My First Gaming Desktop review form PC Specialist

[SmokeDarKnight]

My First Gaming Desktop

Hey Guys,

Finally getting round to do a wee review of my new and first proper gaming desktop for PCS.

Here's a breakdown on my order and review of the components and PCS.

Enjoy

 

[SmokeDarKnight]

CORSAIR CARBIDE SERIES™ AIR 540 GAMING CASE



I ordered this case because I really liked the look of it. The amount of space inside also makes it extremely easy to work in and gives great benefit to the airflow and cooling within the machine. The case is split into two section, the large section with the perspex glass is the larger of the two sections, this houses the motherboard and main components and your HDD's in the bottom. The second section which cannot be seen is on the opposite side of the case which houses the PSU and the majority of the cabling hiding it away from site making the machine look tidy. Cables can be poked through cut outs directly to the point of contact on the motherboard meaning very little cable is showing. All the compartments are secured with Thumb Screws which is handy for when you don't have a screw driver at hand. There are also dust covers which are attached magnetically which are easly removed for cleaning purposes.

If you have the space i really recommend this case, i like the look and the feel of it, if feels so sturdy and is so quiet. I feel like i could do so much with this case with regards to upgrades and mods, theres more space for fans at the top, some lighting would be a good touch.

 

[SmokeDarKnight]

Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4690 (3.5GHz) 6MB Cache & Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler



Not really sure what to say about the CPU, guess its the unsung hero hidden behind the cooling, machine works fast and have had no lag or issues jumping between windows and multitasking.

The cooler looks big, i think i might have gone for the Corsair Water cooler for the look if i could go back and change it. This cooler however is quiet. The only time i have heard it make a noise is during playing Tropico 3 but im guessing that the game might be CPU heavy and just requires more cooling. Not sure.

 

[SmokeDarKnight]

ASUS® Z97-A: ATX, USB3.0, SATA 6GB/S, SLi, XFIRE



Again im not sure exactly what the capabilities of this motherboard are but for a non over clocking gamer it fits my purpose. The Mobo looks good in my case, i was a bit worried that the gold colour would be overwhelming whoever this is not the case. If i had gone for the Red Asus ROG mobo i would be stuck with red colouring if i was ever to mod but gold is subtle and goes with any colour really. The mobo came with software, boosters etc which i haven't touched as its a bit beyond me at the moment. Has some nice red lights on start up and a beep which is reassuring. There are so many switches and buttons and ports i wouldn't know where to start. Really glad PCS did a great job at connecting all this up.

 

[SmokeDarKnight]

8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X FURY DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)



8GB of RAM plenty for gaming at the moment, the stick i currently have is red and its got an awesome little PC Specialist branding on the side. The build of the RAM makes it look a lot more exciting that its actual function but with a window on the side of the case exciting looking components are a must.

 

[SmokeDarKnight]

1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)



Im still not sold on SSD but i know im going to make a jump to it soon, i cant really knock SSD until I try it, not that im expecting it to be a bad thing. My Laptop had 500GB which i was finding a bit restrictive for games, all my media etc i keep on a separate drive but games were taking up a lot of space with the likes of Titan Fall and Battlefield 4 nearing 50GB each. I find that the 7200 rpm is an improvement on the standard speed drives.

 

[SmokeDarKnight]

CORSAIR 1000W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA



I went for the 1000w as i planned on SLI graphics cards at some point and wanted to make sure that i had enough power and then some. This PSU is quite clever when it is not doing anything the fan doesn't actually spin which means less noise when the system is idling, when underload the fan kicks in and even then you don't really hear any change in noise. The PSU is moduler hoever i have never seen a non modular PSU but i think it means that its easier to plug in new cables for components. When i connected my SLI card i simply had to plug in a new cable into the PSU and lead it to the GPU plug and connect it, it was so simple.

 

[SmokeDarKnight]

24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM



Wish i hadn't got this as i think the case would have looked better without it, might get rid of it and connect it externally, besides i hardly ever use disks anymore, all my games are on steam, music is downloaded, drivers are either downloadable or on a USB stick. I though vertical loading might cause a problem with discs but not a problem at all. This is probably the loudest component in the machine once the disc starts spinning it will drown out the noise of any of the fans and hard drives on the machine so i generally try to avoid using disc drives. I couldn't watch a movie with that thing spinning away so another reason to stay digital.

 

[SmokeDarKnight]

Genuine Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence

I opted for Windows 8 over 7 as i have this on my laptop so im pretty used to it, windows 8 offers a lot of features that are useless to a gaming system, that said though we need a OS and this one does its job fine. Looks good boots fast other than the start / metro and the charms at the side it operates the same as windows 7.

 

[SmokeDarKnight]

PC Specialist

PC Specialist made a great job of my machine, the whole process from start to finish is easy and fun, it may be an extremely sad thing to say but building machines with the configuration tool is extremely fun. Being on the forums and building machines on the tool for other users is also fun. Once my machine was ordered it was easy to monitor my machines to see which step it was in and also to also make changes as i did further research and advise from the other users on the forum.

Once i upgraded my build to 3 day dispatch thing moved extremely fast, the reason i waited to upgrade this was i wanted to make sure i was done with all the changes to my machine, once the 3 day process has started i didn't want to make any other changes that may have hindered the progress of my machine. The 3 Day dispatch did exactly as stated and the machine was on its way to me within the time-scale quoted.

I only called once to PCS just to make sure my order was alight as i had made a lot of modifications to my order which i feel bad for as it must have made my order look extremely messy however the machine arrived with everything i had asked for.

 

[SmokeDarKnight]

DPD and packing



Because of my location next day delivery is not an option however the DPD depot in Aberdeen were amazing and with a phone call they had my machine ready to collect from their depot within an hour of receiving the item. There website was fast at keeping me informed about the location of my machine and i received email from both DPD and PCS with updates. Amazing delivery service. The machine was well packed and secure when i un-boxed it and free of any marks or dents.

 

[SmokeDarKnight]

Final Thought

My second machine from PCS and when i get a third it will defiantly be from them again, the machine is everything i hoped for and the service and price are amazing..

The dates shown below show the rough timeline of the process

Production Dates
Processed Date 11-09-2014
Pre-Production Date 16-09-2014 (This is when i ordered 3 day Fast Track)
Build Date 16-09-2014
Test Date 17-09-2014
QC Date 18-09-2014
Awaiting Dispatch Date 18-09-2014
Dispatch Date 18-09-2014
Collection Date 19-09-2014

I would like to thank

Jack Craig, Zbear Ramzan and Anthony Cunliffe for working on my order and also Benno for confirming he saw it looking awesome on a bench

I'd also like to thank the forum members for answering all the questions i have and pointing me towards decisions and options to my final awesome machine.

If anyone wants any photos or requests of any of the products i have in my machine feel free to ask and i will do my best to show.

My first review so hope its a good read.

Mike

 

[tom_gr7]

awesome thread mate,

that red ram and the red on those gpu's looks bawling mate.

 

[SmokeDarKnight]

Yeah the Red ram is cool, thinking about getting red or white lights for the machine

 

[SmokeDarKnight]

SLI MSI Nvidia GEFOURCE GTX 970 Graphics Cards

Coming soon