Decisions, Decisions! Have I chosen wisely?

walshi

Member
Hi guys,

Love the site, products and forum! First post.

I'm soon going to be ordering a new PC mainly for Photoshop, video editing, games - Pretty much a bit of everything really!

One of my main considerations is future proofing as I won't be buying another one for a long time.

A particular difficult decision in this rig was the SSD boot drive - Is this a good decision? Pro's & Cons - Also is it the right SSD drive anyway?

Any thoughts, advice would be welcome:

(After reading through other posts I'm aware that there may be a special offer on this processor soon!)

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE (£59)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-930 (2.80GHz) 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
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
60GB OCZ VERTEX 2 SATA II 2.5" SSD (upto 285MB/sR | 275MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
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
CORSAIR 650W PSU (TX650) 80+ ULTRA QUIET (£76)
Processor Cooling
INTEL SOCKET LGA1366 STANDARD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
IIYAMA E2271HDS 22" LED WIDESCREEN, HDMI/DVI-D FULL HD 1920x1080 (£149)
Keyboard & Mouse
Logitech® Wireless Desktop® MK250 Keyboard and Mouse Combo (£19)
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,361.00 including VAT and delivery.

Thank you all in advance.
 

LDUK

Master Poster
This looks very nice. Very nice. I have an SSD in mine, but it's not necessary for future proofing or anything, more of a necessity if you have the money. Boots my PC pretty quickly.
I would change the PSU to a Corsair 750w though, that way, you have the stuff to add an extra GTX 460 in the future for when you want more power (more future proof).
I would also advise you to change the warranty option to the 1 Year Collect & Return, since that is only £5 extra.
You do that, and your laughing!
 

walshi

Member
Wow - Quick reply, thanks!

Comments taken on board - Will up the PSU & Warranty

Regarding the SSD disk, does it really only improve booting or is there a definate real world advantage once the system is up and running?



Also, I'm trying to maybe get the price down nearer the 1000-1100 mark - If I was to change to the following would there be much of a performance impact

Processor: AMD PHENOM II X4 955 (3.20GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3) - BLACK EDITION
M/Board: ASUS® M4N98TD EVO: DDR3, 2-Way SLI, SATA 3.0GB/s
Memory: 4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)

I would appear to lose the SATA 6GB/s feature but I would save around £230 (Or are there better ways to cut back? Should I replacethe SSD for instance instead)
 

Sleinous

Author Level
I'd leave the SSD for the time being, wait 'till they go down in price. As atm SSD technology is new stuff. The prices are horrendous! XD

I like the 6GB/s WD1002FAEX HDD :D Welcome to the club lool

EDIT: You would also lose the TRi-DDR3 advantage, RAM would only be dual.
 

PaulH

Bright Spark
In my opinion an SSD drive is fantastic, anything read or procesed on that drive is faster, a LOT faster, if using photoshop and video editing an SSD would benift you greatly, also it will reduce level loading times in games too. (and its only about 30 quid more expensive than a 150gb velociraptor i think)

In all honesty, an i7 would be a better processor in relation to the programs you use, if you were just going gaming (and bearing in mind i am AMD biased so this is hard to say) i would go with the AMD chip, as your not id defo try and stick with the i7. Oh, drop the Video card down to a 1gb GTX460 to save a few pennies if your trying to do save a little.

Also a 650w PSU is more than enough for the build you have you can run SLi 460s on that PSU

Also, I would say just go with a normal 1tb hard drive as opposed to the more expensive black ones, as you have an SSD drive, i presume the other drive will be used for storage, no need to have that minute performance gain the black gives you for a storage drive

Other than that nice build :)
 
Last edited:

PCS

Administrator
Staff member
Great specification! Here's my alternative that keeps the system powerful and well balanced, but moves the cost down nearer to your budget:

Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-760 Quad Core (2.80GHz, 8MB Cache)
Motherboard
ASUS® P7H57D-V EVO: FULL ATX, TRUE USB 3.0 & SATA 6.0GB/s
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
60GB OCZ VERTEX 2 SATA II 2.5" SSD (upto 285MB/sR | 275MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB 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 (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)
Power Supply & Case Cooling
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor Cooling
INTEL SOCKET LGA1156 STANDARD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
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
Monitor
IIYAMA E2271HDS 22" LED WIDESCREEN, HDMI/DVI-D FULL HD 1920x1080 (£149)
Keyboard & Mouse
Logitech® Wireless Desktop® MK250 Keyboard and Mouse Combo (£19)
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,103.00 including VAT and delivery.
 

walshi

Member
Thanks PCS - However, correct me if I'm wrong:

But with your spec I wouldn't be able to SLI two GTX 460's in the future would I? I really need that option for future proofing.

I hope I'm wrong because that spec is more like it price wise! (I think I may get a different monitor also - still looking around though)
 

PCS

Administrator
Staff member
You can create an SLi configuration in the future no problem providing you upgrade the PSU to 600W. :)
 

Sleinous

Author Level
and i'd advise editing that to the i7 950 now consdering its on specoffer - near same price, or maybe even cheaper atm as 930 is no longer on drop down list.
 
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