New PC spec - help please!

[Cass]

Hello all,

I'm a complete ignoramus when it comes to knowing what goes on inside my PC (bigger numbers = better is my basic approach!). Never-the-less, after one of my friends recommended this website over buying in store I checked it out to find it seems a lot better value than, say, PC World.

I use my PC mainly for gaming - I'm playing a bit of Dawn of War 2 right now and my current PC just can't handle it very well, even with all the settings on low (well it is about 5 years old I guess). I also want to be able to stream internet video through my TV - when the NFL season starts it would be nice to watch Gamepass through my TV for example, which means I'd quite like it to run quietly.

Budget wise, ideally I don't really want to spend much over £1,000 on the system, certainly not above £1,500 (the lower the better).

I've been playing around with the spec builder and have come up with the below. I'd be grateful if those of you with more knowledge than I could offer up suggestions of how I could improve the spec to offer more bang for my buck.

Thanks in advance,
Cass.

Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics

Motherboard
ASUS® P8H61-M LE/USB3 (NEW REV 3.0): M-ATX, USB 3.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s

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

Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX560 Ti - 2 DVI,HDMI,VGA - DX® 11, 3D Vision Ready

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
80GB INTEL® 320 SERIES SSD, SATA 3 Gb/s (upto 270MB/sR | 90MB/sW)

2nd Hard Disk
500GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD5002AALX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200rpm)

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

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

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

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
ONBOARD 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 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Office Software
Microsoft® Office Home & Student 2010 (1 License Product Key Card) (£75)

Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

Monitor
IIYAMA E2473HDS 24" LED WIDESCREEN, 2 x HDMI/DVI-D HD 1920x1080 (£169)

DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE GOLD PLATED V1.4 HDMI CABLE (£8)

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 11 to 13 working days

Quantity
1

Price: £1,243.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[kriwad]

Looks fine, spring for the Blu-ray DVD-RW combo unless you never plan on watching Blu-ray. You could probably down grade the graphics card for a marginal saving (but I wouldn't).
I'd upgrade the PSU to 750W, that way you don't have to worry about it if you decide to grab another 2GB GTX560 Ti for SLI for a cheap performance boost in the future.
You'd get a better rig for roughly the same price with an overclocked system unless you plan on doing that yourself.

 

[Cass]

Thanks for your reply. The Blu-ray I can live without I think. Overclocking is honestly not something I'd even considered as I know even less about that than I do about PC's in general, so figure it is safer to steer clear of it given the potential disadvantages to the system's health/longevity. Of course, I'm happy to listen to the advice/recommendations of others. I figure that - even given my impatience - I can wait a few days before I order it so hopefully this thread will generate replies that enable me to maximise the potential of my system before ordering.

 

[kriwad]

It'll be done for you. It is the case that overclocking tends to lead to a shorter life for the PC, but these days it's really not something you should concern yourself over.
Automatic low power modes and other modern technologies make sure you're not straining your PC unless you need it to, and PCS would be crazy selling unsafely OC computers under warranty.
There's pros and cons, I've overclocked nearly every PC I've ever owned at some point - but I've not bought an OC gaming rig from PC Spec so it'd be better if someone who has could drop a line here about their experience.

 

[Fear]

Going straight in at the top of your budget i would have a look at the spec below, changed the case to a more quiet one and put a better GPU and PSU in, the GPU will run games on max and i always reccomend getting the best single GPU you can afford and the PSU will cover for future sli as with the motherboard, i am not a big fan of SSD's at the moment i am waiting until they come down in price but i have specced a better SSD with higher storage as the 80GB will fill up very quick.

TBH i would leave the SSD's alone and wait till the price drops in a year or 2 as the caviar blacks are good enough and with this depending on your storage needs you might not need a second drive in there, if you don't want the option for sli you can also drop to a 650W PSU and maybe even put a GTX 580 in.

Case
FRACTAL DESIGN R3 - BLACK PEARL CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8P67 PRO (NEW REV 3.0): USB 3.0/SATA 6Gb/s, CrossFireX™ & SLI
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1.25GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 570 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - DX® 11, 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 510 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 450MB/sR | 210MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
640GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD6402AAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W TX SERIES (TX850) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£99)
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
ONBOARD 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 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
Microsoft® Office Home & Student 2010 (1 License Product Key Card) (£75)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Monitor
IIYAMA E2473HDS 24" LED WIDESCREEN, 2 x HDMI/DVI-D HD 1920x1080 (£169)
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE GOLD PLATED V1.4 HDMI CABLE (£8)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 11 to 13 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,494.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/intel-sandy-bridge-pc/

 

[Cass]

Thanks for a great reply Fear - plus rep for you!

I will take your advice on dropping the SSD which helps bring the overall cost down. Dropping this lets me push my HDD up to a 1TB Black and drop the second HDD altogether saving me £220 on the build you posted above.

I'll use this to double up the RAM to 8GB since for only an extra £38 this seems like good value. If I drop the power supply to the 650 you mentioned this brings the total back to £1,242 - which is pretty much where I started from.

Re. the GTX 580 - is the performance jump enough from the GTX 570 to warrant the extra £162 it costs?

Also, on the case - would the Coolermaster Sileo 500 Super Quiet Case be able to fit everything in and keep it cool enough (since the FRACTAL DESIGN R3 - BLACK PEARL is out of stock right now and I'm thinking of going for a fast track build)? If not, are any of the suitable cases nice and quiet that you might be able to recommend?

Case
COOLERMASTER SILEO 500 QUIET MID TOWER CASE

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics

Motherboard
ASUS® P8P67 (NEW REV 3.0): USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™

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

Graphics Card
1.25GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 570 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - DX® 11, 3D Vision Ready

Memory - 1st 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

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

Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TX SERIES (TX650) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£72)

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
ONBOARD 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 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Office Software
Microsoft® Office Home & Student 2010 (1 License Product Key Card) (£75)

Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

Monitor
IIYAMA E2473HDS 24" LED WIDESCREEN, 2 x HDMI/DVI-D HD 1920x1080 (£169)

DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE GOLD PLATED V1.4 HDMI CABLE (£8)

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
FAST TRACK 3 WORKING DAY DISPATCH (£59)

Quantity
1

Price: £1,301.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[kriwad]

I will take your advice on dropping the SSD which helps bring the overall cost down. Dropping this lets me push my HDD up to a 1TB Black and drop the second HDD altogether saving me £220 on the build you posted above.

I'll use this to double up the RAM to 8GB since for only an extra £38 this seems like good value. If I drop the power supply to the 650 you mentioned this brings the total back to £1,242 - which is pretty much where I started from.

Re. the GTX 580 - is the performance jump enough from the GTX 570 to warrant the extra £162 it costs?

Price: £1,301.00 including VAT and delivery.

I wouldn't drop the SSD but if you'd rather not spend the extra now, it's an easy upgrade to do later. Just make sure you're running Windows etc off the SSD when you do or you just have an expensive brick with mp3s on it

8GB *thumbs up*

Keep the 570 but don't drop the PSU down unless you're definitely not going to get another 570 for SLI.

 

[Fear]

The 570 is a very good card but it really does depend on what you want and as you have gone for the lower PSU that rules out a later sli setup so the only thing you have to look at is if you are happy spending the extra or not, the performance difference is not huge but it will fair better when the cards get older and newer games come out so if you like to run everything on max settings then in my opinion yes it is worth it but if you are happy turning settings down slightly then save youself the cash, either of the cards are well worth the money.

With the case i selected the fractal one more for the requirements you have of keeping the noise down and this was the cheapest with sound proofing so as you are staying with a single GPU setup the cooling will be fine in either of the cases, i must say though i have a Haf-X case (i am not recommending this for you though) i was expecting it to be pretty loud but it's not especially compared with my old system but the other cases will make more noise than one of the fractal or sileo cases.

There is nothing wrong with going for 8GB ram but unless you are doing any editing it will pretty much just be sat there idle as while running a game my machine is only using about 2GB of the system ram so £38 is not a really big price for future proofing but if you just went for 4GB and find you need more in a year or 2 then ram is one of the easiest things to add to your system so it's worth another think about.

 

[Cass]

Ordered!

Thanks both for your replies. I have given you both +rep for taking the time out to offer me advice.

FWIW I have detailed the build I eventually settled on below taking into consideration both of your view points (if you have any last minute suggestions then now would be the time to make them before it's too late!).

I did explore several builds both with and without the SSD, but in the end I just couldn't justify the extra couple of hundred £'s it would have cost so I'm going to live without it.

Case
COOLERMASTER SILEO 500 QUIET MID TOWER CASE

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics

Motherboard
ASUS® P8P67 (NEW REV 3.0): USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™

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

Graphics Card
1.5GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 580 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - DX® 11, 3D Vision Ready

Memory - 1st 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

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

Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TX SERIES (TX650) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£72)

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
ONBOARD 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 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)

Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
FAST TRACK 3 WORKING DAY DISPATCH (£59)

Quantity
1

Price: £1,211.00 including VAT and delivery.

And so now the wait begins... *impatient*