Laptop gamer looking for top spec desktop rig...

iv-tecman

iv-tecman

iv-tecman

Soldato
Joined
12 May 2005
Posts
8,384
Been using an Alienware M17x R4 laptop for gaming but now I've split with the missus last year (reason I ended up laptop gaming as the woman indoors moaned about me having a desktop and spending too much time away in another room) i've saved my cash for a new Desktop PC.

My budget is actually fairly good, 2K in total. I've not had a desktop gaming rig in over 3 years, sold my last one 3 years ago and that was nearing on 2 years old when it was broken up and sold. Which wasn't top spec at the time, anyhow.. Decided I want a pretty decent rig, and I had no issues spending a chunk of cash on a gaming laptop as I play a lot of racing games, FPS games and want something that'll last me a good few years. Screen and sound is important, but I don't want triple screen and want to use a decent set of amp and speakers with it.

i also want to store lots of games, movies and music but also have superb boot up times. I also want the best possible GFX performance i can get in my budget to power not only games like Crysis 3, BF4 and Project Cars etc at 60fps at the monitors native res, but i don't want to crossfire etc (as in two physical cards) ..

i've so far come up with this, optical won't be need BTW, I'll install the OS via USB media and I hardly install games by media and all my movies etc are digital..

So, this is what Ive got, be brutal, i've maybe got a lot wrong...

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Tri-X 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (11227-03-40G) £329.99
1 x Dell UltraSharp U2913WM 29" Super-Widescreen LED Monitor - Midnight Grey £319.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 9590 Black Edition 4.70GHz (5.00GHz Turbo) (Socket AM3+) Processor - OEM £221.99
1 x Samsung 500GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE500BW) **£18 CASHBACK £209.99
1 x SuperFlower Leadex Platinum 1000W Fully Modular "80 Plus Platinum" Power Supply - Black £149.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Pro Silver 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (CMY16GX3M2A1866C9) £149.99
1 x NZXT Phantom 630 High Performance Modular Ultra Tower Case - Black £145.99
1 x Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 AMD 990FX (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £129.95
1 x Asus ROG Xonar Phoebus Solo 7.1 PCI-E Soundcard £89.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H90 140mm High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060013-WW) £70.00
2 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £59.99 (£119.98)
Total : £1,937.83 (includes shipping : ).

 
Last edited:
Are you sure that monitor is for you? not everyone likes the aspect ratio of super-wide.

1000 watt PSU if you don't intend to crossfire, etc. seems massive overkill to me. (I'm running my 4820K overclocked + GTX780 on a 860watt and barely touching half that capacity at full bore - long term I will likely go SLI).
 
Last edited:
iv-tecman said:
PSU i can knock down but it seemed a good price and well reviewed. I must admit I'm in the fence with the monitor.

I had also been looking at one of these

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-042-AS&groupid=17&catid=1120

Which is a standard 1920 x 1080 screen.
Click to expand...

Personally if I was spending that kind of money on a PSU (and spending good money on a PSU is something I think is good value) I'd be buying seasonic (or something based on their PSUs) at that price bracket.

One advantage that Dell does have is that most of them will run between 75 and 90Hz which is quite nice for gaming if your not going for the 120Hz experience but want the quality of an IPS.
 
Rroff said:
Personally if I was spending that kind of money on a PSU (and spending good money on a PSU is something I think is good value) I'd be buying seasonic (or something based on their PSUs) at that price bracket.

One advantage that Dell does have is that most of them will run between 75 and 90Hz which is quite nice for gaming if your not going for the 120Hz experience but want the quality of an IPS.
Click to expand...

So, would i get away with a 650W PSU, something like this -

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-017-SS&groupid=701&catid=123

I was also looking at this monitor

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-110-IY

Which is a 144hz , but I was sorta attracted with the Dell due to the extra real estate..triple screen is just too much I think for me, I know once you go triple its meant to be awesome, but the room i'll have this desktop in could look a bit OTT with three screens, I was looking at the monitor as a sorta compromise.
 
Last edited:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Tri-X 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (11227-03-40G) £329.99
1 x Dell UltraSharp U2913WM 29" Super-Widescreen LED Monitor - Midnight Grey £319.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £239.99
1 x Samsung 500GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE500BW) **£18 CASHBACK £209.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-OC Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £146.99
1 x NZXT Phantom 630 High Performance Modular Ultra Tower Case - Black £145.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD316G2133HC11ADC01) £119.99
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £109.99
1 x Asus ROG Xonar Phoebus Solo 7.1 PCI-E Soundcard £89.99
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 1220 Series 4 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £81.60
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £43.99
Total : £1,865.14 (includes shipping : £22.20).

 
stulid said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Tri-X 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (11227-03-40G) £329.99
1 x Dell UltraSharp U2913WM 29" Super-Widescreen LED Monitor - Midnight Grey £319.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £239.99
1 x Samsung 500GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE500BW) **£18 CASHBACK £209.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-OC Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £146.99
1 x NZXT Phantom 630 High Performance Modular Ultra Tower Case - Black £145.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD316G2133HC11ADC01) £119.99
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £109.99
1 x Asus ROG Xonar Phoebus Solo 7.1 PCI-E Soundcard £89.99
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 1220 Series 4 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £81.60
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £43.99
Total : £1,865.14 (includes shipping : £22.20).

Click to expand...

ha, you've done it cheaper then I had it, and nailed all the parts I want... That is the type of system i'm looking at getting. needs an OS, but I can sort this when I order up, but other then this, need to decide on the screen.
 
Sound card fits in the very bottom orange slot on that board. This slot is run from the chipset and so does not affect slots 1+3 which you would use for SLI/Crossfire.

Edit...actually if it fits that is, if you use two gfx cards the coolers on those Tri-X cards are a bit thick.
 
stulid said:
Sound card fits in the very bottom orange slot on that board. This slot is run from the chipset and so does not affect slots 1+3 which you would use for SLI/Crossfire.

Edit...actually if it fits that is, if you use two gfx cards the coolers on those Tri-X cards are a bit thick.
Click to expand...

Yes was just looking into the board, TBH I very much doubt i'll be going twin card, reason I selected the Tri - X is I am hoping it'll do the trick for all games for a few years at upto 60fps average as the system gets older... considering I've been used to laptop gaming which sees me at average 45 fps most games at 1080p lower for really demanding games like project cars and Crysis 3 etc, then i'm hoping a single card will do me provided i get a good one from the start.

Orange is also pretty cool : - )
 
Other option is a G1 Sniper board which has a creative sound chip already and an upgradable OP_AMP. Mix it with some Avexir green light RAM for extra bling and maybe pick a black R9 290 such as the powercolor PCS
 
Why am I never any good at this :(

YOUR BASKET
2 x OcUK Geforce GTX 780 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £359.99 (£719.98)
1 x Hazro HZ29WiA 8-Bit 29" LED Super-Widescreen Professional Monitor - Black £299.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £239.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case - Black (CC-9011030-WW) £129.95
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £119.99
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £109.99
1 x Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z87 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Pro Silver 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C9 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (CMY8GX3M2B2133C9) £89.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £88.00
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £59.99
1 x LG GP50NB40 8x Slim External DVD-RW Retail Kit (Black) £26.99
1 x Corsair SP120 Quiet Series High Pressure Low Noise - Dual Pack (CO-9050006-WW) £22.00
1 x Corsair AF120 Quiet Edition Low Noise High Airflow - Dual Pack (CO-9050002-WW) £22.00
2 x BitFenix Alchemy Premium Modding LED Strip - Connect White 30cm £16.79 (£33.58)
1 x OcUK Value Acrylic GS - 500x500mm - Fluorescent Green £15.95
1 x Corsair AF140 Quiet Series Low Noise High Airflow - Single Pack (CO-9050009-WW) £14.99
1 x Corsair AF120 Quiet Edition Low Noise High Airflow - Single Pack (CO-9050001-WW) £11.99
2 x BitFenix Alchemy Molex to 3pin x3 Fan adaptor 7V 20cm - Black £4.99 (£9.98)
1 x MTN 94 Spray Paint Fluorescent Green - 400ml £4.99
Total : £2,146.80 (includes shipping : £13.75).

 
iv-tecman said:
Which is a 144hz , but I was sorta attracted with the Dell due to the extra real estate..triple screen is just too much I think for me, I know once you go triple its meant to be awesome, but the room i'll have this desktop in could look a bit OTT with three screens, I was looking at the monitor as a sorta compromise.
Click to expand...

The Dell is a nice panel and if the black borders don't bother you you always have the option of running it 1:1 at 1920x1080 with the same physical estate of a 23-24" panel - lots of inputs/features, great image quality, gaming mode with some of the other features disabled gives very reasonable input latency, etc. and while its outside of spec/not guaranteed most will do atleast 75Hz with some lucky people getting ones that will do upto 90Hz properly.

I have one here and theres a few games that won't work with 2560x1080 but most will. It seems marmite aspect ratio wise with the people who've shown an interest in it though some love it some hate it, its a good half way between normal displays and a surround setup but doesn't really replace a good triple panel setup.

Stulid's setup pretty much nails that kind of setup I would have gone for - though I'm a little wary of the Antec Kúhler - mine sounds like a small fridge in operation and from asking around it doesn't seem that unusual with them which personally I wouldn't have gone for if I'd known in advance (previously I've only had swiftech kits which had very low levels of pump noise - the corsairs seem to be the popular one to go for but never used one myself and limited experience of them in use). I'd have and did personally go for Kingston RAM and a GTX780 but thats just personal preference only reason I took the 4820 route over the 4770 was due to being able to take advantage of some of the extended features of the platform (beyond normal gaming/general use).
 
Last edited:
Ethermaster said:
Why am I never any good at this :(

YOUR BASKET
2 x OcUK Geforce GTX 780 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £359.99 (£719.98)
1 x Hazro HZ29WiA 8-Bit 29" LED Super-Widescreen Professional Monitor - Black £299.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £239.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case - Black (CC-9011030-WW) £129.95
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £119.99
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £109.99
1 x Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z87 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Pro Silver 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C9 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (CMY8GX3M2B2133C9) £89.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £88.00
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £59.99
1 x LG GP50NB40 8x Slim External DVD-RW Retail Kit (Black) £26.99
1 x Corsair SP120 Quiet Series High Pressure Low Noise - Dual Pack (CO-9050006-WW) £22.00
1 x Corsair AF120 Quiet Edition Low Noise High Airflow - Dual Pack (CO-9050002-WW) £22.00
2 x BitFenix Alchemy Premium Modding LED Strip - Connect White 30cm £16.79 (£33.58)
1 x OcUK Value Acrylic GS - 500x500mm - Fluorescent Green £15.95
1 x Corsair AF140 Quiet Series Low Noise High Airflow - Single Pack (CO-9050009-WW) £14.99
1 x Corsair AF120 Quiet Edition Low Noise High Airflow - Single Pack (CO-9050001-WW) £11.99
2 x BitFenix Alchemy Molex to 3pin x3 Fan adaptor 7V 20cm - Black £4.99 (£9.98)
1 x MTN 94 Spray Paint Fluorescent Green - 400ml £4.99
Total : £2,146.80 (includes shipping : £13.75).

Click to expand...

Nom.
 
What I have in mind is for the op to cut that acrylic panel and create a box to hide them HDD's at the bottom of the case then run them BitFenix alchemy strips below it attached to the case so that it lights up ;) and then spray paint the rings on them Corsair fans green to match the motherboard and the green LED's in the GTX780's.

The king of bling is back it seems after his long break!
 
Ok so if anyone has anything to add I'm going to go with stulid spec, just going to change the 1TB hard drive to 2TB etc..

I'm going to go with the Iiyama Prolite GB2773HS-GB1 144Hz 27" Widescreen LED 1MS Monitor purely down to its a standard aspect ratio as seems the Dell is a bit marmite.

Will be nice to get a desktop gaming PC again. I think this will last a few good years, I'm aiming for three years before I need to upgrade again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom