Improved Design

[TrustMeItsWorthIt]

Hello!
Im building a gaming PC for Deus Ex and probably Skyrim.
Im planning to double up the GPU in SLI in a year or so, thus the uprated MoBo and PSU
Im hoping it will be future proof for a while, what do you guys think of this spec?

Case

CoolerMaster Haf 922 Mid Tower Gaming Case (£82)

Processor (CPU)

Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD

Motherboard

ASUS P8P67 Pro USB 3.0/SATA 6Gbs/ crossfire & SLI

Memory (RAM)

8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)

Graphics Card

2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 Ti - 2 DVI,HDMI,VGA - DX® 11, 3D Vision

Memory - 1st Hard Disk

60GB OCZ VERTEX 2 SERIES SSD, SATA 3 Gb/s (upto 285MB/sR | 275MB/sW)

2nd Hard Disk

1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)

RAID

NONE

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive

24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

2nd 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 PORTNONE

Power Supply

CORSAIR 750W TX SERIES (TX750) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£86)

Processor Cooling

Titan Fenrir Evo Extreme (£39)

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

6x USB 2.0 (standard)

Modem

None

Floppy Disk Drive

NONE

Firewire & Video Editing

None

TV Card

None

Operating System

None

Monitor

NONE

Keyboard & Mouse

LOGITECH® MK250 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO (£19)

Warranty

3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)


Thanks for your time,

 

[TrustMeItsWorthIt]

Can i assume that the lack of posts means there's nothing to change? have i managed to create the perfect rig? ;-)

 

[DeadEyeDuk]

Looks pretty nice to me And no, not the perfect rig because the case doesn't have jets of fire coming out the top, or a fish living inside...but other than that, all good

 

[Rakk]

If you're not planning on overclocking then the Samsung 1333Mhz RAM should suffice, you probably would see very little difference (if any) between the 1333 and 1600.

Also do you need two DVD Writers, are you planning on doing an awful lot of DVD writing?

 

[TrustMeItsWorthIt]

Damn i missed the options for jet of fire and living fish LOL, yeah the 2x dvd-r was an unthinking addition really, they will be omitted from the final machine
ive scrapped the OCing idea, i only need it for gaming really so i dont think i need the extra grunt

thanks for your thoughts, as always youve given me much to think on!

 

[Wozza63]

i take it you need the memory card reader?

and if you choose the keyboard and mouse seperately, the cheapest two add up to £14

 

[TrustMeItsWorthIt]

well im thinking of the future really with the memory card reader, i dont need it now but you never know, i might get the firewire port for the same reason.
as to the keyboard/mouse i want a wireless combo, im planning to hook this system up to my flatscreen tv (1080p) so i want a bit of mobility.
one question i need to ask is about the HDMI socket on the GPU(560 ti), in all the reviews ive read it says its a mini-hdmi socket, yet when selecting it in the menus it just says HDMI, is it a mini socket?
i cant see any mini-hdmi to HDMI cables for sale on this site so what im wondering is if there is going to be a standard HDMI socket anywhere on the PC, or am i going to have to buy one from elsewhere?

 

[Teaz]

That depends on which brand it is but i think that the brand pcs stocks are the Palit brand which has the hdmi and not mini i think. You should call up pcs to double check and ask them to clarify which brand and if it has the standard hdmi or mini. Im sure it is the Palit model but i could be wrong.

Here is the palit brand of the 560ti:

 

[TrustMeItsWorthIt]

Brilliant, thank you, i'll check.

*EDIT* anyone know what the difference is between the ASUS P8Z68-V Pro &the ASUS P8P67 Pro motherboards is?

Thanks for your help

*EDIT* dont worry about that question, i need it for the Titan Fenrir to fit

 

[TrustMeItsWorthIt]

Ok, what do you think of this then?

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V PRO: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, NVIDIA® SLI™, ATI® CrossFireX™
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 Ti - 2 DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
60GB OCZ VERTEX 2 SERIES SSD, SATA 3 Gb/s (upto 285MB/sR | 275MB/sW)
2nd 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
CORSAIR 850W TX SERIES (TX850) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£99)
Processor Cooling
TITAN FENRIR EVO EXTREME HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£39)
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
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE GOLD PLATED V1.4 HDMI CABLE (£8)
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® MK520 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO (£39)
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: £1,096.00 including VAT and delivery.

All opinions wanted, any thoughts at all, ive only got £1100 though

 

[Teaz]

Nothing really, apart that its alot more flexible which has the ssd caching along with switchable onboard gpu for power saving. the z68 is basically an upgrade of the p67. its a built combination of the h67 and p67 chipset to form the z68.

As for the spec, its looking good now but depending how you wish to use the ssd and hdd, you can do the ssd caching with ur hdd is your main drive with all the stuff like OS is on there or you can do the ssd with the os with main prog an other stuff like storage on the caviar hdd. both will give you good performence. you can see more of what its like here

 

[TrustMeItsWorthIt]

Holy crap! SRT looks pretty good i have to admit. i assume you have to commit the entire SSD to cache, can i partition the drive to only use a part of it to boost my HDD?

thanks for letting me know about that Teas your a legend

 

[Teaz]

That im not entirely sure but i think its possible but dont know as partitioning is pretty seperate from it in a way i think? As i havent properly fully looked into this new SRT thing or fully had goes at it so you may want to call the the pcs sales team about it or if one of the admins could answer that for you

Lol thank you but i am no legend but thanks haha

 

[TrustMeItsWorthIt]

Well legend or not, you have my thanks.
I'll look into SRT and post the answer (to my own question) for anyone who's interested.
Although as you say one of the admins will hopefully answer first,
cheers

 

[Teaz]

haha thanks. i'll look into it a bit more an see what i could know of it im pretty sure at least one of the admins knows something fully on it

 

[TrustMeItsWorthIt]

New Spec

Hello again,
another thread answered my SRT question, youve got to commit the entire SSD.
Anyway since finding out that Deus Ex is CPU bound, as apposed to being limited by the GPU, ive decided to go for an OC'd CPU, this is my new plan;

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™i5-2500k Quad Core (3.30GHz @ max 4.60GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V PRO: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, NVIDIA® SLI™, ATI® CrossFireX™
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 Ti - 2 DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB OCZ VERTEX 3 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 500MB/sW)
2nd 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
CORSAIR 750W TX SERIES (TX750) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£86)
Processor Cooling
COOLIT ECO A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£49)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC COOLING MX-3 HIGH THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
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
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE GOLD PLATED V1.4 HDMI CABLE (£8)
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® MK250 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO (£19)
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: £1,226.00

Do you think the Titan Fenrir would do the job?
Any thoughts would be welcome

Thanks for your time

 

[Wozza63]

the titan fenrir wont do the job and id consider getting a case with better cooling, tbh id get a six core AMD if its CPU bound

also im not sure what Deus Ex is but id consider using the SSD as a cache to make the hard drive much faster, it will probably benefit more than just having a boot HDD this will then load those large maps much quicker

 

[TrustMeItsWorthIt]

Sorry in case i wasn't clear, Deus Ex is a game im planning to play on it and its CPU bound not GPU limited. Apparently when played on quad core it only uses one fully and the other three 40-60% so i dont think i'll be needing six cores to be honest, and i doubt i'll have the money for it.
Will an HDD with SRT'd SSD perform better than just having the important things(OS, games) running off the SSD ive chosen?
Will the HAF 912 do the job?

Cheers for your help

 

[tom_gr7]

Sorry in case i wasn't clear, Deus Ex is a game im planning to play on it and its CPU bound not GPU limited. Apparently when played on quad core it only uses one fully and the other three 40-60% so i dont think i'll be needing six cores to be honest, and i doubt i'll have the money for it.
Will an HDD with SRT'd SSD perform better than just having the important things(OS, games) running off the SSD ive chosen?
Will the HAF 912 do the job?

Cheers for your help

Spec's looking good in my opinion, i believe putting your OS+programs/games on SSD will be faster than caching dude, both have advantages and disadvantages.

Tom

 

[TrustMeItsWorthIt]

So ive just found out , im going to partion the SSD and use most for OC and games then just use 40Gb or so for RAID/SRT.
What do people think about the case then, HAF 912? or will the Mealstom T900 do the job?

Thanks for the heads up mate