more help speccing a system

Storlock

Storlock

Storlock

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Joined
11 Aug 2010
Posts
4
Hi Guys, sure you've all had this asked a lot, but I'm looking to build a new system and after some advise. Last time I built a system it had an AMD K6-2 at 200 MHz so be gentle on me :p

I'm after a system which will game well, with enough graphics horsepower to look good on a 1080p projector screen (100 inch). However, I spend most of my time manipulating spreadsheets. My currnt laptop (company Dell Latitude D630) can take anything upto 45 minutes with some of the stuff I'm manipulating so I normally leave it going in the background and do other things while it works, so I'd be after enough processing to be able to game with a load of applications working away behind it.

This is what I put together as a possible system, bit worried about it having enough power and fitting into the case, I think the rest is okay. I was also thinking I might be better with 2 460s in SLi rather than the 5830s, they are more powerful, but also more expensive, how much difference would it make?

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Krypton Intel Core i7 930 2.80GHz @ 4.00GHz Overclocked Bundle Krypton Intel Core i7 930 2.80GHz @ 4.00GHz Overclocked Bundle £387.75
(£330.00) £387.75
(£330.00)
Options applied to the above product:
Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM3) £37.99
(£32.33) £37.99
(£32.33)
Options applied to the above product:
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Intel X58 (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard £152.99
(£130.20) £152.99
(£130.20)
Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 5830 PCS+ 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 5830 PCS+ 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £154.99
(£131.91) £309.98
(£263.82)
OcUK Cream 23.6" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black OcUK Cream 23.6" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £136.29
(£115.99) £136.29
(£115.99)
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit - OEM (FQC-00765) Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit - OEM (FQC-00765) £113.96
(£96.99) £113.96
(£96.99)
Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650TXUK) Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650TXUK) £59.98
(£51.05) £59.98
(£51.05)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000528AS) Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000528AS) £51.69
(£43.99) £51.69
(£43.99)
Samsung SH-B083L/BSBP 8x BluRay ROM / 16x DVD±RW Drive - Black (OEM) Samsung SH-B083L/BSBP 8x BluRay ROM / 16x DVD±RW Drive - Black (OEM) £45.99
(£39.14) £45.99
(£39.14)
Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black £27.99
(£23.82) £27.99
(£23.82)
Sub Total : £1,127.33
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £20.10
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £200.80
Total : £1,348.23
 
i'd drop the 5830's for a 5870, and maybe the monitor for something like the benq 24", which is well liked around here.


whats your overall budget for this ?
 
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budget is a bit flexible, I'm being made redundant so getting a reasonable pay out, but not sure how long it needs to last me for. basically after a good system, prepared to pay for it but can't spend too much.
 
mind if I ask why? all the numbers I've seen say that on a performance scale, 2 cheaper cards in crossfire/SLi seem to be better for the same money IF your motherboard can handle it.
 
If you’re processing a spreadsheet that takes 45mins it's most likely eating up all the processor bandwidth and it’s reasonably to assume that whatever application your running is at least multithreaded to the extent where it can use at least 2 cores so running that and gaming at the same time might not be possible.

Sorry to here you’re being made redundant, I was made redundant in February, I was taken into the office told my job was being made redundant and was asked to clear my desk and leave, horriable experaince. I took some time off to decorate my flat and as I was coming to the end of it managed to get a temp job and a few weeks ago I was told it was going permanent.
 
i'd just swap the gfx card then for a single 5870.

have you thought of going for an AM3 quad core over the i7 system, have a loko at the Radon AMD Phenom II X4 955 package.

o/s wise check out the Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium - Retail (Full Version) currently £99.86 inc VAT.

generally the opinion is that you get the best SINGLE card you can then at a later date sli/xfire them if needed, rather than getting 2 lower end cards and doing it straight away.
 
thanks for all the help so far :)

I went for the pro version of windows because I have some software that doesn't support win 7 and I need the XP compatibility (specialist stuff for some test equipment which tends to lag a few years behind the normal upgrade curve) I don't use it much, but being able to continue to use that is worth the extra for me.

and yeah, redundancy is never fun, this is my third time. I'm not even completely sure I am being made redundant, the management are still trying to work out whether they want me to go or not, so are putting me through the process in the mean time.
 
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