Hours spent configuring this machine!

S

scomil

Active member
Hello.

This is the machine I've created after many, many hours researching, comparing, swatting-up on techy terms and consuming vast amounts of coffee.

I'm going to be mostly using it for Photoshop, Ableton (I already have an external sound card), video editing and a spot of gaming here and there. Mainly IL 2.

Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8P67 (NEW REV 3.0): USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6870 - 2 DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
600W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£59)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
22" Widescreen TFT 1920 x1080 2MS D-Sub, DVI, 21.6" Panel (£99)
2nd Monitor
22" Widescreen TFT 1920 x1080 2MS D-Sub, DVI, 21.6" Panel (£99)
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
2 x 2 METRE DVI-D CABLE (£9)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,018.00

Honest opinions would be most grateful. Ta

Great forum btw.
 
F3AR

F3AR

Well-known member
add another 22" to have triple monitors :D

And 1GB of vRam (GPU ram) won't be enough for two monitors if your gaming :)
 
Frenchy

Frenchy

Prolific Poster
If your going for dual monitors id suggest atleast a 1.5GB card, 3 monitors id suggest 3GB card if your going to be gaming in full hd.

I have 3GB GTX580's running my 3 x 22" 1080p monitors. So this runs at around 6000 x 1080 resolution, which deffinately needs the bigger VRAM card to avoid drastic drops in FPS caused by swapping in and out of VRAM
 
S

scomil

Active member
I hear you fellas.

Thing is, The chances of me actually gaming with the pros is pretty dead and burried. But. If I wanted to try and beat them pesky pro's I'd only use 1 screen anyways.
I need the dual set up for sequencing and photoshop stuff. There isn't a great deal of gpu processing involved with that kind of software. It'll run fine, Im sure.
I have updated my build slightly. Changing the case and psu in case I do decide double up the gpu.
Swapped the hd to 500gb. I have spare 1tb here.
And it goes a little something like this..

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8P67 (NEW REV 3.0): USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6870 - 2 DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD5002AALX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£72)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Monitor
22" Widescreen TFT 1920 x1080 2MS D-Sub, DVI, 21.6" Panel (£99)
2nd Monitor
22" Widescreen TFT 1920 x1080 2MS D-Sub, DVI, 21.6" Panel (£99)
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
2 x 2 METRE DVI-D CABLE (£9)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,028.00

All in all. Not bad. Not the doggies, I know. But it'll see me through.
2 x 6870's xfired would be sweet at some time in the future. Or would anyone else have any better ideas on gpu?
For the same price I could also get a 750w psu. Is it really worth it?

Cheers
 
Teaz

Teaz

Godlike
grab a nicer cooling case and a better psu like the 650w corsair :) apart from that, specs are solid.
 
S

scomil

Active member
Teaz said:
grab a nicer cooling case and a better psu like the 650w corsair :) apart from that, specs are solid.
Click to expand...

Aye Aye Captain. Might I suggest adding an i7, hitching the ram up at the cost of a monitor?

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8P67 (NEW REV 3.0): USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6870 - 2 DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD5002AALX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£72)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£16)
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£109)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
24" Widescreen TFT 1920 x1080 5MS, DVI, 23.6" Panel (£119)
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE DVI-D CABLE (£5)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: A tickle over a grand.

Ordered this little honey just a few moments ago. Pleased as punch. Start Operation Twiddle Thumbs.

Over all, I'm pretty pleased with that set-up. It'll see me through for the next few years.
 
Teaz

Teaz

Godlike
lol i5 was perfectly fine but if your happy with the i7 then okay. no need for the 1600mhz however as its just for some good overclocking and its not what you will really need to be doing. 1333mhz is perfectly fine and fast for whatever you do and is barely any noticeable difference from 1600mhz. the 1333mhz ram could saved you a bit :)
 
S

scomil

Active member
Teaz said:
lol i5 was perfectly fine but if your happy with the i7 then okay. no need for the 1600mhz however as its just for some good overclocking and its not what you will really need to be doing. 1333mhz is perfectly fine and fast for whatever you do and is barely any noticeable difference from 1600mhz. the 1333mhz ram could saved you a bit :)
Click to expand...

It saves a fiver going to 1333. But after reading up. You're absolutely right. Thanks
 
Teaz

Teaz

Godlike
im also pretty sure that the monitor comes coupled with a dvi cable already. you should call and double check. instead of having to purchase a spare.

pcs should label their monitors if they come couple with a dvi cable or not, it helps saves time lol. i know for sure the iiyama monitors come with a dvi cable.
 
S

scomil

Active member
Teaz said:
im also pretty sure that the monitor comes coupled with a dvi cable already. you should call and double check. instead of having to purchase a spare.

pcs should label their monitors if they come couple with a dvi cable or not, it helps saves time lol. i know for sure the iiyama monitors come with a dvi cable.
Click to expand...

I'll look in to it. Cheers.

I have made a couple of minor adjustments.

Swapped from the p67 mobo to z68.
Dropped to 1333 ram
and got Win7 home instead of Pro. No biggy.
It turns out to be exactly the same price. Which is nice.

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, NVIDIA®SLI™, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6870 - 2 DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD5002AALX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£72)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£16)
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
24" Widescreen TFT 1920 x1080 5MS, DVI, 23.6" Panel (£119)
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE DVI-D CABLE (£5)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
 
S

scomil

Active member
Just recieved a delightful message from the PCS crew informing me that my rig is well on its way.

I doubt if I'll sleep tonight.

Will add pics and possibly a video from tomorrow along with some general feedback. Fingers triple crossed.
 
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