Budget Intel PC for gaming

[idelix]

Hello,

I need to buy PC which will play smoothly all new games for at least next 2 years with decent graphic and also must have monitor with aspect ratio 16:10 i need this for programming otherwise as I heard font is not tall enough, anyway I got together following system on scan.co.uk wonder if anyone have any suggestions in terms if I should change anything, also my budget is max £900


Intel Core i3 2100, S1155, Sdy Bridge, 3.1GHz, 5GT/s, GPU 850Mhz, 3MB Cache, Core R 31x, 65W, Retail

MSI P67A-GD53 (B3), Intel P67, S 1155, PCI-E 2.0, DDR3 2133, SATA 6Gb/s, SATA RAID, ATX, SLI/ XFire

500GB Seagate ST3500413AS Barracuda 7200.12, SATA 6Gb/s, 7200rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.5ms, NCQ

1GB MSI GTX 560 Ti Twin Frozr II/OC, 40nm, 4200MHz GDDR5, GPU 880MHz, Shader 1760MHz, 384 Cores

650W Corsair Enthusiast 650TXV2UK TX V2 Series, 85% Eff', SLi, EPS 12V, 80 Plus Bronze, 140mm Fan

4GB (2x2GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Jet Black, PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP, 1.50V

Antec 100 One Hundred, Black Midi Tower Gaming Case w/o PSU



22" Samsung SMB2230W High Glossy Black Widescreen Monitor, 5 ms, 1680x1050, 70,000:1

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium - Retail (Green) 32 & 64 Bit


Total: £886.52

[Tabooo]

Originally Posted by idelix Hello, I need to buy PC which will play smoothly all new games for at least next 2 years with decent graphic and also must have monitor with aspect ratio 16:10 i need this for programming otherwise as I heard font is not tall enough, anyway I got together following system on scan.co.uk wonder if anyone have any suggestions in terms if I should change anything, also my budget is max £900 Intel Core i3 2100, S1155, Sdy Bridge, 3.1GHz, 5GT/s, GPU 850Mhz, 3MB Cache, Core R 31x, 65W, Retail MSI P67A-GD53 (B3), Intel P67, S 1155, PCI-E 2.0, DDR3 2133, SATA 6Gb/s, SATA RAID, ATX, SLI/ XFire 500GB Seagate ST3500413AS Barracuda 7200.12, SATA 6Gb/s, 7200rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.5ms, NCQ 1GB MSI GTX 560 Ti Twin Frozr II/OC, 40nm, 4200MHz GDDR5, GPU 880MHz, Shader 1760MHz, 384 Cores 650W Corsair Enthusiast 650TXV2UK TX V2 Series, 85% Eff', SLi, EPS 12V, 80 Plus Bronze, 140mm Fan 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Jet Black, PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP, 1.50V Antec 100 One Hundred, Black Midi Tower Gaming Case w/o PSU 22" Samsung SMB2230W High Glossy Black Widescreen Monitor, 5 ms, 1680x1050, 70,000:1 Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium - Retail (Green) 32 & 64 Bit Total: £886.52

The one thing I see people are going to say is that instead of going with Seagate, you would probably rather go with Western Digital.

Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD5002AALX 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

That one for example.

[jdeb]

The build looks pretty good but as mentioned, if available, I would change the hard drive to a Western Digital Caviar Black 6gb/s Sata III.

I would also look towards going with a EVGA card as well. Other than that, I see no issue, however I prefer Asus boards but that MSI is good, it is just not my first choice today.

[glc]

I can support MSI motherboards and video cards now, their quality and customer service has improved. I am still a bit leery of Seagate hard drives since the firmware fiasco, but their customer service is excellent if you do have a problem. I do think I'd want a SATA 6.0 drive with more than 16mb cache though.

If you can find an OEM version of Windows 7 instead of retail, you should be able to save some money.

[Khalil]

I started buying Seagate again, I was assured by their rep the firmware issues have been resolved.
I still buy more WD but recently the prices on Seagate have been to attractive to pass on specially on large builds for school districts where price is everything.
The last 100 or so Seagate drives have been just fine, not one single problem.
I agree on MSI motherboards, their support and quality has improved a lot, they are still no Asus though.

[jdeb]

I will stick with the WD and Hitachi's (soon to be WD).

[Khalil]

Remember as always we never want manufacturer to 100% dominate the market or prices will go out of whack so I am all for Seagate getting back in gear. We need healthy competition to keep prices down.

[jdeb]

Originally Posted by Khalil Remember as always we never want manufacturer to 100% dominate the market or prices will go out of whack so I am all for Seagate getting back in gear. We need healthy competition to keep prices down.

True but I will wait a couple of months and bring it up again to see if the results are good on your end. I took your lead on the Hitachi and so far it has not disappointed me yet. I was part of the 7200.10 fiasco but Seagate was good about it for the most part but after a couple of replacements bit the dust soon after, I ended up eating the remainder for piece of mind and reputation.

[glc]

Note that Seagate is in the process of buying out Samsung's hard drive division - so this is going to reduce the competition to 2 giants. HOPEFULLY both companies will be putting out quality products across the board and we will be able to choose based on features and price.

[David M]

The monitor you picked is a 16:10, but if you want more screen real estate in order make sure you do not have the problem you described then consider a 16:10, 1920 x 1200. They don't cost much more money at all.

[idelix]

Thanks for all feedback I placed the order and end up with following setup:

Asus P8P67 PRO Rev.3.0 Intel P67, S 1155, DDR3, SATA III - 6Gb/s, RAID SATA, PCIe 2.0 (x16), ATX

Intel Core i3 2100, S1155, Sdy Bridge, 3.1GHz, 5GT/s, GPU 850Mhz, 3MB Cache, Core R 31x, 65W, Retail

1GB MSI GTX 560 Ti Twin Frozr II/OC, 40nm, 4200MHz GDDR5, GPU 880MHz, Shader 1760MHz, 384 Cores

4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS3 Classic DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 8-8-8-24, XMP, 1.65V

Fractal Design Define R3, Black Pearl, Mid Tower Case w/o PSU

500GB Western Digital WD5002AALX Caviar Black, SATA 6Gb/s, 7200rpm, 32MB Cache

Microsoft Sidewinder X6 Gaming Keyboard 30 Programmable Keys & More! USB

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium - Retail (Green) 32 & 64 Bit

LG GH22NS70 24x DVD±R, 16xDVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RWx6 ,12xRAM SATA, Black, OEM

650W PSU, Corsair Enthusiast Series 650TXV2UK, 85% Eff', 80 PLUS Bronze, SLI/CrossFire, EPS 12V, Quiet Fan, ATX v2.31

Ill buy i5 CPU at some point so that's why PSU with 650W.

Now all its left is monitor I'm trying to find something up to £140 with "22 and ratio 16:10 (resolution 1680X1050) so far I found those two monitors:

ViewSonic VA2232W
(ViewSonic VA2232W - LCD display - TFT - 22" - widescreen - 1680 x 1050 - 300 cd/m2 - 1000:1 - 100000:1 (dynamic) - 5 ms - 0.282 mm - DVI-D, VGA - black: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories)

Philips 220C1SB
(Philips Brilliance 220C1SB - LCD display - TFT - 22" - widescreen - 1680 x 1050 / 60 Hz - 250 cd/m2 - 1000:1 - 30000:1 (dynamic) - 2 ms - 0.282 mm - DVI-D, VGA - glossy black: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories)

Wonder if anyone can suggest any other monitor ?

Cheers