The Beast

As PC gamers we all know the most important thing to us is our computer, some costs hundreds, some cost thousands. What we choose to use is totally our own decision and there are so many different factors when looking to purchase a new rig, or upgrade a current.

I recently purchased a new PC myself and the thought process plus the time spent trying to decide what was the best I could get for my money was a challenge I really enjoyed.

I set myself a budget of £700 knowing exactly what I wanted to get and set out of finding the best way to get hold of it.

A lot of my friends would rather build their PC from scratch buying each component and fitting them them self, I personally feel a lot more comfortable leaving the building to a trusted company and buying the whole package. I fail at inserting a USB stick correctly let along soldering a Motherboard.

My last 2 PCs had been AMD based paired with AMD graphic cards, I can't fault either of them as they both treated me well and got me through my gaming needs. For my new PC I decided after some research and sleepless nights to go for a Intel CPU. I spent along time wondering if I should invest more in a higher CPU, an i7 or go for a cheaper i5 machine. Working on a budget I didn't feel the justification for an i7 was there and in the end I went for the i5. By saving money on my CPU I was able to invest a little more on the graphics card and purchased an MSI GeForce 660Ti power edition, in time I plan to SLI this with another.

The PC I brought was a Limited edition Titan "Dragon Army" PC from www.overclockers.co.uk with a few minor adjustments. I have purchased my last 2 PCs from Overclockers and have had nothing but great experiences. All my previous and current peripherals have been brought from there also, due to customer service and delivery being brilliant, I wouldn't think to go else where.

A break down on what I got:

- Case : NZXT Phantom 410 Enthusiast Gaming Case - Black
- Power Supply: Corsair 600w PSU
- CPU: Intel Core i5 3570k Ivy bridge CPU Overclocked to 4.4ghz
- Motherboard: MSI Z77A-G45 Gaming series DDR3 Mobo
- Cooler: NZXT Kraken x40 water cooling unit
- Ram : Patriot Venom Red 8gb DDR3 1600Mhz 
- Hard Drives : Crucial M4 128GB SSD and a 1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 64MB Cache Hard Drive
- Graphics Card: MSI GeForce GTX 660Ti Power Edition 2048MB
- Sound - 7.1HD audio

Brought back in May 2013 this is a mid level gaming system and in my opinion great bang for buck, I shall not say the exact cost as my finacée and mother/father would kill me but I made my budget! (kind of, hehe)

Those who know me will know I'm an inpatient person at the best of times but with a new PC on the way I couldn't keep myself occupied with anything else other than the thought of setting it up and playing on it all night long.

The day came and I got a text from Jade which included a photo of a box, I don't think I've ever left work so promptly as I did that day. I ran out of the office, down to my car and shot home.

I plugged it all in and installed all the drivers required to run my PC perfectly. I ran through a great Windows 7 optimization guide for SSDs and HDDs: http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans-windows-7-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdds and then I installed the games I wanted to play. Starcraft 2, FinalFantasy XIV A Realm Reborn beta and Battlefield 3.

All 3 run brilliantly on maximum settings and I couldn't be more happy with my purchase!

A few pictures of the beast!

Cooler and MOBO

Love the see through side on the case

The monitors, a must!

Mum/Dad, I'm sorry!