please help an amateur build a gaming pc

[fillus]

Hello everyone....

i've been trying to put together a gaming pc and this is what i came up with...
I'm no computer expert and i'm not looking for the BEST of the BEST.....just an average/good gaming pc that will let me play games like dragon origin 2, wow, starcraft 2, fable 3........ (i'm not into COD or that type of game)I'm asking for your help because i'm practically clueless when it comes to building your own pc..... my main concern would be to choose something that is overall balanced..... (it's pointless to get a top-class graphic card if it's not matched with an equally good motherboard and cpu....... at least this is what i think is true... he he)...
anyway... the things that i need most help with are the following:

1)case: NO idea why some are £10 and some are £120....after all it's just a case. please advise
2) motherboard: clueless
3) FAN and COOLing......... water or not? how many do i need?
4) ram... is 6gb enough?
5) if i get a dvd dual layer writer will it play blu ray movies as well?
6)power supply...... 450w? 600W?? 800W???? ARRRGHHHHH
7)usb3... is it worth it?

my budget would be £900-£1000

Anyway here is the spec i came up with...
please please let me know what you think.... every suggestion is appreciated.....


Case
COOLERMASTER SILEO 500 QUIET MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-960 (3.20GHz) 4.8GTs/8MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P6X58D PREMIUM: DDR3, USB 3.0 & SATA 6.0GB/s, 3-Way SLI
Memory (RAM)
6GB SAMSUNG DDR3 TRI-DDR3 1333MHz (3 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 SE - DVI,HDMI,VGA - DirectX® 11, 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
12x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£49)
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
600W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£59)
Processor Cooling
TITAN FENRIR EVO EXTREME HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£39)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) 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
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 11 to 13 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £971.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[Nemesis]

1) case: Well the price can depend on size (how much can fit in the case and airflow) fans (the amount that come included and the spaces for more to be installed) features (such as LEDs fan controls USB eSATA ports and such on the front)
Also more expensive cases have better cable routing features which mean that its easier to add stuff to your pc later, and improves airflow.
2) motherboard: this is really best decided by looking at the features and getting the cheapest one you can that stilll fullfills your needs (sorry if thats stating the obvious)
the one you have chosen for instance offers support for 3 way SLI meaning that you could install 3 NVIDIA GPUs (a good way of keeping your hardware up to date in the future as games become increasingly demanding)
Also USB 3.0 and SATA 6GB/s is on offer on more expensive boards
3) FAN and COOLing Well generally liguid or even any type of extra cooling for your processor is only needed for overclocking (which im guessing your not intending to do) if so then the default fan that comes with the processor will be fine
4) ram 6GB or even 4GB should be enough for gaming at the moment
however if you intend on doing lots of Photo/ HD video/ Music Editing in the near future (or other RAM hungry apps) then you may want to consider 6 or 8GB
this is something that is easy to upgrade at a later date though if needed
5) A DVD player will only play DVDs (and CDs) if you want to play BLU-RAYs then you will need a BLU-RAY drive which will also run DVDs and CDs
6)power supply I think that 450W should cover that spec however further down the road if you wish to add another GPU then you will want to be looking at a 650W or higher GPU
TBH its best to over spec your PSU just a little so I would go with the 600W even if you do not intend on adding anything later on
7)usb3 is worth it if you have any external hardware that uses it, but if you chose a non USB 3.0 mobo then you can always add an expansion card which adds USB 3.0 later on when you need it

That processor is good but I would definitely consider the new Sandy Bridge processors which offer better performance such as the i5 2500 or the i7 2600
as far as the balance between graphics card and processor with that spec your graphics card would be the bottleneck
so you could downgrade the CPU and upgrade the graphics card for better performance in games at the same price

sorry for all the typos as im not a good typist and i hope this helped (though it probably confused things further)
please keep asking questions if your still unsure about something!

 

[fillus]

Thanks nemesis

Do you think this Is this any better?
Not too sure about the case (i picked one of the most expensive)
Which one is better between intel i7 2600 and intel i7 9xx?
i went for a standard fan as i'm not going to overclock

Let me know also if it's more balanced between cpu and graphic card
Thanks



Case
ANTEC NINE HUNDRED TWO V3 - UK, The Ultimate Gaming Case, Evolved
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8H67-M LX SI: MICRO ATX MAINBOARD, LG 1155, SATA 6.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1280MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX570 - 2 DVI,mHDMI - DirectX® 11, 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
12x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£49)
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
600W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£59)
Processor Cooling
INTEL SOCKET LGA1155/1156 STANDARD CPU COOLER
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
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 11 to 13 working days
Quantity

 

[Nemesis]

Yes thats a good spec you still have a powerful proccessor but also a powerful graphics card too!

I may seem biased but the case i have (the coolermaster cm690 mkii) is a very nice case, good cooling, and alright cable management and spacious, no soundproofing though that doesnt bother me as i cant hear the pc over music anyway. This would save £20

do you want an especially quiet computer?

also id recommend getting a 1TB caviar green or black (black is best for your primary drive) if you can afford it as this will make the computer start faster and load programs faster!

Just incase you didnt notice, the motherboard you chose doesnt support SLI so you would not be able to add another in the future if you wished (not that youll probably need to for a while with that GPU)

Do you mind me asking how much the above spec u posted costed and if the hard drive upgrade breaches your budget

Im going to bed now but will be back tomoro as will many other (frankly) wiser persons than myself who will help you settle on a final spec
hope ive been of help and when you do receive your new computer i hope you enjoy!!! (please post us up some pics - that will earn you some rep)

 

[fillus]

Hey Nemesis, thanks again...
Is this the Hard drive you recommended? and the case as well?
About the motherboard do i really need the SLI option? I'm not that hard core and in the future i might as well just change my graphic card with a more powerful one... what do you think?
I've downgraded the Graphic card from a gtx 570 to a 560--- is there much difference between the two?.. i could save around £80

Let me know....
Thanks
ps the spec i've posted before was £971

Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8H67-M LX SI: MICRO ATX MAINBOARD, LG 1155, SATA 6.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX560Ti - 2 DVI,HDMI,VGA - DirectX® 11, 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
12x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£49)
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
600W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£59)
Processor Cooling
INTEL SOCKET LGA1155/1156 STANDARD CPU COOLER
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
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 11 to 13 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £879.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[Nemesis]

the gtx570 is the superior card however the bang per buck is greater on the gtx560 ti (its better value) if you need some reassurance on its performance then this is a positive review (of the NVIDIA reference card) :

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/graphics-cards/364639/nvidia-geforce-gtx-560-ti

SLI isnt essential but it can be a cheaper alternative to buying an expensive new graphics card
as opposed to buying another gtx 560ti (or whatever you decide on later)the price of which will have dropped (hopefully) which is the possibility SLI offers

always best to start with the single best graphics card though

Yes that was the HDD I was refering to, I'll be honest some users on this site say that you should use a caviar black as your primary drive due to its intellipower RPM (meaning that it runs down sometimes) although i can reassure you that I've had my PC for 9 months and had no problem with using it as my boot drive
PC starts in ~45 secs which for me is lightning after putting up with cheap laptops
If you do decide to upgrade to black this will add £21

As long as your happy with that case being a gaming case with excellent airflow/ fans but not made to be quiet then... yes good case!

For even more information here is a incredibly detailed guide to speccing PCs by my good friend Sleinous who is not currently with us :

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forum...A-Little-Help-Guide-for-Specing-a-PC-with-FAQ

And if you do decide to take the SLI route then you will have to upgrade your PSU to a Corsair TX 750W or higher for dual GTX 560ti's and spec a SLI compliant Mobo
This would take the price up to £974 though so its your choice

 

[fillus]

I think i'll be fine with only one Graphic card..... don't want to complicate my life too much.
As for the HD, £20 is not much.. is there much of a difference between the green caviar and the black?
About the case i don't really mind the noise.... just as long as it is well ventilated and it will have space to allow future upgrades.
Just wondering, if i wanted a good, cool and quiet case how much would be the difference?
What about the CPU though? I've heard that the new Intel processors have issues and it would be better to hold on for a while before buying one..