PC Upgrade

[JoeB361]

Hey guys.
At the moment I am on a terrible PC (Medion erazer x70), but im going to avoid going into that. Long story short, its terrible and I am never buying anything from Medion again
Due to that, im trying to avoid making any more mistakes on PCs.
I looked at few gaming PCs, and ended up deciding on the Titan 8500i Vortex (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-215-OE .
I dont know everything im looking for, but im happy with the 8GB ram, overclocked CPU looks good, and dont think I really need an additional sound card.
Only thing I want to change there is the Radeon 7770 to a 7850. I think the price is worth it, and the 7850 seems a lot better, the best I could find for that price range.
(http://www.hwcompare.com/12033/radeon-hd-7770-vs-radeon-hd-7850/)
I know nothing about crossfire, but im guessing keeping you can't crossfire two cards? Such as buying it with the stock 7770, then buying the 7850 and using them both.
The motherboard looks decent, and I think has everything I need, but im not really sure. (My current motherboard has NO spare PCI slots).
It is the GA-Z77X-D3H (http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4144#sp)
I think this is everything I need to look at for buying the PC, but im not too sure, so any help would be appreciated.
If you know something such as a better ready-built PC for that price range (im aiming for under £900, and definitely under £1000), or maybe a better GPU for around that price, please let me know,
Im buying this in July (after my exams), so no big rush now.
Thanks for any help/advice

[Capped]

Uhm, it all looks nice enough. I dont know anything about ATI cards so im not sure about the GFX, obviously the 7850 is better googling it a bit it seems as though it may be the equivilent of a 560TI? or so..In which case its a good card, but not strong enough to run the latest games at full FPS constant, putting them in crossfire would ensure that though. I would still recommend going with the better 7850.

Btw, Crossfire is putting 2 cards in 1 machine, they need to be the same cards, same clocks etc or there will be alot of issues, Although i have heard of different cards being used but only for certain tasks, and usually its a 3 GFX card machine, im not sure on that. Its best to stick with the 2 of the same card.

The main thing really is, Overclockers and any PC seller, really bump up the prices on their stuff, purely because they built and sell it as a package. If you could buy all those parts seperately and you (or someone you know) puts it together, you could probably knock £200-300 off the price, which opens up to buying better parts with the money saved. Building a computer isnt hard either, even monkeys can do it (Hi azbec! ) Even overclocking your CPU is pretty simple, there are plenty of guides for the i5-2500k and its really trial and error.

Short version: Get the better graphics card - If you can, buy parts seperately and build it yourself

That said, its a nice machine and you cant really go wrong, if you go with the 7770 card, you will probably need an upgrade soon-ish in which you can just go with a more powerful card, or chuck another one in for crossfire.

I really need to get myself another 560ti too :-(

[Azbec]

Looks pretty good. You're right about the xfire, you cant do it with 2 different cards. If you wanted to do that you'd need 2 7770s or 2 7850s and so forth (to be honest, i wouldn't really worry about it. I wouldn't consider xfire unless you had an i7 cpu). If you can get the team at overclockers to put a 7850 in that for you, then I'd definetaly go for it. Unless you are getting some fancy ass £100+ headphones or a crazy 7.1 sound system that costs £500 that onboard audio is fine for general gaming and every day use.
Plenty of space with that HDD and that SSD will making booting very quick! (Just make sure they actually install windows on the ssd xD)
8gb of ram is plenty, and the watercooler should keep things nice and quiet

Everything looks good with that and I've only heard good things about OCuk so you should be good to go!
Have you not considered building your rig yourself? Doesn't really matter if you don't, it just saves you a bit of money.

But apart from that, that pc looks great! Good luck with your exams too!

Damn you capped posting before me!

Also, to run crossfire, you will need a beefier power supply, which will bump that price up.

[JoeB361]

Thanks guys.
They said you can make small changes, I messaged them asking about putting a 7850 in today.
Using the GPU compare site, it shows the 7850 is a tiny bit better than the 560ti.
I have got someone that could build it for me, but that would probably take longer, and wouldn't be overclocked as much.
I still need to be thinking about keyboards and mouse too, at the moment im on standard USB ones.
Luckily its my birthday coming up in July

[Capped]

Overclocking is pretty simple, Its not something you should worry about in terms of buying / building yourself. Its very easy to overclock high providing you buy an aftermarket cooler. and 4.6 on an i5 is standard, only pushing 5+ does it really put strain on the thing.

7850 is basically the equivilent of the 560ti then? i thought the 7770 was, well its a nice card then, especially if it puts out a little more performance. I can run any game that tickles my fancy at max with acceptable fps, not max :p.

Ehm, building it yourself would probably free up the money for a keyboard and mouse if you wanted it, or better parts as i said.

Its all personal prefrence, you could just buy the thing off overclockers, but you'd be spending more then you needed to and what could you do with the extra monies

[JoeB361]

Comparison of 560ti and 7850: http://www.hwcompare.com/12054/geforce-gtx-560-ti-vs-radeon-hd-7850/
7850 is less power, and about 10% better.
It would be my uncle building, who lives quite a while away so it might take ages, and I havent even spoken to him.
I also know nothing about overclocking, other than the built in feature that comes with AMD graphics cards.
I could wait a bit before buying a mouse and keyboard, to save spending loads at once.
I havent replaced a GPU before and know nothing about that, so need to do some research

[JoeB361]

There was also something else I wanted to mention.
Someone I know was saying you shouldn't really mix AMD and Intel, or Nvidia and Ati.
I was calling bullshit, because i've seen lots of people with i7s and AMD cards.

[Azbec]

There was also something else I wanted to mention.
Someone I know was saying you shouldn't really mix AMD and Intel, or Nvidia and Ati.
I was calling bullshit, because i've seen lots of people with i7s and AMD cards.

Bollocks, im using an AMD card with my i3 and it runs fine.
Also, replacing graphics cards is as simple as plugging something into a wall socket. Litereally, all you do is take out a couple of screws in plug it into a slot (after removing the old gpu of course).

[JoeB361]

Haha thanks for clearing that up. Hes an "all the gear and no idea" type guy, thinks he knows everything.
Never got to try replacing a GPU because of the terrible spacing in my motherboard xD
Looking forward to this upgrade, because I can play BF3, skyrim etc on this and I think it looks good (way better than console), and then look at the GPU I have now to compared with what I will get http://www.hwcompare.com/12094/radeon-hd-5570-vs-radeon-hd-7850/

[Azbec]

Yeah, thats a big improvement!
PC building wise, friends and family say to me 'wow you built a computer, impressive' I just tell them its like a jigsaw puzzle with an instruction manual.
Its not hard if you can be bothered to learn, and that doesn't take long.
http://www.buildyourown.org.uk/

Incase you wish to expand your knowledge on pcs and building:
Check that website out, their guide is great, but slightly outdated. Everything is explained in good detail and they have a pc building forum too!

[S!n!StR]

If you can send me a link of a popular and trustworthy UK gaming gear site, I can put together something that could probably beat ( I'm 98% sure it will ) the PC you want to buy from OCuk for about the same price.

Thing is you'll have to build it yourself or call someone that will do it for you. Overclocking a i5-2500K is so easy it's laughable. I have that same processor and it took me about 3 mins to overclock it to 4.8 GHz ( I bumped it down to 4.5 GHz cause I didn't notice any difference between the two gaming wise ).

 

[JoeB361]

I dont really know many, apart from oCuk or novatech. Im pretty sure they are the main ones. For individual parts I normally look at the brands website.
I could see about getting it built for me, which I will do if it saves money, thanks.
And to Azbec: I'll check that site out. I think there is quite a lot of holes in what I know, so I should learn stuff now now before I get the PC.
Got my exams in two weeks, if only I put this much effort into revision

[Azbec]

Definately try
www.ebuyer.com - Probably some of the lowest prices on the web, and they have a great free delivery service for orders over £45
and try
www.scan.co.uk - These guys have a pc building system similar to ocuk, might be worth checking them out, their store is also very good.

[JoeB361]

If you look at the picture third along here ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128546 )
Does that have the connectors needed? I know the 7850 would use the x16 slot, but dont really know what they are all used for.
It does look pretty crowded, so would the card fit? The other slots look quite close below the x16, so I dont really see how the card would fit there :S

[Azbec]

The mobo in the flesh is alot bigger.
Because I am so nice  I have highlighted the different slots on the board!



This is what they all do:
The slot with the red box around it is the PCI express x16 slot, this is where your graphics card will be (yes it is compatible).
 
The slot next to it which has the dark green box is a PCI express x1, these are commonly used for more recent sound cards and network cards. This particular slot will be covered up by the graphics card, as the coolers on most cards are 2 PCI slots wide. So you won't be able to use it (I wouldn't worry, you probably won't even use all of them).

The slots in light green boxes are also PCI express x1, the gpu won't cover those up, so if you want a sound card or network card or any other expansion card that uses PCI express x1, then it'll go in one of those.

The slot in the blue box is a PCI express x8 slot, if you're gonna go crossfire, then the second card will be there.
However, it will cover up the PCI slot next to it (yellow box). Normal PCI is gradually being phased out by PCI express x1 but alot of soundcards in the market (especially the cheaper ones) still use PCI, so if you're getting a cheaper sound card it you will need to contemplate actually going crossfire, or spend a bit more on a PCI express x1 sound card.

That last slot that I have highlighted is a PCI express x4 slot. You probably won't use it so I won't bother explaining.

Hope that helps! And btw, that is a very nice looking mobo!