Check my Spec! Gaming Desktop

[Tracker]

Heya, i've been playing around with the following spec (as listed below), thus representing my first ever Desktop pc, my first laptop being a Fuji Amilo Xi 1546 5 years ago and my second being a Dell XPS M1730 which has lasted me the past three years.

mostly into a bit of everything, will be playing around with music recording / sequencing, have a graphics tablet for light design work, and am very heavily into games, so i've designed my pc around catering to pretty much everything.

depending on how the processor behaves, i'm only looking at a mild overclock, nothing heavy ( Maybe only two multipliers if it doesn't neck performance too much).

Monitor i'm using is a BenQ, 23" 1900 x 1080, 120hz monitor, i got a bargain on it and figured that if i'd like i could always get a sterioscopic kit for 3-d games and blu-ray movies.

• Overclocked Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core (3.40GHz @ max 4.80GHz)
• (arctic Cooling Paste)
• Asus Maximus IV Extreme (Rev 3.0) P67 Mobo
• 8gb Kingston DDR3 Ram (1600Mhz)
• Nvidia GTX 590 (3GB)
• 240 GB SSD (OCZ Vertex 3 series)
• 2TB WD Caviar Black Drive
• 12x Blu ray re-writer drive
• Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatality Pro card
• Gigabit Lan / Standard USB Ports
• Windows 7 Ultimate
• Corsair 750 W Pro Series PSU ( Modular)

now, the builder gives this a max required power of 702 W on its own, once i add USB Peripherals ( Mouse / Keyboard / graphics tablet) and such, is the system going to be O.K with that particular PSU?

the next one up is a 1000W but it's £60 more and the builder warns against picking it up, will the 750W PSU be o.k? i don't forsee needing to upgrade any of it any time so (I'd hope x3) will i be ok with this build? any major bottle necks or such that i've not considered?

any help appreciated!

 

[liamnic2]

I wish I had much money to spend. That rig is a beast

But I think you should go for atleast 850WTX, it can do better than some 1000W.
Im not sure about picking the PC up in person.
I would imagine that the delivery service will have better storage for the PC.

 

[LinearHD]

Yeah as above, I think you should either go to the non modular Corsair 850W or the 1000W Modular, a system with those specs is gonna be power hungry!

Just another small thing, I'd recommend having two 1TB drives instead of a single 2TB ones for data protection and reliability, but that's nothing major.

What case do you plan on getting?

 

[Theunderdog]

Yeah, i would go for the 850w to future proof the system. Always better safe than sorry

 

[Teaz]

The spec is good so far and re-phrasing the guys advice while adding in mine, you could consider taking up their advice the 750psu will be enough if you dont plan to add anything med-big stuff like a second gpu, hdds, optical drives etc etc but anything small like monitor, mouse, speakers etc then the 750 will cover it with with just a tiny amount of breathing room left. if you think will will add something to it later then op for the 850w psu as the guys recommend

As Linear has said, you could balance out the drive to get a nicer performence. If you require that much storage i would split the drive by getting the 750gb or 500gb caviar black drive where this drive is to have all your programs/software etc etc along with the OS while the second drive is a 1TB-1.5TB caviar drive to have all your storage and backup and such in that drive which would bring a nicer balance to the performence

Apart from that the spec is good. unless you wish to save yourself you could drop the blu ray writer to the rom if you dont plan to write on Blu Ray as it doesnt come cheap writing on them as you can have a 2nd HDD for all your media and storage. The Rom drive will still be able to read&write on CDs and DVDs while still allow you to watch your blu rays.

 

[samx300]

Hey Trackeri,

I suggest a 850W or a 1000W PSU for your setup. I have a similar config as yours (just recently ordered from PCS), and this is what I found during my research before placing the order:

If you have a 750W PSU and your max load is 702W+, then your PSU would run at almost 90% of its total load bearing capacity - which may tend to lower the PSU's efficiency over a period of time.
HOWEVER,
If you're maxing the power consumption of 702W on a 1000W PSU, then you're only utilising about 70% of your PSU's threshold - which may result in better efficiency over a longer period of time

I personally believe spending a wee bit extra on a good PSU should also give you headroom for future upgrades, and it might help with those electric bills (I'm already dreading my next bill!!)

Cheers

 

[Tracker]

Ok, I'll go for the 1000w one then, though now I must confess I'm not sure what the difference is between mod and non mod psus! XD

As for the Hdds, doesn't the board only have 2 SATA 6s in them? If I get two 1tb caviar blacks will they behave? I'm going to be using the ssd hd for os and load heavy programs, other hd(s) for all else.

Have gotten it with the haf x full tower, looks good and cooling wise seems to be the best for the job!

Blu ray I do need a writer, my dads going to pick up the extra cost for it though as he'll be using it, so that's not a problem!

One last question, how does PCS's over clocking work? Will it be already OCD up to the reported maximum?

Ty for the responses so far, first time building s full pc so tryingto avoid any pitfalls xD

 

[Teaz]

1000w is quite abit too much if you dont plan to add much to it down the road, so the 850 will be plenty, unless youre gona add a second gtx590 then you will need the 1200w psu.

It has 4 in total so you should be good as it has the extra marvell sata 6 ports to connect up the drives.

pcs will overclock to where they think its stable unless you ask them where you wish it to be at which should be no problems by putting a note or calling them up about it on your order.

 

[samx300]

Ok, I'll go for the 1000w one then, though now I must confess I'm not sure what the difference is between mod and non mod psus! XD

As for the Hdds, doesn't the board only have 2 SATA 6s in them? If I get two 1tb caviar blacks will they behave? I'm going to be using the ssd hd for os and load heavy programs, other hd(s) for all else.

Have gotten it with the haf x full tower, looks good and cooling wise seems to be the best for the job!

Blu ray I do need a writer, my dads going to pick up the extra cost for it though as he'll be using it, so that's not a problem!

One last question, how does PCS's over clocking work? Will it be already OCD up to the reported maximum?

Ty for the responses so far, first time building s full pc so tryingto avoid any pitfalls xD

Mod and Non Mod PSUs - The Mod ones will have individual detachable cables (all PCI-E and Molex etc) which you can plug as required into your PSU. The benefit here is, if your PSU goes bad for some reason, you only have to replace the main unit, and the power cables will remain as is. That is fully modular. The back of a full mod PSU looks somewhat like this:

HDD's - The P67 board you're going for has 2 x Intel SATA 6Gbps ports (which you should prefer) and then it has another two controlled by a third part controller (Marvell) - the third party being the second preference.

HAF X - I couldn't suggest anything better, its great! Go for it! Make sure you get some additional 200mm fans Let me know as I have 2 x spare stock 200mm fans.

PCS OC - They do a splendid job of testing your OC before sending the system to you. They will normally go for a 4.8GHz OC, unless you have all high performance components (like in my case I had the 2133MHz RAM), in which case they might have to tone it down to 4.6GHz or close. I personally received a 4.6GHz OC, which is completely stable. Don't worry, they will let you know precisely what BIOS settings they have used to achive the OC incase you erase your BIOS setting at some point And configuring the OC settings on the new EFI BIOS is a breeze Let me know if you ever need a hand with OCing

Cheers

 

[Tracker]

I'll stick to the Mod ones in that case and just go for a 1000W, it can't hurt to have the PSU less strained i guess xD

the Mobo i was going to use was the maximus IV Extreme, specs as follows

Chipset Intel® P67 Express Chipset
RAM Slots 4 x DIMM, Max. 32 GB

Expansion Slots 4 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (single @x16, dual @x8, triple @x8, x16, x16 )
1 x PCIe 2.0 x4
1 x PCIe 2.0 x1

SATA Ports 2 xSATA 6.0 Gb/s ports (Red)
4 xSATA 3Gb/s ports (Gray)
2 xExternal SATA 3Gb/s ports at rear

as you can see it's got 2 6SATA's, but the rest are all 3Gb/s, so will i be better off having a single 2 TB 6Sata Caviar black, or going for a 1TB Caviar black + a 1TB 3Gb/s Caviar green?

or would i be better off going for a ASUS® P8P67 DELUXE Mobo?

I'll have to look into the case fans, it's a shame theres no options to have PCS put extra ones in for me!

 

[samx300]

I'll stick to the Mod ones in that case and just go for a 1000W, it can't hurt to have the PSU less strained i guess xD

the Mobo i was going to use was the maximus IV Extreme, specs as follows

Chipset Intel® P67 Express Chipset
RAM Slots 4 x DIMM, Max. 32 GB

Expansion Slots 4 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (single @x16, dual @x8, triple @x8, x16, x16 )
1 x PCIe 2.0 x4
1 x PCIe 2.0 x1

SATA Ports 2 xSATA 6.0 Gb/s ports (Red)
4 xSATA 3Gb/s ports (Gray)
2 xExternal SATA 3Gb/s ports at rear

as you can see it's got 2 6SATA's, but the rest are all 3Gb/s, so will i be better off having a single 2 TB 6Sata Caviar black, or going for a 1TB Caviar black + a 1TB 3Gb/s Caviar green?

or would i be better off going for a ASUS® P8P67 DELUXE Mobo?

I'll have to look into the case fans, it's a shame theres no options to have PCS put extra ones in for me!

Hey there,

Unless you're into extreme overclocking, I would suggest you can go for the P8P67 Deluxe (I have the Deluxe and I run a 4.7GHz OC on it!). And I guess you are correct, the Maximus IV does only have 2 x 6Gbps SATA III ports In case you do decide to go for the Maximus IV, I suggest you buy a SSD for Boot Drive, and take a 2 TB SATA 3 Caviar Black. If you do not want a SSD (although I would strongly recommend one for the sheer speed!), then try and not keep all your eggs in one basket - go for 2 x 1 TB Caviar Blacks @ 6Gbps SATA 3.

If you can get your own Fans delivered to PCS, they'd be happy to install it for you I sent a **** load of stuff there way and PCS were amazingly accommodating and fixed it all up for me - including a Sentry 2 touchscreen fan controller!!

Cheers

 

[Tracker]

have a 250GB SDD for boots ups and certain pieces of software that constantly read/write the disk. I've got external drives for backing it up so i'm not too worried about data security per se, or perhaps i'll look into adding another drive later on, HDD's aren't too much hassle to fiddle with, so i'm comfortable with fiddeling with that later on.

again this is my first desktop pc so when it comes to mods and such, i'm pretty clueless ( there's only so much tinkering you can do with the insides of laptops! I've done basics like HDD swaps, new memory sticks, along with slightly more tricky stuff like reapply Arctic Silver 5 on heatsinks for GPU's etc)

any particular fans you'd recommend? and anything i should bare in mind about adding them? (anything else i'd need other than the raw fans themselves?) I'm not particularly good with screws (as the underside of my laptop will attest) so i'd definately be interested in getting them done properly as the pc's built.

 

[samx300]

have a 250GB SDD for boots ups and certain pieces of software that constantly read/write the disk. I've got external drives for backing it up so i'm not too worried about data security per se, or perhaps i'll look into adding another drive later on, HDD's aren't too much hassle to fiddle with, so i'm comfortable with fiddeling with that later on.

again this is my first desktop pc so when it comes to mods and such, i'm pretty clueless ( there's only so much tinkering you can do with the insides of laptops! I've done basics like HDD swaps, new memory sticks, along with slightly more tricky stuff like reapply Arctic Silver 5 on heatsinks for GPU's etc)

any particular fans you'd recommend? and anything i should bare in mind about adding them? (anything else i'd need other than the raw fans themselves?) I'm not particularly good with screws (as the underside of my laptop will attest) so i'd definately be interested in getting them done properly as the pc's built.

Cool, what fan size are you looking for? 120, 200, 140 etc? Depends on the case and the particular component you want to emphasize on.. I can tell that the CoolerMaster Megaflow (with LEDs) are pretty silent (with a good CFM rating) and they look cool at night!! For the 120s you have a whole lot of options ranging from Noctua, Apache, CoolerMaster etc..Depends really on what you want - performance, or silence?
But I agree, buy them and get them shipped to PCS, and request them (on your knees if you have to) to install it for you
You will then be a happy man

Cheers

 

[Tracker]

Mostly it'd be a case of keeping air flowing as much as possible, noise wise i'm not too fussed, so assume 200mm's would be the best option?

L.E.D's would be a plus as i'm a big sucker for that type of thing x3 it's going to take pride of place in the room it's in so having it light up will be a fun addition.

is it only a case of getting fans that'd fit the case? or would i need a fan controller or anything like that?

 

[samx300]

Mostly it'd be a case of keeping air flowing as much as possible, noise wise i'm not too fussed, so assume 200mm's would be the best option?

L.E.D's would be a plus as i'm a big sucker for that type of thing x3 it's going to take pride of place in the room it's in so having it light up will be a fun addition.

is it only a case of getting fans that'd fit the case? or would i need a fan controller or anything like that?

Great! - Go for the LED fans - always a nice addition. Try and go for the best CFM rating if you are looking for good airflow. 200mm tend to do the trick whilst being silent

Its just the case of fitting the fans correctly and then finding a empty fan header on your Mobo to connect the fans. You don't really need a fan controller unless you plan on going hardcore with the Overclock and you want to keep a contant eye on all those crucial thermal zones

Cheers

 

[F3AR]

If LEDS Are you thing (They're mine too xD) then go for some cold cathodes! (like LEDS just not as hot and longer lasting )

The ones i got are from amazon, and when i post my setup tommorrow (it's coming tommorrow xD ) you'll see how damn bright they are!


The link for them: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Akasa-AK-18...TRQM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1307377404&sr=8-1

 

[samx300]

If LEDS Are you thing (They're mine too xD) then go for some cold cathodes! (like LEDS just not as hot and longer lasting )

The ones i got are from amazon, and when i post my setup tommorrow (it's coming tommorrow xD ) you'll see how damn bright they are!


The link for them: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Akasa-AK-18...TRQM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1307377404&sr=8-1

Oh yeah! Cold Cathodes are the way forward if you're really wanna bling your rig up Nothing looks brighter and sweeter
Plus throw in some UV cold cathodes and pair it with reactive cabling or a custom liquid cooling setup with UV reactive tubing and coolant for the ultimate glow in the dark experience

 

[Tracker]

might indulge in them a little later on, for now though i'm fast approaching budget with it all, so it'll have to wait a month or two!

I've gone for some coolermaster 200mm fans, hopefully by sticking to one brand it'll all mesh together properly.

Really can't wait to see how this will all turn out like x3

 

[Tracker]

Having asked PCS it looks like they're going to try to fit them for me, it's certainly a far more pleasent experience dealing with their customer service than it ever was with Dell!

hoping that the ones i've ordered are the real deal, had to get them from ebay as it's the only i could find three matching fans from 1 seller.

i've browsed about the different Mobo's but am going to stick with the maximus, the idea of tweaking / viewing stats on my iphone is a draw, in addition to being able to toy about with ocing more and PCI-E looks a bit more flexible.

 

[samx300]

Having asked PCS it looks like they're going to try to fit them for me, it's certainly a far more pleasent experience dealing with their customer service than it ever was with Dell!

hoping that the ones i've ordered are the real deal, had to get them from ebay as it's the only i could find three matching fans from 1 seller.

i've browsed about the different Mobo's but am going to stick with the maximus, the idea of tweaking / viewing stats on my iphone is a draw, in addition to being able to toy about with ocing more and PCI-E looks a bit more flexible.

Yea, ROG Connect is sweet Good luck with your rig, hope you don't have the issues I am going through - just been told to clean install Windows 7 on my rig after 16 days of ownership BIG pain!