Analyse the spec whilst I convince the wife

GWillow · 31 May 2011 at 18:10

Hi all,

I've been at this point before but never proceeded with the build (due to unexpected bills sadly), but I've come up with another, heavily based upon other specs that I've read.

XFX ATI Radeon 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £199.99
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £173.99
MSI P67A-C45 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £89.98
Cooler Master CM-690 II Advanced Dominator Case - Black £79.99
Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit £79.99
XFX 650W XXX Edition Modular Power Supply £76.99
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache £68.99
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler £19.99
Sony Optiarc AD-5260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter £15.98

Total £805.99

Possible Future update
Antec Kúhler H2O 620 CPU Watercooler £49.99
Never done water cooling but quite fancy a dabble.

I've only built a couple of PC's in the past (many moons ago now) and never bothered with keeping it tidy inside, so am very much a novice. I really want to have a clean and tidy (cable wise) setup this time (so be prepared for further questions).

A couple of questions, would I notice the difference in speed between the ata 6GB/s hard drive and a standard Sata-II drive? Is the case good for a novice to tidy cables away. ATI or NVIDIA (no preference myself).

The spec will be mainly used for gaming (LotRO) and video editing along with general use and some might say it is overkill but this machine be be lasting me a good few years now.

I really don't want the price to go any higher, in fact going down would be really nice, are there alterations I could/should make this spec. Are there equal spec components that I could substitute without losing performance or have a totally lost the plot on anything.

I don't need a monitor, mouse, keyboard or O/S (my son is a student so I can get a discounted version of Win 7).

Your comments please.

Reaper 392 · 31 May 2011 at 18:21

the specs are looking really good. good quality modular PSU for keeping the cables tidy, highly recommended case, etc.

couple of changes i would make though:

graphics: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-128-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

nothing wrong with your choice, but this one comes with a better cooler and a free copy of dirt 3 for only £5 more. it cant be unlocked to a 6970, but im not sure if the other one can to be honest

as for the hard drive, you wont notice a difference between 6GB/s and 3GB/s, so go for whichever is cheapest really. when either the Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB or the Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB come in stock i would get one of those. you can get free shipping from OcUK if you link your forum account to your shop account, so it doesnt really matter if you buy the computer in several phases. (it may even save you money of you get stuff thats on offer)

the only other suggestion i would make is to go for the G45 version of that motherboard if you plan on using two ATI graphics cards in crossfire in the future (will be £10 more i believe)

TheEnosFam · 31 May 2011 at 18:30

+1 Reaper you seem to have it under control here. @GWillow convince the wife you need to buy a 2nd one for someone you don't know over the internet, then please ask me for my address, LOL

. Looking good makes me jealous

Cadno · 31 May 2011 at 18:42

Well this saves me a post. I was looking for somthing pretty similar to this for a build my bro wants me to do in the near future. Anyone know what would be the cheapest way to get a decent sized ssd in there even at a cost of same gb from the storage drive? It would be just a gaming build as he already has a pc for media

Sorry if im hijacking, thought i'd save the forum from another spec me thread

Reaper 392 · 31 May 2011 at 18:44

Cadno said:
Well this saves me a post. I was looking for somthing pretty similar to this for a build my bro wants me to do in the near future. Anyone know what would be the cheapest way to get a decent sized ssd in there even at a cost of same gb from the storage drive? It would be just a gaming build as he already has a pc for media

Sorry if im hijacking, thought i'd save the forum from another spec me thread

dont worry, put another spec me thread up if you want. we all love speccing people computers

as for the SSD,, i would go for either of these:
60GB Vertex
120GB vertex

should be enough for windows 7 along with some of your favourite games and most common programs

Cadno · 31 May 2011 at 18:50

Reaper 392 said:
dont worry, put another spec me thread up if you want. we all love speccing people computers

as for the SSD,, i would go for either of these:
60GB Vertex
120GB vertex

should be enough for windows 7 along with some of your favourite games and most common programs

Lol might do that then. Its always interesting to the the diffrent advice people get for diffrent budgets and requests

DJ_Martin · 31 May 2011 at 18:55

As the thread has already been hijacked

(Like how I take the blame from myself?)

Reaper I was just wondering how BFBC2 ran on your sig rig if you had tried it. Like what fps you get at which settings? I tried to use the email function of the trust button but I don't even know if it worked

Thanks

and... on topic:Yeah, looks fine to me.

GWillow · 2 Jun 2011 at 20:28

Sorry for the delay in replying,
Thanks for the comments, please see my comments below.

Is the Antec Kúhler H2O 620 CPU Watercooler (or equivalent) a straight replacement for the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler, if so, how much better is it and are they easy to fix (you're talking to a novice remember)? I assume it'll be quieter and keep things cooler.

Would the Cooler Master CM-690 II Advanced Dominator Case be a better choice than the Zalman Z9 plus?

Reaper 392 said:
couple of changes i would make though:

graphics: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-128-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

nothing wrong with your choice, but this one comes with a better cooler and a free copy of dirt 3 for only £5 more. it cant be unlocked to a 6970, but im not sure if the other one can to be honest

Funny you should say that, I had that in the basket first but swapped to the other because I thought a 6850 would pretty much match any other 6850, so went based upon price - didn't even notice the free game.

Reaper 392 said:
as for the hard drive, you wont notice a difference between 6GB/s and 3GB/s, so go for whichever is cheapest really.

I'm a bit confused as to why I wouldn't notice a speed difference, surely as it's twice the (theoretical) throughput, there would be some noticeable increase.

Reaper 392 said:
the only other suggestion i would make is to go for the G45 version of that motherboard if you plan on using two ATI graphics cards in crossfire in the future (will be £10 more i believe)

Good point (probably won't make use but it's there just in case)

TheEnosFam said:
@Gwillow convince the wife you need to buy a 2nd one for someone you don't know over the internet, then please ask me for my address, LOL . Looking good makes me jealous

I've asked but afraid it's not looking good -(

DJ_Martin · 2 Jun 2011 at 20:40

GWillow said:
I'm a bit confused as to why I wouldn't notice a speed difference, surely as it's twice the (theoretical) throughput, there would be some noticeable increase.

I was confused about this as well. Apparently the SATA 3 can't make use of the extra speed or something :S I'm sure someone will explain a little better than me

Reaper 392 · 2 Jun 2011 at 20:45

DJmartin said:
Reaper I was just wondering how BFBC2 ran on your sig rig if you had tried it. Like what fps you get at which settings? I tried to use the email function of the trust button but I don't even know if it worked

*edit 3*
i dont have BFBC2, but i do have crysis, which will run at a rock solid 30FPS with the custom config (between high and very high i believe) in the crysis experimentings thread when my graphics drivers are working. i have to have vertical synchronisation (vsync) on to avoid screen tear, which will lock my framerate to 30FPS if i am getting below 60FPS, and 60FPS if i am getting above 60FPS (and leave it alone if i get less than 30FPS)
*/edit*

i also have a completely free game called 'the hunter', which i believe is based off of the just cause 2 game engine. it has stunning graphics anyhow. at maximum graphics if i go into a wooded area i will usually get a constant 35FPS. i doubt you've played it, but its free to download so it could give some people some ideas

i hope that helps.

also, if your going for the same computer as me, be sensible and get a decent case. while this one works it has been a pain to find a cooler that will fit, and the cooling in general isnt great. also there are no cable tidy options anywhere

i got your trust message just fine, but i wasnt sure how i was suppost to answer it because ive never used the trust thing either

GWillow said:
I'm a bit confused as to why I wouldn't notice a speed difference, surely as it's twice the (theoretical) throughput, there would be some noticeable increase.

the reason is because mechanical hard drives are very slow compared to the sata ports that they are connected to. a sata port can give 3 or 6 GB/s speeds, whereas a mechanical hard drive will only be able to cope with 30-100Mb/s at best. the sata connection is not the bottleneck with mechanical hard drive performance