Oh dear - I've started fiddling with my order - is this balanced still?

Blueprudence

Blueprudence

Member
Hello lovelies - I saw a thread recommending upgrading an i5 processor to i7 for maximum "future-proofing", as far as it can be with tech. Sadly I'm very easily led :eek: and have decided to do the same and when I saw my whole order available for fiddling and improving , I also decided to increase the HDD capacity and add a couple of HDMI leads on. I won't be doing any overclocking realistically - reliability is more important and I don't play FPS games.

Now, I'm wondering if my 'puter is still balanced for what I want it for or whether I should be upgrading the motherboard or something else.

The usage I'll be giving the shiny new 'puter involves playing either WoW, Everquest 2, Skyrim or Witcher 2 type games and at the same time running a browser with 20-30 tabs open as well as having a media player for "ma toons", Outlook and Excel open as well as possibly Word and maybe Adobe Reader open too. I also do some work on Dreamweaver and Photoshop, but not while I'll be gaming. I do find opening and closing stuff down very tedious so just open it at the start of the day and expect it to run nicely till I want to sleep. Hmmmm, maybe I need 32Gb of RAM next? :tt2:

Please could you kindly advise if there's a bottleneck anywhere?

Spec is now:

Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3770 (3.4GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (4 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 670 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd 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
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)
Processor Cooling
SPIRE THERMAX ECLIPSE II UNIVERSAL DT EXTREME CPU COOLER (£39)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E 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 w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
IIYAMA E2773HDS 27" LED WIDESCREEN, HDMI/DVI-D HD1920x1080 (£239)
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
2 x 2 METRE GOLD PLATED V1.4 HDMI CABLE (£15)
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® MK250 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO (£21)
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
 
W

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
your PC is fine, although you can't add a second 670 to the build later due to the motherboard restricting it, if you are planning on doing this, get the next board up with SLI, the 650w should also be fine for dual 670s

you dont need 16gb for gaming either, infact you dont even need 4gb 99% of the time, so most people choose 8gb to allow them to play for a long while, the 16gb, however, is way overkill and its probably impossible to fill it up without something like video editing

Also unless you need to move the k/b and mouse about, i recommend a wired set, slightly more responsive and you also dont need to buy batteries over and over, also consider an upgrade to a gaming set, i dont know about the mice offered here but i know that my razer arctosa is awesome and im typing on it super speedy quick right now!!!

Also i'd recommend getting homeplugs, they basically give you a wired connection but the connection goes through your houses power cables so therefore you dont need a 20ft cable from one end of the house up the stairs into another room

Other than that, good to go!
 
mantadog

mantadog

Superhero Level Poster
Ah hi, again i take no responsability! None!

Now, lets see...

I think you have a very nice spec. Only downgrade i would suggest is CPU cooling, it's way overkill. I would get the triple copper heatpipe, the Fenrir is HUGE and not needed unless your an overclocked (from the looks of your spec you are not), also the 16GB is probably overkill, but because you seem to be a little reluctant to close anything it might help you. I would however advise you stick at the standard 1333MHz as the extra speed boost will not help you at all in the real world.

I think the processor upgrade is a good idea if your into photoshop as it will really help out their, and the GPU is very strong, you have a very capable all round machine their.
 
Blueprudence

Blueprudence

Member
Thank you for the tip Wozza (great avatar btw - looks like my Pebble cat), I shall get a couple of home plugs but still want the wireless NIC too - unsure how to add the home plugs on without taking off the wireless NIC but will phone PCS tomorrow.

I'm not really interested in SLI - if anything, I'd be most likely to buy a new GPU in 4 years time to upgrade the graphics so shall stick to the original mobo. Regarding the RAM - one of the games I play is very RAM intensive (EQ2), I currently have 4Gb of RAM in my laptop but am constantly running out so am trying hard to future proof, it's so cheap at the moment that I figured I might as well load up and never have it as the sticking point hopefully.

I did have a Razr Naga mouse earlier this year which lasted 3 weeks before it stopped working and have a wired keyboard at the moment, but miss the freedom that I have with wireless. TBH, I already have a nice Logitech gaming mouse, I didn't like the look of the standalone keyboards that PCS had so went for the £21 quid one. As a wireless mouse girl - I have rechargeable batteries. Might research keyboards again as I've been lazy in ordering that, when all I need is a keyboard. Hmmmm thank you for making me think again.

Yus - it's your fault Manta! :yes: LOL I'm grateful though - it would have worried me spending this much on something that was meant to be £600 and not having a top notch processor. ;P

Interesting comment about the cooler, I thought that the cooling on the new Ivybridge processors was dodgy and thought that this cooler would perhaps add to the reliability/life of the processor?

Yus, you're right about the RAM and as I mentioned above, it's soooo cheap at the moment - I remember the days when 4Mb of RAM was standard and cost an average person's salary. The hoarder in me wants to get 16Gb just so I have too much. ;P

Thank you both.
 
mantadog

mantadog

Superhero Level Poster
The cooling is only an issue for overclockers, it gets to a point when you overclocker and the temps just head north almost regardless of the cooler. If you have no plans to overclocker you don't need to worry and the triple copper heat pipe is fine.
 
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