Ordering Gaming/Photoshop/Media PC Tomorrow - Last Minute Feedback Appreciated

[cjc1984]

Going to place my order tomorrow after being paid After considering a media centre mini pc, have thought sod it, going for the best one I can afford, budget approx £1200, will be used for photoshop (although wont be working with huge files), moderate gaming, general web surfing, music, media transcoding using handbrake, and blu ray (eventually 3D blu ray).

Already have keyboard/mouse/speakers and I also already have a viewsonic 20 inch 1080p LED monitor.

Have priced up the following two specs.
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INTEL SPEC
CASE: Coolermaster Sileo 500
MOTHERBOARD: Asus P6X58D-E
PROCESSOR: Intel core i7 950
RAM: 6GB DDR3 1600MHZ Tri Channel
GRAPHICS: NVidia Geforce GTX 460 2GB
HDD1: WD Caviar Black 1TB 64MB Cache (Boot drive)
HDD2: WD Caviar Green 2GB
OPTICAL DRIVE: Blu Ray 10x
COOLING: Ultra quiet tripple copper heatpipe cooler
PSU: Corsair TX650 Ultraquiet
WIRELESS: 802.11n wireless PCI card.
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

Belkin 4 plug Surge Protector
Gold Warranty

Price: £1247
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AMD SPEC

Same as above aside from the following

PROCESSOR: AMD X6 1090T
MOTHERBOARD: Asus Crossfire IV Formula
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1600mhz
GRAPHICS CARD: AMD Radeon HD 6780 1GB

Price £1252

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Theres a few areas where I could do with some feedback before ordering.

COOLING: How loud/quiet is the Titan Fenrir Evo CPU Cooler compared to the tripple copper heatpipe cooler?

CASE: How well does the Sileo 500 block out the noise? Was all set to plump for the sileo but the Antec 902 looks pretty good too, what is this case like re noise levels?

GRAPHICS CARD COMPARISON: How far apart are the GTX 460 2GB (which I believe is slightly overclocked) and the AMD Radeon HD 6870?

OPTICAL DRIVE: Which software comes with the blu ray drive? Is it cyberlink powerdvd?

Bit of a dilemma really, as the AMD system uses 50 watts less power, and would probably be better for music with the on board xfi sound and the better gaming rig, but the Intel system would be better for transcoding, photoshop, whilst also making a competent gaming machine.

Any last minute adivce before I decide would be appreciated.

 

[Sleinous]

I'd go with an Nvidia GPU for CUDA core support with photoshop plugin. Id also not bother with the 2GB, the overclock is so tiny its not even noticeable, the extra memory would only be useful if you had say a 60" screen with a very very high resolution lol.

 

[cjc1984]

Cheers, have not heard the greatest things about the quality of ATI's drivers either, but the xfi-sound on the rampage, lower power requirements and stronger GPU is still tempting. I am not working with huge files so don't really think cuda support would benefit me that much.

Anyone any idea regarding the noise levels of the Titan Fenrir Evo compared to the triple copper heatpipe cooler, or the Blu Ray Playback Software provided with the 10x Blu ray drive?

 

[Phoenix]

I'd go with an AMD build but with an Nvidia GTX465, although if you're not going to be making use of the CUDA plugins then the HD6870 is a good choice. Don't bother with the 1600mhz RAM though if you're not overclocking because it's a waste of money. The crosshair formula motherboard is also unnecessary unless you're thinking of using 2 graphics cards or just want the theoretical best one available. The triple heatpipe cooler will be quieter although I'm not sure how loud the titan fenrir would be in comparison. I didn't think there was any software provided with the blu-ray drive so you'll have to wait for someone else to answer that one. The coolermaster sileo blocks out noise very well though compared to some of the other cases.

 

[cjc1984]

The site says that CD/DVD/BLURAY viewing & authoring software is included with all DVD Writers/BD Drives. If its cyberlink then I believe this makes use of both CUDA cores and ATI STREAM for GPU Accelerated playback.

Am not doig any overclocking as such and don't intend to, although I don't rule out putting in a 2nd card in the future, and the crosshair iV formula isn't really that much more than the M4A89TD Pro whilst being a much better board.

 

[cjc1984]

Going to order the intel spec posted above in my dinner later on, only with the ATI 6870 graphics card. I considered the GTX 470 but the lower power requirements swung it that way, and if circumstances change in the future I can always replace the card with an NVidia one.

Big thanks to sleinous, phoenix and PCS for the advice re choosing the specs

 

[Sleinous]

No problemo! Enjoy your new pc when it arrives & dont forget pics

 

[cjc1984]

Ordered

And will definitely take some pics of the setup.

It has definitely been an eye opener re price. Similarly specced PC from Alienware costing over 2.5k, and thats not including 2 year warranty.