New Setup - Any advice?

ripper24

ripper24

ripper24

Associate
Joined
5 Dec 2011
Posts
20
Location
warwickshire
Hi All this is my first post and it is concerning a setup i wish to build. I thought of buying a high spec desktop but then looked into building my own for the same price and it looks like i could build a more powerful stylish machine myself.

I will be using this machine for gaming and my adobe master collection cs5

Here is what i plan to build and the rough prices i have found.
Please let me know the following -

1. Will it work?
2. Any improvements i could make (same price ranges)
3. Any other comments

MOBO - asus maximus iv extreme-z - £250
CPU - Intel Core i7-2600K - £225
RAM - G.Skill RipJaws-Z 4 x 4gb (16GB) - £76
GPU - AMD radeon HD 6990 - £540
HDD - Seagate Barracuda XT 2TB - £140
Sound Card - Auzen X-Meridian 7.1 2G - £100
Optical Drive - 12x BD Writer: Sony BWU-500S - £100
Heat Management - Integrated water cooling - £300 or more?
Case - coolermaster HAF X - £140
PSU - Corsair Professional Series Gold AX1200 - £210
Display - Asus PA238Q - £240

Thanks for looking and giving any advice guys. :)
 
Welcome,

Have you got a budget?

Are you serious gamer? What games do you play and at what settings? The 6990 is a Dual GPU and highly powerful. Most people do not need that kind of power.

First thing i can say is, there is no real reason to have a sound card unless you are a music professional.

Everything looks a lot over-specced.

On the cooling Issue, are you set on Watercooling? Are you going to be Overclocking the CPU or Both CPU and GPU?
 
Last edited:
Hi There -

Budget is around £2000 - £2500 including montior

Im a big WOW freak and have been playing it a bog standard lappy. Im looking to get into more PC gaming as i have been a console addict for a while now.

Ah i was wondering about having a sound card at all and didnt know if it made much of a difference when gaming and watching movies. im not a music professional, just using it for movies, gaming, and when i create/configure sounds for websites.

I want to overclock the CPU...but to be honest i need to read up on this (thats for another thread for my learning curve!)...after a lot of research into watercooling i though, why not and a good challenge for me

The main reason why i went for this spec is to build something that will last the test of time and not have to upgrade it for a while. Plus i have a fair reasonable budget to spend.
 
Last edited:
IMO If ur budget allows a sound card I would defos get one. I have, well had one in my system n it does make a difference, everything sounds a lot better.
 
no point spending £500+ on the graphics card with new ones due out in the coming weeks.

No point spending so much on the hard disk either, better off getting a smaller capacity hard disk + a ssd. or better still if you can beg/borrow/steal an old sata drive to use till the prices come back down to sane levels.

if you're looking to spend £200+ on a psu maybe an idea to look at the seasonic platinum 1000w or the xfx rebadged version.
 
Some good advice there from Fowler002.

Don't bother spending crazy amounts on that GPU. the 7000 series are set to be released soon, that's if you want to go ATI.

Scrap the 2TB drive... wait till prices drop. Stick with an SSD for the time being... same price as a mechanical drive. If of course you really need the capacity.... buy a cheapo second HDD to tide you over till the prices drop on the 1TB drives. (£40 a month or so ago!!!)

You are never going to need a 1000W+ PSU. Your system you specced would only draw around 650W at it's very maximum. No where near the 1000W limit.

Look for a good quality 750W. The Corsair HX 750W is a very good choice. Especially if you like to splash the cash :) Cheaper alternatives available... but of course we have a good budget and where's the fun in that ;)

go for the 2700K over the 2600K... it's slightly more powerful than the 2600K and should help you out with the Adobe suite. Especially FLash.

Scrap the watercooling idea. It's only for serious overclocking... which you wont be doing. Get a closed loop water cooler for the time being. It's still watercooling and is a lot easier to manage (no management!) not to mention cheaper. If you want to add custom loops later on. There's nothing stopping you. Just don't bother with it just now.

£100 to burn blurays... comon! Who really backs up to disc?

With all this cash your saving. Get yourself a cracking speaker setup... and/or triple monitor goodness. Triple monitors is really very good and makes working with Adobe a lot easier!
 
hi fowler and buchanan

thanks for the advice and i will hold out for the new cards, and probably go for a 2nd hand HHD until prices drop for the SSD. was wondering about the PSU too but you have confirmed power requirements for me now.

great idea on the closed loop water cooler. and CPU!

fantasic savings ideas and with the extra cash i will get the tripple monitor setup so i am still getting the toys in!...

if i redo my spec and post it back on here would you guys take one final look at it please. also if you feel the urge to place a spec on here feel free as i have seen some posts which include the items and pricing from overclocker shop.

cheers again guys
 
Glad you approve.

I'll let someone else do a spec for you. It's not that I can't do them... It's just other people enjoy it :p

I will of course keep an eye on the thread and offer any input I feel is valuable.

P.S. Why don't you try doing your own spec. Look at parts you like. Find a review of them... if good, add to basket. After you have all the parts you like and all get good reviews from respected reviewers. Post it up and let us see. It's hard to go wrong this way.

Providing you stick to Intel you wont go far wrong. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom