Hi folks,

A friend of mine wants a new gaming machine, he was going to put a C2Q in it, but I thought he might be better served by an i7 system?.

Since I know nothing about Intel processors (being an AMD fanboy ) I thought someone nice here might post a suggested build. The only requirements are that it must be air cooled (we're both hydrophobic when it comes to PCs!) and it must run a Radeon 4890. DDR 3 in tri-channel would be a bonus.

Budget is ideally £1000, but he will stretch to £1100 (inc. VAT & delivery) if necessary.

Go.

Whoops, I thought I was in PC Hardware.

does he have keyboard, mouse, monitoer, OS etc or do they need to be factored into the build?

He's going to use W7 RC until Windows 7 makes an apperance in October. Monitor (somewhere around 22"-24"), keyboard and mouse need to be factored in.

Have a look here at the Overclockers weekly deals: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/thisweek.php

All the i7 boards support DD3 in tri channel mode. Just get one of the 3 stick memory kits.
For cooling, look at the Thermalright Ultra Extreme 120 or the Titan Fenrir, Intel's stock cooler is best used as a door stopper. I got the Noctua cooler but it is more expensive.
£150 23in monitor

I just built myself a Core i7 system but it was a lot more than £1100, I can email over the spec to you if you want so you can adjust it down to the budget.

Well this is what I've cobbled together:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... =CP-280-IN
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... =MB-155-GI
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... =MO-117-SA
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... =CA-146-CM
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... =GX-124-XF
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... =CA-065-AN
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... =HD-053-SA
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... =MY-151-OC
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... =HS-024-AS
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... =CD-122-SA

Out of interest, why the need for a 4890?

Secondly, don't go near the Antec 900, it is truly one of the worst cases ever built, especially at that price point. The only thing it has in its favour is that it comes with all the fan slots loaded up so it does artificially well on reviews. Other than that it is dire.

I have one and a friend has one, we happen to think they're great. Lots of room to manoeuvre etc.

The 4890 'cos it's a kick ass gfx card.

the new antec 902 is just a scaled down 1200 so it is a good case and dont get that asus cooler get a titan ferrier cpc reckon its the best cooler for i7
cheers boothy

Wow, that's the last thing I would have expected someone to state as a plus point! It does then beg the question as to whether you've built in anything else for a comparison?

Yes, and I normally cut myself on the damn things.

£1160 without mouse and keyboard.... I'm no't sure whether that includes delivery either. Your budget is slipping !

That was just an idea of what to put in it. We managed to knock over £40 by shopping around for components, and that includes a new koyboard, mouse & delivery.