Comments on spec - PC has to last a while!

[ahar]

It's been over 5 years since I last bought a PC so I've been surfing these forums for the last few weeks and have finally worked out wat I think my spec will be.

I play a few games (currently Starcraft II and World of Tanks at the moment) but I'm going to get the new Duke Nukem for nostalgia's sake . I also edit photos and the odd family video and sometimes rip a film or two from my DVD collection to my NAS box to watch around the house. My wife has a core i3 laptop for general surfing, so the desktop has to do any heavy lifting !

The main requirement is that the PC will last for some time. I've deliberately got a MB capable of doing crossfire as in a couple of years I'll buy another 6950 to keep up with the current games (they should be nice and cheap then). It's what I did with my current PC and it worked well. I've not gone with the Z68 chipset as I will have an SSD big enough to put the OS and a couple of games on, I don't transcode many videos and I don't want integrated graphics.

Budget max (as set by the wife, spoilsport!) is £1200.

8Gb of RAM - should last me some time.

No overclocking atm, but will consider in future

The case has been carefully chosen as I have a height restriction due to my desk of 430mm - the coolermaser 430 is one of the few midi towers that fits this.

A new monitor is needed as my current one is too small (19 inch) and I want something to tax my new graphics card!

Any comments / substitutes I should think of?

 

[ahar]

Thanks chaps - I should have said I have a standard HDD hanging around already.

Not sure I'm going to bother water-cooling the graphics card - is the MSI one a good card otherwise ?

 

[ahar]

Thanks for the help guys. I went with sk82jack's list bar a different monitor and SSD. After reading some reviews I went for a Benq 2420 monitor and a crucial SSD as the ocz ones seem to have quite a high failure rate (anectdotal forum evidence though I'll admit)

 

[ahar]

Too late now, but why are you guys still speccing HD6950s? They can't be flashed anymore, nor can the TwinFrozR III.

GTX560Ti is a better bet and a better card, whilst being slightly cheaper.

Can't speak for the people who responses to my thread, but I originally went for a 6950 as it had 2gb of memory rather than 1gb. I haven't seen the 560 offered with 2gb. You could argue that I don't need 2gb at the moment, but I plan on not upgrading for some time and the mistake I made with my current system was not getting enough VRAM when I bought it.

The plan in a couple of years is to get another 6950 to put in crossfire mode to keep up with current games. The 6950 should be pretty cheap by then and it'll hopefully be a cost effective upgrade. I did that somewhat successfully (apart from the VRAM ) with the SLI'd nvidia 7600gt I have in my machine at the moment.

 

[ahar]

Have you considered getting a 120hz monitor?

Even if you are going ATI, if you're building for the machine to last a while, ATI's HD3D will show up in more mainstream at some point...

No I haven't. I must admit that I think the whole 3D thing at the moment to be a bit of a gimmick, but I suspect that technology adavnces will prove me wrong!!

 

[ahar]

My main question is whether an SSD is an essential. You could make some worthwhile upgrades to the other parts the that cash. The PSU above, a better case with proper cooling and a better monitor, all of which could be had for the same cost.

After reading all the reports about SSDs and the significant speed advantages, I couldn't resist! I'd certainly rather have a good enough monitor and SSD than a standard HDD and a better monitor.

On the case, I said in my original post that due to my desk I can't have a case taller than 430mm - after spending time looking through the specs the Coolermaster 430 seemed to be the best bet, all the other usual suspects were too tall.

Kit arrives on Monday or Tuesday - can't wait!