Going to be getting a new rig through PC Specialist. Comments/Critcism would be nice.

G

Gishank

Bright Spark
Hello everyone.

Outside of following the latest graphics card releases, I've been pretty out of the loop when it comes to PC Hardware. As I love supporting companies like PC Specialist I've decided to order through here again (my last rig was a couple of years back), though in all honesty it's more because I'd rather not end up breaking something horribly. Due to being out of the loop I'd love some advice. My budget is around £1,700. I DO NOT require a monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, headset, antivirus software or an OS. Below are two builds I've come up with. The purpose of this system would be for a variety of things including high-end gaming, image editing, web development, etc. Naturally I've removed the defaults or the nothing-selected from the post to make things look neat. My existing PC will be going to my father to upgrade his extremely outdated system that has an Intel Celeron CPU (2.3GHz), 1GB of RAM and is sitll running XP(!)

Build #1 (note I have a GTX 660 Ti which I will be using with this build, hence why no GPU specified until I can afford a better card in the future).
CASE: COOLERMASTER CM STORM TROOPER - GAMING ENTHUSIAST CASE
CPU: Overclocked Intel® Six Core i7-4930K (3.4GHz @ max 4.4GHz)
Motherboard: ASUS® RAMPAGE IV BLACK EDITION: INTEL X79, SOCKET 2011, R.O.G
RAM: 32GB KINGSTON HYPER-X BEAST DUAL-DDR3 2133MHz X.M.P (4 x 8GB KIT)
HDD: WD Black² Dual Drive - 120GB SSD and 1TB HDD - WD1001X06XDTL
PSU: CORSAIR 850W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling: Corsair H100i Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste: ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Price: £1630

Build #2
CASE: COOLERMASTER CM STORM TROOPER - GAMING ENTHUSIAST CASE
CPU: AMD FX-9590 Eight Core CPU (4.7GHz-5.0GHz/16MB CACHE/AM3+)
Motherboard: ASUS® SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0 (DDR3, USB3.0, 6Gb/s, CrossFireX/Sli)
RAM: 32GB KINGSTON HYPER-X BEAST DUAL-DDR3 2133MHz X.M.P (4 x 8GB KIT)
GPU: 3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 780 Ti - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
HDD: WD Black² Dual Drive - 120GB SSD and 1TB HDD - WD1001X06XDTL
PSU: CORSAIR 850W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling: Corsair H100i Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Price: £1705

The second build I must admit would be my preferred one as it includes a meaty 780 Ti. Has the brand that PC Specialist use for GPU's change in the past couple of years or is it still that rather obscure bunch (which I can't recall the name of)... I also recall hearing alot of mixed reviews regarding the AMD 8-core CPU's on release, have they improved? Sadly googling doesn't yield me much other than now outdated reviews.
 
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tom_gr7

tom_gr7

Life Serving
i'd go for this tbh,

Case
COOLERMASTER CM STORM TROOPER - GAMING ENTHUSIAST CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-4770k (3.5GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® SABERTOOTH Z97 MK1: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, THERMAL ARMOR
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X FURY DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 780 Ti - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Free Item
FREE WATCH DOGS with GTX 660 & 7 Series GPUs!
1st Hard Disk
120GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 410MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET (£99)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100i Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler (£89)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
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 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,693.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-haswell-pc/gO32sLTBse/
 
A

A314159

Super Star
That spec is much better. If you are not planning to overclock you could get an i7 4790 instead. 32gb RAM is kind of overkill, 16 or even 8 will work fine. The 660 won't really perform well enough compared to the rest of your system.
On the other hand, do you really need to spend that much? You could probably get a £1k PC and still run high end games.
 
keynes

keynes

Multiverse Poster
I wouldn't go with the fx-9590. You should be able to afford a gtx 780 ti with the first build. The motherboard (rampage black editio ) is unnecessary and overkill for your intended use. Wouldn't it be cheaper to get a dedicated SSD with a caviar black
 
J

JW Lost

New member
I've been trying to work out a new build for over a week now and Tom, you sir have nailed it for me. Thank you very much. Just need to figure out if it will fit in my chosen case now... Thermaltake Level 10 GT (Snow) will make this perfect for me. Thanks again.
 
tom_gr7

tom_gr7

Life Serving
JW Lost said:
I've been trying to work out a new build for over a week now and Tom, you sir have nailed it for me. Thank you very much. Just need to figure out if it will fit in my chosen case now... Thermaltake Level 10 GT (Snow) will make this perfect for me. Thanks again.
Click to expand...

No problem, but dont forget the extra warranty for a fiver.

Unfotunately i have no idea if it would fit in the level 10 GT though.
 
G

Gishank

Bright Spark
The excess of RAM was an error of judgement as I threw the builds together at short notice. However I forgot to mention in the OP that I do have a fairly new SSD (less than a month old) and a number of spare (though aging) HDD's to hand, so the intent was to use the dual-drive as a high-speed data drive (as I assumed it was their take on a Hybrid drive), though after further research I figure a Velociraptor would be best as a large capacity high-speed data drive(?).

Do I need to spend a large amount of money? This is really a matter of personal preference. Personally as I rarely upgrade anything outside of the GPU, the intent is to get the best tech I can to ensure both longevity/performance and upgrade potential (e.g SLI'd GPU's, which by my calculations 2-way SLI should be fine with a 850w PSU? Unless next gen cards become extremely more demanding power wise)

@Keynes;
Care to elaborate as to why the Rampage IV is overkill? Seems ideal for overclocking and looking at the reviews of it seems the most stable with higher speed RAM out of the options available. Could I easily get to the same limits with another board? As far as I can tell aswell it's also the only board that PCSpecialist have for Intel CPU's that supports a GBit port.
 
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