What Should I Change?

Suppin · 4 Jul 2011 at 09:07

My main goals for this PC:

1. To be able to load all the leagues and players in Football Manager 2011 and have it running at a decent speed.
2. To edit HD videos, which requires a lot of programs running simultaneously, hence the high RAM.
3. I also want to be able to play any other games that I might get. There's no specific ones I want at the moment, but I wouldn't want a machine that wouldn't be great at running them. I'm not overly fussed about the ridiculously high-end ones though, so I can't see there being a need for two MSI GeForce GTX 570s or 580s, which I notice a lot of people seem to use these days.

My budget is £3000, but I'd like to spend as little as possible. I don't consider the price difference between HDDs and SSDs worth it for example.

The components I'm currently considering buying are:

Motherboard: ASRock Z68 Extreme4
CPU: i7-2600K Unlocked
RAM: Kingston HyperX DDR3 16GB
Graphics Card: MSI GeForce GTX 570 OC Twin FrozR III Power Edition
Hard Drive: Samsung F3 Spinpoint 1TB
PSU: Silverstone Tech. SST-ST1000-P Strider 1000W
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Silver Arrow
Sound Card: Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Titanium PCI Express OEM
Blu-ray Burner: LG BH10LS30 Blu-Ray DVDRW SATA Writer / Burner
Case: Coolermaster HAF X NVIDIA Edition

The OS will be Windows 7 Home Premium.

Regarding the RAM, I noticed it was cheaper to get two lots of 2x4 rather than a 4x4 pack. I've seen some claims from sellers that they might not work together if you don't buy a 4x4 pack, but that's just a ploy to get more money right? I don't see why RAM wouldn't work together if it's the same type.

The PSU is total overkill, but would I need this if I were to overclock the machine? If I recall correctly PSUs run best when they're using less than half their available power.

I was also considering the Indigo Xtreme for Intel Core i7, but these don't seem to be available at the moment. I wasn't planning on overclocking immediately, so I suppose this can wait.

I'm totally not sure about the graphics card. It seems like HD video works best on one type and games on another. I'm finding it difficult to find something which is in the middle.

lrlcr · 4 Jul 2011 at 09:32

No linking to competitors.

That looks okay, but personally, why do you need a haf for that lot? It's a huge case and IMHO you'd be better off with a smaller one. I'd also look at a lower rated but more efficient psu, that one seems pretty cheap for 1kw.

On the SSd front, frankly you're wrong. If you want a snappy pc, with great loading times etc then get an ssd. They are simply the best upgrade for Making your pc feel fast to use. Not to mention they're great for silence

wilko49 · 4 Jul 2011 at 09:45

Just ran all that kit through a PSU calculator (which usually give a fair over-estimate) and got ~650W (although that didn't include the GPU overclock). Based on that, I'd say anything over 700W would be fine.

I'd agree with lrlcr, an SSD would definitely be on my list if I had a 3k budget - even if its just a small one for the OS.

Admiral Huddy · 4 Jul 2011 at 09:50

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olivier renault · 4 Jul 2011 at 09:52

570 OC SLI you can get away with 850W quite easily.
I'd get a Crucial M4 128GB SSD. Plenty of choices for the case. The HAF is all right although big. the Corsair 650D is smaller, also would consider the silverstones (FT02, RV02W-EW).

Suppin · 4 Jul 2011 at 10:37

lrlcr said:
That looks okay, but personally, why do you need a haf for that lot? It's a huge case and IMHO you'd be better off with a smaller one.

I wasn't taking the size into account. I had heard it was a great case for keeping everything cool, which would be important for when I overclock the machine.

I'd also look at a lower rated but more efficient psu, that one seems pretty cheap for 1kw.

Do you have any recommendations? A gold certified 1000W that I was looking at was about double the price of the silver and I didn't think it represented value for money.

On the SSd front, frankly you're wrong. If you want a snappy pc, with great loading times etc then get an ssd. They are simply the best upgrade for Making your pc feel fast to use. Not to mention they're great for silence

Is the difference that great? I don't mind the loading times when reading data from drives, I'm more concerned with the processing speed of the CPU. SSD drives also have a shorter life-span from what I've heard, which doesn't sound particularly appealing, especially when you're paying so much for a piddly amount of space.

olivier renault said:
Plenty of choices for the case. The HAF is all right although big. the Corsair 650D is smaller, also would consider the silverstones (FT02, RV02W-EW).

How would those compare in terms of cooling? I picked the HAF due to the fans, particularly the GPU duct one. I don't mind having an overly large case if better cooling is going to be worth the extra cash.

So the MSI GeForce GTX 570 OC Twin FrozR III Power Edition is going to be a good choice even though I'm focusing more on HD video editing rather than graphics-intensive games? I was under the impression that this was a card designed for gaming and I wasn't sure how it would fare with HD video.

olivier renault · 4 Jul 2011 at 11:20

TBH, for HD video, any card will do. the 570 is a great gaming card. A Z68 / H67 motherboard might help encoding and transcoding with QuickSync.

If you want good air cooling, the Silverstones with 90 degrees rotated internals (Raven, Fortress FT02) have the best air cooling capacity for the minimum amount of space and noise. The Corsair Obsidian 650D is a good case too.

In a cheaper bracket, you have the Lancool DragonLord PC-K62, and the Coolermaster CM 690 II. In an even smaller form factor, the HAF 912, or the CM Storm Enforcer, which is similar to a HAF 912 internally.

A good value >1000W PSU would be the OCZ ZX series. 1000W or 1200W. But you don't need anything over 750W for a single GPU build.

For SSD it's up to you. If you feel you don't need fast loading, then you can live without them. If you get a Z68 motherboard, you can get a cheap 20GB SSD later for SRT (SSD caching) to give the hard drive a boost in the OS.

The point of SSDs is not capacity, but fast access. It makes them ideal for OS and applications, things that require a lot of disk I/O, but not much capacity.

Suppin · 4 Jul 2011 at 19:37

olivier renault said:
TBH, for HD video, any card will do. the 570 is a great gaming card.

Alright thanks, so I don't need to worry about the graphics card any more.

If you want good air cooling, the Silverstones with 90 degrees rotated internals (Raven, Fortress FT02) have the best air cooling capacity for the minimum amount of space and noise. The Corsair Obsidian 650D is a good case too.

In a cheaper bracket, you have the Lancool DragonLord PC-K62, and the Coolermaster CM 690 II. In an even smaller form factor, the HAF 912, or the CM Storm Enforcer, which is similar to a HAF 912 internally.

Price range the HAF 912 seems like it could be a worthwhile saving. Two 570s might be something I'll consider down the road though. So should I stick with HAF X in case I do, or would the 912 still be good enough for dual graphics cards? How do the two cases compare in terms of cooling? Paying extra for a larger case would be worth it in my opinion even if the difference isn't a great deal. There's no harm in having a case that's too large right?

A good value >1000W PSU would be the OCZ ZX series. 1000W or 1200W. But you don't need anything over 750W for a single GPU build.

I see that's on sale here for £30 more than the one I was originally going to buy. The price difference seems worth it from going from silver to gold.

olivier renault · 4 Jul 2011 at 20:34

review of the PSU.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=238

You sure you need 1000W?

The problem with large cases is space. And weight if you tend to move the case a lot. I have a Lian Li PC-A71b, which is a big mutha (very light though). Not a problem with me, I stick it under the desk and mount the PSU at the top (carpet floor).

The problem with mid-tower cases are usually video card fitting, and also I suppose warmer, although a lot of mid-towers are really good these days with air flow. The HAF 912 mid-tower platforms have removable hard cages to fit large video cards. Still not ideal, but may fit 570 anyway, worth investigating. Not sure how cramped it is with 570's in a HAF 912 / Storm and the hard drive cages in. The 650D also has loads of room, and the Raven cases, despite being (large) mid-towers.

Nothing wrong with the HAF X (apart from looks, not a fan), if you want a big case with no issues with fitting any kind of hardware. Full towers are also better for water cooling, but I suppose that's a moot point. If you have the floor / desk space and budget then that's fine.

a comparison of case performances.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cases/2010/11/19/fractal-design-define-xl-review/3

The HAFX fares well. THe HAF 912 isn;t doing too bad. If you fancy a HAF, look up reviews on the net, they are very popular and there are several models (912 / 922 / 932 / HAFX).

Suppin · 5 Jul 2011 at 08:23

olivier renault said:
You sure you need 1000W?

Probably not, but if I'm going to add more stuff to it in the future, I'd rather not have to buy a new PSU.

The HAFX fares well. THe HAF 912 isn;t doing too bad. If you fancy a HAF, look up reviews on the net, they are very popular and there are several models (912 / 922 / 932 / HAFX).

Thanks for your help. Everything apart from the case has been ordered as I'm still unsure about that. The NVIDIA edition of the HAF X looks really good to me, but with all the suggestions that I get a smaller case I'm not sure what to do. It taking up space in my room isn't an issue at all. Having free space inside isn't going to hurt is it? It would give me more room to add stuff in future after all.

Suppin · 5 Jul 2011 at 15:59

I'm contemplating changing my mind about the SSD drive. I'd like about 180GB, but could go down to 120.

I've heard a lot of cases about them dying within a few months though. Are there any recommendations for one at the size I want which would last for years?

Just the SSD and the case to be sorted now...