Med / High spec gaming desktop

[khaos]

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE


Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3770K (3.5GHz) 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 680 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready


Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 16MB CACHE


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


Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)


Sound Card
Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy™ SE (£19)


Network Facilities
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD (£16)


Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£109)


Monitor
AOC 18.5" WIDESCREEN LED TFT - 1366 x 768, 5MS, D-Sub, DVI-D (£69)


DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE DVI-D CABLE (£5)


Any thoughts or opinions in this build ?

Thanks

 

[Karnor00]

The 680 GPU isn't very good value for money to be honest. The 670 offers about 90% of the performance for about 70% of the price.

For the CPU an i5 is really all you need for gaming. Although if you do any other processor intensive stuff then the i7 wouldn't be a bad idea. 16GB of memory is probably slightly overkill so you could go for 8GB, although memory is pretty cheap these days,

I would strongly recommend getting a better monitor. The one you have selected is a very budget option - particularly as the maximum screen resolution is very low which means you wouldn't get anything like the best out of a 670, let alone a 680. The 21.5" version is significantly better, but my recommendation would be the Ilyama 22" monitor (which incidentally comes with a DVI cable, saving £5).

 

[khaos]

i was thinking that 16 gb would be a bit overkill but if I am running applications from Adobe and Sony Vegas I thought I should be safe rather than sorry

and in regards to the GPU i wan thinking similarly i don't really see what the 680 adds to it apart from perhaps slightly better performance

The idea of getting the i7 was to attempt to make the thing future proof for 5 or so years (in theory)

And yes I would like to get a better monitor on it but when I saw the price I freaked out a little bit lol

Also i was thinking of downgrading from win 7 prof to home premium since that can take the 16gb I believe

I was gonna wait until windows 8 was out but as soon as i downloaded the consumer release and played about with it for a number of hours and ended up just thinking why would they do this ? so win 7 all the way XD

 

[khaos]

okay here is the new one

Case

PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)

Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3770K (3.5GHz) 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

500GB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 16MB CACHE
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
Processor Cooling

SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card

Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy™ SE (£19)
Network Facilities

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 (£79)
Office Software

Monitor
IIYAMA E2273HDS 22" LED WIDESCREEN, HDMI/DVI-D 1920x1080 (£119)

I decided to keep the i7 cos there is only about £60 difference or so

 

[keynes]

Hi,
If you are not planning to overclock your CPU then you could go with the i7-3770 (non-k), depending on your budget you could consider a caviar black as the main drive.

 

[khaos]

im currently quite happy with the 1200 cost for it what is the difference between the 3770k and the 3770 ?

and what the difference between the HDD ive got down and the caviar black apart from £26 and 16mb more cache

(don't really need a big hdd i have a few 1T externals)

 

[steaky360]

The K version of the CPU has the multiplier unlocked and allows easier overclocking.

The Caviar black hard drives are fast and reliable hard drives and yeah the cache

 

[khaos]

may add that hard drive then if it comes recommended

How does cache even work (this is prolly a pretty bad questions since i have done my ccna >_> ) i think i may have failed that particular module im sure there was something about cache in there somewhere

 

[steaky360]

Seems to be a store of where files are located on the harddrive for easier (quicker?) access. It is discussed here : http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/276048-14-hard-drive-cache

The benefits of a larger cache mean there is more space for this data to be stored but as is explained on Toms Hardware this could potentially slow a system down.

Part of the extra cash for the Caviar is for the WD name too of course... Whether that is worth it is up to you But I have two and would recommend them

 

[khaos]

i doubt that any pcs over 4gb of ram would be too affected by stystem slowing through searching cache

but I guess i dont mind paying for something thats gonna last a while

 

[steaky360]

Nope you are right, the overall effect of the cache is minimal. Still they are excellent drives.

 

[khaos]

do you think it would be worth buying an overclocked system from here then ?

 

[steaky360]

Yes definitely if you are considering overclocking! PCS will set up the system with an overclocked configuration and it will be covered under the warranty if anything goes wrong later.

 

[khaos]

cos i just checked the prices and it only bumps it up a tiny little bit in terms of pricetag

 

[steaky360]

If you were wanting an overclocked system then its definitely worth considering the pre-overclocked ones

On top of what I said above about warranty, it also saves you the effort of actually overclocking it yourself.

 

[khaos]

and runmning all those horrible diagnostics to make sure the thing is stable

but by how much will this reduce the lifespan of the computer ?

 

[steaky360]

If you got it pre-overclocked by PCS it would be a professional overclock and would only minimally affect the life of the computer - Bear in mind that the CPU will naturally 'underclock' most of the time and only overclock itself when under load.

Although you might not have a use for an overclocked machine.

 

[khaos]

i have decided to go for the CM storm trooper case and was wondering if i got something like this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004Q81CKY/ref=noref?ie=UTF8&psc=1&s=computers

for the x dock

would i be able to run the OS off it ?

 

[tommyc]

This is a little off the topic of the main post but you seem to know what your on about. Does every PC that you can buy from pcspecialist have an HDMI port? I want to buy a PC without buying the monitor because I can just use my TV but I can only connect it with an HDMI. Any advice would be helpful!