Looking for new Desktop

[MrShteeeve]

Hi all, Just wondering people’s opinions on this below - it'll be used for a games and general home stuff but want it to last a few years! Price ideally wants to stay around this price but can make changes if necessary.

Case
CORSAIR GRAPHITE SERIES™ 600T WHITE MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3770K (3.5GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V: PCI-E 3.0 READY, WIFI, SLI, CROSSFIREX
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (4 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 680 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1[SUP]st[/SUP] Hard Disk
1TB SEAGATE HYBRID GEN3 SSHD Drive, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
SSD CACHE DRIVE
20GB INTEL® SSD 313 SERIES - SLC CACHE DRIVE FOR SYSTEM / 1st HDD
1[SUP]st[/SUP] DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H40 Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler (£39)
Sound Card
Asus Xonar DG 5.1 SoundCard & Headphone AMP (Award Winner) (£24)
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
Genuine Windows 8 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£109)
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Monitor
AOC I2367FH 23" Widescreen IPS Monitor - 1920 x 1080, HDMI (£145)
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® MK520 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO (£39)
Speakers
Creative GigaWorks T20 Series II 2.0 Multimedia Speakers (£54)
Webcam
Creative Live! Cam Chat HD (£26)
Surge Protection
6 Socket Compact 2M UFO Surge Protector + Auto Power Off Function (£19)
Warranty
3 Year Platinum Warranty (3 Year Collect & Return, 3 Year Parts, 3 Year labour) (£135)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £2,083.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[keynes]

Hi,
If it is just for gaming the i5 will be perfectly adequate for your needs, the gtx 680 4gb would be ideal if you are planning to run 3 monitors. Your motherboard supports SLI but you would need to upgrade your PSU and for your budget you may want to consider an SSD as the primary drive + a caviar black as the secondary drive.

 

[MrShteeeve]

Hi,
If it is just for gaming the i5 will be perfectly adequate for your needs, the gtx 680 4gb would be ideal if you are planning to run 3 monitors. Your motherboard supports SLI but you would need to upgrade your PSU and for your budget you may want to consider an SSD as the primary drive + a caviar black as the secondary drive.

I have just had a little play with the configurator given your recommendations and between the i5 and the i7 there seems to be very little in it. Although I have changed the drives to a 180GB Intel 5 Series and a 1TB Cav Black. Also looked at maybe 2x GTX 660's instead of? If you think that will still hold some of the performance? It saves a bit of money anyway! The configuration is as below:


Case
CORSAIR GRAPHITE SERIES™ 600T WHITE MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3770K (3.5GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V: PCI-E 3.0 READY, WIFI, SLI, CROSSFIREX
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (4 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 660 - 2 x DVI, HDMI, - 3D Vision Ready
2nd Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 660 - 2 x DVI, HDMI, - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX750 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£86)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H40 Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler (£39)
Sound Card
Asus Xonar DG 5.1 SoundCard & Headphone AMP (Award Winner) (£24)
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
Genuine Windows 8 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£109)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
AOC I2367FH 23" Widescreen IPS Monitor - 1920 x 1080, HDMI (£145)
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® MK520 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO (£39)
Speakers
Creative GigaWorks T20 Series II 2.0 Multimedia Speakers (£54)
Webcam
Creative Live! Cam Chat HD (£26)
Surge Protection
6 Socket Compact 2M UFO Surge Protector + Auto Power Off Function (£19)
Warranty
3 Year Platinum Warranty (3 Year Collect & Return, 3 Year Parts, 3 Year labour) (£135)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,914.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[keynes]

Also looked at maybe 2x GTX 660's instead of?

For your budget I would consider i5-3570, 2x GTX 670s and 8gb memory ram. It would perform significantly better than the spec you posted.

 

[MrShteeeve]

For your budget I would consider i5-3570, 2x GTX 670s and 8gb memory ram. It would perform significantly better than the spec you posted.

Cool, ok. Just re-spec'd and comes out at £1926.00. One question though, what's the Wi-Fi liked on the mobo? Any good? Or would I rather have the pci-e card?

Also just one 4gb GTX 680 is £1828.00 - any benefit in have the SLI 670's if only using one monitor?

Cheers,

Steve

 

[keynes]

For a single monitor you could go with a single GTX 670 2gb or GTX 680 2gb. The 4gb version will be more beneficial when gaming at higher resolutions, if you reach +60fps on demanding games then 2 x GTX 670 will be a better choice.

 

[MrShteeeve]

For a single monitor you could go with a single GTX 670 2gb or GTX 680 2gb. The 4gb version will be more beneficial when gaming at higher resolutions, if you reach +60fps on demanding games then 2 x GTX 670 will be a better choice.

I'd probably prefer going with a single card if possible - probably the 4GB GTX 680 preferable. Something that could play most games at high or ultra @ 1920x1080 / ~60fps.

Cheers,

Steve

 

[keynes]

I'd probably prefer going with a single card if possible - probably the 4GB GTX 680 preferable. Something that could play most games at high or ultra @ 1920x1080 / ~60fps.

Cheers,

Steve

The GTX 680 2gb should perform better than the 4gb version in 1 screen. I believe PCS use the palit jetstream for the 4gb version.

 

[MrShteeeve]

The GTX 680 2gb should perform better than the 4gb version in 1 screen. I believe PCS use the palit jetstream for the 4gb version.

That's great, I'll have to look into getting this sorted ordered.

Do you know much about the on-board Wi-Fi at all?

Cheers,

Steve

 

[tom_gr7]

yeah got for the single 670 or 680. My EVGA 680 tears up any game easily! no need for two cards, unless you had wads of cash.....

 

[tom_gr7]

oh yeah and dont get the h40, (corsair have put a crap cheapy fan on it, so its noisy as hell) go for the h60 or the triple copper cooler.

 

[tom_gr7]

I'd go for something like this.

Case
CORSAIR GRAPHITE SERIES™ 600T WHITE MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3570K (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache k version incase you want to overclock.
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V: PCI-E 3.0 READY, WIFI, SLI, CROSSFIREX incase you want to sli in the future.
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT) could always add more, but i probably wouldnt unless you specifically need 16gb
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 680 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready beast
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW) ssd n hdd combo
2nd Hard Disk
2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W PRO SERIES™ HX850-80 PLUS® GOLD MODULAR (£139) a decent high end modular PSU, with good efficiency. Mod means that the spare cables can be removed for better cable managment and cooling. 850w incase you want to add another 680, plus other upgrades.
Processor Cooling
Corsair H80i Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler (£69) i did puty a h60 there, but the h80I (which is considerably better than the h60) is only a tenner more!
Sound Card
Asus Xonar DGX 5.1-Channel Gaming Audio Card (£25) what kinda sound system do you have? if its digital it might be worth going for the asus D2X or above. IF just normal analogue go for this card.
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs homeplugs should go hear mate, wifi is poo.... plus you could use the wifi on ya mobo AND a wired connection via homeplugs
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 w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£79) win 8 pro? I wouldnt, but if you need that go for it.
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)yay, get this....
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,561.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-ivy-bridge-pc/rsyYEHptwp/

THEN GAME ON

 

[MrShteeeve]

I'd go for something like this.

Case
CORSAIR GRAPHITE SERIES™ 600T WHITE MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3570K (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache k version incase you want to overclock.
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V: PCI-E 3.0 READY, WIFI, SLI, CROSSFIREX incase you want to sli in the future.
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT) could always add more, but i probably wouldnt unless you specifically need 16gb
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 680 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready beast
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW) ssd n hdd combo
2nd Hard Disk
2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W PRO SERIES™ HX850-80 PLUS® GOLD MODULAR (£139) a decent high end modular PSU, with good efficiency. Mod means that the spare cables can be removed for better cable managment and cooling. 850w incase you want to add another 680, plus other upgrades.
Processor Cooling
Corsair H80i Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler (£69) i did puty a h60 there, but the h80I (which is considerably better than the h60) is only a tenner more!
Sound Card
Asus Xonar DGX 5.1-Channel Gaming Audio Card (£25) what kinda sound system do you have? if its digital it might be worth going for the asus D2X or above. IF just normal analogue go for this card.
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs homeplugs should go hear mate, wifi is poo.... plus you could use the wifi on ya mobo AND a wired connection via homeplugs
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 w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£79) win 8 pro? I wouldnt, but if you need that go for it.
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)yay, get this....
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,561.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-ivy-bridge-pc/rsyYEHptwp/

THEN GAME ON

Hey Tom,

Cheers for the recommendation - I've already dropped the initial 16GB down to 8GB (2x4's) and like you said it's not exactly heart surgery popping a few more in if needed at a later date. I'm pretty set on the 2GB GTX680 (I presume it'll be a palit card?). The HDD/SSD combo is a must, depending on what I can wing for the price, the larger SSD the better, with minimum 1TB Black as backup. The PSU I would probably go with the modular (OCD on internal tidiness!) but I doubt I'd add another 680 so probably go with the 750W. H80i isn't a problem (bit of a temp OCD too - so cooler the better). As for sound, my primary set up is downstairs with an Onyko 7.2 AVR etc, as long as there is sound from the pc, it doesn't need to be amazing as such . It isn't the end of the world if it uses WiFi as i'm looking at upgrading my network at the moment but maybe homeplugs at a later date as I know they are pretty good. The only reason I had selected W8 Pro is for work reason's, my IT manager prefers to deal with it than home premium just for his 'security' ha. As for Warranty I'm quite happy paying for the platinum just for peace of mind really. I don't want any shocks further down the line when/if something fails, apart from that, all good!

Just 1 thing - I've got an i7 in my laptop (from PCS) - is there really no need for it on the desktop, would there be no better performance (noticeable?)

Cheers,

Steve

 

[tom_gr7]

no worries dude, looks like you got most stuff sorted.

As for the cpu, if its just for gaming and general household IT stuff, I wouldn't bother with the i7... (I did, but wasnt really much point lol) I5 3550K will serve you well, and you could always push it up a bit if you found you wanted more cpu performance.

 

[MrShteeeve]

no worries dude, looks like you got most stuff sorted.

As for the cpu, if its just for gaming and general household IT stuff, I wouldn't bother with the i7... (I did, but wasnt really much point lol) I5 3550K will serve you well, and you could always push it up a bit if you found you wanted more cpu performance.

That's cool, just wondered as before the i7 in the laptop I'd been stuck to a core 2 duo, so I'm used to the i7 now (baby i7 mind you being a lappy). I'm pretty much in love with the case as well after watching a quick vid on the white ltd.ed on corsairs site. I just want to get it ordered now! will have to wait a little though unfortunately, see what the other half thinks .

Apart from the above though, are there any other screaming recommendations?

Cheers,

Steve

 

[bigben]

Tom's suggestion is good. As he said I5 isn't necessary.

Couple of things that could save you some money:

I personally use the onboard sound on that motherboard and for me it is absolutely fine, apparently soundcards are easy to fit, so you could try without a card first and see how it is.

The GTX 670 is quite a bit cheaper and again for me is fine, plays games like Battlefield on ultra comfortably (and a bit off topic but after about an hour only got to ~ 40 C according to GPU z). Obviously the 680 is better, but worth the extra £100ish? I'm not sure...

Edit: Oh, and spend a little bit of money saved on better peripherals

 

[MrShteeeve]

Right well I've pretty much decided on it, i'm still trying to retain the i7 if I can, but If not an overclocked i5 isn't too far off it really. I'm not too fussed about the peripherals as i'll probably upgrade them at a later date if necessary.

If there are any more recommendations I'll be glad to hear them.

Also just wondering how anyone thinks this spec would peform on things like starcraft II/diablo III/Bioshock Infinite etc.


Case
CORSAIR GRAPHITE SERIES™ 600T WHITE MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3770K (3.5GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V: PCI-E 3.0 READY, WIFI, SLI, CROSSFIREX
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 670 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W PRO SERIES™ HX750-80 PLUS® GOLD MODULAR (£119)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H80i Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler (£69)
Extra Case Fans
2 x 12CM Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof) (£9)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) 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
Genuine Windows 8 Standard Edition 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
AOC I2367FH 23" Widescreen IPS Monitor - 1920 x 1080, HDMI (£145)
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® MK520 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO (£39)
Speakers
Creative GigaWorks T20 Series II 2.0 Multimedia Speakers (£54)
Webcam
Creative Live! Cam Chat HD (£26)
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£69)
Delivery
PCS EXTRA-CARE DIAMOND DELIVERY - MON-FRI, PRE-10AM (£16)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,788.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[MrShteeeve]

Right guys, a few days of thoughts and chats with the missus means I've come to agree the below spec. It's more than I wanted initially but I will probably end up SLI'ing with a 2nd 680 later down the line - also a 2nd screen .

I've also left in the i7 and gone for the unlocked one as I may be tempted to OC later down the line if the need is there

The only thing i'll be doing is waiting until the new Haswell processors are released - think it's worth it?

The spec below is my final revision and will be ordered as soon as the new CPU's are available through PCS

Case
CORSAIR GRAPHITE SERIES™ 600T WHITE MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3770K (3.5GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V: PCI-E 3.0 READY, WIFI, SLI, CROSSFIREX
Memory (RAM)
16GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 X 8GB)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 680 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
180GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W PRO SERIES™ HX750-80 PLUS® GOLD MODULAR (£119)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H80i Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler (£69)
Extra Case Fans
2 x 12CM Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof) (£9)
Sound Card
ASUS Xonar DS - Bring Hi-Fi spirit to your Music, Movie & Games (£39)
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
Genuine Windows 8 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£109)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
ACER 21.5" G226HQLBbid LED - 5ms, 1920 x 1080, DVI, HDMI (£99)
Keyboard & Mouse
Microsoft SideWinder X4 Gaming Keyboard (£39)
Mouse
Microsoft Sculpt Touch Bluetooth Wireless Mouse (£38)
Gaming Mouse Pad
Corsair Vengeance® MM200 Gaming Mouse Mat Standard Edition (£14)
Speakers
Creative GigaWorks T40 Series II 2.0 High End Speakers (£85)
Webcam
Creative Live! Cam Chat HD (£26)
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£69)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £2,104.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[keynes]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i7-4770k-haswell-performance,3461-8.html
It seems that it would be up to 13% faster than the ivy bridge equivalent and once it is release there is likely to be a premium to pay for it.

 

[MrShteeeve]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i7-4770k-haswell-performance,3461-8.html
It seems that it would be up to 13% faster than the ivy bridge equivalent and once it is release there is likely to be a premium to pay for it.

Hmm, you think it'll be miles more expensive than the 3770k at the moment? I don't mind stretching a little as i'm most likely to upgrade/update this over the years anyway, so if I can get a good cpu in there as a base, I can change anything else.