Is this a good pc for rendering and gaming?

Mikahcho · 9 May 2012 at 17:41

First of all, I apologize for my previous topic, I linked to a competitor website and referenced two other sites. That was kind of stupid, seeing as Overclockers has it's own store. Anyway...

I'm looking for a good PC for rendering my 3D work and for sometimes playing games on, as well as other typical things, such as internet browsing, etc. I'm not well-versed when it comes to hardware, so I'd appreciate some opinions!

Processor - Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-950 (3.06GHz)
Motherboard - ASUS® P6X58D-E: DDR3, USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, 3-Way SLI
Memory - 12GB SAMSUNG DDR3 TRI-DDR3 1333MHz (3 x 4GB)
Graphics/Video Card - 1280MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX570 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11, 3D
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 1TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
Memory - 2nd Hard Disk 1TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
Case - COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 12x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader: INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT

Power Supply - CORSAIR 750W TX SERIES (TX750) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU
Processor Cooling - SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER
Sound Card - ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
USB: Options 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS
STANDARD

I was going to build my own pc from scratch, but somebody has offered me all of the above for £800. He'd only built the machine a year ago and is adamant that he's taken great care of it.

He's offered the following two screens with it too, to make it a dual screen pc, for a grand total of £1100.

Screen1 - IYAMA E2271HDS 22" LED WIDESCREEN, HDMI/DVI-D HD 1920x1080
Screen2 - ASUS 24" LED WIDESCREEN 1920x1080 HDMI/DVI

Is this a good deal for a rendering and gaming pc? Or would you recommend I just buy the pieces from overclockers and build it myself? Thanks!

cmndr_andi · 9 May 2012 at 17:55

Hi there,

TBH I wouldn't go with that PC for £800 - it uses a CPU that is two generations old and you don't get any warranty. If you are willing to assemble the PC yourself you could make a PC for the same money, with current generation parts that is a good deal faster and more efficient (eg Ivy Bridge CPU, HD 7850 2GB graphics, 128GB SSD).

As for the monitors - you can buy nice quality brand new 24in 1080p TN panel monitors for ~£130 and a 23in 1080p IPS panel monitor for ~£150. Therefore, I certainly wouldn't buy a 22in 1080p TN panel and 24in 1080p TN panel monitor for £300 total - both used and with no warranty.

Mikahcho · 9 May 2012 at 18:12

cmndr_andi said:
Hi there,

TBH I wouldn't go with that PC for £800 - it uses a CPU that is two generations old and you don't get any warranty. If you are willing to assemble the PC yourself you could make a PC for the same money, with current generation parts that is a good deal faster and more efficient (eg Ivy Bridge CPU, HD 7850 2GB graphics, 128GB SSD).

As for the monitors - you can buy nice quality brand new 24in 1080p TN panel monitors for ~£130 and a 23in 1080p IPS panel monitor for ~£150. Therefore, I certainly wouldn't buy a 22in 1080p TN panel and 24in 1080p TN panel monitor for £300 total - both used and with no warranty.

Thanks a TON for the advice! Okay, so the monitors are a definite no-no. Could I ask for the biggest favour in the world? Could you spec me a better PC for the same/similar price of £800?

Also, he says he's willing to negotiate. Is there any price you'd recommend for this kind of build?

cmndr_andi · 9 May 2012 at 18:47

Sure thing, I'll go spec up a system now. Will you be needing a copy of Windows 7 included in the price and do you need all the features that build has (like two blu ray drives and two 1TB HDDs)?

Unfortunately I can't give you a pricecheck outside of the members market of this forum which needs 1000 posts and 180 days registered to access) - all I can say is have a look on a popular auction site for the parts cost of an i7 950 (OR 920 or 930 - since they are basically the same chip), an X58 motherboard, a GTX 570 and the other parts.

Edit: Here is a spec (without OS) which costs £830 including delivery:

So this spec has the excellent i5 3570K CPU, 16GB of RAM, a HD 7850 2GB card, a nice 128GB SSD, a 1TB 7200RPM HDD and a CPU cooler which will allow you to give the CPU a nice overclock.

Mikahcho · 9 May 2012 at 19:12

Other than the solid state drive and a better motherboard(?), I don't think this is better than the rig I'm going for. I'd probably need an i7, over an i5, because of all the rendering I'll be doing, I need it to process very quickly.

I have to admit, using a SSD does seem very attractive. But considering everything I'll be getting, I think the original build is better for me, for the price (which is being negotiated).

Thanks for trying though, I appreciate the help!

cmndr_andi · 9 May 2012 at 19:26

Yes, the i5 doesn't have the hypertheading of an i7, but an Ivy bridge does have faster cores than a nahalem.

If you look here, in a Cinebench rendering test the i5 3570K beats the i7 920 (the 2.66GHz stock version of the i7 950) both at at stock speeds and when overclocked.

If you don't need an SSD then you could afford within the budget an i7 3770K (which is basically the i5 3570K with hyperthreading enabled). The above review also shows how the i7 3770K does in the cinebench test and here is a direct comparison of the i7 3770K against the i7 950.