main parts mean I will initially have to go very cheap with peripherals, but I will be updating those for much better parts as time goes on. I'd rather have some cheap space fillers for a while if it means I can stop using this computer at last...

Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for any help!

[Letchy]

Hey there mate, I'd like to welcome you to the forums

I am not the most knowledgeable person around here, but here is my opinion on your build and some changes I have made. It looks like a very solid build overall, but the first thing we would need to know is what would you be using the PC for? Gaming, video editing, graphics design? Or a mix?

Anyway - these are the changes I have made:

CPU - Why not go for the 4670k? Even if you don't plan to overclock right away - it's nice to have the ability to do so in the future for when you feel more comfortable and need a little more oomph. Around £30.00 more, but I think it would be worth it in the long run.
Mobo - I changed this simply because Asus are generally regarded as the leaders of motherboard durability and design these days. It is only around £6.00 more.
RAM - I didn't change anything apart from using x2 4GB sticks rather than one. This way you can take advantage of dual channel and the benefits this will give you.
HDD - 500GB seems like a lot at first (it certainly did to me when I did my first build!), but you will find yourself running out of space very quickly... A 2TB hard drive gives you a lot of leeway.
SSD - I wouldn't use PNY for an SSD. Right now, Intel and Samsung are the market leaders (I think) with SSDs as the build quality from them both is second to none. The SSD I replaced this with is only something close to £5 more, but the quality of the product will be much more worthwhile I think.
PSU - Unless you plan to SLI the 770, 650w is overkill for your build. I knocked it down to a 550w - this will give you around 100w for any small additional upgrades.
GPU? - You might be able to squeeze a 780 into your budget - if you wanted to of course.

Link to PCUK part list with changes: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/Letchy/saved/3XIh

I did change quite a bit up - but this is only through what I have learn through researching my self. I built my own PC back in June, with not nearly as good specs as your own but I plan to build a new PC by the end of the year. I did post a thread asking opinions in this sub forum but it seems nobody was too bothered, despite 100 views on said thread.

I hope I helped you out somewhat bud!