Spec check please

[graze]

Hi all,

Fairly new to this, but alot of research has led me to you guys.

I'm looking for a new PC in order to fulfill the following habits:

HD video editing
SLR photo editing
Downloading / watching High Def movies
Downloading / listen to music
Streaming TV
Internet browsing
General office stuff for work

Chosen spec below, wondered if i could have your opinion on whether the following would suffice. Admitedly i may have overspecked a little but want something future proof.

Case
COOLERMASTER SILEO 500 QUIET MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-870 Quad Core (2.93GHz, 8MB Cache) + Turbo Boost
Motherboard
ASUS® P7P55 LX: USB 2.0 & SATA 3.0Gb/s, CrossFireX™ SUPPORT
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
768MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)
Power Supply & Case Cooling
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
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
Firewire & Video Editing
3 Port IEEE 1394a Firewire PCI Card (£9)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 12 working days

Somthing i would like advice on is the wirless card, which will be used to connect to my sky broadband issued router and wireless printer, is this sufficent as there are two options PCI or PCI Express.

Another thing, some time in the future (currently limited by budget / Wife...or maybe Wife / budget) i may wish to add a TV card. When looking at setups offered by others i was told that a similar set up would mean not enough PCI's would be available to include both wireless and a TV card. How do i stand with this spec.

A long winded post i know, but thanks for bearing wth me, your advice / comments will be much appreciated.

Thanks

[Sleinous]

PCI and PCIexpress are both identical cards just for the different interfaces, incase your PCI slot is covered by a dual width graphics card or vica versa :) Or simply just dont havethe slot on that mobo

In terms of a tv card

Supposing you were to get this one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hauppauge-WinTV-Nova-digital-tuner/dp/B000I1RHWA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=computers&qid=1284488703&sr=8-2

that would use up a PCI slot

However this mobo has 3 PCI's s thats fine, and 2x PCIe x1 so you could go for either.

Your GTX 460 will go in the top most slot.

Below is a pic of your mobo and how it will look when it arrives.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w91/Sleinous/asusmobo.png

Oh I forgot to mention there is also a PCIe x16 black lane there, it only operates at x4 speed though, and is used generally for Crossfire (hooking up to ATI gpus but is pretty fail as obviously they wont be both working at x16 x16 one will be at x16 and the other at x4) But, you could obviously use that slot for anything like a TV tuner that is PCIe, just like the smaller PCIe x1 slots that are a quarter its length, those cards will (carefully) fit in :)

[graze]

Wow,

thanks for the detailed response, that puts my mind at rest.

What's your feeling on the spec, can you confirm that the wirleess card chosen is the right one for me to use with sky, sorry for being a bit lazy (could do my research on this) but you guys clearly know your stuff

thnaks again

[PCS]

Great spec you've put together there and an excellent response from sleinous. :)

The spec is well balanced and will handle your intended use with ease. The wireless card will work with any Internet Service Provider when connected to a wireless router.

[Sleinous]

yeah its just a matter of sekecting the network ssid and entering your wep key/ wpa key that you get with the router.

as for the spec, i like it however maybe the 1gb gtx 460 would prove better for vid editing? Maybe someone can enlighten us on that.

[graze]

Ouch...another £50 to upgrade from the 768MB to 1GB gtx 460 - Would i really benifit that much between the two.
I originally considered the 5770, but reading through the posts here a number of people were recommending the 768MB gtx 460 over this for only a £9 difference (bit of a no brainer)
Any other options...again i don't want to spend £800+ and be disappointed but £50 bites into the monitor budget a fair bit

[graze]

Just found a post that seems to answer my last question
http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?1008-Graphics-choice.......
Thanks anyway unless anyone else has any comments.

[graze]

Guys, some more help please.

I'm getting a bit RAM paranoid - will 4GB be enough...would appreciate your advise.

I also noticed my spec included the green WD caviar 3gb/s would i be better off with black 6gb/s in regards to the spec choosen

i guess at the end of the day somethings got to give to meet the budget (around £850, leaving £200 for monitor/webcam) but i still want to get the best combo

Thanks again

[Sleinous]

Nah leave the black, the boost is minute and only happens in certain disk access operations. 6gbs is mainly for SSDs, 4gb ram is fine, remember ram drops in price quick so adding another 2 later can only become cheaper

[graze]

"...Nah leave the black, the boost is minute and only happens in certain disk access operations..."

I persume, Sleinous, you mean leave the green?

I'm going to have a final tinker today and then, as its my b'day and the wife's a little reluctant to moan about anything in fear of spoiling the day, i might just bite the bullet and place my order. Will post my final spec later just to wrap the post up if nothing more.

[Sleinous]

ye soz, leave the green haha. Yes, birthday day is the best time to lash out :P Its green card to partayy!!!

[graze]

So, had a little tinker and revised my orginal spec as follows and decided to up the CPU to the 950:

Case
COOLERMASTER SILEO 500 QUIET MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-950 (3.06GHz) 4.8GTs/8MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P6X58D-E: DDR3, USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, 3-Way SLI
Memory (RAM)
6GB SAMSUNG DDR3 TRI-DDR3 1333MHz (3 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
768MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
2nd Graphics Card
NONE
3rd Graphics Card
NONE
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
2nd Hard Disk
NONE
3rd Hard Disk
NONE
4th Hard Disk
NONE
RAID
NONE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NONE
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)
Power Supply & Case Cooling
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
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
Floppy Disk Drive
NONE
Firewire & Video Editing
1 x IEEE 1394a FIREWIRE PORT ONBOARD
TV Card
NONE
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)

In addition to this i'm also considering the Acer H243HX 24-inch found at around £165

http://www.digitalversus.com/acer-h243hx-p357_7266_38.html

Need your advise on the above spec, any major errors, is it a good balance etc

Does anyone have any experience of this monitor?

Thanks

[Sleinous]

Just one thing really. Your motherboard supports SLI, im no entirely sure what you intend to use the PC for but... later on you could add a second GTX 460 for a lot less. Anyway, if you so have that in mind, you would need atleast the 600W PSU, maybe the TX650W to be on the safe side :)

I like the choice of HDD, upping the CPU was a good idea too. Especially as the 950 is such good value atm. Samsung memory again a good choice. Nothing else really strikes me as worth mentioning :) Looking like a good setup.

[Nemesis]

If the 600w psu is FSP brand and is the one i found http://www.anandtech.com/show/2581/3 then it might not support gtx 460 sli depending on the power connectors

[graze]

i had the feeling someone might pick up on the 450w...i think i your right and the 600 is the way to go.

With regards to a monitor noticed you have a LG, any good? had a look at a couple today along with a samsung syncmaster p247oh which looks well nice

Having said that the link previously listed gave a fairly good comparative review between the Acer H243HX and the Samsung. Only swaying towards the Acer because of the cost and intergrated webcam (got alot of family abroad so on the skype quit a bit)

[Sleinous]

You can always use the 2x molex power connectors to 1x 6 pin PCIe power connector. That will provide power for 1 out of 2 ports on each GTX 460 (one of these adapters is supplied with each card)

[Nemesis]

hmmm interesting that was the reason i went for te 450 over the 600 ( apart from the £30 saving) may have to consider changing that in that case. good luck with the new pc graze, shame i can't offer you any advice:)

[PCS]

If the 600w psu is FSP brand and is the one i found http://www.anandtech.com/show/2581/3 then it might not support gtx 460 sli depending on the power connectors

The 600W FSP are custom made for us, so they support SLi no problem.

Great spec graze, but as suggested by our members if you do intend to go SLi a more powerful PSU will be required.