Help with "Ultima Viper" Intel Core i7 950 3.06GHz @ 4.00GHz DDR3 System - V2.0"

Wataman · 2 Apr 2011 at 21:32

Hi, I am considering upgrading from a 5 year old 'gaming' laptop in order to start running games at good graphics and speeds. I have around £1k to spend but would consider going to £1400ish.

I noticed the Ultima Viper" Intel Core i7 950 3.06GHz @ 4.00GHz DDR3 System - V2.0 was on sale and am seriously thinking about buying, however I am unsure as to what would benefit me most from the custom choices I can make on the system.

Also any advice on Solid State Hard drive upgrades and the graphics card options, and as to what they actually achieve would be much appreciated. (Not really much of an idea about specs beyond GHz, memory and harddrive space haha.)

At the moment its sat on £1394.95, this is with the options set to

Graphics Card:
HSI ATI Radeon HD 6970 2048MB GDDR5 Graphics Card

Solid State Hard Drive:
OCZ Vertex 2E 60GB SSD

Operating system:
Windows 7 home premium 64 bit OEM

Memory:

Corsair Vengeance 12GB (3x4GB) 1600MHz C9DDR3

Thanks very much, also speedy responses much appreciated as I'm unsure if the offer ends today =S

Edit: Also, would this system have a HDMI port so I could connect it to a TV via a HDMI lead? (To save having to buy another monitor)

stulid · 2 Apr 2011 at 21:36

That sort of money should really be buying you a Sandybridge system.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-176-OE&groupid=43&catid=1444&subcat=

or

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-179-OE&groupid=43&catid=1444&subcat=

with the GPU and SSD altered to suit.

Like this.

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
"Titan Spinosaur" Intel Core i5 2500K 3.30GHz @ 4.60GHz DDR3 Sandybridge System £650.00
(£541.67) £650.00
(£541.67)
Options applied to the above product:
No Cooling Upgrade £0.00
(£0.00) £0.00
(£0.00)
Options applied to the above product:
OCZ Vertex 2E 60GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-2VTXE60G) £99.98
(£83.32) £99.98
(£83.32)
Options applied to the above product:
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Options applied to the above product:
HIS ATI Radeon HD 6970 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £274.99
(£229.16) £274.99
(£229.16)
Sub Total : £920.81
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £15.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £187.26
Total : £1,123.57

And the 6970 card does have HDMI.

Freddie589 · 2 Apr 2011 at 21:50

+1 for going SB go for a Titan Megalosaur in my opinion, be becouse it's got a much better gpu And motherboard as for ram it only has 4gb buts thats enough for gaming. It all comes to £1128.97 inc VAT as for sad a 60gb 2E will be fine for OS and a few games.

Wataman · 2 Apr 2011 at 21:52

stulid said:
That sort of money should really be buying you a Sandybridge system.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-176-OE&groupid=43&catid=1444&subcat=

or

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-179-OE&groupid=43&catid=1444&subcat=

with the GPU and SSD altered to suit.

Like this.

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
"Titan Spinosaur" Intel Core i5 2500K 3.30GHz @ 4.60GHz DDR3 Sandybridge System £650.00
(£541.67) £650.00
(£541.67)
Options applied to the above product:
No Cooling Upgrade £0.00
(£0.00) £0.00
(£0.00)
Options applied to the above product:
OCZ Vertex 2E 60GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-2VTXE60G) £99.98
(£83.32) £99.98
(£83.32)
Options applied to the above product:
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Options applied to the above product:
HIS ATI Radeon HD 6970 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £274.99
(£229.16) £274.99
(£229.16)
Sub Total : £920.81
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £15.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £187.26
Total : £1,123.57

And the 6970 card does have HDMI.

Thank you for the fast reply and help! I hadn't even noticed these!

Just a question on the RAM, as it is set at 4GB with no option to change would this effect the speed/graphics/other parts of the machine? (All I have heard is that 'more RAM is better' and have seen other machines on the site which can go to 8 or 16GB

)

Freddie589 · 2 Apr 2011 at 21:55

Wataman said:
Thank you for the fast reply and help! I hadn't even noticed these!

Just a question on the RAM, as it is set at 4GB with no option to change would this effect the speed/graphics/other parts of the machine? (All I have heard is that 'more RAM is better' and have seen other machines on the site which can go to 8 or 16GB )

No, 4gb will be fine for gaming it will not effect anything else the reason people go for 16GB is because they do things like cad design and video editing, and need the extra bump.

stulid · 2 Apr 2011 at 21:57

As above, 4GB is more than enough for a gaming pc.

Wataman · 2 Apr 2011 at 22:05

Freddie589 said:
+1 for going SB go for a Titan Megalosaur in my opinion, be becouse it's got a much better gpu And motherboard as for ram it only has 4gb buts thats enough for gaming. It all comes to £1128.97 inc VAT as for sad a 60gb 2E will be fine for OS and a few games.

Thanks for the reply,

Just a question on the motherboard differences as they seem to be the same to me?

Also on the graphics cards

Megalosaur:
ATI Radeon HD 6950 2048MB GDDR5

Spinosaur:
ATI Radeon HD 6970 2048MB GDDR5

Just going on assumptions I would've guessed the one with the larger number (I.e 6970) would be a later/better model?

And as I added the edit later on the original post so people may not have saw, would these machines have a HDMI port?

Thank you for the help.

Throrik · 2 Apr 2011 at 22:06

Go for the 6950 and flash it to a 6970 to save some money. You can see how to do this here.

stulid · 2 Apr 2011 at 22:08

It is the same motherboard, the overclock is actually 200mhz higher with the Spinosaur.

the higher the number in the same family model the better, so 6970>6950 - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/293?vs=292

and the cards will have HDMI outputs, or a DVI to HDMI adapter.

Wataman · 2 Apr 2011 at 22:20

Thank you all for the help, I have decided on the titan spinosaur with the ATI Radeon HD 6970 and OCZ Vertex 2E 60GB SSD with windows 7 home. (as it seems to turn out 9 pounds cheaper for 0.2ghz faster and a better graphics card [thank you for the suggestion to flash it though Throrik].

Thanks again all who replied.