Advice for a gamer build please!

[larurb]

Hello there, I was wondering any thoughts you guys had on this spec:

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Six Core Processor i7-3930K (3.2GHz) 12MB Cache

Motherboard
ASUS® P9X79 PRO: INTEL® SOCKET LG2011

Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPERX GENESIS QUAD-DDR3 1600MHz X.M.P(4 x 4GB KIT)

Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 Ti - 2 DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready

2nd Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 Ti - 2 DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, 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 (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT

Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX850 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£99)

Processor Cooling
ARCTIC COOLING FREEZER i30 SOCKET 2011 CPU COOLER

Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs

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

Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£69)

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

Thoughts I had on it, were, is there much difference between the 560 Ti and the 6950? Is the harddrive decent? and I'm right in thinking it would have 2 hdmi outputs on the back?

This machine will be used for media viewing, gaming (usual suspects), and a fairbit of multitasking.

Regards,
Larry

 

[larurb]

Oh I'd also like to add that I'd like it to be futureproofed, and I don't want to go over 1,500 (excluding VAT). Thanks

 

[bg92]

This would be good:
Case
CORSAIR CARBIDE SERIES™ 500R WHITE MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V/GEN3: PCI-E 3.0 READY, SLI, CROSSFIREX
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1.5GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 580 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
2nd Graphics Card
1.5GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 580 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX850 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£99)
Processor Cooling
TITAN FENRIR EVO EXTREME HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£39)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
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
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£69)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,796.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/intel-sandy-bridge-pc/

or this

Case
CORSAIR CARBIDE SERIES™ 500R WHITE MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V/GEN3: PCI-E 3.0 READY, SLI, CROSSFIREX
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
2GB AMD RADEON™ HD6970 - 2 DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
2nd Graphics Card
2GB AMD RADEON™ HD6970 - 2 DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 510 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 450MB/sR | 210MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1050W PRO SERIES™ HX1050-80 PLUS® SILVER MODULAR (£159)
Processor Cooling
TITAN FENRIR EVO EXTREME HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£39)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
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
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£69)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,827.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/intel-sandy-bridge-pc/

 

[larurb]

Thank you very much bg92, a few questions about your picks:

Which card do you prefer the 6970 or the 580?

And could you help explain to me the difference say between an SLI/Crossfire set up of 2x1gb cards, or just 1 2gb card?

Thanks again for the help, this computer building business is very exciting!

 

[bg92]

A gtx 580 is better when compared to a amd 6970, but not worth the price difference. Becuase of the price difference I've managed to get and ssd in the spec with the 2xamd6970 this will provide much quicker loading times etc.
The amount of Vram is not something that affects the performance a lot until you go for very high resolutions or multiple monitor setups
You will see almost no difference in performance between the same card with 1gb in comparison to a 2gb at resolution under 1920x1080.

 

[larurb]

Thanks again,

Im now looking at using just a single 3gb 580 as the price difference between that and a 1.5gb is not as massive as I'd imagine. I've dropped the SSD down to a 80gb SATA 3gb/s, is this still decent? or does the difference really show?

Regards

 

[bg92]

80gb is not a lot of space. I would for the 120gb 510 series intel ssd, but you could go for the kingston 120gb ssd which is slighlty cheaper.
A single 3gb gtx580 would be a good choice, but you will be limited to 2 monitors only. For 3 monitors you would need another 3gb gtx580.
btw the prices which I've posted are inluding VAT

 

[larurb]

I'm comfortable with 2 monitors, and the current spec I believe gives me the option of upgrading in the future. I will investigate the SSD, but 80gb should be enough for critical stuff right? I think I need to understand this better as well, does the OS go on there, and then any other stuff which I wish to load fast? thats my understanding of it anyway. I'll post up the new full specification, I think it's pretty nice. I've also managed to lower the price a little and include a monitor which is nice. I've been going for reasonably futureproofed with great capability now.

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics

Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V/GEN3: PCI-E 3.0 READY, SLI, CROSSFIREX

Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (4 x 4GB KIT)

Graphics Card
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 580 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
80GB INTEL® 320 SERIES SSD, SATA 3 Gb/s (upto 270MB/sR | 90MB/sW)

2nd Hard Disk
2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, 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 (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT

Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX850 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£99)

Processor Cooling
TITAN FENRIR EVO EXTREME HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£39)

Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs

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 E2473HDS 24" LED WIDESCREEN, 2 HDMI/DVI-D 1920x1080 (£159)

DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE GOLD PLATED V1.4 HDMI CABLE (£8)

Warranty
3 Year Platinum Warranty (3 Year Collect & Return, 3 Year Parts, 3 Year labour) (£135)

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

Build Time

Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days

Price: £1,797.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[larurb]

I'm comfortable with 2 monitors, and the current spec I believe gives me the option of upgrading in the future. I will investigate the SSD, but 80gb should be enough for critical stuff right? I think I need to understand this better as well, does the OS go on there, and then any other stuff which I wish to load fast? thats my understanding of it anyway. I'll post up the new full specification, I think it's pretty nice. I've also managed to lower the price a little and include a monitor which is nice. I've been going for reasonably futureproofed with great capability now.

So the i7-2600 processor, as I don't think I'll be overclocking.

Same Mobo, i've gone for 16gb ram as the price difference doesnt seem stupid and it can't hurt. The 3gb GTX 580, 80gb SSD, 2TB Caviar disk, and the Corsair 850w, with the Titan cooler.

Think this seems pretty solid? Thanks again.

 

[Fear]

Just to add a little bit to this unless you are doing lot's of HD video editing 16GB is overkill 8GB is more than enough for games and multitasking etc.

As bg92 has pointed out earlier an 80GB SSD will get filled up extremely quick as you will have 20GB for your OS then you will need to work out what any other programs software you want/will use and after that you might have room for 1 or 2 games so any other games will be on the HDD anyway and you will not be making use of the slight boost to the loadtimes of the other games unless you remove and replace the games on the SSD and SSD drives do have a limited read/write lifespan so generally will last a much shorter time than a high performance HDD personally for me i would not get a main HD smaller than 250GB and tbh with my ever increasing games library it would have to be a larger drive, this is just my opinion on them but you need to make your own mind up for what you will be happy with.

One last thing i just spotted you have only said about getting an 850W PSU on your last post yet you have said earlier about the possibility of getting a second GTX 580 if you are thinking of this then i would go for the 1050W corsair to leave yourself plenty of extra power there for any future upgrades you may wish to add.

 

[larurb]

As bg92 has pointed out earlier an 80GB SSD will get filled up extremely quick as you will have 20GB for your OS then you will need to work out what any other programs software you want/will use and after that you might have room for 1 or 2 games so any other games will be on the HDD anyway and you will not be making use of the slight boost to the loadtimes of the other games unless you remove and replace the games on the SSD and SSD drives do have a limited read/write lifespan so generally will last a much shorter time than a high performance HDD personally for me i would not get a main HD smaller than 250GB and tbh with my ever increasing games library it would have to be a larger drive, this is just my opinion on them but you need to make your own mind up for what you will be happy with.

So what you're saying is that it's only worthwhile to get a SSD if it's bigger, and when you say it has limited lifespan, its prone to just stop working? If I got rid of the SSD, would I be bottlenecked by the 2gb caviar, or is it still a good harddrive for gaming? I'll look into the PSU

 

[Fear]

Yes basically SSD's have a shorter lifespan and i can see the point in someone using them for editing where you are opening lot's of different tools constantly but for gaming i don't really see the point especially with the price of them unless you have plenty of money available that you don't mind spending on 1 all the games i play load very quickly on the Caviar Blacks i have you might maybe save youself a second or 2 here and there with an SSD, i would advise going for a smaller first drive instead of using a 2TB maybe a 1TB as that is the smallest CB they have on the config at the moment or you could go with a 500GB seagate barracuda for you OS, programs and games then add a second HDD in for any music, pics, videos and anything else you want to store on there.

 

[larurb]

Advice taken, I've put a 500gb Baracuda as my 1st drive, then the 2tb caviar drive as my 2nd. So coupled with everything else, this seems a solid fairly futureproof gaming machine then?

 

[Fear]

Sounds good but just post the full revised spec when you think you are happy with it incase there is anything anyone can see that could be changed or improved on.

 

[larurb]

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics

Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V/GEN3: PCI-E 3.0 READY, SLI, CROSSFIREX

Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (4 x 4GB KIT)

Graphics Card
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 580 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SEAGATE Barracuda SATA-III 6Gb/s HDD, 32MB Cache (7200rpm)

2nd Hard Disk
2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, 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 (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT

Power Supply
CORSAIR 1050W PRO SERIES™ HX1050-80 PLUS® SILVER MODULAR (£159)

Processor Cooling
TITAN FENRIR EVO EXTREME HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£39)

Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs

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 E2473HDS 24" LED WIDESCREEN, 2 HDMI/DVI-D 1920x1080 (£159)

DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE GOLD PLATED V1.4 HDMI CABLE (£8)

Warranty
3 Year Platinum Warranty (3 Year Collect & Return, 3 Year Parts, 3 Year labour) (£135)

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

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days

Theres the final spec, i'm gonna get the 16gb as I can fit it in my budget and it can't hurt.

Thoughts welcome!

 

[larurb]

Another quick question, does the motherboard look ok?

 

[Fear]

Looks good to go

 

[bg92]

You know that the power supply is really overkill. A 650w psu would be enough if you are not planing to sli and if you are planing to sli 850w would be enough.
If I was you I would change the case. I don't really like it.

 

[larurb]

If I pick the 850w PSU and then put another card in it warns its not enough. So ill have a think. Ill also look at the case again. Whats wrong with it in particular?

 

[tom_gr7]

I'd drop the titan, or up the case.

The titan is a beast, amazing cpu cooler, will give you great temps but because its so big, your huge side fan will have to be removed because of it. so either drop the titan to the triple copper cooler or up the case to the cm 690 II or bigger.