£850 Gaming PC

 

Processor: i5-3570k: Well rounded processor! (£140)

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO: Great CPU Cooler and the best bang for your buck! (£25)

Motherboard: ASRock z77 Extreme ATX: Great! (£80)

RAM/Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 8GB 1600: Everyone knows how good this RAM is... (£60)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue (1TB): Great price for a great product! (£40)

Video Card/GPU: AMD r9 290 Direct CU II: Wow. This is the true meaning of bang for your buck. (£310)

Case: Zalman Z9 Plus: Case I normally personal preference but this case deserves some love! (£45)

PSU: XFX 550w 80+ Bronze Certified: Sexy power supply! (£45)

Operating System: Windows 8.1 (64 Bit): Better than 8 with no doubt. (£80)

Wireless Adapter: Asus PC-E-N15 (Optional): A favourite for wireless users. (£15)

Optical Drive: Lite-ON I picked this as it has something around 450 votes on part picker. (£11)

Looks pretty good. But note that the Z87 and Z97 chipsets have LGA 1150 sockets, as opposed to the LGA 1155 socket that Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge CPUs require.

Oh ye! Completely forgot haha.

Thanks for telling me!

I have a 3570k myself, overclocked it to 4.4 Ghz, and it runs everything I throw at it easily. Well, except when I enable PhysX (since I don't an nVidia GPU).

I like all of it. Maybe you would consider the £50 Arc Mini chassis, for a smaller form factor build. Or if you wish to stick with ATX, it's only £10-15 in addition for the Fractal Core 3000.

There's a lot of up-to-date components that are comparably priced, too.

Where did you find a Direct CU ii 290 for £310?

I was thinking about getting an FX-8350 but I had a look at some reviews and they all recommended the 3570k over the 8350.

What do you think?

Amazon. I believe it has been bumped up to £320 now though :(

Still a super deal. Keep an eye out. I've seen Amazon prices fluctuate, up and down, in as little as 2-3 hours intervals.

I just noticed theres a Sapphire Tri-X r9 290 on Amazon for £285! If your looking to buy I would asap! 

If you're planning on doing any video editing or other tasks that have really good support for 8 threads, I'd pick up an 8350. But if you're just gaming... I think I'd have to recommend the i5. It performs more consistently across a wide variety of games, while the 8350 really struggles on some games (Arma/DayZ, for example). 

Tri-X is arguably the best, affordable R9 290. For <£300 you have to activate a prime membership. Just use the free month that they provide, then cancel it later on in the month.

I already have a 780. Paid too much for it when it first came out...! I didn't have a PC, I have an excuse.

Oh, which Z77 board are you getting? Extreme3? 4? 9? I have the Asrock Z77 Extreme3 and I've been very happy with it. Maybe not the best board on the market but it's done everything I've needed it to, and I was able to get it for $100

Extreme4. IMO there isn't much a difference with the 3 & 4

I always saw the Extreme 4 get recommended, but I couldn't quite fit it in my budget. Still I'd expect it to work out very well unless there's a specific feature you're missing.

According to this thread on tom's hardware: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/322204-30-asrock-extreme3-extreme4

The difference is that the Extreme 4 has two more USB 3, an E sata port, and a slightly better power phase.

I'm too damn lazy to go through Asrock's specs.

Edit: looking at other sources there appear to be more differences (max memory, audio, etc.). The extreme4 does appear to be all around better.