This should be good but am I missing anything that can save me money?

[Shocks]

Coming from the darkside (I've been gaming on an iMac) I decided I needed a proper pc. As most people I have seen my budget leap up in cost until its now at the stage its going to jeopardise the family holiday this year (Thats not a conversation I'm looking forward to)

I'm happy this thing should be fast. Its a lot more money than I really want to spend. How can I get close to this level of performance without the spend ? I would be much happier with a bill about £1500 but I'm not sure where to compromise. I want it to be the basis for future upgrades also. Great website and forum by the way.
Thxs
Shocks

CS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core (3.40GHz @ max 4.80GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® P8P67: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™ SUPPORT
Memory (RAM)
4GB KINGSTON HYPER-X SPECIAL EDITION GREY - DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 2GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1536MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX580 - 2 DVI,mHDMI - DirectX® 11, 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
80GB Intel® X25-M 2.5" SSD (34nm / upto 250MB/sR | 70MB/sW)***SPECIAL***
2nd Hard Disk
2TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 32MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
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 750W TX SERIES (TX750) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£89)
Processor Cooling
COOLIT ECO A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£59)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD OVERCLOCK THERMAL PASTE
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 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
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
Monitor
IIYAMA E2710HDS 27" WIDESCREEN, HDMI/DVI-D HD 1920x1080 (£239)
Keyboard & Mouse
Logitech® G110 Gaming Keyboard with Backlighting (£68)
Mouse
Logitech® G500 Laser Gaming Mouse (£45)
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 9 to 13 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,868.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[Sleinous]

All id say is go for the 2TB WD Caviar Black 64mb cached drive over the 32mb cached version Nice GTX 580.

Consider an SLI motherboard should you wish to add a 2nd GTX 580 in SLI later on. This owuld also require an HX1000W PSU.

 

[Meds]

Ok, how about this;

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™i5-2500k Quad Core (3.30GHz @ max 4.80GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® P8P67 PRO: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™ / SLI SUPPORT
Memory (RAM)
4GB KINGSTON HYPER-X SPECIAL EDITION GREY - DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 2GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1280MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX570 - 2 DVI,mHDMI - DirectX® 11, 3D Vision Ready
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
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W TX SERIES (TX850) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£99)
Processor Cooling
COOLIT ECO A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£59)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC COOLING MX-3 HIGH THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 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
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
Monitor
IIYAMA E2710HDS 27" WIDESCREEN, HDMI/DVI-D HD 1920x1080 (£239)
Keyboard & Mouse
Logitech® G110 Gaming Keyboard with Backlighting (£68)
Mouse
Logitech® G500 Laser Gaming Mouse (£45)
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 9 to 13 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,481.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/intel-1155-overclocked/

- Changed the 2600k to the 2500k. In another thread (can't remember where) it was discussed and agreed that Hyperthreading (the main difference between 2500k & 2600k) doesn't really benefit gamers so the 2500k is more than adequate - saves money

- Do you really need an SSD? Yeah they are a bit faster but in my opinion they are not worth their premium price, especially when trying to work to a budget like you are. You could always add one in the future when they are cheaper - lots of space for more HDDs/SSDs in this PC. - saves more money

- Dropped the GTX580 to the GTX570. Both GPUs will perform superbly in the latest games and in up and in future releases and although the GTX580 is a little better, you are still paying a premium to have the "best". Note I have also changed the Motherboard & PSU to allow you to add a second GTX570 in the future should you need to to boost performance! - saves even more money!

Apart from that, everything else is pretty much the same but you see the price is sub £1500. Hope this helps?

Oooh, I've also upgraded the HDD to a Caviar Black too.

 

[Sleinous]

Yes, you can also pick up an 80GB of 160GB Gen3 Intel SSD around Feb if you really want an SSD You can then use Norton Ghost to clone your Window sinstall and everything on your HDD over

 

[Shocks]

Taking the good advice on board I have looked at the following. It gets the cost down but should be agood base for an upgrade? Is the faster RAM worthwhile?

Case PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
CPU Overclocked Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core (3.40GHz @ max 4.80GHz)
Motherboard ASUS® P8P67 PRO: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™ / SLI SUPPORT
Memory (RAM)4GB KINGSTON HYPER-X SPECIAL EDITION GREY - DDR3 2133MHz (2 x 2GB KIT)
Graphics Card 1280MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX570 - 2 DVI,mHDMI - DirectX® 11, 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
DVD 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
PSU CORSAIR 850W TX SERIES (TX850) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£99) (incase I want another GPU)
Processor Cooling COOLIT ECO A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£59)
Paste STANDARD OVERCLOCK THERMAL PASTE
Sound Card ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities ONBOARD 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 Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Monitor IIYAMA E2472HD 24" LED WIDESCREEN, HDMI/DVI-D HD 1920x1080 (£169)
Keyboard & Mouse Logitech® G110 Gaming Keyboard with Backlighting (£68)
Mouse Logitech® G500 Laser Gaming Mouse (£45)
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)
Price: £1,567.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[russellg]

IMO the 2133mhz is overkill , 1600mhz is probably the sweet spot. The change to the GTX570 makes sense given a single monitor @ 1920X1080.

You don't say what you'll be primarily using it for but if gaming I would pick the i5-2500k and save the £, almost as good as the 2600k.

 

[JSG10]

Yes, you can also pick up an 80GB of 160GB Gen3 Intel SSD around Feb if you really want an SSD You can then use Norton Ghost to clone your Window sinstall and everything on your HDD over

Didn't know you could do this! Brilliant I thought when I read it. Then googled it, 40 quid the program costs! Bah....

 

[Sleinous]

I think there's a free piece of software that does the same thing, but id have to hunt it down again I may hunt for it at some point in time.

 

[JSG10]

If you'd like to hunt for (and find) it before the next gen SSDs come out, that would be great ;-) hehe

 

[Freeley]

When i spoke to sales last week regarding ghosting it across they said that norton ghost didn't work too well with win 7 and recommended another program instead which i failed to make a note of.........think it might've been called true image or something?

 

[Phoenix]

I'd use Western Digital's Acronis True Image software for doing that, it's free

 

[Shocks]

Well I have gone and ordered it
Case PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
CPU Overclocked Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core (3.40GHz @ max 4.80GHz)
Motherboard ASUS® P8P67 PRO: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™ / SLI
RAM 4GB KINGSTON HYPER-X SPECIAL EDITION GREY - DDR3 1600MHz
GPU 1280MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX570 - 2 DVI,mHDMI - DirectX® 11, 3D
1st Hard Disk 1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk 1TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
DVD 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
PSU CORSAIR 850W TX SERIES (TX850) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£99)
Processor Cooling COOLIT ECO A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£59)
Thermal Paste STANDARD OVERCLOCK THERMAL PASTE
Sound Card ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
Monitor IIYAMA E2472HD 24" LED WIDESCREEN, HDMI/DVI-D HD 1920x1080 (£169)
Keyboard & Mouse Logitech® G110 Gaming Keyboard with Backlighting (£68)
Mouse Logitech® G500 Laser Gaming Mouse (£45)

It came in pretty much on budget. The likely upgrade route is
SSD
additional GTX570 (hence the higher PSU)
Additional RAM

The fast drive will be the main one. The spare for video, photos and back ups

I hope that will allow me to be gaming with the best for a few years yet!
Thanks for the advice now I just have to be patient......

 

[Freeley]

I'd use Western Digital's Acronis True Image software for doing that, it's free

I see the official release is £40 but the "WD software edition" is free when downloaded from their website, do you know if it has been modified in any way ie does it only work on WD's own drives etc?
The reason i ask is that i'll be wanting to image my caviar black onto one of the gen3 intel ssd's when they come out, and back again for my backups.
Another nooby question i suppose.

 

[Phoenix]

Well I haven't tried it yet but I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work.