Help/Advice with First Build Gaming PC

[abrdar]

Hey, so my brother and I are looking to build a decent pc with PCS. Our budget is £1200 for the PC (other accessories will be bought externally) Please be aware we will be receiving a VAT refund so take this into consideration if you propose a new spec
It will take a few months for us to get the money together so in your opinions should I go for the 7970, or wait for gtx 6xx series comes out and see how that does. Or should I crossfire/sli a slightly lower graphics card like 6970 or gtx580?
Also will the fenrir evo extreme cpu cooler interfere with a 200/230mm side fan on the NZXT Phantom case? And in the small print after clicking proceed, it states that PCS will fit as many fans as neccessary to the case, can someone define that exactly, for example will they fit an extra side fan or top fan etc. Thanks in advance

Case
NZXT PHANTOM WHITE GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 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 AMD RADEON™ HD7970 - DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
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 PRO SERIES™ HX750-80 PLUS® SILVER MODULAR (£116)
Processor Cooling
TITAN FENRIR EVO EXTREME HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£39)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
GIGABIT LAN & DUAL-BAND WIRELESS 802.11N 450Mbps PCI-E CARD (£35)
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: £1,445.00 including VAT and delivery.
*********£1204 excluding VAT*******

 

[Rakk]

It will take a few months for us to get the money together so in your opinions should I go for the 7970, or wait for gtx 6xx series comes out and see how that does.

If it's going to take a few months to get the money together anyway, wait till around then to decide, cos any comparisons between current cards and not yet released ones are pure speculation

Or should I crossfire/sli a slightly lower graphics card like 6970 or gtx580?

I always think that going for one better card rather than SLI/Crossfiring two lesser ones, for a start it means less power usage and heat, and secondly it'll make it much cheaper to add a bit of extra power later on, cos you'll only need one extra card (which will be cheaper by then) rather than two brand new cards

Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (4 x 4GB KIT)

What are you planning on using the PC for? 16GB of RAM will be overkill unless you're using something very RAM intensive like rendering software.

 

[abrdar]

thanks for the great advice, apparently the gtx 680 will be 45% better than the hd7970!! but that could be entirely false And as for the RAM i think it might have been a mistake, but will 16gb of ram not help to future proof the machine? How long will this last do you reckon?

 

[Rakk]

It should last a decent amount of years, but as with anything PC related, it will be considered out of date by the time you've had it for 5 mins

Having excessive RAM doesn't mean it's future proofing, cos you might never use 8GB of it, though as I said it depends what you're planning on using it for.

 

[jonny123]

I think what he meant by future proofing is that getting the 16gb Ram should be able to cope with all new games and technoligy coming out instead of getting 8gb ram then needing to upgrade if something comes out needed the 16gb ram.
Correct me if im wrong