Custom Spec OcUK build

James J · 1 Mar 2013 at 13:25

Hi all,

Just want to share my experience for anyone who is interested in getting a PC built for them, but don't have the time (or perhaps experience) to actually do it. For me, I'm the former, due to my demanding job and the fact I've just moved to another town and left most of my tools back in Hull!

Anyway, I asked, as many do, on this very forum for help with my spec. Stullid as usual came to the rescue along with a very helpful lee32uk, plus numerous others.

With a draft spec sat in my basket, I went to the customer service forum to pester 5UB and get some information on what would be my second custom PC thats over £2000 (all bought from ocuk!), but this time I wanted them to build it for me. Andrew moore popped by and informed me that I'd be best off going x79 due to recent gaming benchmarks (crysis 3 loves more than a quad core cpu) and after doing some reading about it, I also agreed, so I changed from a i7 3770k to an i7 3930k instead. Sure, that raised by spend by £200, but it was still under my top budget so the mrs won't kill me

5UB yet again changed my spec for me and ensured that even when I changed my PSU the night before, it was still no problem and the build got underway.

I paid for my system on thursday morning first thing and the system was built by lunchtime. Today its been over clocked and I'm still eagerly waiting what they manage to do with it and it will all be delivered tomorrow!

Since paying for it, I also added some new speakers and an xbox pad for games such as just cause 2, which I'll play on my 40inch tv instead of my monitor (as its about 8 foot away from my PC desk in my apartment, so easy getting a HDMI cable to it

)

So the final spec is as follows!

i7 3930K cpu
Gigabyte X79-UP4 motherboard
Kingston HyperX Beast 16gb 2400mhz RAM
Gigabyte Geforce Titan
Seasonic X1250 watt gold plus PSU
Corsair H100 + 2x corsair quiet fans (courtesy of 5UB on the later!)
Samsung 128gb 840 PRO sad
Seagate 2tb 7200RPM 64mb cache HDD
BenQ X2411T 120hz gaming monitor
Cherry G80-3000 mechanical keyboard (blue switches)
Edifier 1900TII 2.0 speakers
Windows 8 64bit
Xbox pad
Free OcUK mousemat and mug

Free games

Some pictures that 5UB provided for me this morning of the build sat at OcUK HQ:

New Gaming PC by jjohnson2012, on Flickr

New Gaming PC by jjohnson2012, on Flickr

Great cable tidying! Far better than I usually manage...

New Gaming PC by jjohnson2012, on Flickr

New Gaming PC by jjohnson2012, on Flickr

I cannot fault the level of customer service and personalised service I'd received from OcUK and it FAR outshines their competition in this regard. This just proves how good and useful a forum really is for this sort of business, as I got opinions from different people outside of the shop and inside it all in the same place, then got exactly what I wanted and more, all in a 2 day turn around.

Thanks again to all involved and I look forward to receiving it tomorrow

James J · 1 Mar 2013 at 14:44

Need a PSU like that due to going SLI when the funds allow and an overclocked 3930k can really pull some wattage! I spent ages looking at cases and the mrs wanted me to get the bright pink NZXT case (her favourite colour), so I told her that if she ever wants to start gaming, we'll get her a pink PC. She's taking my laptop instead though! (macbook air)

James J · 1 Mar 2013 at 15:01

BaDBoY_uK said:
Amazing... wanna swap my 680s for your Titan?

Nice work OCUK. Cabling is mint

No thanks

I'll be getting another IF I need one. To be fair though, a single titan runs BF3 (which is what I'd play the most) on the ultra preset at over 110 fps at this res, so a second one would be a tad overkill for that lol. Might have to see what the Unreal 4 engine based games bring!

James J · 1 Mar 2013 at 21:31

Due to an issue with the motherboard that could have delayed my build and subsequently the delivery, OcUK pulled out all the stops and sorted me out the Asus Rampage IV Formula board instead! The board was put into the machine and it booted fine so it was dispatched to me for delivery tomorrow! (cant wait)

I'm overclocking this myself due to the time constraints that would have pushed my delivery back an entire week due to me not being able to take time off work during the week to accept delivery and the mrs being down in london for the same period of time. I also couldn't get it delivered to work due to the NHS lab policy forbidding personal deliveries being made to work

5UB was honest and to the point as soon as they realised there was an issue with the build and it was rectified extremely quickly. I have to yet again commend the professionalism and drive that he and others (8pack also taking his work machine apart to test it wasn't the CPU or ram! Top bloke) have shown to provide me the best buying experience possible.

James J · 2 Mar 2013 at 11:14

Whilst I wait for my base unit to turn up (as its on a different delivery van), I've setup the rest of the gear on my new desk so thought I'd share some photos again

ocuk mug with free haribo by jjohnson2012, on Flickr

Sugar!

logitech g500 mouse on ocuk mouse mat by jjohnson2012, on Flickr

New mouse on the massive OcUK mouse mate, which has a brilliant soft surface that the mouse really does glide over nicely

new setup by jjohnson2012, on Flickr

The BenQ 2411T against the rather large edifier 1900TII speakers. The speakers are soooo heavy lol. Monitor feels light as a feather in comparison!

cherry mechanical keyboard by jjohnson2012, on Flickr

Lovely cherry mechanical keyboard. Like how simple the design is as it reminds me of IBM keyboards of yester-year!

More to follow

James J · 2 Mar 2013 at 11:31

acme15 said:
*delete*

Desk is from Ikea and is the following for easy searching:

FREDRIK
Desk, black-brown, silver-colour
Width: 139 cm
Depth: 72 cm
Height: 74 cm
Article Number : 801.159.88

Took me about 15 minutes to make on my own, so was pleased with that lol. I wanted a desk that isn't too shallow in depth but then also not stupidly wide or have a glass top that adds unnecessary weight/shows marks!

James J · 2 Mar 2013 at 11:57

The Dirts said:
Sorry, but that desk is just too clean.

No bits of paper, loose screws, TIM stains, biscuit crumbs......

or is that just me?

Ha give me a few days and I'm sure it wont be clean any longer. Only got it on thursday.

James J · 2 Mar 2013 at 13:28

Sadly due to a massive error by DPD, I won't be getting my actual base unit until monday now -.- I've had to pay one of the sales team to accept the parcel for me and make sure it gets to my room intact. So deflating when OcUK do everything they can to give you a good experience and as soon as it leaves their hands, the courier messes it up.

Just my luck!

James J · 2 Mar 2013 at 15:22

Aye and thats what makes waiting even more annoying! lol

James J · 2 Mar 2013 at 15:40

Yeah that was the logic behind getting it. Figured that seen as cherry make all of the mechanical switches anyway for keyboards, I might as well just buy one of their products. Feels quite nice to type on and I quite like the sound it makes also when typing, yet I can't try it out properly yet until the base unit turns up!

James J · 2 Mar 2013 at 16:03

I had a corsair K90 with my old PC which I quite liked, this this feels better to type on as the finish on the keys themselves feels smoother whilst the K90 seems to grip the tips of your fingers lol. Hard to explain, but definitely a difference!

The only thing I've had a play around with so far is the speakers and they sound really good, especially considering theres no subwoofer outside of the speakers themselves. Appears they are just right for having good clear sound, but not really ******* the neighbours off at the same time.

James J · 2 Mar 2013 at 17:10

Ha that sounds crazy but awesome. I look forward to seeing it

James J · 5 Mar 2013 at 10:50

Ran the tomb raider benchmark before work this morning on max everything, minus the tresfx option and scored over 90fps at stock everything

crysis 3 also works great on the highest settings apart from too much AA

James J · 9 Mar 2013 at 11:55

Yeah could do with a few hints and tips as I want to keep my ram at as close to its rated speed (2400mhz) as possible whilst also pushing the CPU to a stable 24/7 overclock. So far I've either done 1 or the other, but can't seem to get both to work at the same time lol. Must be a trick im missing here.

James J · 9 Mar 2013 at 14:11

Mr. May said:
What was the problem with the gigabyte board ?

Kept crashing the system whilst the RAM and cpu appeared to be fine in other machines. Was changed to the RIVF due to that.

James J · 25 Mar 2013 at 17:52

Ha that's awesome!

James J · 25 Mar 2013 at 19:38

aye I bet!

James J · 11 Apr 2013 at 18:51

mrrad1951 said:
Hey James, Do you have a link to the info about using the x79 and i7 3930k for gaming ?

What do you want to know mate?

James J · 11 Apr 2013 at 22:33

PhysicsMan94 said:
How is that cherry keyboard? I'm currently pontificating over which keyboard to get for my new rig I'll be making in 2 months time. Cheers!

Brilliant looking system by the way!

Absolutely love it mate. Its simple and extremely well built. I play pretty much any type of game with it and I actually prefer the keys to my corsair K90 that I use to own. The lack of a backlight etc doesn't put me off either. Highly recommend it.

I've added a second titan to the system now btw so now it genuinely takes the **** on games performance

James J · 12 Apr 2013 at 13:12

zakblood said:
another one, i thought 1 would be enough, now your being gready

No such thing as too fast!

mrrad1951 said:
It's ok I'll google it , just wanted to know the advantages of the x79 platform vs z77 for gaming ... anyway smashing machine , can't believe you got 2 titan's .............

I'll find the articles ive read when i get in from work later mate.