Please check this spec

Control_Damage · 1 Aug 2009 at 23:43

Hello there,

This is my first post here although I have been 'lurking' the forums for a while.

This will be my first build and although I am not exactly a novice to computers and computing, I am no expert either. My current PC is a 2003 vintage Dell 8250 and is starting to show its age.

I would appreciate it if you knowlegable folk would check over the build spec below to make sure I have not missed anything obvious and to make sure that everything will work together.

I'd like to use the i7 setup as looking around it seems to offer good performance with some future proofing and I may well look at doing some OC'ing in the future and it seems relatively straight forward with this processor.

I've included the SSD as I would like to put the OS on this (along with a few games) and leave the normal HDD for other programs, games pictures, videos and the like.

My budget is around the £1400 mark.

The PC is really for general day to day use which will include gaming, internet surfing (the Mrs loves online shopping

) and office applications such as letter writing and spreadsheets.

It will also be used for some simple digital photography although this is not going to be high end stuff, just your average joe download 'em, change 'em a bit and print 'em type of thing. I may want to do some digital camcorder video later on, but again this will be simple stuff. I'm no Cecil B DeMille.

Gaming will be be mainly flight sims (il2, BOB2 WOV, Black Shark), tank sims (TvT, Kharkov 1942), sub sims (SH3 & 4) and shoot 'em up FPS type stuff. I'd like good peformance but I don't demand everything to be 'maxed out'. I have chosen the Dell 22" LCD as this seems to have very good reviews and I would like the extra screen area over my current Dell 18" LCD.

I have a keyboard and mouse and I will be using Windows 7RC (have pre-ordered the full Windows 7). I have not chosen a sound card as I can't justify using an large/expensive speaker set (have a pair of cheap desktop speakers) and I tend to use a set of USB headphones/mic for use in games so the motherboard sound should be OK.

Many thanks for checking this over for me.

John.

NathanT · 2 Aug 2009 at 07:09

It all looks very good.

I'd like good peformance but I don't demand everything to be 'maxed out'.

Shame, because on a system like that, this is what your going to get

Its more then powerful for anything that you are going to throw at it and should be for the next 3 or more years.

A few things that I would suggest and possibly a few others on the forum would be if your planning on overclocking (or adding a further graphics card later on) is a slightly more powerful psu.

Are the 2 fans for front intakes for the antec? Or are you using one to replace the rear exhaust?

95thrifles · 2 Aug 2009 at 11:02

Yeah looks good, Id just say with a nice set up like that, spend a little more on the case, look at a 902 if I were you

nbkpsycho · 2 Aug 2009 at 11:04

Nice setup, but your going to spend £172 on a hard drive but £45 on a case :confused:

teNsFredZ · 2 Aug 2009 at 12:23

nbkpsycho said:
Nice setup, but your going to spend £172 on a hard drive but £45 on a case

^This, if your budget allows, you should spend a little extra on a nice case, that looks good and allows great cooling.

Control_Damage · 2 Aug 2009 at 23:01

Hi,

Many thanks to those who have had a look and have left me advice, I appreciate your help.

I'm hoping that this new system is going to last me a good number of years without having to spend any more on it.

Having taken on board what has been said I have made a few changes to my original spec, a new pic of which is attached below.

I have changed the case from the Antec 300 to the Antec 900. I managed to look up the dimensions for this and it should still fit into the space I have. As this comes with extra fans, I have removed the 2 x 120mm fans which would have been put into the front of the Antec 300.

I have changed the Corsair 650w power supply to a Corsair 750w modular power supply as this should offer a bit more oomph should I overclock in the future (that should be enough I guess?).

Also, I have removed the Intel 80GB SSD drive as although I liked the idea of it, it may have been a bit of overkill for what I want the system to do. Maybe a bit of drive envy

I'll put up some build pics once I have the system so you can have a chuckle at my cable management skills (or lack thereof).

Once again, many thanks,

John.

95thrifles · 3 Aug 2009 at 04:37

yeah looks more balanced, Id go for the 902 over the 900 as it has a few good additions such as dust filters