Advice needed!!!!

[Riyan]

Hi! first time buying a computer from PCS, I would love to have some suggestions from yourselves as to what you guys/gals think I should change or add. btw, im an extreme gamer and mostly will be using this comp for gaming and some video editing. Initially during selection I was going for liquid cooling, however after doing some research about liquid cooling I selected the air choice, because there is some serious horror stories about liquid cooling. any advice would be welcoming and appreciated.
below is the spec.

Case

COOLERMASTER CM STORM TROOPER - GAMING ENTHUSIAST 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

4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 680 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk

120GB INTEL® 330 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 500MB/sR | 450MB/sW)
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 750W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX750 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£86)
Processor Cooling

SPIRE GEMINI REV.3-THERMAX HDT TWIN FAN CPU COOLER (£39)
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

NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software

NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus

NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
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 9 to 11 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,618.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[keynes]

Morning,
For gaming in 1 monitor a cheaper alternative offering close performance is the GTX 670. The 4gb Vram in the GTX 680 will be beneficial if you are gaming with 3 monitors. I'd suggest at least silver warranty for £5 and if you are planning to overclock your cpu, you could go for a pre-overclocked system from PCS.

 

[Karnor00]

Unless you have an existing HDD that you are planning on transferring to your new computer, you will probably need to add an HDD for large scale storage. SSD's are nice and fast, but 120GB of storage doesn't really go very far, especially once Windows 7 has taken up about 30GB of it.

 

[Riyan]

yep changed to silver warranty, also I didnt mention I already have a backup HDD and external drive both 500gb, which is why I chose the 120gb ssd, will only be using it for gaming.
I have placed the order with PCS, and already im aching for it to be delivered asap. ps does anyone have an idea when its likely to be made and delivered and whether or not PCS have to wait and order the parts individually? thanxs chappys.

 

[steaky360]

PCS stock most parts which they sell, to give yourself an idea of whether anything is a order upon request item, go to the configurator and make your pc again but select a faster build time (3/5 days). If the configurator lets you go ahead and doesn't warn you of anything then its likely all the parts in your order are (currently) in stock and not awaiting order/etc.

You will be told which parts are either out of stock or ordered upon request doing this too. Other than that, the longest period of waiting is typically pre-production, once it goes into building its usually pretty quick!

I know this doesn't strictly answer all of your questions, but its difficult to say really. Shouldn't be too long normally though!

 

[Riyan]

Hi all..My system is in Building stage now hoping to get it by next week, ive not ordered a operating system however any one got any advice in which order I should install all the drivers ie, Motherboard/GPU/sound/etc, etc???? Ive heard installing them in the wrong order can screw up things, much appreciated.

 

[keynes]

Hi all..My system is in Building stage now hoping to get it by next week, ive not ordered a operating system however any one got any advice in which order I should install all the drivers ie, Motherboard/GPU/sound/etc, etc???? Ive heard installing them in the wrong order can screw up things, much appreciated.

If you didn't an OS I assume you are planning to do a clean installation. I'd install the motherboard drivers first and the others in any order.

 

[vanthus]

First, Install drivers from your motherboard disk,try to avoid installing any unwanted software from it, like anti virus program.Then install graphics card driver from disk provided or install from manufacturers website.
After this check there are no problems in device manager.

 

[Riyan]

Hi all, now that ive got my PC I am extremely happy with it however I thought id monitor my temps while running a game. my CPU at idle runs at 40c whilst playing a game all 6 cores are running between 70-80 degrees surely this cant be right, or am I missing something!!! also I noticed whilst in the bios my fans are all running at 700-900 RPM. any ideas much appreciated.

 

[steaky360]

What are you using to check your temps? Is the CPU under full load while gaming?

 

[Riyan]

Hi Im using Realtemps/CPU Hardware monitor/ giving me 70 degrees while playing a game for 15 minutes with nothing else running in the background. however ive just installed asus suite sensor monitor and this gives me 58 degrees which one do i trust? and even if i trust the Asus one is that still within tolerances?? cheers for your help.

 

[steaky360]

Your best bet would be to do a CPU benchmark (something like Prime 95 for example). I prefer Core Temp for monitoring temps as I find the Asus suite I have seems to only display the lowest core's temp.

If you do that and you find the max temp you're getting is 58-70 degrees you are fine

 

[Riyan]

Ok, downloaded and ran core temps and prime 95 also ran asus suite all side by side:

RAN PRIME 95 for 15 mins.
ASUS SUITE = 67DEG MOTHERBOARD=31DEG CPU FANS GOING BALLISTIC RUNNING AT 1500RPM
CORE TEMPS= 88DEG.

I dont know why but do you think its wise to buy Arctic silver lift off the heatsink and plaster that on instead of the stock paste thats added although i dont know what paste is used during construction of PC. thanks anyway.

 

[TANNY]

the only advice im giving u is get your sick note ready!!

 

[steaky360]

Ok, downloaded and ran core temps and prime 95 also ran asus suite all side by side:

RAN PRIME 95 for 15 mins.
ASUS SUITE = 67DEG MOTHERBOARD=31DEG CPU FANS GOING BALLISTIC RUNNING AT 1500RPM
CORE TEMPS= 88DEG.

I dont know why but do you think its wise to buy Arctic silver lift off the heatsink and plaster that on instead of the stock paste thats added although i dont know what paste is used during construction of PC. thanks anyway.

Sorry bud, just read your response - I'd give PCS a ring before you remove your heatsink they might tell you that your temps are fine as they are

the only advice im giving u is get your sick note ready!!

Why?