Good gaming rig <£1700

My current setup is quite good, however due to various issues parts of it are becoming increasingly annoying / unmanageable (failing hard disks, glitchy GPU, glitchy MB etc), so im considering possibly picking up a new pc

Now im somewhat limited since i do not want to assemble it myself. Im generally good with maintenance and upgrading, but the initial assembly is something i stay away from (and its a good thing, judging from my previous experiences), so in the end i will probably have it assembled for me by a company that deals with computers.


What i am looking for: A strong PC that can handle new releases on max settings.
My budget: Not going above £1700-1800. Cheap is good (but not if it harms performance significantly, or product quality)
Peripherals - none needed. Only the actual PC itself.
What i want to stay away from: SLI/Crossfire. I want a SINGLE NVIDIA GPU (that is not an internal sli in itself, like radeon 5980 was). I am tired of the issues that crossfire and radeons in general gave me, so please no more of that.


My current build: i7 960 @3.2 (OC to 3.6), Asus Rampage III Extreme, 2x Radeon 5980 Xfire.
I know its a very powerful computer, i am not changing it because of performance. Im changing it because half of the time motherboard does not recognise my RAM, radeons keep throwing me blue screens and corrupted graphics, my SSD is failing, and i think my CPU is the only thing that has not glitched on me yet. And since so many things need to be replaced, i might as well go for something brand new and then just ebay the old spare parts.


How about this: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/syscon...odid=FS-281-OK

Corsair 500R midi
i7 3820
Stage 3 20% OC
OcUK H2 Flo Extreme CPU Cooler
Asus P9X79 PRO Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard
Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz C9 Quad Channel Memory Kit
KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 2048MB GDDR5
Sandisk Ultra SSD 120GB SATA-2 SSD
Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Hitachi CH10N-BL Blu-Ray Reader / DVD±RW Drive - OEM
Corsair Enthusiast Series TX 650W V2 High Performance 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply

~£1600.

Any thoughts?

Based from that list, i would get a GTX680 which is the fastest single gpu Nvidia has. You should change the SSD to a SATAIII which is much faster. You could save money by going with 8GB of ram as that would be plenty for a gaming system. If you really wanted to save a significant of money, your better with a LGA1155 processors as having a enthusiast cpu won't gain any performances in games.

What does Stage 3 20% OC mean?

Also as stated get a Sata III SSD. Also if you are going to go with a closed liquid loop I would go with Corsair as they will cover any damage done by a leak.

@680: I didnt want to pay £200 extra for a very small performance increase, as both 70 and 80 performed great. IIRC 70 was $5.5 per frame while 80 was $6.8
@SSD: Yes, i forgot to edit the list - i did indeed change it SataIII
@RAM: I also use PC for my art, so for photoshop etc 16gb RAM is quite helpful
@Stage3: Its direct quote from the link i gave in my OP (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/syscon_int.php?prodid=FS-281-OK)
@Liquid: I do NOT want to go for liquid cooling. 2 times i had LC, 2 times it leaked. No thanks.

Another question:

If i was to change from a single gpu to a sli (yes, i know what i wrote in the OP), would this build work with it as well? The mobo / the case / the power/ the cooling?

OcUK H2 Flo Extreme CPU Cooler Is a liquid cooler.

OcUK H2 Flo Extreme CPU Cooler Is a liquid cooler.

Thank you for letting me know!

Ill change it to Prolimatech Super Mega CPU Cooler

OcUK H2 Flo Extreme CPU Cooler Is a liquid cooler.

Thank you for letting me know!

Ill change it to Prolimatech Super Mega CPU Cooler

I dont know what experience you have had with closed loops, but they have a VERY low failure rate now. I have had a Corsair H50, H60, H80, and now H100 and NEVER had a problem with them. Also like I said before Corsair will cover leaks and damages done to system caused by that leak.

OcUK H2 Flo Extreme CPU Cooler Is a liquid cooler.

Thank you for letting me know!

Ill change it to Prolimatech Super Mega CPU Cooler

I dont know what experience you have had with closed loops, but they have a VERY low failure rate now. I have had a Corsair H50, H60, H80, and now H100 and NEVER had a problem with them. Also like I said before Corsair will cover leaks and damages done to system caused by that leak.

My last 2 liquid cooling systems both failed on me, damaging the motherboards, so ill stick with fans. Id prefer not having any damage in the first place, even if corsair replaced it.
Also my only options are the ones that are available in the customization on that page i linked in the OP.

The motherboard chosen is more then capable of using SLI but the case is small and you would definitely was a full atx case for SLI so there won't be to much of a overheating issue and a 750W power supply is needed.

The motherboard chosen is more then capable of using SLI but the case is small and you would definitely was a full atx case for SLI so there won't be to much of a overheating issue and a 750W power supply is needed.

I dont know what an "atx" case is.

from the link provided in the OP, can you recommend a case to use?

Edit: After some searching it seems like the case i linked is actually an ATX case already...

"Full ATX" case is much larger then a mid-atx case. Cases like NZXT Phantom, Corsair Obsidian 800D etc, basically the one that has the "Full Tower" in it's name.

"Full ATX" case is much larger then a mid-atx case. Cases like NZXT Phantom, Corsair Obsidian 800D etc, basically the one that has the "Full Tower" in it's name.

Thanks!


Okay, changed the specs to:

NZXT Phantom Enthusiast USB3.0 Full Tower Case - Red/White
Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail
Stage 3: Overclock of CPU - 20% Overclock (Processor speed x1.20)
Prolimatech Super Mega CPU Cooler
Asus P9X79 PRO Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard
Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz C9 Quad Channel Memory Kit
KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 2048MB GDDR5
KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 2048MB GDDR5
Sandisk Extreme SSD 240GB SATA-3 SSD
Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Hitachi CH10N-BL Blu-Ray Reader / DVD±RW Drive - OEM
Asus Xonar DG 5.1 PCI Sound Card with built in Headphone AMP
Corsair Enthusiast Series TX 750W V2 High Performance Power Supply
Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit
Fully Cable Managed
Sharkoon 120mm 2000RPM Fan

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/syscon_int.php?prodid=FS-281-OK

I know it costs a bit more than the original 1700/1800 i stated when i made this thread, however i discovered that i can actually afford a bit extra.

One word of caution with multiple GPU's, not all games scale well with SLI/Crossfire, so don't expect a perfect doubling of performance. Additionally, most computer monitors at limited to 60 frames per second, if you go past this and deactivate VSYNC in games, you will get screen tearing. A previous poster was accurate with the difference between LGA 2011 and 1155, in games, there are few differences in performance with these processors.

"Full ATX" case is much larger then a mid-atx case. Cases like NZXT Phantom, Corsair Obsidian 800D etc, basically the one that has the "Full Tower" in it's name.

Thanks!


Okay, changed the specs to:

NZXT Phantom Enthusiast USB3.0 Full Tower Case - Red/White
Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail
Stage 3: Overclock of CPU - 20% Overclock (Processor speed x1.20)
Prolimatech Super Mega CPU Cooler
Asus P9X79 PRO Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard
Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz C9 Quad Channel Memory Kit
KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 2048MB GDDR5
KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 2048MB GDDR5
Sandisk Extreme SSD 240GB SATA-3 SSD
Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Hitachi CH10N-BL Blu-Ray Reader / DVD±RW Drive - OEM
Asus Xonar DG 5.1 PCI Sound Card with built in Headphone AMP
Corsair Enthusiast Series TX 750W V2 High Performance Power Supply
Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit
Fully Cable Managed
Sharkoon 120mm 2000RPM Fan

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/syscon_int.php?prodid=FS-281-OK

I know it costs a bit more than the original 1700/1800 i stated when i made this thread, however i discovered that i can actually afford a bit extra.

Now that looks much better!

One word of caution with multiple GPU's, not all games scale well with SLI/Crossfire, so don't expect a perfect doubling of performance. Additionally, most computer monitors at limited to 60 frames per second, if you go past this and deactivate VSYNC in games, you will get screen tearing. A previous poster was accurate with the difference between LGA 2011 and 1155, in games, there are few differences in performance with these processors.

In most cases a SLI performance will still be better than a single GPU (i.e. metro / crysis / etc). For games that have issues with SLI i can always manually disable SLi for that specific game by having it in full-windowed mode, no?