Gaming For A While?

Rowan88

Rowan88

Rowan88

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Joined
2 Jun 2013
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Glasgow
Hi,

Is this a good setup for gaming?


Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Motherboard
Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz S1150
Be Quiet! Shadow Rock SR1 CPU Cooler
MSI GTX 660 Twin Frozr III 2GB OC
Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600MHz
Seagate Barracuda 2TB SATA 6GB/s 7200RPM
Corsair 2013 Edition Gaming GS600 600W Power Supply
Thermaltake Chaser A31 Gaming Windowed Case

TOTAL: £768.44


Couple of questions:

1) Is there a difference in the GTX 660 between the "Twin Frozr III" and the "Black Knight" models?

2) Any recommendations on parts I should alter?

3) I saw the GTX 600 Twin Frozr III was down to £160 yesterday the same as INSERT OTHER WEBSITE HERE etc, will they be reducing the price again or do they price match :(


Thanks
 
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Thats a good setup for the price :)

1) There is a very slight difference in clock speed, but not enough to impact performance at all. The Twin Frozr III card has a superior cooler.

2) Everything looks to be in order to me, I would maybe go for a 550 or 650W XFX PSU over the Corsair, but there isn't anything wrong with the Corsair as far as i'm aware.

3) I'm not sure if OcUK price match, you would need to ask over in the customer service section of the forums. Also as a side note, you should remove the competitor name as it is against the forum rules to mention competitors (as this is a forum linked to an online retailer it's to be expected really)

I should imagine that performance would be very similar to my PC (see sig, ignore excessive RAM, it wont impact gaming haha) and I can max out many mainstream games in 1080P, but quite a lot of the new titles such as Metro Last Light, Crysis 3, Far Cry 3, Grid 2 and so on, require me to drop the settings to high and reduce antialiasing and such a little. Which isn't a problem if you don't mind it. (of course some people aren't satisfied unless they can max out everything :rolleyes:)
 
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I have sorted the other website name lol.

Main reason I was going for the Corsair PSU is to match the blue and add some LED to the case lol, but I will have a look at the others.

I was going to order it tonight but I supose I should wait and phone OC CS tomorrow then.

That's weird about playing on HIGH settings. A lot of the videos I seen on this graphics card with a setup like the Core i5-2570K etc where running at VERY HIGH and it was flawless :S
 
Ah fair enough :) You can use the customer service section of the forums, in the 'pre sales queries' sub-forum rather than phoning if you would rather. Replies are generally very quick, but on occasion they can be a little slower.

I like to have a solid 60FPS+ though. Some people are satisfied with 30. I can't be doing with that, otherwise I would max out more things than I do. :p

I mean the one below the maximum setting. (in some cases it goes high, very high, ultra - and in others it just goes high, very high) so if there is an ultra setting, I would be able to play on very high (or a mix of high and very high)
 
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Thanks again for your help.

In your honest opinion I know this is a much asked and pretty stupid question, but how long would this PC last me without upgrading anything for gaming? Two years, three years?
 
It depends entirely on when you feel that your system is no longer adequate for your needs. A fair few people are upgrading their core system from Core 2 Quad's to Haswell i5's/i7's at the moment, and the Core 2 Quads came out 6 - 7 years ago.

There are also plenty of members on here who have first generation i7's (such as the i7 920) and they don't plan on upgrading yet. I suspect that they will upgrade in another couple of years. And those CPU's came out 5 years ago.

As for RAM, HDD's and SSD's, they are simply things which you can add to if you feel that what you have currently are insufficient. PSU's will last a very long time if you buy a quality unit from the get-go, so unless the PSU is insufficient after you upgrade some components, it should also be fine to keep.

The only thing really which may not last so long is the GPU. People tend to upgrade them a-lot more often than other parts. I personally plan on replacing my 660 after about a year (I have had it 10 months currently I believe) so it will have lasted me 2 years when I come to replace it. If you wanted to get the absolute most out of it, you could probably still play games on low in 6 years, it depends entirely on when you become dis-satisfied with your computing/gaming experience.
 
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Ah yes, the 7870 boost edition. Similar performance to a 7950 once overclocked, which is noticeably better than the performance of a GTX660.

AMD pro's: Your chosen motherboard supports CrossfireX, superior bitcoin/litecoin mining performance, generally better value for money unless you require NVIDIA specific features.

AMD con's: Well known for their sub-standard driver support

NVIDIA pro's: The might of CUDA processing, PhysX - enhanced physics - in some titles, superior folding performance, very stable and consistant driver support

NVIDIA con's: Generally more expensive than comparible AMD cards in terms of general performance figures, your chosen motherboard does not support SLI.
 
Thanks again for all your support. I think I have drawn up around 5 builds in the past 2 days and can't decide lol.
 
If it's a long term (5 year plus) machine I'd recommend spending a fair bit more on a larger and better quality PSU. You'll reclaim the money in electricity over that time and have room for a better graphics card down the line.
 
I agree with acme15 about going for an XFX 550W or 650W PSU over the GS600 Corsair. I had the GS700 and had to return it under RMA because of the god awful noise the fan can make (if you're unlucky - and a lot of people were (check the Corsair forums)) when it gets between the passive and active states while gaming. I got an XFX 850 XXX Silver instead and I've not heard it since I fitted it.
 
acme15 said:
Could be worse. Let's just hope the PSU is alright, and he'll be fine. :p
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He was obviously set on that case with the blue LED and large window. I think that GS600 has a blue LED in it too which probably drew him to it. He's now looking for blue peripherals aswell lol

I prefer function over form to a degree but to each their own ;)
 
honosuseri said:
He was obviously set on that case with the blue LED and large window. I think that GS600 has a blue LED in it too which probably drew him to it. He's now looking for blue peripherals aswell lol

I prefer function over form to a degree but to each their own ;)
Click to expand...

At least he didn't go for cheapness over reliability. If he bought a Powercool PSU I would have personally taken it upon myself to go to his house and blow up his PC. (just to save him the hassle) :p
 
honosuseri said:
Phew!! Although I thought I remembered you saying you had one running an old rig or had it spare. I can back away with the fire extinguisher now lol
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Oh no that was much worse that a Powercool! That was a WinPower!!! :D

I had 2 WinPower's in old systems (just old stuff like Pentium D's etc which don't really matter) one caught fire and started blowing tiny little flames out the back (while the system was still on), the other was fine (but used to make disturbing screeching noises under load). One got binned, the other got cut up and converted into a book-end... :rolleyes:

My PSU is a ModXstream Pro 700W. Spare PSU is a 600W 80+ Bronze rated FSP (which in reality, is probably better than the OCZ :p).
 
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