Just Bought.... but now thinking....

[essjayar]

Hi Guys,

I'd been waiting over 4 weeks for my new PC from Mesh - which just happened to go into administration the day after the kind lady told me my PC would be ready. Something fishy was going on there, taking orders right up to the final minutes then the entire company was sold on the cheap, but that's a story for another day.

So here I am now at PcSpecialist - who seem much more professional. Here's that base spec I'm supposed to post:

Case
FRACTAL DESIGN R3 - BLACK PEARL CASE
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™i5-2500k Quad Core (3.30GHz @ max 4.60GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® P8P67 DELUXE (NEW REV 3.0): USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™ / SLI
Memory (RAM)
4GB KINGSTON HYPER-X SPECIAL EDITION GREY - DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 2GB KIT)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 Ti - 2 DVI,HDMI,VGA - DX® 11, 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, 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
800W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£79)
Processor Cooling
COOLIT ECO A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£49)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD OVERCLOCK THERMAL PASTE
Sound Card
Sound Blaster® Audigy™ SE (£19)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
USB BLUETOOTH ADAPTER (£4)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£109)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Monitor
24" Wide TFT Silver/Black 1920 x1080 2MS D-Sub, DVI, 23.6" Panel (£119)
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE DVI-D CABLE (£5)
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® K200 USB MEDIA KEYBOARD (£9)


In other words, it's your overclocked I5 that's all the rage at the moment ;-)

I pretty much knew what I wanted. I upgrade probably every 3 - 4 years depending on how quickly the tech moves... but let's be honest... an old original dual-core pentium or something on XP is enough for most of us - excepting the gamers

The new technologies in this 3 1/2 yr round for me are of course the new Intel Sandybridge, USB3, Sata 6 and the ever evolving gfx cards, which if we're honest are already more than powerful enough since most game developers develop for console first.

I really thought hard about a SSD, but I think it could do with a year or two of price drops and tweaks. The 2TB Caviar Black is more that enough, coupled with all the old HDs I already have.

Questions:

The motherboard options on the "build your own overclocked" are different to the plain BYO. I've gone for the ASUS® P8P67 DELUXE but am intrigued by the ASUS® P8Z68-V PRO. Anyone here know the main differences in the chipsets? What the price difference would be?

Secondly, Gfx cards. Always confusing. GTX 560 TI 2GB was the final choice. Only because I've always been with the green team.... but of late the naming systems both they and ATI - sorry, AMD - just confuse matters. I only picked that GTX basically by what had the biggest figures lol. A stupid way to chose, but I couldn't be bothered reading endless tests and benchmarks. Of course it'll be good, but:

i. The next steps up, 570 really (those 580 and 90 cards hell of a price jump) is that worth the extra? Think it was about £40 more, but only 1.25GB mem. Don't think the mem would be a problem tho, would it? Do you need 2GB to drive HD on a 24"er ?

ii. That case. I like it, but know hardly anything about it. TO me it just looked nice, it's quiet, big and roomy lol. Then I choose a water-cooler lol. Soon see how soundproof it is I guess...

Final opinion/question.... Apart from the motherboard which I'd be very interested in changing if it is worth it, anyone notice any drawbacks? The auto-advisor was pretty cool in saying I didn't need a PSU that big - but I will be adding in more stuff. I'd like a hot-swap caddy for 3.5" SATA HD's in a drive bay, too. And I bought a Bluetooth dongle, but doesn't the Asus have built in bluetooth? lol.

Well - usually I buy for longevity, this time I've bought for fun without taking that extra jump to i7. Intel seem to be changing their platforms so quick - using different processor sockets - that it doesn't seem worth the bother anymore.

I know I'll enjoy this. In fact, my current Q6600 Core2 Quad / IP35 board / 8800 GTX is probably enough for another few years. But I got p*ssed at mesh, wanted a new PC, and jumped in

Do the techs read this forum? Can you help?

 

[Gorman]

Questions:

The motherboard options on the "build your own overclocked" are different to the plain BYO. I've gone for the ASUS® P8P67 DELUXE but am intrigued by the ASUS® P8Z68-V PRO. Anyone here know the main differences in the chipsets? What the price difference would be?

The P8Z series has introduced two new things, the lucid chip which will dynamically swap between the GPU on the CPU and your discrete GPU on lower loads to save power.

Then theres the new, i forget the name but its explained here:

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forum...-series-of-boards-the-P8Z68-V-PRO-has-arrived!

basically enables you to use a small ssd in conjuction with a mammoth storage drive to get effectively a huge amount of storage with an average 40-60% increase of speed over a traditional mechanical.

Secondly, Gfx cards. Always confusing. GTX 560 TI 2GB was the final choice. Only because I've always been with the green team.... but of late the naming systems both they and ATI - sorry, AMD - just confuse matters. I only picked that GTX basically by what had the biggest figures lol. A stupid way to chose, but I couldn't be bothered reading endless tests and benchmarks. Of course it'll be good, but:

i. The next steps up, 570 really (those 580 and 90 cards hell of a price jump) is that worth the extra? Think it was about £40 more, but only 1.25GB mem. Don't think the mem would be a problem tho, would it? Do you need 2GB to drive HD on a 24"er ?

You chose an excellent mid range card, excellent performance for the price tag. To me the jumps to the high end are worth it but its relative to what you want.

Memory on cards should only be a consideration if you are gaming at high resolution, and im talking beyond the 1920 x 1080 / 1200 of "hd"!

ii. That case. I like it, but know hardly anything about it. TO me it just looked nice, it's quiet, big and roomy lol. Then I choose a water-cooler lol. Soon see how soundproof it is I guess...

Its a nice case, the watercoolers still have fans so its not a waste!

Final opinion/question.... Apart from the motherboard which I'd be very interested in changing if it is worth it, anyone notice any drawbacks? The auto-advisor was pretty cool in saying I didn't need a PSU that big - but I will be adding in more stuff. I'd like a hot-swap caddy for 3.5" SATA HD's in a drive bay, too. And I bought a Bluetooth dongle, but doesn't the Asus have built in bluetooth? lol.

Well - usually I buy for longevity, this time I've bought for fun without taking that extra jump to i7. Intel seem to be changing their platforms so quick - using different processor sockets - that it doesn't seem worth the bother anymore.

I know I'll enjoy this. In fact, my current Q6600 Core2 Quad / IP35 board / 8800 GTX is probably enough for another few years. But I got p*ssed at mesh, wanted a new PC, and jumped in

Do the techs read this forum? Can you help?

Yes we do , im on steam at the moment, Chairless.

 

[essjayar]

Ok, the new chipset, P8Z board, I want it!

But I've already ordered an overclocked i5 on a Asus Pro, there's a little time before it's built, I know, so any idea how long you'll need to test those overclocking facilities mentioned in the other thread, and if there'd be time for me to change my order to the new board (depending on the extra in the price, of course)? I'm guessing, by your flowchart, about a week-ish ?

I know you're not sales, but do u have a ballpark figure for the price, or rather, the extra above the asus pro?

==



The other big upgrade, would be to i7 2600k, about £70 ? Is it worth it?

Anyways lemme know if you offer that motherboard as an option - its the main question in my too long post!

 

[Gorman]

P8Z68-V PRO? Yes we stock that board.

I would stick with the 2500k

 

[essjayar]

BTW whatcha playing, assuming you mean steam the gaming system - and not "on steam" in some other sense rofl.

I'm guessing you're a TF guy, but maybe Portal2?

Kinda dropped away from gaming but if there's one thing that would drag me back it would be Half Life Ep 3 or even a completely new Half Life. C'mon Valve! Stop making stupid fragfests.

Jeez never thought id be chatting on a COMPANY messageboard lol. Well done on working with your customers!

 

[Gorman]

Steam yes, the gaming system, sorry! EDIT: it has a chat function hence the mention

Im an RTS guy actually, although i did hit portal 2, its a great game.

You can make changes upto the point it enters building, after that you can still make changes but if we have to rip the entire thing apart and start again there is an (understandable i think) amendment charge of £30? i think? someone else can correct me if im wrong. As for the prices, sorry, not a clue. I can fix your network though if thats any good.

 

[essjayar]

My network? No problems there I think?

RTS? Been there since Dune 2 and C&C

lolz

Gonna check the upgrade thingy see if that board is available for the overclocked machines, if not I'll ring tomorrow. Night Night!.

 

[essjayar]

Nope, you don't offer it. It's the Extreme I ordered, the only others above that are the Sabretooth and Maximus Pro.

Sabretooth is less, Maximus Pro nearly £100 more! - one of those "republic of gamer" spec things

Guess if you want overclocked, you can't have P8Z68-V PRO, least till u see if it explodes lol

 

[petrow]

My current PC has the same Q6600 and 8800 GTX as you and mine is starting to show its age and is starting to die on me slowly. I can't play Battlefield BC 2 any higher than low in 1920 x 1080. My new computer should blow this one away. I've gone for the P8Z68-V Pro and the I5-2500K with the 580 GTX GPU.

 

[LinearHD]

My current PC has the same Q6600 and 8800 GTX as you and mine is starting to show its age and is starting to die on me slowly. I can't play Battlefield BC 2 any higher than low in 1920 x 1080. My new computer should blow this one away. I've gone for the P8Z68-V Pro and the I5-2500K with the 580 GTX GPU.

that'll be good for years to come

 

[essjayar]

Almost the same as what I went for, but the extreme m/board. Still want the new chipset tho, hope they decide to add it as an option before my PC starts getting assembled!