In serious need of help for desktop spec!

[Manxjason]

Not sure on price difference but PCS also offer the i5 and i7 overclocked - both only require the stock air cooling.

 

[Zredarb]

Sorry to dound so ridiculous, but mind explaining a bit more about overclocking and what this would mean to me as a user?

Thanks a bunch!

 

[bg92]

I would stay with the 8gb of ram, and you could go fot gtx560ti as its cheaper then amd6950 and provides very similar performance.

 

[Zredarb]

Okay so I think I'm just about there with this spec.

The only thing now really is the case, haven't really thought about this. Which is the best case for under £90?

And anything missing from my spec now?

Finally thanks SO MUCH guys. My build has come on so much since i first came onto these forums and you advice has been invaluable in getting the perfect rig for myself!

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 912 PLUS MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, 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
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 INTEL 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
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
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: £858.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[tom_gr7]

nice spec ya got there dude,

for case I'd go for the coolermaster cm690 II advanced one, very good airflow and cable management.

 

[Zredarb]

Thanks a lot will change to that case, so I think I'm just about there now!!!

Gonna give them a call tomorrow morning to order it. Seem to have gone through every component so surely I now have the best machine possible for sub 900??

If not please let me know!

Ta again guys

 

[bg92]

I would pick one out of these, corsiar 400r, corsair 500r, cooler master haf912 or cooler master 690 II. Any of these would be a good choice. Haf 912 would be the smallest option.

 

[Manxjason]

Sorry to dound so ridiculous, but mind explaining a bit more about overclocking and what this would mean to me as a user?

Thanks a bunch!

In brief to overclock is to increase the clock speeds and in some cases voltage to a piece of your hardware. The reason for doing so is to increase the performance. Look at my signature for the example. The i7 is at 3.6ghz at stock, but overclocked to perform at 5ghz.

It's not without the cons though, increased temperature if not properly cooled (which one from pcs will be) and can shorten life. Advantage to the i5 and i7 however means that at idle it runs at a much lower frequency and the juice turns up once you start working it.

The advantage to buying an OC system from PCS is that the parts are under warranty and you don't have to take the risk of changing your Settings yourself.

Something to think about. The reason I chose an OC device is I want to run CPU intensive MMO's such as swtor at highest settings.

 

[tom_gr7]

I thought of one more thing, Would you ever want to have two gpu's?

With that motherboard you could get two ati/amd cards,

So if you went with a 6950/6970, adding a second would give you a pretty decent performance boost.

You could check on the configurator thingy what psu you would need for two 6950's.

Tom

 

[Zredarb]

I would pick one out of these, corsiar 400r, corsair 500r, cooler master haf912 or cooler master 690 II. Any of these would be a good choice. Haf 912 would be the smallest option.

Thanks a lot man I will check all of these out!

In brief to overclock is to increase the clock speeds and in some cases voltage to a piece of your hardware. The reason for doing so is to increase the performance. Look at my signature for the example. The i7 is at 3.6ghz at stock, but overclocked to perform at 5ghz.

It's not without the cons though, increased temperature if not properly cooled (which one from pcs will be) and can shorten life. Advantage to the i5 and i7 however means that at idle it runs at a much lower frequency and the juice turns up once you start working it.

The advantage to buying an OC system from PCS is that the parts are under warranty and you don't have to take the risk of changing your Settings yourself.

Something to think about. The reason I chose an OC device is I want to run CPU intensive MMO's such as swtor at highest settings.

Okay so correct me if im getting this wrong, but if i buy the 2500k, with the 1600hz RAM th unit would come pre overclocked? Because I wouldnt have a clue how to do this. And you say I wouldnt have to worry about the cooling? or the life of the processor?

Thanks a bunch guys

 

[tom_gr7]

I checked, if you went for a 6950 with a 850w corsair will have enough juice for crossfire!

So for an extra 27quid you the option to increase ya gaming power in a year or so.

I wouldn't miss that chance to be honest dude.

Infact you could have two 560ti's or two 6950's

edit - just read other comments, i'd avoid overclocking completely. Not worth it for gaming, it's unlikely to improve gaming performance much if any.

edit - scrap the twp 560ti's you would need to up ya motherboard for that.

I'd go for 6950 and 850 w

 

[Zredarb]

I thought of one more thing, Would you ever want to have two gpu's?

With that motherboard you could get two ati/amd cards,

So if you went with a 6950/6970, adding a second would give you a pretty decent performance boost.

You could check on the configurator thingy what psu you would need for two 6950's.

Tom

Cheers dude!
Is something to think about, not something my budget could allow for right now. But your saying I couldnt add a second gtx560?

Thanks

 

[tom_gr7]

Cheers dude!
Is something to think about, not something my budget could allow for right now. But your saying I couldnt add a second gtx560?

Thanks

your motherboard supports crossfire, which is ati/amd cards. SLI is nvidia's. Your motherboard doesn't support sli, so you couldn't have two 560ti. But you could have two amd 6950's

I know I put ya could have two 560's but then i realised ya motherboard choice, edited my above post. my bad lol, not enough sleep lol.

 

[Zredarb]

So this is where I'm at currently, maybe a bit over budget now but what the hell!

Also is it not worth upgrading to 1600 RAM for a tenner?

Thoughts on this build?

Cheers


Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
2GB AMD RADEON™ HD6950 - 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
4x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ROM (£38)
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX850 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£99)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL 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
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
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: £920.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[tom_gr7]

looks good dude.

I have the kingston ram, went for it when it was the same price as the samsung ram. Its good, however, I don't think you would see any increase of performance really dude.

Do you really need the blu ray player though? I'd drop that personally as blu rays are flippin a fortune, lol

I'd chuck one of these in though, ASUS XONAR DG 5.1 SURROUND SOUND PCI CARD (£20 SPECIAL). IF you have a good speaker setup though.

ps thanks for the rep

 

[vanthus]

Nice build,no harm in upgrading to 1600 RAM,
be aware the optical drive you have selected wont have the option of writing cd/dvd's

 

[tom_gr7]

Nice build,no harm in upgrading to 1600 RAM,
be aware the optical drive you have selected wont have the option of writing cd/dvd's

lol vanthus you have alot of rep compared to how many posts you've made!

 

[Zredarb]

To be honest I've only got a 2.1 Lanseng system thats not unreal so dount the sound card is worth it. May look to upgrade that in the future though so I dont know lol!

As for the blu ray drive thats been taken out, wasn't supposed to be there! Good spot guys!

Also thinking about it just anted to check the case comes with all the fans and everything needed to keep all my components cool right?

Cheers!

ps not sure I would ever really add a second gpu, how many years do you guys think this system would last as it is? then how long with a gpu upgrade if you dont mind?

Trying to decide if worth the extra £30 for 850w as im a tad over budget and still after decent keyboard mouse and monitor!

 

[Zredarb]

Also if i was only ever goign for a single gpu, should i go 2gb 560ti or 2gb 6950?

Olnly £2 difference in cost!

 

[tom_gr7]

I honestly think its worth the 27quid, I wish I went for a 1000w corsair instead a 750w.

Gives a good performance boost, and a good upgrade, esp when the new gpu's come out and prices start to drop.