Editing and Gaming PC for ~£1500

rosmac526

rosmac526

Member
Hey all.

You may remember me having made a thread about a performance/gaming PC for around £1000 not too long ago. Since then I have run some numbers and have managed to pull out a larger budget following a lucky spell with my car (turns out that the repair job only came to £220 instead of the predicted £650). As such, I have determined that I can now work with a budget of around £1500. With this extra leniency, I've had a look around at the case options, GPUs and CPUs, and I've come up with these options:

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF-X FULL TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2700k Quad Core (3.50GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V/GEN3: PCI-E 3.0 READY, SLI, CROSSFIREX***SPECIAL***
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 590 - 2 DVI,mHDMI, (PRE-ORDER)
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX750 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£87)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
200Mbps HomePlug AV - Create a Wired Network Using Your Electric Sockets! (£19)
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

TOTAL (in VAT and delivery): £1584

Now, I have chosen the 2700k over the 2600k because it's only an additional £12, and I've been told the increased performance will help my editing needs. The RAM may have the opportunity to be upgraded if costs can be cut elsewhere as well. I've gone for the 590 instead of my proposed 570 as a result of my increased budget. Reviews and benchmarks of the 590 suggest it is the best option for playing Battlefield 3 on ultra, with significantly high average FPS rates.

I suppose the main purpose of this thread is to read opinions on the hardware choices. The HAF X case may be negotiable, as I was originally looking at the T900, which is almost £100 cheaper. This will also allow me to upgrade the RAM and maybe even get a better sound card and/or Bluray reader. I'm still undecided.

After the release of the ATI 7970, I'm still not feeling like sticking with ATI, but I am aware that the 700 series of GTX cards is due this year (I believe the 600 series is a portable GPU system? Correct me if I'm wrong) which could potentially reduce the cost of the 590, or even open up a better-performing alternative.

Any suggestions?
 
stegor

stegor

Rising Star
Personally I would drop the GPU down and add an SSD as boot drive/current game drive. Makes a helluva difference to load times.
 
mantadog

mantadog

Superhero Level Poster
Do you have a specific need for a HUGE case like that? That case is a real beast, loads of space inside but unless you have a specific reason i would go for one of the mid ranged cases.

If your seriously thinking of a GTX 590, you might well be better waiting for the 7xx series from Nvidia coming in a month or two as the 590 has a long wait for PCS to get stock. I would be tempted by the 7970 myself.

Here is what i would get for the money, i think it would perform perfectly well for now with plenty of room for upgrades in the future.

Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics Only very slightly slower if you don't plan to overclock, really your not going to notice.
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V/GEN3: PCI-E 3.0 READY, SLI, CROSSFIREX***SPECIAL*** Solid Motherboard with plenty of features
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT) more is easy to add later but 8GB will be enough for now
Graphics Card
1.5GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 580 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready Downgraded from your choice of a 590, but you wont have to wait for it on pre order, and if you Sli 2 580's in the future you will outperform a single 590
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW) Very fast for loading your main game and your OS + any editing your doing.
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm) Mass storage, still very quick
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1050W PRO SERIES™ HX1050-80 PLUS® SILVER MODULAR (£159) More then enough for any upgrades in the future, including a 2nd GTX 580
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
2 x 200Mbps HomePlug AV - Create a Wired Network Using Electric Sockets! (£38) You will need 2, unless you already have 1 for some reason.
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,574.00 including VAT and delivery. Comes in £10 under your spec but i think its a little more rounded, yet with plenty of room to upgrade if and when needed.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/intel-sandy-bridge-pc/

All i would add is, don't let the downgrade of GPU worry you. The 580 is still a monster, and 2 of them will beat a single 590. With the new cards coming you will be able to pick up a 2nd 580 cheaper in the future aswell.
 
rosmac526

rosmac526

Member
stegor said:
Personally I would drop the GPU down and add an SSD as boot drive/current game drive. Makes a helluva difference to load times.
Click to expand...
I may be able to accommodate the 590 and 16GB Kingston RAM depending on my financial situation at the end of Feb, along with either an 80GB 320 or 120GB 510 SSD. Is the performance of the 510 series justified by the £100 extra on the price tag?

mantadog said:
Do you have a specific need for a HUGE case like that? That case is a real beast, loads of space inside but unless you have a specific reason i would go for one of the mid ranged cases.

If your seriously thinking of a GTX 590, you might well be better waiting for the 7xx series from Nvidia coming in a month or two as the 590 has a long wait for PCS to get stock. I would be tempted by the 7970 myself.

Here is what i would get for the money, i think it would perform perfectly well for now with plenty of room for upgrades in the future.

Price: £1,574.00 including VAT and delivery. Comes in £10 under your spec but i think its a little more rounded, yet with plenty of room to upgrade if and when needed.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/intel-sandy-bridge-pc/

All i would add is, don't let the downgrade of GPU worry you. The 580 is still a monster, and 2 of them will beat a single 590. With the new cards coming you will be able to pick up a 2nd 580 cheaper in the future aswell.
Click to expand...
The case was more because of looks than practicality. The issue I have with SLI cards is that the power draw is incredibly high, and my breaker struggles as it is with this PC running (it's only got a 130W PSU), the monitor, printer and speakers. I was made to understand the 700 series from Nvidia wouldn't be out until September? I must have been incorrectly informed. I'll play around with what you've suggested (I don't need the OS, office, etc, because I have unused copies sitting at home).

Additionally: do the homeplugs not come in pairs? I'd assume they wouldn't just sell you one on its own? If I purchase two and receive two pairs, I will still have a use for them, but one pair would be preferred.

Edit (22:35ish): I've ditched the Homeplugs as I remember that we sell them where I work (TP Link PA211 @ 200Mbps) and I can get them for 50% off. I noticed the Kingston SSDs appear to be faster and cheaper than the Intel drives, so have chosen the 120GB one as suggested by mantadog (thanks). I'll stick with the 590 due to the fact I will only need a 750W PSU (cheaper to run in the long run and less strain on my breaker), and have actually opted to upgrade the RAM to 16GB for the best performance when used with my software. Again, I want the case and am prepared to pay for it. The overall price of the build has risen to a cheeky £1774, which is £220 over what I had originally planned for (and £774 over my pre-planned budget - yikes!). I am prepared to spend this much. So, for now here are the new specs:

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF-X FULL TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2700k Quad Core (3.50GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V/GEN3: PCI-E 3.0 READY, SLI, CROSSFIREX***SPECIAL***
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (4 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 590 - 2 DVI,mHDMI, (PRE-ORDER)
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX750 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£87)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,774.00 including VAT and delivery.

Now, I am looking into the benefits of the 7970 over the 590, with the potential for Crossfire support, but it's all down to the power consumption. Less than 900W, preferably.
 
Last edited:
S

ShadowBlaze

Bronze Level Poster
rosmac526 said:
I may be able to accommodate the 590 and 16GB Kingston RAM depending on my financial situation at the end of Feb, along with either an 80GB 320 or 120GB 510 SSD. Is the performance of the 510 series justified by the £100 extra on the price tag?

The case was more because of looks than practicality. The issue I have with SLI cards is that the power draw is incredibly high, and my breaker struggles as it is with this PC running (it's only got a 130W PSU), the monitor, printer and speakers. I was made to understand the 700 series from Nvidia wouldn't be out until September? I must have been incorrectly informed. I'll play around with what you've suggested (I don't need the OS, office, etc, because I have unused copies sitting at home).

Additionally: do the homeplugs not come in pairs? I'd assume they wouldn't just sell you one on its own? If I purchase two and receive two pairs, I will still have a use for them, but one pair would be preferred.

Edit (22:35ish): I've ditched the Homeplugs as I remember that we sell them where I work (TP Link PA211 @ 200Mbps) and I can get them for 50% off. I noticed the Kingston SSDs appear to be faster and cheaper than the Intel drives, so have chosen the 120GB one as suggested by mantadog (thanks). I'll stick with the 590 due to the fact I will only need a 750W PSU (cheaper to run in the long run and less strain on my breaker), and have actually opted to upgrade the RAM to 16GB for the best performance when used with my software. Again, I want the case and am prepared to pay for it. The overall price of the build has risen to a cheeky £1774, which is £220 over what I had originally planned for (and £774 over my pre-planned budget - yikes!). I am prepared to spend this much. So, for now here are the new specs:

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF-X FULL TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2700k Quad Core (3.50GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V/GEN3: PCI-E 3.0 READY, SLI, CROSSFIREX***SPECIAL***
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (4 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 590 - 2 DVI,mHDMI, (PRE-ORDER)
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX750 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£87)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,774.00 including VAT and delivery.

Now, I am looking into the benefits of the 7970 over the 590, with the potential for Crossfire support, but it's all down to the power consumption. Less than 900W, preferably.
Click to expand...

1x AMD Radeon 7970 instead of the GTX 590 power consumtion will be 600W along with the rest of the specs you have
2x AMD Radeon 7970 CrossfireX power consumtion will be 725W along with the rest of the specs you have
so yeah well below 900W the 7970 is really power friendly
 
rosmac526

rosmac526

Member
Yeah, I looked into it Shadow and the 7970 is far more power friendly. I'm really considering the extra umph from Crossfire 7970s over the 590, even if it works out ~£300 more expensive. The running costs will be reduced with the 7970s and in the long run over, say, 5 years, the 7970s would work out to be a hell of a lot cheaper.

Tough call. Can I afford the plunge? Haha
 
Teaz

Teaz

Godlike
nvidia's new line up in my view will be impressive but I don't think it will be a huge bump from the current 5xx series. The 580 is a pretty beast on its own. tough choices on your decision, I'd say what i think you should go with but it may be unfair so i'll let you make the choice :)
 
mantadog

mantadog

Superhero Level Poster
If your having a problem running your current PC which you say has a 130w PSU, how are you going to manage a 900w beast?

As far as i understand the new 6xx series from Nvidia and the rest of the 7xxx series from AMD will be out end of this quarter beginning of next. They will boast a slight performance boost for a slight reduction in power used most probably, rather than a straight performance boost.

It's always tough advising somone on a dream machine PC as everyone has a slightly different take, but in reality whichever route you go down i doubt you will be regret anything. The addition of a SSD is probably the biggest change i would make anyway just for the huge speed boost it offers and makes the whole PC feel much better to use.
 
rosmac526

rosmac526

Member
mantadog said:
If your having a problem running your current PC which you say has a 130w PSU, how are you going to manage a 900w beast?

As far as i understand the new 6xx series from Nvidia and the rest of the 7xxx series from AMD will be out end of this quarter beginning of next. They will boast a slight performance boost for a slight reduction in power used most probably, rather than a straight performance boost.

It's always tough advising somone on a dream machine PC as everyone has a slightly different take, but in reality whichever route you go down i doubt you will be regret anything. The addition of a SSD is probably the biggest change i would make anyway just for the huge speed boost it offers and makes the whole PC feel much better to use.
Click to expand...
With the two 7970s it's still only a 750W beast. In the near future I'll be moving into a newer building where the breakers are more heavy-duty than what I'm using now. However, in the meantime I've discovered that turning off the breakers for the garage (which, by the way, was destroyed a long time ago by the car's handbrake failing) means that the other breakers in the house have far more coping power. I'm comfortably running an LED TV, Xbox 360, this PC and all the accessories from two plug sockets, without any power issues.

Anyway, I seem to have settled on a build with the help of you guys and some other sources. I'm ditching the Kingston SSD from the PCSpecialist order, and buying one separately for significantly less money (nearly £70 less in fact). This is what I'm looking at.

I'm still in the mood for two 7970s, but I will put this on hold until I hear more about the next models in the GPU war.

So to recap:

HAF X case, 2700K CPU, 16B Kingston RAM, Asus P8Z68-V/Gen 3 MoBo, 1TB WD Caviar Black, 2x 3GB HD 7970s, Corsair TX750 PSU. The cost of the build is £1603 w/out VAT, as it's both a work and home PC so I can claim the VAT back (excellent saving, I have to say). Add the OCZ SSD and we're talking a total of £1724 for the entire thing, including the warranty.
 
Music Guy123

Music Guy123

Prolific Poster
Looks good, my only thought would be to remind you that the 2TB caviar black is only £18 more than the 1TB version. Also, for your SSD, agreed that isn't a bad price but OCZ are reknown for a lack of reliability so do beware!
 
rosmac526

rosmac526

Member
Music Guy123 said:
Looks good, my only thought would be to remind you that the 2TB caviar black is only £18 more than the 1TB version. Also, for your SSD, agreed that isn't a bad price but OCZ are reknown for a lack of reliability so do beware!
Click to expand...
I wasn't aware of this issue with OCZ? What are the Corsair SSDs like? Specifically this one. The two SSDs are those recommended by another souce (private group on Bungie.net).
 
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