Don't forget with graphics cards the warranty will differ. Hopefully never needed, but could be something to consider. I recall MSI are meant to be pretty good on that front, but I could have got that mixed up!

Sill need a screen. Presume it's going to need either a DVI or HDMi connection and has to be 22". It's the biggest that will fit on my desk

If you want reviews go to Anandtech.com, they are completely independent and unbiased. Avoid webshop forums as per your experience.

You need a bigger desk man! I bought a no name 32" tv 1366 x728 and use it as my main monitor in 2screen setup and never looked up. When SWMBO and kiddos occupy other tellies it doubles up as TV as well. Paid around £300 4years ago and it hasn't missed a beat! I have a 50incher in the garage waiting a simple repair ( need to replace few capacitors and transistors on few boards) and this full hd monster will be my main monitor-I will definitely need an upgrade then lol.

How is your shopping list going? Have it all de used upon yet?

My desk will have on it the 22" monitor and a 26" 1080p HD TV. Now I could use the TV as a screen but I often use both at the same time especially on F1 weekends. Will be using the TV for driving games though as I have a ps3 wheel. May even use both screens in the PC from time to time too.

When I had a SLI GFX setup I run 3 screens and it was brilliant. When I upgrade will do the same thing. The more the better!

I love driving games, have Logitech pro wheel, superb piece of kit! I play with my 10year old son and he beats the crap out of me on those games, his karting days shine through lol

I'll probably order tomorrow night since nothing will get dispatched until Monday anyway and gives me time to see if I need anything else. Build with discounts is about £900 and while this is £200 over budget, compared to my bike build it seems reasonable. With the bike a £600 build quickly turned into a £1300 one. Man maths at it's best

I spent some time reading reviews on Anandteh. This is what Iarrived at as a result.

GIGABYTE GA-Z77-DS3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) Motherboard

8 in stock

Stock Code - GIG-Z77DS3

1

£74.99

£74.99

Corsair XMS3 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800 C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit

7 at Suppliers , Available within 2-3 Days from Order

Stock Code - CSR-16169

1

£62.99

£62.99

GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 660 OC 2048MB GDDR5

5 in stock

Stock Code - GIG-660OC

1

£176.99

£176.99

OCZ Solid 3 SATA III 2.5" 120GB Solid State Hard Drive

2 in stock

Stock Code - OCZ-S3120G

1

£53.99

£53.99

Intel Core i7 2600K 3.40GHz (Sandy Bridge) Socket LGA1155 - OEM.

1 in stock

Stock Code - IL-2600KO

1

£199.98

£199.98

Scythe Shuriken Rev.B Quiet Low Profile CPU Cooler

Insufficient Stock: 2 Due Today

Stock Code - SCY-SHULP

1

£25.00

£25.00

GTX 660 seems to be the best £/FPS on the market at the moment for BF3

Thanks. I have gone for the 660 GFX and I ordered it all last night. Should all be here by Wednesday

OK, so what was the final Order List?

Don't have it on me now I'll post it up properly later. From Novatech I had the PSU David recommended and a 660 GFX. Antec 1200 V3 case, 16gb of Corsair Vengeance memory, i5 3570k, Samsung 128GB SSD, Gigabyte motherboard. Can remember exact board specs but it's one of the few that accept overclocked memory. I have a keyboard and a good mouse. It all depends on how much time I have this week as I'm in the middle of redecorating my room. Hoping it's up and running by the weekend

Check out the info on PSUs, the headline number isn't the only thing to go on. Cheap PSUs often included with cases can be a false economy. If a PSU fails it could take out your other hardware with it.

If you're into Corsair, they do some highly recommended PSUs.

Case didn't come with one it was recommended. It maybe a Novatech branded one but judging by reviews it's pretty good. Had a look into it and OCZ do the bits inside them

Just to keep your options open - for I 'started' this way, get a gigabyte motherboard. Why?

Nothing to do with 'preference' over any other manu - BUT, a gigabyte motherboard with intel processor and nVidia Graphics is an EXCELLENT base to make an Apple Mac Hackintosh. Did mine a couple of years ago and no longer use PCs any more. A Hackintosh is much more stable than any PC - no crashes in 2 years.

My current build (I;ve done 2) is

Gigabyte GA-Z58a- UD3R board.

Intel® Core™ i7-960 Processor

24 Gigabyte of RAM

NVidia GT9600 Graphics.

Built via http://www.tonymacx8...-mini-2012.html or http://tonymacx86.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/CustoMac

Not really good for games but simply fantastic for serious business computing AND running multiple windows server systems under a hypervisor within the Mac (I support windows systems for a living)

Edited 22 October, 201213 yr by gregosx

That could be an option in the future but this system will be for gaming primarily. I have Minecraft, will be getting BF3 but what else can I get?

My "hackintosh" attempt on my previous gigabyte motherboard was a piece of ****, crashed left right and centre, not worth the hassle. Just bought a macbook pro in the end.

It's all built and working. Sadly no pics yet as I'm in the middle of redecorating my bedroom. Wallpaper went up yesterday, painting when I get a chance, new door to fit, etc so will be a while until I can game properly. I'm currently sitting on the floor to use it.

Still got a few drivers to install and to set the RAM to the proper speed. Says it's supposed to be 1600mhz but is only giving me 1333mhz. Pretty sure there's a setting in the BIOS I missed when I first turned it on. Either way it's all running well and I noticed the board has a switch that lets me mildly overclock it with out fiddling too much too.

I do need a proper mount for my SSD as Antec expect you to screw it in on the bottom of the case but this means the cables won't fit and you'd need an extra power cable because the case is so tall. In the end I had an old laptop caddy and put it in that then slid it into one of the bays. It's not screwed down but the tower won't be moving much. It's surprising how heavy it is

What CPU is it, I can't for the life of me remember what my ram runs at

Sorted it now. There's an XMP setting I need to tick. Default was 1333mhz but it's back up to 1600mhz

i5 3570k 3.4ghz. There's a "turbo boost" option I can tick that takes it up to 3.8ghz, BIOS looks easy to change if I want

16GB DDR3 @1600mhz

Samsung SSD 128gb

Msi Twinfrozr GTX 660 OC 2GB gfx

THis baby should OC to 4.5 on air reportedly.

That spec looks gooood .

put it to good use and come and play BF3

THis baby should OC to 4.5 on air reportedly.

They do and it's simple to do, it's all there in the bios, just flick the switch

Still no luck with my old machine overclocking. Flashed BIOS, Disabled all automation, even tried OS level OC'ing tool be Gigabyte. Nothing...

Never ever met with anything like that before!

Martyn, let us know your top OC

I can well believe it. I had the Antec 1200 case and even with all the case fans on low (there's 6) sitting next to it I'm freezing. Still haven't had chance to really stress it because I've been busy. My only comparison with my old laptop was Minecraft and when venturing into dense forests it would lag and was worse if you stared blowing stuff up. So I dug to the base a 2x2 tunnel and filled it with TNT and scattered it about the surface too. Switched to creative, sat in the middle and lit it. It all exploded, no lag whatsoever and temps didn't go over 30C.

Yeah the BIOS options look pretty good and you can choose a mild overclock or it can max out for you based on optimum settings. I'll wait until I've moved it back into my room before I start tweaking