Medium Budget Gaming build

Master&Puppet

New member
I've offered to build a pc for a mate. It's for gaming (1080p on ultra) and general use with a budget of around £1000 give or take £100 for the rig however he has just bought a house so I want to save him as much moolah as possible.

Obviously he's had some input (mostly in case choice) but it has all been guided quite heavily by myself.

CASE: He loves the look of the Aerocool sixth element (and it is a pretty decent case) so I started there.

CPU: Obviously a 3570K is going to power it and there's a Dark Rock pro on super special so I'll chuck that in as well which is going to add a big black but sexy presence to the white case. That cooler is very decent although not the best on the market but I'm only going to give him a moderate overclock (~4.2-4.4) so I expect that will be fine.

RAM: Continuing the white and black theme I'd thought I'd get some Geil Black Dragon RAM (8gb, 1600MHz, low profile) which looks awesome and fits the performance needs.

HDD/SSD: I'll also chuck in an 120gb M4 and he needs to decide on how much HDD space he wants. My default opinion was to get a Caviar Green, probs 2GB but I've just had my own Green go DOA on me which make me nervous (but I don't think getting a Barracuda is going to be an improvement right?). Anyway - up to this point I've got this:

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You might notice that everything except the SSD (somethings you really can't compromise on) are in special deals. Pretty awesome price so far but this is where it's gets difficult. The GPU & mobo are going to be the final defining colour. My default would be a msi board and a GTX 670 but there isn't really a 670 on Aria/overclockers/scan which is grabbing me for the price at the moment so I'm really tempted to get two of these instead:

https://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecial...R5+PCI-Express+Graphics+Card+?productId=50389
Awesome price, great cooler and great cards anyway. I'll be tinkering with the clocks to get more out of them (not too much overvolting though). I know the old adage of getting the single best card but I could get two of these for a 670 and they also fit the colour scheme of an MSI g45 mobo too. So basically someone needs to tell me to get sensible with the GPUs and get a 670 because the 7850s will be sharing air and everything...but they really are great cards...

Obviously PSU choice will be taken up from here but will be from corsair, 600-750W depending on GPU configuration.

Thoughts?
 
I think a MSI board would be the best choice as they are much cheaper than Asus and many of the forum member who have z77 msi really like them.
Why not a GTX 660ti? But the 7850 are a really nice deal
 
Two 7850's :O What' that? Bit better than a 7970?
Well they come with a decent factory OC and the Twin Frozr is brilliant so I expect they'd each clock comfortably to around gtx580 speeds...two 580s for £330. You see the conundrum?!

I think a MSI board would be the best choice as they are much cheaper than Asus and many of the forum member who have z77 msi really like them.
Why not a GTX 660ti? But the 7850 are a really nice deal
Yea I've got a gd55 myself and I love it :D
 
Looking at this for a PSU if I get the XF setup:
https://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecial...7+80PLUS+Bronze+Power+Supply+?productId=49508
It's got 580W listed on the 12V rail which is pretty much perfect (and the fact that it's listed with 12v rail breakdown gets a big thumbs up from me).
Anyone got any nightmares with the BeQuiet PSU range?

Edit: actually I misread - it has 660w on the 12v rail which is much more than this needs.
 
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Yea I'm going to think about the cards for a bit.

As for the PSU - I'd prefer a modular or at least a TX but the case does have good routing which will help. Mostly though I'm not keen on the unsleeved cables on that PSU - especially given the size of the window.
 
Yea I'm going to think about the cards for a bit.

As for the PSU - I'd prefer a modular or at least a TX but the case does have good routing which will help. Mostly though I'm not keen on the unsleeved cables on that PSU - especially given the size of the window.

Which, the Bequiet or the Silverstones?
 
Well I could could always get some cables for him given that this is coming in under budget by a fair bit.

That 500w strider would be good for a single 670 - I'm liking this 670 when it comes into stock (or from somewhere else).

Done some more thinking - if this build was for me then I'd get the twin 7850s because I'd know what to do with them but he isn't going to want to mess around with drivers and application profiles or any other potential issues (not that I have many at all on my twin 7950s though). So I'll look for a single 670 as you suggested James :D
 
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If they finish by tomorrow, ring them up they'll put through the old lower prices.

It happened to me when I ordered my stuff - my D14 was at £56 instead of £66 I think. I phoned up to order because I needed guaranteed next day delivery and they said the deal had expired (must have been as the phone was ringing) and they put it through at the lower price anyway.
 
I bought one of the 7850 PEs yesterday, and installed it today :)
Haven't had the chance to have a play with it yet, as Windows took its sweet time getting itself up and running. Tis a lovely looking thing, though :)
You hear about that it spins up when you first boot up - they really weren't lying! Thing sounds like a jet engine. I'll try and post some temps up or something later, if you're at all interested :)
 
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