600 EURO

kahf1_02

600 Budget. Got monitor, Win7, and prerephials.

Build away!

Monotype

For... gaming?

kahf1_02

Yeah mate. Lot's of Skyrim

Monotype

Okay, a bit over the budget, but maybe we can trim that down if you can't spare the money.

Total build cost: €606.14 + €30 shipping
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155|€175.58
ASRock P67 Pro3 (B3), Sockel 1155, ATX|€83.63
Club 3D Radeon 6870 1024MB, AMD Radeon HD 6870, PCI-Express|€146.56
8GB-Kit G.Skill RipJaws-X PC3-10667U CL9|€40.79
Cooler Master Elite RC-334 schwarz, ohne Netzteil|€33.65
Antec High Current Gamer HCG-520|€63.85
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1000GB, SATA II (HD103SJ)|€45.14
LiteOn iHAS122-18 schwarz SATA|€16.94


I've swapped out the standard recommendation of the Xigmatek Asgard for a coolermaster case, since you said you prefer those.
Next best PSU I see around is the Antec HCG 520W as you mentioned that you had problems with Superflowers in the past.

Edit: There's cheaper 6870s. I mustn't have sorted them.
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=41505

kahf1_02

Hey. Are ASRock reliable? 500GB is loads. 1TB overkill. The lite-on is inferior to the Samsung, I reckon. Yeah the case is good, but I'd like the big brother version of that. The 560 Elite or something. 8GB is a huge overkill, the 4GB little brother kit is nearly half that price, around 30 euro.

As fo the PSU, I'm still up in the air.

Monotype

500GB drive
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=28151

The Samsung writes to dual layers faster while the liteon has the the advantage with CD reads. Pretty much the same across the board apart from that. The reason why I chose it instead is the DVD writer I currently have is a Samsung which is a bit unnecessarily noisy. The liteon on the other hand was very flexible with em... (checks charter)... unofficial software to switch regions as often as I liked.

The superflower amazons are good and good value. You might just have had bad luck. The Antec is a decent PSU built on a Seasonic.

4GB is fine but RAM is pretty cheap these days and you more than likely wouldn't have to upgrade for the life of the system. It is an area to cut some money if you need to.

Asrock are a spin off company from Asus. Their boards have been very good the last few turns. I think they're overtaking Asus at this point.

kahf1_02

From previous experiences ASUS are pretty low-end, unreliable amateurs. Had horrible mobo's in the past. Maybe that's just me, with bad luck. No offence intended. I'll stick with the 4GB mate. For sure, I'll chose the lite-on - the "checks charter" nice feature

Should I pick a cheap low-end 6950 or a good branded 6870? And your verdict on the case? Also, mono, did you get your ATi back yet. I RMA'ed couple of items recently.

Monotype

Asus boards just haven't been the same since they they spread out to other markets. Their top end boards are still good and I'd buy their other products on account of their wide coverage (and hence easy to get a hold of if you have a problem) but there's no doubt that they've been cheaping out on their low to mid boards and other manufacturers nearly always have a better alternative.

Basically the Asrock is good for the money. If you want to get a board with more slots and features, you'll have to spend an extra €30.

There's a big gap in the price between a 6950 and a 6870. A good difference in performance too. I think both are good value for what you're getting - you get what you pay for. I think the 6870 won't have any problems with Vanilla Skyrim. Although the specs haven't been released, going by what we know you should be able to run at 1080p with just about everything turned up... until the mods arrive. Who knows how much power we'll need then.

You're thinking of Trevor or Teabag; I haven't RMAed a card.

bobbytables

I built a few weeks ago with that mobo & processor. They're excellent value for money. Unless you need the extra sockets on the board down the road, it's a great choice.

Jonny7

I'd say get the 8 gigs of ram, in 2 months it could be twice the price again