SouthWalesSam

iTrader: (1)

Not sure what you're main use would be. But if you want a high frame rate gamer plus high speed all-rounder then for £20 on top of what you've spec'd you could have something like this:

All from aria.co.uk

i5-3570k 168
Asus P8Z77-V 141
8GB (2x4GB) Corsair Vengance 1600Mhz 50
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 PRO R 16
Coolermaster HAF 912 Plus Case 64
2x Asus GeForce GTX 650 DirectCU 1024MB 204

- the Asus AI utility that comes with the mobo has an auto overclock function that can put the i5-3570k deep in i7 territory performance-wise.
- and there's no point in buying a K-series CPU if you're not going to clock it: in which case you'd need to uprate the CPU cooler (£20+ on your existing budget)
- the P8Z77-V mobo supports SLI & Crossfire so the 2 x graphics cards work together on two high speed rails for up to 90% frame rate boost
- as Stu said above for gaming it's your grahics card rather than CPU & ram that you're stressing, so the 2x GTX 650s linked would do nicely.
- with that in mind, I've not manage to fill 4GB out of 8GB of RAM in office/2D use, though I've tried, so 8GB of 1600Mhz should meet all your needs
- The mobo is pricier than the P8Z77-M but it's more 'future proof' (no such thing!) the only things you'd need to upgrade in the foreseeable are CPU and GPUs.

boxst

I used to build PC's a long, long time ago. The one I currently have I bought second-hand about 5 years ago and it has lasted well. I've upgraded the RAM and put an SSD in there but want something with a bit more power and now seems a good time to upgrade.

Where to buy second-hand? I bought the current one from Gumtree, but that seems to have gone downhill a little.

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

Southwalessam, I tried to use the asus over clock on my stock cooler which won't work as it over clocks it far to high so an updated cooler is a must. I'm now to lazy to strip the computer to put a new cooler in so its just running stock speed but its still fine.

Rob_Impreza99

iTrader: (3)

AV forums is a good starting point, just ask all he questions you need too like where were the components bought from, how old are they and are they still in warranty etc, plus ask for receipts.

Overclockers forum is a good place if you have enough postings to be able to view the classifieds, ebay is a minefield, you really need to know what your looking for with that place.

SouthWalesSam

iTrader: (1)

You're right.

You need a £6 heatsink cleaner/conditioner pack off Amazon and a £16 uprated cooler (as above). I try to get half the cost back by buying an OEM CPU (from Ebuyer) which is a few quid cheaper as it comes without the puny fan.

At least you know there's another 20-25% cpu performance sitting there waiting if you need it 3 or 4 years from now!

boxst

Why is everyone recommending the i5 instead of the i7? Is there so little difference?

SWSam: Thank you. I am not that heavy a gamer, so don't need two graphics cards.

Rob_Impreza99

iTrader: (3)

I agree, if its for gaming he should be concentrating on the graphics card, something like an AMD 7850 HD is good value at around £130.

You deffo don't need an i7 for gaming, the i5 3570k is plenty enough, its a very fast processor in its own right, it can be overclocked if need be but if he's using the pc mainly for gaming the i5 will be plenty fast enough for everyday use, i'm running one myself in my build and its lightening quick. Deffo get at least one SSD though as your boot drive, the Samsung 830 is good value and regarded as one of the most reliable.

This is my current PC that i built, its got the components in that i recommended above, i5 3570k and an AMD Sapphire 7850 HD GPU

SouthWalesSam

iTrader: (1)

It's one i5 in particular; the i5-3570K.
It's the best value price performance combination Intel CPU at present (used to be the i5-2500K).

And it's unlocked. So with a £20 CPU cooler upgrade and a decent mobo you can 'automatically' clock it to around stock i7-3770k performance. With an even better cooler and a little clocking know-how you can push it even further.

The industry concensus developing seems to be that an i7 is usually overkill in most applications aside from ultra-books and heavy duty video and image editing.

eagle

good system that ..

Ian

iTrader: (10)

here is a quick pic of mine.

im going to get a bigger cpu cooler, and some better ram

jura11

iTrader: (7)

if you are will be dong lots video encoding and lots of 3D work/music making I would go deffo with i7,its worth extra

Agreed in some games HT(Hyper threading) will/can hinder game,but HT is easy turn off if needs to be

Get yourself better cooler for sure,have look on the Noctua,Cooler Master Hyper 212 etc

Good test of CPU coolers,worth have look

http://www.overclockers.com/thermalr...atsink-review/



RAM depends on yours needs,8 GB should be enough for yours needs,but more I would advise if you are doing lots of memory hungry programs etc.

Jura

boxst

Thank you for your help.

Everything arrived today (eBuyer are slight muppets though) and it took a couple of hours to put together. I was quite surprised how easy it was. Things have certainly moved on: The Motherboard actually fits, the cables go to the right place and Windows booted up first time.

So I have:

Core i7 3770K that the Motherboard automatically overclocked to 4.2mhz
Asus P8Z88-M
Artic Cooler
OCZ 750W
Kingston 16gb
Cooler Master CM 690 Advanced II
Gigabyte GTX 650 2GB GDDR5