At KitGuru we spend a lot of our time playing with high end hardware, and it can be disheartening for many readers. In the cold hard ‘real world’ not everyone can afford a Core i7 980X with SLI’d GTX480′s and to be honest, for most people this is totally overkill anyway. Killer performance shouldn’t cost a fortune and this is the focus of today’s write up.
Today we are trying something new – we want to help you build a Core i5 system which is not only capable of gaming, but media, 3d rendering and video editing duties also. We will hand select components we know will overclock well, but we also want to limit bios tweaking, a scary part of building a system for many people. There is a huge audience who want to build their own system, but don’t want to learn a wealth of bios settings. We will guarantee today you can achieve a 1.4ghz overclock without breaking a sweat.
With the wealth of hardware options available in today’s tech environment it is relatively easy to built a kick ass system for under a grand. What we have in store for you today is an Intel Core i5 quad core running at 4.2ghz with 4GB of 2GHZ DDR3, a 1080p LED screen, SSD drive, all without breaking the bank. KitGuru shows you how.
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August 26, 2010
#1
That is a great idea for an article Zardon. that Core i5 processor is brilliant value for money. Well impressed.
August 26, 2010
#2
Overclocking is really easy now. I dont overclock but it really tempts me to get a mobo like this at some stage.
August 26, 2010
#3
4.2ghz with a few bios changes. long gone are the days or playing with a series of voltages to get any overclock at all. I remember my FX processor was a nightmare to get 200mhz out of it.
August 26, 2010
#4
Intel processors are so easy now to overclock. no effort at all. it surprises me however that they don’t sell them faster out of the box. 2.8ghz? surely this would sit at 3.5ghz without even any effort from intel.
August 26, 2010
#5
Great idea and an entertaining twist on how to get a good value system. 4.2ghz is surely sexy.
August 26, 2010
#6
This is exactly why this site is my home page now. Zardon tests all the hardware, then keeps the best stuff for articles like this, which save people so much time when trying to build a system. I have this stored for future reference.
August 26, 2010
#7
Very entertaining read kitguru – great performance for such a modest outlay. ive seen systems 3 times this price in PC world with half the performance.
August 26, 2010
#8
I never knew the new motherboards had such great settings all preconfigured for specific processors like this. what a fantastic idea. I cant see the ASROCK board for sale anywhere however.
August 26, 2010
#9
I just bought the 760 CPU, thanks. I need an upgrade for my dual core and this was well priced.
August 26, 2010
#10
That frio is a great price. I always thought it was closer to 50 quid, not 38. what a bargain.
August 26, 2010
#11
I like the system, not sure about the chassis, wouldnt the thermaltake armor A90 be better ?
August 26, 2010
#12
Of course it would be better, but it wouldn’t be a system for under a grand, it would be a system for over a grand
August 26, 2010
#13
Great find, love it. I am going to spec this very system next week. Might even pop into yoyotech myself.
August 26, 2010
#14
I wonder would it be better to include an AMD board like 5850? they cost more however so it might push it over 1000. still might opt for it instead.
August 26, 2010
#15
I love the I5 processors. and that was a great idea to compensate for dual channel by using 2000 modules. they dont cost much more either which is surprising.
August 26, 2010
#16
Good job resting and showing the results. I like that power supply its a very good price point. half the price of the AX850.
August 26, 2010
#17
Good system, id have opted for AMD graphics though and maybe the HD5770
August 26, 2010
#18
HD5770 would be much slower, makes no sense.
August 26, 2010
#19
Frio is rubbish, who would use that?
August 26, 2010
#20
I dont agree, the Frio should not be used. id have opted for the HD5770 and got the corsair H70 instead of GTX460 and poorer cooler.
August 26, 2010
#21
Why not two HD5670s in Crossfire instead of that power hogging card?
August 26, 2010
#22
Good all round system, ive no idea why people are complaining about the Frio, its an awesome cooler for the price.
August 26, 2010
#23
good piece of work, very helpful for people. I tend to stick to AMD cpus and graphics cards, but this is useful for many.
August 26, 2010
#24
would the 1055T not be better for the price, extra 2 cores?
August 26, 2010
#25
That motherboard is very good, went and read the full review. seems like a great release from ASROCk.
August 26, 2010
#26
It is very difficult getting a system built for 1k without compromising somewhere. for 1,500 you can get a much better build. that 500 quid helps with a monitor, better case.
August 26, 2010
#27
nicely worked out, right to 995 ! for the price its pretty much spot on.
August 26, 2010
#28
This was good timing, I was looking around tonight for reviews of the 750 processor and this has just been released at the right time. I probably dont need all the bits here as I already have a H50, and lian li case, but the monitor, CPU and memory. motherboard all appeal to me. seems like great combination. if I can get it to 4ghz ill be chuffed.
August 26, 2010
#29
Good review, thumbs up
August 26, 2010
#30
760 is a boring clock increase but this is a nice idea to present it. good value if they all hit 4.2ghz like this one
August 26, 2010
#31
How far can the i5 760 be pushed Zardon with manual ocing?
August 26, 2010
#32
Around 4.5ghz with insane voltage 4.4ghz if you are playing it safe. It doesnt overclock quite as good as the K series, but its still good enough.
August 26, 2010
#33
Good gaming performance. GTX460 is a really good card, really rate em.
August 26, 2010
#34
155 quid for a quad core which hits 4ghz easy is a hell of a price. 1055T is still £30 and has 2 extra cores, but it wont overclock as hell.
August 26, 2010
#35
Kingston memory? really?
August 27, 2010
#36
only complain is that the yoyotech website is really hard to get to work for me, it keeps crashing and the links sometimes dont load, even though I know they are working. I ended up finding all the parts I could on dabs today and working out how much it will cost me. I hope you can use other stores in future instead of yoyotech. scan is ok, but I prefer dabs
September 3, 2010
#37
I did something similar with my “SuperBudget” home-build at 3.5GHz. Under $450.00 U.S.
Parts are dated, but as the wisest Native American once said, “wat-ta-hey”.
Intel E-5300, Crucial DDR3, MSI MSi P43-C51, GeForce N8400GS/512Mb, ThermalTake 600W, Cooler Master Case and HSfan 212+.
4.2 GHz is nice, but when I build again, I will want more than another 700.
So I’ll be shooting for high 4′s or low 5′s, -if I find a “SuperBargain” way to do that, I’ll let ya’ll know the mix!