£1500 build advice

[barnsley]

Hello,

My friend has decided that it is time to replace his gaming PC. He has a budget of £1500 and already has the peripherals. His current pc is an i5 750 and a gtx 580 superclocked that he would want to keep in working order, so no parts can be used from that. Normally I'd trust my judgement on a build however with this big a budget (I'm used to building £600-£800 builds) I feel that it would be better to get opinions. Ideally he'll be wanting to end up with three screens, size isn't an issue however he goes to lan parties so a full tower is probably off the list. He has no bias for Nvidia/intel or AMD.

Here is what I came up with (with some help from you guys ) :
CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87MX-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card
Case: Corsair 350D Window MicroATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair Professional Gold 750W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1
Total: £1461.75


I appreciate some advice on this as I'd really hate to mess the parts choice up, Cheers .

 

[Terrifictez85]

Here is what i would suggest.
Would look beautiful too.

 

[Feronix]

Looks nice but I'd personally change some things:

> Get an H100i straight away, you just can't go wrong with it.
> Pretty sure this motherboard is okay. Can always bump it up to a GD-65 Gaming or one of the cheaper ROG boards? Or just a black Gigabyte board but it won't be gaming oriented.
> 16GB is slight overkill for gaming. 8 GB will be fine for now. Can always add more later. It would help with editing/rendering but as I see an i5 in there I don't believe that's the purpose of this build.
> Does he really need that much storage? Can easily cut some money off here.
> The PSU is a nice wattage for SLI cards, but personally I'd spend a bit more on a higher-end unit like the AX750 or AX760.

As for the video cards: 2x GTX 770 will easily outperform one GTX 780 on Full HD, but with 3 screens you're going to want more memory and memory bandwith. What about 2x HD 7970s then? They cost around the same as a GTX 770 and the stutter issue should be nearly fixed.

You said he wants to take it to LAN parties, so what about a Micro-ATX case? Can easily fit all this stuff and will save you some money. Could for instance get the Maximus VI Gene board although GPUs will run a bit hotter.

The OS depends on personal preference. Honestly I think the people that complain about Windows 8 just don't want to learn how it works. Yes, it's different and... Yes, some things are a bit inconvenient but it's not a bad OS at all. Especially cause you can customize it anyway, like adding a start button with third party apps. Windows 8 also uses most new hardware a bit better, but there won't be much noticable difference.

 

[Remmy]

It'd be better to get a single 780 at the moment than 2 770s, and then later on if he wants SLI then he can get a 2nd 780. IMO it's always best to get the best single GPU you can get for your budget, then SLI later if you want to

 

[barnsley]

Here is what i would suggest.
Would look beautiful too.

That does look fantastic . I might go along with something like that.


Thanks for the advice everyone, I'll update the OP with the suggestions. I'll be now focusing it around the excellent 350D case, less ram, a h100i and probably a 780.

 

[MacLeod]

My offering for £1521.

Pretty much just my brand preferences. I think the H80i is good enough for overclocking the 4670K and I love the look of the Fractal Arc Midi.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1ykNX

 

[barnsley]

We're going to gradually order the parts over the next two months. I'll put a build log up when I've finished building. Not going to lie, I am really looking forward to getting it done as I'm used to working on budget AMD builds and while I love AMD, it is nice to mix things up now and then .

 

[AndyBC]

Always go bang for buck...

But this is coming from a tight mofo still happily gaming on a 4850