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Cygnus
07-10-10, 18:57
Hi guys, Cygnus here with my first post on these forums, just though I'd show you all my new PC order from PCSpecialist! :D

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 932 FULL TOWER GAMING CASE (£120)

Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 965 (3.40GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3) - BLACK EDITION

Motherboard
ASUS® CROSSHAIR IV FORMULA: DDR3, USB 3.0, SATA 6.0Gb/s, R.O GAMERS

Memory (RAM)
4GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 2GB KIT)

Graphics Card
2GB ATI RADEON™ HD 5970 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)

1st 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 & Case Cooling
CORSAIR 750W PSU (TX750) 80+ ULTRA QUIET (£88)

Processor Cooling
COOLIT ECO C240 A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£102)

Sound Card
Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Xtreme Audio (£38)

Network Facilities
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£16)

USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD

Modem
NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND

Operating System
Windows 7

1st Monitor
LG Flatron 22" HD LED Flatscreen (W2286L)

Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

Data Recovery
NONE

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 12 working days

Any suggestions for making it better/cheaper (without losing performance) would be awesome! Although it looks good enough to me hehe :)

Cheeeeers,

Cygnus.

PCS
07-10-10, 19:10
Welcome to our forums! :)

Great spec, relatively well balanced. No changes needed.

Gorman
07-10-10, 19:15
Hi and welcome, nice rig!

Sleinous
07-10-10, 19:22
I feel almost ashamed to yet again have to post something that only has one slight modification in mind ;) Yes you've all guessed it...considrr one of the 64mb cached drives rather than the 8mb cached drive speced here. Nice rig btw

Gorman
07-10-10, 19:25
You could get rid of the soundcard to cut down the price and not notice any real drop in quality.

Phoenix
07-10-10, 19:27
You should get the silver warranty just incase something goes wrong after a few months.

Gorman
07-10-10, 19:34
You should get the silver warranty just incase something goes wrong after a few months.

Yes and that, which i missed :/

Cygnus
07-10-10, 19:37
Wow! Thanks for all the quick replies hehe :P. Some good advice as well, I am now considering getting rid of the sound card and upgrading to Silver Warranty.

Also..


I feel almost ashamed to yet again have to post something that only has one slight modification in mind Yes you've all guessed it...considrr one of the 64mb cached drives rather than the 8mb cached drive speced here. Nice rig btw

Great spot! It's hard to notice the minute price difference with all the different HDD's on the list, but £19 is fantastic for more space and bigger cache!
I'll definitely change that, Thanks Sleinous! :D

Sleinous
07-10-10, 21:28
No probs, and yes good idea on the warranty :-)

Cygnus
08-10-10, 18:39
Well, updated the specs based on you guys' suggestions and some other people and this is what the finished product will be :D :

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 932 FULL TOWER GAMING CASE (£120)

Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 965 (3.40GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3) - BLACK EDITION

Motherboard
ASUS® CROSSHAIR IV FORMULA: DDR3, USB 3.0, SATA 6.0Gb/s, R.O GAMERS

Memory (RAM)
4GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 2GB KIT)

Graphics Card
2GB ATI RADEON™ HD 5970 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
Change to 640GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD6402AAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm) from 500GB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm) (went for black instead of green for double the transfer rate with not much price difference :P)

1st 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 & Case Cooling
CORSAIR 750W PSU (TX750) 80+ ULTRA QUIET (£88)

Processor Cooling
COOLIT ECO C240 A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£102)

Sound Card
Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Xtreme Audio (£38) (thought I'd stick with it in the end as I want the highest quality PC I can get and this was just within my budget :D)

Network Facilities
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£16)

USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD

Modem
NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND

Operating System
Windows 7

1st Monitor
LG Flatron 22" HD LED Flatscreen (W2286L)

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (Thanks Pheonix ;D)

Data Recovery
NONE

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 12 working days

Guess now is the worst part hehe - waiting 2/3 weeks, but oh well! Something awesome to look forward to :D!

Phoenix
08-10-10, 19:47
Just to correct something, you won't be transferring data twice as fast with the caviar black because although it is compatable with SATA 6GB/s it isn't able to put out those kinds of speeds; you probably wouldn't notice the difference between the black and green. The build looks great though :D

Sleinous
08-10-10, 20:20
Just to correct something, you won't be transferring data twice as fast with the caviar black because although it is compatable with SATA 6GB/s it isn't able to put out those kinds of speeds; you probably wouldn't notice the difference between the black and green. The build looks great though :D

Spot on, +r. Some say the greens arent so good for os, i have one on both and i cant notice any difference in access time when inactive for a while, just wish my green didnt have such a sucky cache

Cygnus
08-10-10, 20:45
Just to correct something, you won't be transferring data twice as fast with the caviar black because although it is compatable with SATA 6GB/s it isn't able to put out those kinds of speeds; you probably wouldn't notice the difference between the black and green. The build looks great though :D

Oh ok, guess I look like a huge noob now haha, ahh well, at least the name 'Caviar Black' is nice :D. And thanks :P

Sleinous
08-10-10, 20:55
Oh ok, guess I look like a huge noob now haha, ahh well, at least the name 'Caviar Black' is nice :D. And thanks :P

Ye no big diff in price dont worry about it :) you got the 'slightly' better hdd

Gorman
08-10-10, 21:04
Its still a good drive, and that 64mb of cache will be unloaded at the full 6Gbs!

Cygnus
08-10-10, 21:54
Its still a good drive, and that 64mb of cache will be unloaded at the full 6Gbs!

Oh ok, awesome! :D

One other thing, I've just heard from someone that the CoolIt ECO C240 ALC is not actually that good, and that I would be better off with a standard heatsink and fan, which is also cheaper. Is this right? :confused:

Phoenix
08-10-10, 22:42
Oh ok, awesome! :D

One other thing, I've just heard from someone that the CoolIt ECO C240 ALC is not actually that good, and that I would be better off with a standard heatsink and fan, which is also cheaper. Is this right? :confused:

Oh it's good but totally unnecessary unless you're going to overclock the CPU (which will void your warranty so maybe not such a good idea), you would be fine with the standard cooling option though if you want to save the money.

Cygnus
08-10-10, 23:42
Right, I will have a think about downgrading then as I'm more likely to OC my gpu than cpu. Thanks for the help Pheonix :).

One final question; Do the guys at PCS get annoyed if people like me constantly send Sub-Orders? :/ Hehe,

Again, thanks for the responses :D

Cygnus.

Sleinous
09-10-10, 09:17
Right, I will have a think about downgrading then as I'm more likely to OC my gpu than cpu. Thanks for the help Pheonix :).

One final question; Do the guys at PCS get annoyed if people like me constantly send Sub-Orders? :/ Hehe,

Again, thanks for the responses :D

Cygnus.

Nope they dont :) Just be aware that you dont get charged if its still in pre-production, anything after that, you will incur administration fees.

OC'ing the GPU is even more risky so I hope ya know what you're doing here. Will 100% void the warranty.

Phoenix
09-10-10, 10:23
Nope they dont :) Just be aware that you dont get charged if its still in pre-production, anything after that, you will incur administration fees.

OC'ing the GPU is even more risky so I hope ya know what you're doing here. Will 100% void the warranty.

Yeah and it doesn't make anywhere near as much difference in performance compared to overclocking the CPU.

Cygnus
09-10-10, 11:36
Yes, I've had experience OCing in the past and have never broken anything..so I guess I'm not too bad :P. It wouldn't be a serious one anyway, even if I decided to do it, due to the fact that stock, the PC should run anything out at the moment I guess. If I was going to OC anything, it wouldnt be for a while - maybe sometime into 2011 when more demanding games arrive.

Cheers guys.

Sleinous
09-10-10, 11:59
Yes, sounds like a plan, either that or when your card has been burnt in and no longer under warranty anyway :)

Cygnus
09-10-10, 12:02
Yep, sounds good to me :P. Thanks for the help, +rep for you Mr Sleinous :)

Will let you all know how the build goes and get some pictures up when it arrives in a few weeks :D

Thanks guys,

Cygnus.

Sleinous
09-10-10, 12:09
Will look forward to more pics :D

Cygnus
10-10-10, 00:24
Im curious, is there a reason why Intel systems get the choice of Kingston HyperX T1 RAM, but AMD ones don't? :confused:

Also, just thought I'd edit this in instead of making another comment, I have decided after some deliberation that I do not want to wait 2 weeks or maybe more and would rather have some kind of fast track delivery. The only problem being that it said I cant get fast track due to certain items. Is there anything I can do other than remove the problem parts?

Thanks in advance,

Cygnus :D

Meds
10-10-10, 20:59
Hey,

1) The Hyper-X T1 RAM (2000MHz) requires X.M.P (Extreme Memory Profile) support and as far as I am aware AMD CPUs do not support this, only Intel.

2) A order can only be placed as a Fast Track if all components are in stock. Which components is the system flagging up as unavailable, I'll try get an ETA of delivery for you.

Cygnus
10-10-10, 21:38
Hey,

1) The Hyper-X T1 RAM (2000MHz) requires X.M.P (Extreme Memory Profile) support and as far as I am aware AMD CPUs do not support this, only Intel.

2) A order can only be placed as a Fast Track if all components are in stock. Which components is the system flagging up as unavailable, I'll try get an ETA of delivery for you.

Oh ok, thanks for clearing up the issue with the T1 memory. I have just put together exactly the same PC as I did before and it would seem that fast track delivery is available now. Whether I just read the message wrong or something was out of stock I'm not sure. Can I simply change to fast track by going to the Amend Order section now?

Thanks, Cygnus.

Gorman
10-10-10, 21:39
If the system will allow it, then yes!

Cygnus
10-10-10, 21:41
Ok great, this is brilliant! Thank you so much PCS!

Cygnus
12-10-10, 17:36
The fast track amendment certainly appears to be working! In QC now!

I guess it will arrive on Thursday, having amended to Fast Track on Sunday Night?

Sleinous
12-10-10, 17:52
Yuss thatd seem about right

Cygnus
14-10-10, 20:37
Hi guys, computer arrived today :D:D, fully functional and gorgeous, and as far as I know it's in tip top condition so thanks PCS and everyone who was involved in the building process!

The only thing that is of slight bother to me, is a clicking coming from the HDD. It isn't what you would call loud, but audible whenever I'm doing something on the computer. I'm quite sure it shouldn't be doing this but it would be helpful if anyone could clarify.

Thanks :D

Cygnus.

Phoenix
14-10-10, 20:39
Good news, upload some pictures!

Cygnus
14-10-10, 20:42
Good news, upload some pictures!

I will, i will :P, just finishing tidying my workspace so I can take a decent looking shot of my whole setup, as my room wasn't exactly tidy when the PC arrived hehe.

Any views on the HDD 'issue'?

PCS
14-10-10, 20:42
Glad you like your new computer! :)

A clicking noise is difficult to diagnose, because of how everyone interprets noises differently. My guess is that it's nothing to worry about, but if you're at all concerned run a hard drive diagnosis test to settle your mind.

Cygnus
14-10-10, 20:51
Yeah, have just downloaded the diagnostic tool from the WD site and the drive passed the quick test. Will probably do a full test in an hour or so just to make sure. I'm sure its nothing but ya know :P.

Once again, thanks PCS for the brilliant service, build updates, online support, build quality and overall finished product - which is GREAT! :D Would like to thank:

Liam Ramsden - Builder
Garnet Heller - Tester
Craig Whiteley - Quality Controller
James Nisbet - Packer
!!!!

Pictures in a few minutes... :)

Cygnus
14-10-10, 21:59
Damn, it wont let me attach pictures to a message :/ Is there any other way?

Sleinous
15-10-10, 18:05
If youre hearing repetitive clicking at a regular time interval, it could be a fan power cable slightly brushing the fan fins

Cygnus
15-10-10, 19:01
If youre hearing repetitive clicking at a regular time interval, it could be a fan power cable slightly brushing the fan fins

Nah, it isn't that kind of clicking. It's definitely the HDD. Its that clicking that occurs especially when opening large files and the like. Also, it's in exact time with the HDD activity light on the case. Surely you must have heard this noise before :P? It does it on my old PC aswell..

Sleinous
18-10-10, 22:34
You dont just mean, high activity buzz when the arm is under intensive use? Thats normal.