At first I wanted to buy a laptop, but I decided to get a new desktop for the same amount. I will use it for casual gaming, mostly Starcraft 2. My budget is around £800, including a monitor and so far this is the configuration I like;
Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3570K (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPERX GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1866MHz X.M.P(2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 16MB CACHE
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
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling
INTEL SOCKET LGA1155 STANDARD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD (£16)
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
Monitor
IIYAMA E2273HDS 22" LED WIDESCREEN, HDMI/DVI-D 1920x1080 (£119)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Price £645 inc VAT and Delivery
As you can see, I don't have a GPU selected and that's because my favourite, the Radeon 7850 1GB, is not available, only the 2GB version. If I am to pay £200, I might as well just wait a month, or so, for the new GeForce GTX 660 to come out, and then make my final decision on what GPU I want to invest in.
My main question concerns the i5-3570K. I want to overclock it to around 4.1/4.2 GHZ, but I have no clue whether the cooling I've selected is sufficient, or the power supply is going to be enough when the Radeon/Geforce arrives. I don't plan to overclock the GPU.
So will this configuration be enough for my needs, or do I need better parts?
Thank you.
Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3570K (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPERX GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1866MHz X.M.P(2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 16MB CACHE
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
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling
INTEL SOCKET LGA1155 STANDARD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD (£16)
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
Monitor
IIYAMA E2273HDS 22" LED WIDESCREEN, HDMI/DVI-D 1920x1080 (£119)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Price £645 inc VAT and Delivery
As you can see, I don't have a GPU selected and that's because my favourite, the Radeon 7850 1GB, is not available, only the 2GB version. If I am to pay £200, I might as well just wait a month, or so, for the new GeForce GTX 660 to come out, and then make my final decision on what GPU I want to invest in.
My main question concerns the i5-3570K. I want to overclock it to around 4.1/4.2 GHZ, but I have no clue whether the cooling I've selected is sufficient, or the power supply is going to be enough when the Radeon/Geforce arrives. I don't plan to overclock the GPU.
So will this configuration be enough for my needs, or do I need better parts?
Thank you.
you may be able to get an HD 7870 with your budget.