Sub £800 Intel Gaming PC. Any tweaking?

[ericnel]

Hi all,

Its nearly 6 years since I last got a gaming pc (xbox 360 keeping me going for last 2 years while my old pc cried with pain at new games!)

Budget is < £800

It is only for gaming (no video, no... anything else!)
Don't want it to sound like concorde - but doesnt need to ultra quiet
Want option to go 3 screens in the near future (next 3 to 6 months) - hence ATI GPU
Want option to go dual gpu in the future (6 to 12 months)
Main game will be BFBC2 - then likes of Homefront, Crysis 2 etc
I dont normally overclock

Having looked at the sandy bridge issue I think I'm 100% fine - likelyhood of me adding another drive is very low - and if I do it can be 6GB/s

Would you suggest any tweaking to this?
Can I have "option 4" on this when I order?
Should I go with pci or pci-express wireless card?

Thanks in advance

Eric


PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
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
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6850 - 2 DVI,HDMI,mDP - DirectX® 11, Eyefinity 3 Capable
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
640GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD6402AAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
3rd Hard Disk

4th Hard Disk

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
600W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£59)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI 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
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE DVI-D CABLE (£5)
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: £777.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[Phoenix]

Take the 1333mhz RAM instead and upgrade the graphics card to a HD6870, there's no performance difference between the PCI and PCI-E wireless cards but it would be better to take the PCI-E one since PCI ports are being phased out.

 

[LFFPicard]

The first and most obvious thing that stands out to me is, if like you say you want to add a second GPU with maybe Eyefinity I would increase your PSU a bit.
600w maybe be border line for expansion so maybe a 750w or even 850w would be a much better choice.

Not too much else you can change to stay within budget, unless you want to go AMD to reduce the cost and go for the next GPU up. But Intel will last you longer, so it's a tough choice.

 

[ericnel]

Thanks folks. The 6850 vs 6870 is tempting (see the BFBC2 comparison http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6850-6870-crossfirex-review/7) but pushes it over £800 and also increases the cost of going crossfire in the future (I believe you have to have two identical cards - so two 6870s?)

I checked the power for two 6850s and it was fine. But would need 800w for two 6870s. decisions decisions....

 

[russellg]

Get the best graphics card you can within budget,so if it's the 6870 and you need an 800/850 PSU then save £19 by staying with the stock cooler.

 

[Phoenix]

You can run two HD6850's/6870's in crossfire in your build with a Corsair TX650 power supply.

 

[ericnel]

Thanks all - now ordered.
Went with 6870 and Corsair TX650 - and shaved some pounds off on memory and cooler as suggested.
Wife is away for a week in 11 working days. What is the chance of it arriving in time for that. Would make for an awesome few days of gaming!

 

[MickyG]

Thanks all - now ordered.
Wife is away for a week in 11 working days. What is the chance of it arriving in time for that. Would make for an awesome few days of gaming!

You could choose the fast track option, but that costs you extra

G

 

[IrishTech]

Well if you get it in 11 working days let me know ordred mine in the 19th of jan still in pre-production.

But this is a busy month jan and with the last hick up with intel it is understandable

Knowing me they will deleiver it on 16-17 of feb when i won't be there. Someone else will be but i hate not being able to rip it open when you get it that day

 

[Ryka]

Got you beat, pre-production ordered on 13th January.

Nice build on a budget, could save a (small) bit of cash by dumping the cooler and sticking with the intel stock cooler which is apparently pretty decent on these sandy bridge chips.