If anyone could comment/suggest changes on this spec it would be greatly appreciated

[davall938]

I was thinking about ordering the PC specified below -

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-760 Quad Core (2.80GHz, 8MB Cache) + Turbo Boost

Motherboard
ASUS® P7P55D-E PRO: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™ / SLI SUPPORT

Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)

Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
60GB OCZ VERTEX 2 SATA II 2.5" SSD (upto 285MB/sR | 275MB/sW)

2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
10x BLU-RAY RE-WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£88)

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

Power Supply & Case Cooling
CORSAIR 750W PSU (TX750) 80+ ULTRA QUIET (£88)

Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)

Sound Card
Sound Blaster® Audigy™ SE (£19)

Network Facilities
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI EXPRESS CARD (£19)

USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD

TV Card
HAUPPAUGE HI-DEF SATELITTE DVB-S2 TV RECIEVER (WinTV-NOVA-HD-S2)

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Monitor
IIYAMA T2250MTS 22" LCD MULTI TOUCHSCREEN, FULL HD 1920x1080 (£209)


Price: £1,489.00 including VAT and delivery.



The thinking was that the SSD drive would provide a fast boot up - something that annoys me with my current 8 year old PC. Also the 2nd drive at Sata 6Gb/s would take advantage of the motherboard's SATA facility.

Also regarding the motherboard I really want the USB3.0 ports as the lack of this is something that has put me off upgrading for over a year.

Bearing in mind that my current PC is about 8 years old I would like this to still be 'adequate' in a few years time.

I ordered a standalone sound card as I believe the onboard audio might not support the blu-ray drive as well as a separate card.

The 8GB memory seemed the best option to leave a couple of free ports for the future, but also provide the best current configuration assuming that I won't want to upgrade too much as I had a bad experience before.

The monitor was a choice between a 22"(ish) touch screen or a nice big standard monitor - torn over what use the touch screen would be in a desktop although Windows Media Centre looks very nice with touch.


I would like a TV card, but I think it might be better as a later upgrade when Freeview HD becomes available (2012 where I am), although I do have a single CATV outlet in the room that the PC will be in, so I should be able to get Freesat (This is optional at the minute - Although I'd really like a remote control to operate the machine from the bed while showing content on my tv.)

I've been deliberating over my next PC purchase for longer than I'd care to remember and I'm finding the spur of a VAT increase is finally getting me to take action. But the fear of ordering the wrong ill-informed kit is scaring me a lot!

If anyone has any advice or suggestions I'd greatly appreciate them.

(For info I'd stared out with a budget of £1000 knowing it would rise by a few hundred once I'd added unecessary but necessary bells and whistles.)

 

[Sleinous]

Just a few things. Sata 6gbs really doesnt provide any extra speed because no 7200rpm hdd even uses the full bandwidth available to them at sata 3gbs. Onboard sound is really good nowadays so id say dont bother with sound card. Good choice on usb3. Even ssds use sata 3gbs atm still, 6gbs ssds should release in q1 2011 with intel's 3rd gen of drives.

Good choice on case and gtx 460. Considering sata 6g makes no diff in hdd speed id go for the 1tb wd10ears 64mb cached hdd. Its a green efficient caviar unlike the black and still has 64mb cache.

As ur using an ssd it is not necessary to have a caviar black as a non boot drive.

Also consider an i7 950 build with 6gb of tri-channel ram, this spec uses dual-channel here, where two memory modules work together unlike tri-channel where 3 work together.

Also if u ditch the soundcard chose the pci wlan card @ £16 instead of the pci express one, they both perform identically, its always best however to fill up the older legacy pci slot on ur mobo first so u can add pci express upgrades later on.

Hope all this helps.

If u want an idea of an i7 build, lemme know and ill show u.

 

[davall938]

Thanks very much for your feedback.

I've looked at replacing the 2nd HD with the 1tb wd10ears 64mb cached hdd and that saves a little bit of money, also I've removed the TV Card altogether and gone with onboard audio.

I still have something in my mind that the mobo does not support something from the blu-ray player regarding audio, but not sure why I think that.

Changing tack completely...

Is there a big benefit going to i7 instead of the i5 760, I'd heard that as an i5 it and the 750 were very similar to the i7 in architecture.

I have no intention of ever overclocking anything, so I don't need an overly tweakable machine.

I had a brief glance at i7 and came up with this -

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-950 (3.06GHz) 4.8GTs/8MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P6X58D-E: DDR3, USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, 3-Way SLI
Memory (RAM)
6GB SAMSUNG DDR3 TRI-DDR3 1333MHz (3 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
2nd Graphics Card
NONE
3rd Graphics Card
NONE
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
60GB OCZ VERTEX 2 SATA II 2.5" SSD (upto 285MB/sR | 275MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
RAID
NONE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
10x BLU-RAY RE-WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£88)
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NONE
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply & Case Cooling
CORSAIR 750W PSU (TX750) 80+ ULTRA QUIET (£88)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£16)

 

[Sleinous]

The CPU has 4 cores and 4 virtual cores through hyper threading, giving 8 in total. Thats the biggest difference, that and tri-channel memory, faster than dual channel mem. Good choice on getting the pci wlan card now to fill up that now empty pci legacy slot. How much did that second spec come to? Personally id go for it.

 

[davall938]

The price was £1,381.00.

Apologies for infrequent replies, I can only get online about once a day during the week.

Indecision has struck though as I've lost some of my bells and whistles.
Really want some sort of remote that will also interact with Windows - the quote above includes the 22" Ilayma Touch screen - I think I'd rather have a remote and a big screen than a touch screen - any recommendations? I'm happy to fit a card myself post purchase if that would be better.

Would I really notice a difference between i5-760 and i7-950?

 

[Sleinous]

Depends how long you want it to last, I have the i7 930, I dont have an i5 760 to test but, I should think not because the limiting factor in most PCs as of late is the HDD.

A remote? You want to make it a media pc or something?

 

[davall938]

To explain why, the PC will be in a large bedroom, with a big TV & amp in front and to the right of the bed and the PC in front of and to the left of the bed. I intend to be able to output from the PC to the TV/Amp on occasion. Hence a remote would be ideal as this could be orchestrated from the bed. I was spoilt with my last PC which had an ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro card which did gaming/media/remote very well. Having had a brief look into this I see that things need not be as integrated as the ATI had them - I take it a simple IR remote and receiver would give me the functionality I need? (The ATI's RF Remote would not play with other PCs for some reason)

Otherwise the main stretch on resources would be gaming & video rendering (and quick boot time) from the standard desk/chair arrangement.

Longevity is an issue obviously, so I think the I-7 is certainly a consideration.

Your comment on HDDs is very useful as it has helped assure me that the SSD is the way to go for the main drive.

 

[Sleinous]

Yes video rendering would be done well on an Nvidia card.

When badaboom finally releases their 400 series media converter (making use of Nvidia CUDA cores) converting too will become a walk in teh park once again.

I have no idea about these remotes, not even sure how it would work? How do you control a computer with a remote? confused.com

SSD is indeed the way to go however id seriously consider waiting until feb 2011 where you can get way more bang for buck with intel's Gen 3 SSDs, 160GB will be the price of 80GB right now, read/write speeds will improve on the new 25nm manufacturing process.

 

[Phoenix]

I'm not sure what you're using the PC for but the i5-760 is better for gaming than the i7-950, you probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the two for most applications so I would just stick with the i5-760 and save the money.

 

[Sleinous]

No triple channel memory though, only dual-channel. Worth a mention.

 

[davall938]

Thanks for all the advice with this. I've settled on the I5 760, and made a switch to the HD5870 graphics card. Also have fluctuated on the Mobo a bit, but went for the Pro as I believe it allows full USB3 & SATA6.0 without sacrificing any performance by having both active.

This is what I have ordered -

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-760 Quad Core (2.80GHz, 8MB Cache) + Turbo Boost
Motherboard
ASUS® P7P55D-E PRO: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™ / SLI SUPPORT
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1GB ATI RADEON™ HD 5870 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11, Eyefinity 3 Capable
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
60GB OCZ VERTEX 2 SATA II 2.5" SSD (upto 285MB/sR | 275MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
10x BLU-RAY RE-WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£88)
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply & Case Cooling
CORSAIR 750W TX SERIES (TX750) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£88)
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
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£16)
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 T2250MTS 22" LCD MULTI TOUCHSCREEN, HD 1920x1080 (£209)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS & UK OFFSHORE ISLANDS / N IRELAND (£19)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 13 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,449.00 including VAT and delivery.


Obviously with what to me is a huge amount to pay for a PC I would really appreciate it if anyone could point out anything obvious I have got wrong or anything that I have missed out.

Again any comments or assistance is greatly appreciated - it's been a long struggle and a great learning experience so far!

 

[Phoenix]

Looks good to me, you don't need 8GB of RAM but at least you won't need to add more in a few years time

 

[Sleinous]

Ye 4GB would be ample, an extra 4GB RAM in a few months time will cost far less than now. Apart form that its good to go! (Unless you want to add a second 5870 at a later date in which case an HX1000W would be advised).