I know, I know, I missed a month, its been busy ok?  Anyway I’m back again and on the whole not a great deal has changed.  AMD have promised some price changes to their upper level 7870 and 7900 series cards but not enough to really dislodge the 7850 as the midrange of choice.  Thats unlikely to happen until later in August which is when Nvidia are rumoured to be releasing the GTX 660 Ti.

The Entry to Mid Level System:

Case:
NZXT Tempest 210

Cost – £42
The Tempest is a revision of the NZXT Source I have previously recommended and is currently slightly cheaper.  That said cases seem to have a slight price hike at the moment.  As before you are getting rear and ceiling fans included, internal cable management, screwless design as well as a USB3 compatible front socket. From a personal perspective, I think its a nice looking case to boot.

Power Supply:
OCZ CoreXStream 500W

Cost – £35
Slightly less powerful than previously but you really dont need all that power.  In truth a 350W would manage but its always good to have a little headroom any most upgrades you might consider later, 80% efficiency, which at this price is excellent and should give you a nice stable platform. Spending less on a PSU is usually false economy especially in a machine you plan on using for games.

CPU:
Intel Core i5 3570 3.4Ghz

Cost – £165
Unless you are planning on overclocking there really is no point in spending money on the higher spec K series chips and on the whole for gaming its best to put the money into graphics power. This i5 sports intels turbo boost and has more than enough power for games as well as a number of revisions that Ivybridge brings over the previous series. Admittedly there isnt a great difference in performance between the Ivybridge and Sandybridge, but the price is largely the same too so you may as well get the new one.  The reason for the top end CPU rather than lower down the pecking order is again to do with negligible price difference but more about this being a good time to buy a PC so invest in quality.

Motherboard:
MSI H77MA-G43

Cost – £67
The board remains the same, I previously switched from the older 6 series intel boards to one of their new 7 series boards which support native Ivybridge, USB3 and PCI-E3 support as well as the various enhancements that Intel have made to caching, SSD support and other benefits.  The limitation of the board selected here is that it only has a single high speed PCI-E socket and therefore will be more suited to a single GPU setup.  An extra £10 will get you a Z77 board with this support but given the power of single card GPUs you really dont need to go to this length.

RAM:
8GB Crucial DDR3 1600MHz Ballistix Sport

Cost – £39
RAM is very cheap at the moment and prices seem to be holding although I woundnt count on that forever. Lifetime warranty and good service from Crucial when you need it. I would also say that we are now getting to the point that its worth having a minimum of 8GB RAM for gaming comfort and at this price I would even be tempted to double that to 16GB if you can stretch the budget.

Graphics Card:
Gigabyte HD 7850 OC 2GB Windforce X2

Cost – £189
Since the release of the Nvidia 680 and 670 and the upcoming 660, AMD have been reviewing the prices of their current market cards which has seen price reductions across the board.  Right this second, the 7850 has no competition for the midrange bracket and this is an excellent price for a card that’s only a few of months old!  AMDs latest architecture and 2GB of memory put it clearly above the Nvidia 560Ti 448 core in my mind although the 660 is due in August I would expect initial prices to be around £250 on release.  We’ll have to wait for the benchmarks to see if they justify that tag.

Hard Disk:
Seagate 1TB Barracuda 7200RPM 32MB Cache

Cost – £65
Hard disks are still pretty expensive but prices are falling quickly from their peak. I have finally been able to recommend a 1TB storage as well as SATA III which will perform better than the budget drives I have been previously recommending although this has raised the price a little. We are finally back to being able to put in good performing platter based drives without remortgaging the house, but hopefully the prices will continue to drop.

Optical Drive:
Samsung 22x DVD/RW

Cost – £13
With the exception of Sony which I would tend to avoid due to their tendency not to support all disk types, all optical drives are the same so buy the cheapest. No real point getting Blu-Ray yet unless you are planning on using the PC as a media centre.

Monitor:
LG IPS234V-PN 23″ Monitor

Cost – £119
LG, AOC and Asus may have started the trend of lost cost IPS screens, but there are now a number on the market including this offering from Ilyama.  As with the other panels these are getting favourable reviews consistantly getting better with every model released.  On that basis its hard to argue in favour of the older TN panels any more unless you are interested in 3D.  IPS options in this price bracket are becoming more and more common, with the AOC i2353Fh and the Ilyama Prolite X2377HDS, its worth shopping around although this is by far the cheapest Ive seen so far.

Mouse:
Gigabyte M6900

Cost – £18
Clearly modelled after other successful gaming mice, Gigabyte have pulled together a very attactive combination of functionality, performance and price. Its very hard to justify more expensive options with this on the table.

Keyboard:
Cyborg V5

Cost – £39
Back lit, anti ghosting and macro keys make it hard to beat at the price, what more do you need?

Headset:
Plantronics Gamecom 380

Cost – £20
Plantronics have recently updated their Gamecom range and this 380 replaces the outgoing 367. As before the 380 has high quality sound, comfortable for long play sessions with a reasonable mic attached as well as a much improved build quality around both its cabling and headband. Not something you typically see in headsets of this price.

Total cost of the above:

£811

As before, Ill be shortly following this article up with an update to the Overclocker’s system previously recommended.

Ill admit that I have once again pushed the budget to its max for this months PC however the reasoning behind this is that this is genuinely an excellent time to buy a gaming PC.  Intel, Nvidia and AMD have now largely released all of their major releases and a sensible purchase now will last you a good long time without becoming obsolete.  The system below will stand you well for years to come.

The Entry to Mid Level System:

Case:
NZXT Tempest 210

Cost – £43
The Tempest is a revision of the NZXT Source I have previously recommended and is currently slightly cheaper.  That said cases seem to have a slight price hike at the moment.  As before you are getting rear and ceiling fans included, internal cable management, screwless design as well as a USB3 compatible front socket. From a personal perspective, I think its a nice looking case to boot.

Power Supply:
OCZ CoreXStream 500W

Cost – £35
Slightly less powerful than previously but you really dont need all that power.  In truth a 350W would manage but its always good to have a little headroom any most upgrades you might consider later, 80% efficiency, which at this price is excellent and should give you a nice stable platform. Spending less on a PSU is usually false economy especially in a machine you plan on using for games.

CPU:
Intel Core i5 3550 3.3Ghz

Cost – £166
My first expensive change in that I have both upgraded to one of Intels new Ivybridge CPUs and I have also gone for their top end i5.  Unless you are planning on overclocking there really is no point in spending money on the higher spec K series chips and on the whole for gaming its best to put the money into graphics power. This i5 sports intels turbo boost and has more than enough power for games as well as a number of revisions that Ivybridge brings over the previous series. Admittedly there isnt a great difference in performance between the Ivybridge and Sandybridge, but the price is largely the same too so you may as well get the new one.  The reason for the top end CPU rather than lower down the pecking order is again to do with negligible price difference but more about this being a good time to buy a PC so invest in quality.

Motherboard:
MSI H77MA-G43

Cost – £67
Last weeks big change remains the same, I have switched from the older 6 series intel boards to one of their new 7 series boards which support native Ivybridge, USB3 and PCI-E3 support as well as the various enhancements that Intel have made to caching, SSD support and other benefits.  The limitation of the board selected here is that it only has a single high speed PCI-E socket and therefore will be more suited to a single GPU setup.  An extra £10 will get you a Z77 board with this support but given the power of single card GPUs you really dont need to go to this length.

RAM:
8GB Crucial DDR3 1600MHz Ballistix Sport

Cost – £31
RAM is very cheap at the moment and prices seem to be holding although I woundnt count on that forever. Lifetime warranty and good service from Crucial when you need it. I would also say that we are now getting to the point that its worth having a minimum of 8GB RAM for gaming comfort and at this price I would even be tempted to double that to 16GB if you can stretch the budget.

Graphics Card:
Sapphire HD 7850 2GB

Cost – £186
Since the release of the Nvidia 680 and 670, AMD have been reviewing the prices of their current market cards which has seen price reductions across the board.  Its true the 6870 I have recommended is now even cheaper, but this is an excellent price for a card that’s only a couple of months old!  AMDs latest architecture and 2GB of memory put it clearly above the Nvidia 560Ti 448 core in my mind and the 660 is likely delayed till the tail end of this year.

Hard Disk:
WD 1TB Caviar Blue 7200RPM 32MB Cache

Cost – £70
Hard disks are still pretty expensive but prices are falling quickly from their peak. I have finally been able to recommend a 1TB storage as well as SATA III which will perform better than the budget drives I have been previously recommending although this has raised the price a little. We are finally back to being able to put in good performing platter based drives without remortgaging the house, but hopefully the prices will continue to drop.

Optical Drive:
Samsung 22x DVD/RW

Cost – £13
With the exception of Sony which I would tend to avoid due to their tendency not to support all disk types, all optical drives are the same so buy the cheapest. No real point getting Blu-Ray yet unless you are planning on using the PC as a media centre.

Monitor:
Ilyama Prolite 23″ X2377HDS

Cost – £134
LG, AOC and Asus may have started the trend of lost cost IPS screens, but there are now a number on the market including this offering from Ilyama.  As with the other panels these are getting favourable reviews consistantly getting better with every model released.  On that basis its hard to argue in favour of the older TN panels any more unless you are interested in 3D.  IPS options in this price bracket are becoming more and more common, with the AOC i2353Fh and the LG IPS235V, its worth shopping around.

Mouse:
Gigabyte M6900

Cost – £17
Clearly modelled after other successful gaming mice, Gigabyte have pulled together a very attactive combination of functionality, performance and price. Its very hard to justify more expensive options with this on the table.

Keyboard:
Cyborg V5

Cost – £35
Back lit, anti ghosting and macro keys make it hard to beat at the price, what more do you need?

Headset:
Plantronics Gamecom 380

Cost – £19
Plantronics have recently updated their Gamecom range and this 380 replaces the outgoing 367. As before the 380 has high quality sound, comfortable for long play sessions with a reasonable mic attached as well as a much improved build quality around both its cabling and headband. Not something you typically see in headsets of this price.

Total cost of the above:

£816

As before, Ill be shortly following this article up with an update to the Overclocker’s system previously recommended.

Although not a lot of change in the market I have actually made some fairly significant changes to this months system.  Admittedly this has pushed the price up a little and I’ve had to sacrifice the sound card but being able to sport one of the latest and greatest graphics cards is worth it in my opinion.

The Entry to Mid Level System:

Case:
NZXT Source 210

Cost – £35
Slightly more expensive than the Coolermaster case I have been recommending of late however for the extra £1 you are getting rear and ceiling fans included, internal cable management, screwless design, a bottom mounted PSU as well as a USB3 compatible front socket. From a personal perspective, I think its a nice looking case to boot. Also available in white if you are a tart!

Power Supply:
Corsair CX V2 600W

Cost – £53
A trusted brand, plenty of power headroom for most upgrades you might consider later, 80% efficiency which should give you a nice stable platform. Spending less on a PSU is usually false economy especially in a machine you plan on using for games.

CPU:
Intel Core i5 2400 3.1Ghz

Cost – £146
Unless you are planning on overclocking there really is no point in spending money on the higher spec K series chips and on the whole for gaming its best to put the money into graphics power. This i5 sports intels turbo boost and has more than enough power for games. Given the specs released on the Ivybridge CPUs there isnt a great deal to get too excited about. Sandybridge will do you for a good while.

Motherboard:
MSI H77MA-G43

Cost – £67
One of the first big changes, I have switched from the older 6 series intel boards to one of their new 7 series boards which support native Ivybridge, USB3 and PCI-E3 support as well as the various enhancements that Intel have made to caching, SSD support and other benefits.  The limitation of the board selected here is that it only has a single high speed PCI-E socket and therefore will be more suited to a single GPU setup.  An extra £10 will get you a Z77 board with this support however I needed to save the money for my GPU upgrade.

RAM:
8GB Crucial DDR3 1600MHz Ballistix Sport

Cost – £31
RAM is very cheap at the moment and prices seem to be holding although I woundnt count on that forever. Lifetime warranty and good service from Crucial when you need it. I would also say that we are now getting to the point that its worth having a minimum of 8GB RAM for gaming comfort.

Graphics Card:
HIS HD 7850 2GB

Cost – £189
Since the release of the Nvidia 680GTX, AMD have been reviewing the prices of their current market cards which has seen price reductions across the board.  Its true the 6870 I normally recommend is now even cheaper, but this is an excellent price for a card that’s only a couple of months old!  AMDs latest architecture and 2GB of memory put it clearly above the Nvidia 560Ti 448 core in my mind.

Hard Disk:
Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache

Cost – £61
Hard disks are still pretty expensive but prices are falling quickly from their peak. I have switched to the Seagate as this is a SATA III drive which will perform better than the budget drives I have been previously recommending although this has raised the price a little. The prices still need to drop considerably to start looking at the drives you would typically want to use.

Optical Drive:
Samsung 22x DVD/RW

Cost – £13
With the exception of Sony which I would tend to avoid, all optical drives are the same so buy the cheapest. No real point getting Blu-Ray yet unless you are planning on using the PC as a media centre.

Monitor:

LG 23″ IPS235V

Cost – £133
LG are leading the charge for low cost E-IPS screens and at this price and with the favourable reviews they are generally receiving its hard to argue in favour of the older TN panels any more. No change here however IPS options in this price bracket are becoming more and more common, with the AOC i2353Fh hot on LG’s tails, its worth shopping around.

Mouse:
Gigabyte M6900

Cost – £17
Clearly modelled after other successful gaming mice, Gigabyte have pulled together a very attactive combination of functionality, performance and price. Its very hard to justify more expensive options with this on the table.

Keyboard:
Cyborg V5

Cost – £36
I have switched from the Microsoft X4 on the basis that as MS are closing the brand, its arguably better to buy something thats going to recieve ongoing support. Back lit, anti ghosting and macro keys make it hard to beat at the price which is more or less like for like with the X4.

Headset:
Plantronics Gamecom 380

Cost – £19
Plantronics have recently updated their Gamecom range and this 380 replaces the outgoing 367. As before the 380 has high quality sound, comfortable for long play sessions with a reasonable mic attached as well as a much improved build quality around both its cabling and headband. Not something you typically see in headsets of this price.

Total cost of the above:

£800

As before, Ill be shortly following this article up with an update to the Overclocker’s system previously recommended.

Just a little more than a month has passed since I last made my recommendations however there has been quite a reasonable amount of change, firstly Intel’s confirmation that the current Sandybridge motherboards will be compatible with their soon to be released Ivybridge CPUs as well as Nivida launching their new 680 GTX which has reclaimed the the ‘top graphics card’ crown.

What does this mean for our entry level system? Directly, not a great deal however it has had some impact on prices as well as give a view on future upgrade paths.

The Entry to Mid Level System:

Case:
NZXT Source 210

Cost – £36
Slightly more expensive than the Coolermaster case I have been recommending of late however for the extra £2 you are getting rear and ceiling fans included, internal cable management, screwless design, a bottom mounted PSU as well as a USB3 compatible front socket. From a personal perspective, I think its a nice looking case to boot. Also available in white if you are a tart!

Power Supply:
Corsair CX V2 600W

Cost – £53
A trusted brand, plenty of power headroom for most upgrades you might consider later, 80% efficiency which should give you a nice stable platform. Spending less on a PSU is usually false economy especially in a machine you plan on using for games.

CPU:
Intel Core i5 2400 3.1Ghz

Cost – £146
Unless you are planning on overclocking there really is no point in spending money on the higher spec K series chips and on the whole for gaming its best to put the money into graphics power. This i5 sports intels turbo boost and has more than enough power for games. Given the specs released on the Ivybridge CPUs there isnt a great deal to get too excited about. Sandybridge will do you for a good while.

Motherboard:
Asus P8Z68-V LX

Cost – £76
Excellent highend Sandybridge board with lots of upgrade potential (including support for Ivy Bridge this year) as well as support for mSata connectors to enable Mini SSDs to use Intels caching capabilities. Switched to the Asus over the Gigabyte purely due to it being a few pounds cheaper however both are excellent value boards. A slight creep in prices which may be due to confirmation of compatibility with future Ivybridge CPUs

RAM:
8GB Crucial DDR3 1600MHz Ballistix Sport

Cost – £30
RAM is very cheap at the moment and prices seem to be holding although I woundnt count on that forever. Lifetime warranty and good service from Crucial when you need it. I would also say that we are now getting to the point that its worth having a minimum of 8GB RAM for gaming comfort.

Graphics Card:
PowerColor HD 6870 1GB

Cost – £135
This is a decent low cost card that will fill all your gaming needs on a single monitor. Also cheap enough to consider chucking in a pair to run in crossfire in the future should the inclination take you. The XFX I previously recommended can be found cheaper than this however I upgraded to the PowerColour as in my experience they offer a better service generally than XFX and their aftermarket cooler is also better than the reference design. The icing on the cake is that this card is also boxed with a coupon for Dirt 3. All of this seems worth the few extra pounds.

Hard Disk:
Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache

Cost – £60
Hard disks are still pretty expensive but prices are falling quickly from their peak. I have switched to the Seagate as this is a SATA III drive which will perform better than the budget drives I have been previously recommending although this has raised the price a little. The prices still need to drop considerably to start looking at the drives you would typically want to use.

Optical Drive:
Samsung 22x DVD/RW

Cost – £13
With the exception of Sony which I would tend to avoid, all optical drives are the same so buy the cheapest. No real point getting Blu-Ray yet unless you are planning on using the PC as a media centre.

Sound Card:
Asus Xonar 5.1 PCI with Headphone AMP

Cost – £24
This card has no onboard processing so it wont boost framerate, however having a plug in card gives a much cleaner experience to sound by separating it from the electrical noise of the other onboard components and the headphone AMP will improve the sound output for unpowered headsets.

Monitor:
LG 23″ IPS235V

Cost – £140
LG are leading the charge for low cost E-IPS screens and at this price and with the favourable reviews they are generally receiving its hard to argue in favour of the older TN panels any more. No change here however more options in this price bracket are becoming available, its worth shopping around.

Mouse:
Gigabyte M6900

Cost – £17
Clearly modelled after other successful gaming mice, Gigabyte have pulled together a very attactive combination of functionality, performance and price. Its very hard to justify more expensive options with this on the table.

Keyboard:
Cyborg V5

Cost – £34
I have switched from the Microsoft X4 on the basis that as MS are closing the brand, its arguably better to buy something thats going to recieve ongoing support. Back lit, anti ghosting and macro keys make it hard to beat at the price which is more or less like for like with the X4.

Headset:
Plantronics Gamecom 380

Cost – £19
Plantronics have recently updated their Gamecom range and this 380 replaces the outgoing 367. As before the 380 has high quality sound, comfortable for long play sessions with a reasonable mic attached as well as a much improved build quality around both its cabling and headband. Not something you typically see in headsets of this price.

Total cost of the above:

£783

Ill be shortly following this article up with an update to the Overclocker’s system previously recommended.