£1200 budget...advice please

[IggSter]

£1200 budget...advice please*ORDERED* Thanks all!

All ordered now......thanks to all who commented...much apreciated

and yes....we went over budget by £300

Please feel free to comment / recommend etc.........all input welcome

I've been tasked to build a friend a new PC (Old one died and fried many components)

The Budget is £1200 UK

Order will be placed in next couple of days

Usage will be general/gaming and to be as efficient and as quiet as possible

Items not required:

Mouse
Keyboard

Items required:

Monitor
Case
PSU
Motherboard
CPU
Memory
Graphics card
Hard disk(s)

These are the items I'm considering:

Antec P193 Super-Midi Tower - Gun Metal Black
Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 750W ATX2.2 Modular SLi Compliant Power Supply
Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz overclocked to 4.00GHz
Gigabyte EX58-UD5 Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
Corsair XMS3 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 (1600MHz) Tri-Channel (TR3X6G1600C8)
Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366)
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g)
Palit GeForce GTX 285 1024MB PCI-Express Graphics Card
4 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache (RAID 5)
Samsung SM2494HM 24" LCD Widescreen Monitor VGA / DVI-D / HDMI / USB - Glossy Black

 

[pantherx12]

Get a PSU by Be Quiet! or Corsair or something.

 

[IggSter]

Get a PSU by Be Quiet! or Corsair or something.

I thought OCZ = PC Power and cooling and thus were one of the best on the market?

I will have a look at your suggestions....Thanks

 

[WhiteLotus]

Why the i7 and then a 8800GT?

In fact - what are you going to use this computer for? If it 100% requires you to get i7 then fine, but i7 is overkill for most users.

I would also get a new monitor - no matter if you're not gaming it's too small these days.

 

[IggSter]

Why the i7 and then a 8800GT?

In fact - what are you going to use this computer for? If it 100% requires you to get i7 then fine, but i7 is overkill for most users.

Well a couple of reasons for the i7:

Friend enjoys max detail FPS games
Friend wants the PC to last at least 3yrs (for major components)
Friend loves WCG and wants to crunch like a maniac


I've suggested a new monitor....completely agree with you!

 

[WhiteLotus]

Well a couple of reasons for the i7:

Friend enjoys max detail FPS games
Friend wants the PC to last at least 3yrs (for major components)
Friend loves WCG and wants to crunch like a maniac

then get definitely get a better graphics card and a bigger screen.

 

[pantherx12]

I thought OCZ = PC Power and cooling and thus were one of the best on the market?

I will have a look at your suggestions....Thanks

There's been a lot of problems with OCZ psus recently, think there's been a bad batch.

I reccomend the Dark power pro series by Be Quiet by the way, expensive brand but very good.

 

[IggSter]

then get definitely get a better graphics card and a bigger screen.

What would you suggest as a gfx card?

The new ATI cards are very hard to find in stock at the moment, and although I prefer Nvidia for gaming, i belive the 300 series is due soon so would hate to pick the wrong option.

 

[WhiteLotus]

What do you mean by soon? If you mean within the next three months then yea, but if you mean within the next 4 weeks then it would depend.

Currently writing a lab report, however once i have finished i shall try and spec up a computer for you. Although i am not in the know when it comes to i7 boards.

 

[IggSter]

@ WhiteLotus: Order shall be placed in next couple of days. I guess that makes the 300 series a no go which leaves either Nvidia 200 or ATI 48/57/58xx...any suggestions?

 

[GSquadron]

You have a lot of money so you can buy a lot of superb stuff
I would recommend these specs:
Power:
MOBO: P6T V2
Ram: Kingston 3x2 gb
HDD: 2x1 Tb WD
Graphic card: Ati 5850

Efficiency:
Mobo: ASRock x58 Supercomputer
HDD: 2 Tb WD
Graphic card: Ati 5670
Ram: 1x4 Gb Kingston

If u dont really don't want to spend a lot of money, buy some cheap stuff in black markets
I bought an used kingston 512 ddr1 for 0.4$!!!! After this i exchanged 3 used x512mb with 1 new apacer 1 gb. U can buy Nvidia 9600 gt if you are really lucky and the person who is selling doesn't really know what is selling.

 

[kurosagi01]

this what i would get if you got that kind of budget lol.


Remaining cash can go towards monitor.

 

[IggSter]

@kurosagi01: only problem with that is no stock of the GFX card :/.....many thanks for posting that though

 

[Tatty_Two]

To be honest, as already stated, that screen/res of yours just aint gonna do a "gaming/i7" system any justice, you need a decent quality 24 inch monitor, if you insist on keeping your screen though, dont bother hunting or waiting for 5850's to become available, at that resolution you will be as well to buy a nice HD4890 or GTX275 with non reference coolers on them, perhaps a Sapphire VaporX HD4890 or a Palit GTX275, both have very good,and quiet non reference coolers.

I beleive the recent issues with OCZ PSU's have been linked to the MODstream and the Steath models, the GameXstream remains one of the best units available when considering price also.

 

[InTeL-iNsIdE]

Well a couple of reasons for the i7:

Friend enjoys max detail FPS games
Friend wants the PC to last at least 3yrs (for major components)
Friend loves WCG and wants to crunch like a maniac


I've suggested a new monitor....completely agree with you!

enjoys gaming on a i7 and a 8800gt at 1280x1024

infact give me his address I want to slap him personally :shadedshu

anyway, on topic

I think to future proof, go with x58 i7 I'm an intel fan myself as if you couldnt tell tho am3 is good too. You want a 5 series video card, at least a HD 5850 and 6-8gb ram. A corsair 750 tx/hx or higher is better than the ocz you have chosen and lets face it he has the budget right?. The case is personal choice and he has the HDD's maybe throw in a nice intel/corsair SSD OS drive and Windows 7 home premium.

 

[r9]

Price/performance wise I would go for i5 with P55 plenty of power and overclocking ability and ATI 5850.

 

[Fourstaff]

+1 on 5850, there is no point getting i7 without a good graphics card. You might even consider downgrading the proc just to get a better graphics card and a shiny new 24" monitor

 

[InTeL-iNsIdE]

+1 on 5850, there is no point getting i7 without a good graphics card. You might even consider downgrading the proc just to get a better graphics card and a shiny new 24" monitor

Downgrading, what is this word you speak of

 

[IggSter]

OK....monitor now added to the list (Thanks Tatty One and Fourstaff)...any suggestions for a good 22-24" gaming monitor?


Also any ideas where i can find a 5850 in stock?

 

[kurosagi01]

no clue when the 5850 will be in stock,but your best bet is to pre-order first batch gets delivered first right?? so your best bet would just pre-order it and when they do have it in stock they will ship it to you automaticlly and you probably get it before they list it in the website saying it is in stock.

 

[Fourstaff]

Downgrading, what is this word you speak of

Very sorry, I did not notice the word is non-existent here

 

[InTeL-iNsIdE]

OK....monitor now added to the list (Thanks Tatty One and Fourstaff)...any suggestions for a good 22-24" gaming monitor?


Also any ideas where i can find a 5850 in stock?

I love my sammie 23" 2048x1152 only £150 from ebuyer too. OC.uk had some 5850's yesterday morning

 

[IggSter]

I love my sammie 23" 2048x1152 only £150 from ebuyer too. OC.uk had some 5850's yesterday morning

Decided on the palit 285 and is that monitor VGA input only? Thanks

 

[WhiteLotus]

my input, full system with case, and a monitor.

sorry for the small capture

 

[InTeL-iNsIdE]

my input, full system with case, and a monitor.

sorry for the small capture

Nice but I would defo recommend waiting for a 5 series card if he is going to want this rig to last him 3 years