New box with upgrade potential

M

magnamundian

Member
I'm on a budget, around £1.5K, sounds like a lot but I've two computers to "upgrade" for that price on accounts that both myself and wifey are gamers.

We currently have a pair of Athlon 3800+/GeForce9800/3Gb systems and looking at the crop of new games on the way that's just not gonna cut muster.

So I've picked out a potential upgrade box:

Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK FUSION CASE inc. 2 FRONT USB

Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 945 (3.00GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3)

Motherboard
ASUS® M4N98TD EVO: DDR3, 2-Way SLI, SATA 3.0GB/s

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

Graphics Card
768MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
250GB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)

Power Supply & Case Cooling
600W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£59)

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

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

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, Lifetime Tech Support) (£5)

Total order Price
£1,414.00


I'm working on the idea that an SLI capable motherboard will allow me to add another GTX460 at a later date, only having half the memory slots filled with also allow me to double the memory later. The PSU is overkill for the configuration above but will cope with the extra graphics card added later.

Any thoughts, suggestions or flaws?
 
Gorman

Gorman

Author Level
I would recommend at the very least the Corsair 650w PSU if your thinking of going SLI down the road. Other than that the spec looks solid.
 
M

magnamundian

Member
magnamundian said:
I'm on a budget, around £1.5K, sounds like a lot but I've two computers to "upgrade" for that price on accounts that both myself and wifey are gamers.

We currently have a pair of Athlon 3800+/GeForce9800/3Gb systems and looking at the crop of new games on the way that's just not gonna cut muster.

So I've picked out a potential upgrade box
Click to expand...


Revised specification, now on order :D

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE

Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 965 (3.40GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3) - BLACK EDITION

Motherboard
ASUS® M4N98TD EVO: DDR3, 2-Way SLI, SATA 3.0GB/s

Memory (RAM)
4GB CORSAIR XMS3 DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 2GB KIT)

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

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)

Power Supply & Case Cooling
CORSAIR 650W PSU (TX650) 80+ ULTRA QUIET (£76)

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

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

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, Lifetime Tech Support) (£5)

Total order Price
£1,629.96


An extra £200 but well worth it... now we just need to start saving for better monitors! :p
 
Gorman

Gorman

Author Level
It is very obviously an edited spec showing the components the customer feels are relevant and or wants advice on. In the second post the changes are highlighted.
 
Sleinous

Sleinous

Author Level
Ew @ the 8MB cache HDD, why does everyone miss teh fact that the 1TB WD10EARS 64mb cache HDD is only a fraction more expensive? XD
 
M

magnamundian

Member
Sleinous said:
Ew @ the 8MB cache HDD, why does everyone miss teh fact that the 1TB WD10EARS 64mb cache HDD is only a fraction more expensive? XD
Click to expand...

It was a fraction beyond our budget (credit card since we're still at the "want to trust PCS but still want to cover our backs" stage of the customer-supplier relationship ;) ) and I didn't want to sacrifice anything else. :p

That plus the fact we already have similar HDD's in the old machines and they will be migrated over as well, i'm not spending hours copying Gb's of MMO files or downloading them again :eek:

There is also a part of me that still resists having large amounts of data on one disk (especially the same disk as the O/S) and we have bags of network storage devices already.

These two computers will be joining our existing laptops, netbooks, media centre and more consoles and wi-fi hand helds than you can shake a stick at.
 
M

magnamundian

Member
Semi-related question, this order is currently at the "In Building" stage, do you guys operate weekends/bank holidays or will it be pretty much standing at that stage until Tuesday morning? :(
 
Meds

Meds

Moderator
Moderator
Hey,

I'm afraid Producion won't be in until Tuesday now. Our Call Centre is open Saturday AM but that's it I'm afraid :(
 
M

magnamundian

Member
Meds said:
Hey,

I'm afraid Producion won't be in until Tuesday now. Our Call Centre is open Saturday AM but that's it I'm afraid :(
Click to expand...

Ah boo :(

A pity it didn't make the soak-test stage before the weekend, a 72hour+ in the soak-test over the long weekend would have comprehensively tested the rigs before dispatch.

I'm hoping these make it to me before the next week, i'm flying out to Gibraltar next Monday morning for a week for work. Would be nice to have these settled and checked before I leave.
 
M

magnamundian

Member
Sleinous said:
Hehehe, i'm just obsessed about HDDs :'(
Click to expand...

I obsessed for about half an hour before deciding it was impossible to tweak anything else and that loading any more cash on to the credit card would just mean that I'd have to wait a couple of days before ordering, and I'm bound to find something else to obsess about.
 
M

magnamundian

Member
PC Arrived in great shape and has performed flawlessly. Only two little niggles, the PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE is a strange mix of very easy installation (DVD drives etc) and totally impossible (HDD's).. In fact so far I've totally failed to work out how to access the HDD part of the case.

Also I don't appear to have any free game/redeem code/whatever, yet I know there was one listed when I ordered.
 
Sleinous

Sleinous

Author Level
magnamundian said:
I obsessed for about half an hour before deciding it was impossible to tweak anything else and that loading any more cash on to the credit card would just mean that I'd have to wait a couple of days before ordering, and I'm bound to find something else to obsess about.
Click to expand...

What about, keeping same capacity, just bumping that cache up, to atleast like 16MB? I find 8mb is just, eewwww.

EDIT: Woops youve already got it lol.
 
PCS

PCS

Administrator
Staff member
magnamundian said:
Also I don't appear to have any free game/redeem code/whatever, yet I know there was one listed when I ordered.
Click to expand...

The free game promotion had ended before you placed your order. You would only qualify for the free game if your order stated this (i.e. you had it listed as "Free Item" on your order). Unfortunately the promotions are available only while stocks last :(
 
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