Gaming Beast

[luksta]

Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8P67 PRO (NEW REV 3.0): USB 3.0/SATA 6Gb/s, CrossFireX™ & SLI
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 580 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st*Hard Disk
450GB VELOCIRAPTOR WD4500HLHX, SATA 6-Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (10,000rpm)
1st*DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
12x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£48)
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W PRO SERIES (HX1000) 80+ MODULAR PSU (£168)
Processor Cooling
COOLIT ECO II C240 A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£99)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD*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 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£109)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
NORTON ANTI-VIRUS 2011 - 1 Year Licence for 1 PC (£13)
Speakers
LOGITECH Z523 2.1 SPEAKERS - 40W RMS with 360 Degree Sound (£79)
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

This is what i was thinking for a new gaming pc coming at a price of nearly £1800. Just a couple queries if anyone would be good enough to answer.
Would it be worth going for 2 gfx cards of a lower spec in sli even though i'm only using 1 monitor?
Also baring in mind i've already blown my budget by £300, would anyone have an idea of where i could save a penny or 2?
Any help or advise would be appreciated. Thanks in advance guys.*

 

[mantadog]

Generaly best to buy the single best GPU you can, that way you can add another at a later date.

Depending on how fast you want/need the pc to be then you could drop the i7 to an i5 and the gtx 580 to a 570.

Your spec as it stands is fairly top end so any modifications will make it slower but probably better value overall.

 

[MrRaich]

Unless your planning on extreme overclocking, the CPU cooler can be lowered to a heatpipe one. The 450GB hard drive is going to be super fast, but it's so expensive! I'm just getting a 750w WD HDD.

 

[Teaz]

I take it you plan to SLI the 580 gpu in future seeming you went for the 1000w psu? if not then the 750w psu would be better suited with plenty of breathing room

as mantadog said, i would be better to get the best gpu out instead of 2 lowers as graphics card advance out out dates quite quickly, it would be less heat in the case aswell and usually less power draw.

I've adjusted the spec a bit as this would be much better for gaming:

Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE

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

Motherboard
ASUS® P8P67 PRO (NEW REV 3.0): USB 3.0/SATA 6Gb/s, CrossFireX™ & SLI

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

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
450GB VELOCIRAPTOR WD4500HLHX, SATA 6-Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (10,000rpm)

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
12x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£48)

Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT

Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W PRO SERIES (HX1000) 80+ MODULAR PSU (£168)

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
ONBOARD 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)

Anti-Virus
NORTON ANTI-VIRUS 2011 - 1 Year Licence for 1 PC (£13)

Speakers
LOGITECH Z523 2.1 SPEAKERS - 40W RMS with 360 Degree Sound (£79)

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

Total: 1570

this will have no problems when gaming

 

[luksta]

I would be looking to go sli in future for sure. I feel like i've always had problems with psu which is why i went for a larger 1.
Teaz you said the specs you posted for me was better for gaming, but dropped the gfx card? Was that to help the budget or is there another reason?
Thanks for the advice guys. It's much appreciated.

 

[mantadog]

When you say dropped the graphics card i take it you mean memory wise. I believe that the 1.5 Gb version will be easily able to handle 1 monitor.

as far as i understand the 3gb would be more suited to multiple displays with very high resolution.

 

[luksta]

Yes i meant memory wise. I didn't know if the 3gb version was for design and not suited to gaming even though i've not read anything of the sort. Can anyone spot any bottlenecks in the set up that will slow performance?

 

[Teaz]

1.5gb is Plenty even on large TVs like 46inch+ without probs. 3Gb is just more on those big Res for alot of monitors or so but 1.5gb is certainly more suitable

So far i can't spot a "bottleneck" as this usually happens when you put something new or modern into a 6+ year old pc. There is a nice i7 cpu, power house 580 gpu, real good mobo, good high ram and a nice fast velo drive along with a good cpu cooler and case. Unless someone has some opinions then im all ears

This spec is real good and shouldnt have problems

 

[TrustMeItsWorthIt]

Only thing i can see would be the choice of network card, id go for the $19 version, it'll give you wireless internet and be better for future SLI'd machine than the £16 version, the standard doesn't have wifi i think, could be wrong though

 

[Wozza63]

its much cheaper to get a small SSD for OS and programs and then a normal 7,200 HDD more space and faster

or you could choose the 60GB SSD as a secondary drive then once you get it you can cache it, this requires the P8Z68 board but speeds up your normal hard drive a lot, the velociraptor drives are not really worth the price in my opinion

 

[TrustMeItsWorthIt]

^^Agreed^^

 

[luksta]

Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8P67 PRO (NEW REV 3.0): USB 3.0/SATA 6Gb/s, CrossFireX™ & SLI
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
Memory - 1st*Hard Disk
80GB INTEL® 320 SERIES SSD, SATA 3 Gb/s (upto 270MB/sR | 90MB/sW)
2nd*Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
1st*DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W PRO SERIES (HX1000) 80+ MODULAR PSU (£168)
Processor Cooling
COOLIT ECO A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£49)
Sound Card
Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Titanium (£59)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD (£19)
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
NORTON ANTI-VIRUS 2011 - 1 Year Licence for 1 PC (£13)
Speakers
LOGITECH Z523 2.1 SPEAKERS - 40W RMS with 360 Degree Sound (£79)
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 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,653.00

I'd didn't really know what a ssd was so i avoided that. I just read a bit about them. Obviously it boots up your os faster. But would i store games on it too? Then have an hdd for media?

This is my altered specs. I don't know if i'll be keeping the sound card. Do you think the storage options there are a better idea than the single wd velo 450gb?

 

[Wozza63]

ok so what i recommend is you just buy a Caviar Black HDD at the moment, no SSD, and then sometime next year the price will drop a lot, then buy a 60GB (no more than 64GB), install it and whatever, then make it a cache drive, this will speed up your other drive(s) by a lot and your games will then run much quicker off of the faster drive

 

[luksta]

Ok so stick with a standard hdd now. When the price drops get a ssd to run my os and games off. I wouldn't know how to cache it so i'll avoid that for now. Anyone else think that's a better idea than the wd velo drive for now?

 

[TrustMeItsWorthIt]

Yeah go eith that for the minute, the SSD caching thing is really simple to do but the prices are a bit prohibitive at the minute so wait till they drop and spend the time looking into the caching technology (Its called RST)

 

[luksta]

Just 1 last question guys then i owe you all a beer or 3. I was just looking at different specs on my quote and changed the mobo to p8p67 deluxe by accident. When i went to proceed it came up with an issue saying there wasn't enough room for a gpu and sound card, which means no room for a 2nd gpu later on. When i changed the mobo back to the p8p67 pro and clicked proceed there wasnt any issues at all. I looked at the specs for both mobos and cant see any difference in terms of pci-e slots. An i missing something?

 

[Wozza63]

i think the case is too small get the £59 T900 case, its pretty big with good calling

and if you are not doing sound work and you dont have a real ear for music, then the integrated sound card will be fine

 

[luksta]

Pay day = order day. Thanks for all the help and advice guys.

For extra rep who wants to tell my gf while i hide out in mexico?

 

[MadMan]

Yeah go eith that for the minute, the SSD caching thing is really simple to do but the prices are a bit prohibitive at the minute so wait till they drop and spend the time looking into the caching technology (Its called RST)

Is it RST or SRT for smart response technology?

 

[TrustMeItsWorthIt]

Right the actual tech is called SRT (Smart Response Technology), it uses a thing called RST (Rapid Storage Technology) they're both the same thing, its just that the SRT uses Rst to to what it does