Proposed new purchase - good spec?

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lionelbeck

Member
This is the first time I've considered purchasing a PC consisting of my own chosen specs, and I'm finding it a daunting task. I want to replace my ageing Windows XP machine. I use my PC for the following:

Home Accounting, All MS Office applications, All OpenOffice.org applications, Graphics & Photo editing/design, BBC i-Player (and others), YouTube, Radio & TV live streaming, Virtual model railways, Train (& other) simulators, i-Tunes (& similar), CD & DVD playing and burning.

The following is my Spec for which I have been quoted. Not ordered yet ..

Case
COOLERMASTER CM STORM SNIPER - NEXT GEN GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i3-560 Dual Core (3.33GHz, 4MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P7H55-M SI: MICRO ATX VALUE MAINBOARD,USB 2.0 & SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)
16GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (4 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 - 2 DVI,HDMI,VGA - DirectX® 11, 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
12x BLU-RAY RE-WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£90)
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
INTEL SOCKET LGA1156 STANDARD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Xtreme Audio (£31)
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 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£109)
Office Software
Microsoft® Office Home & Student 2010 (1 License Product Key Card) (£75)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
22" Wide TFT Silver/Black 1920 x1080 2MS D-Sub, DVI, 21.6" Panel (£119)
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 13 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,243.00 including VAT and delivery.

Many thanks.
 
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djs596

Member
Looks good, I've been contemplating ordering a similar spec (different CPU). However, 16GB is a quite lot of memory to have which may never get fully used.
 
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DSN

DSN

Enthusiast
From the information above it would seem that a lot of the work you are going is a lot more CPU intensive than GPU.

You have a HUGE amount of memory and quite a beastly card. I really think the CPU is going to be letting you down there.

I think bringing the CPU up to an i7 920 would really bring it up to par with the rest of the PC.

If budget s an issue. drop some ram, as 8 GB is more than enough for almost any thing you will be going.

And if you get the right CPU, you can change to triple channel memory and save some money towards CPU + SSD

Other than that your not far off a balanced build. But the CPU is rather lacking compared to the rest of the build.

Additionally the Storm Sniper is not limiting you to a Micro ATX, so there are going to be other board options available.

And I would consider adding an SSD to really bring your system up to speed.
 
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lionelbeck

Member
Thank you - very interesting and helpful, and a fair point re trading less RAM for more CPU. To what are you referring as a "quite beastly card"? Cheers.
 
Teaz

Teaz

Godlike
he technically means is the chosen graphics card you picked was abit too dominating to the cpu i3 you picked :) picking such a powerful hungry graphics card of 2GB is abit overkill compared to a not very efficiant cpu so it wont be very stable, it will work but not in par with the graphics card so a more higher cpu like the i7 would be more suitable in capabilities to the graphics card. so either a change of graphics card to a more suitable would be fine to consider :) hoped this helped.
 
DSN

DSN

Enthusiast
the best way I have ever hear it explained is think of your pc like a car. You have the best Engine in the world, HUGE breaks, 17" Drag Tyres, a Drive chain made of Diamonds, and you only have a crappy little 200CC fuel injector off a moped.

yes the car is awesome, yes is will run, but the components you have brought for it are not going to be able to work to the best of there ability, because they are being " bottlenecked " by you fuel injectors.

[video=youtube;TGdo75gasaQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGdo75gasaQ[/video]
 
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lionelbeck

Member
Good video - thanks. I think I understood about 50% of it :) .. but that's better than understanding none of it, I guess. Cheers.
 
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lionelbeck

Member
Having considered further your comments (and my budget!) I've made the following changes:
CPU: Intel Core i7-880 Quad Core 3.06 Ghz, 8 MB + Turbo Boost (NB the i7-920 you mentioned was not on their list of options)
RAM: 2 GB
Graphics Card: 1GB Nvidia GE Force FT430
HDD: 500 GB
Sound: Onboard 6 channel High Def Audio
Network: Onboard Gigabit LAN & Wireless 802.11N 300 Mbps PCI card.
(The pcspecialist quotation system reported my choices as balanced and OK.)
Unless you come back with the thought that my choice is now preposterous I'll go ahead and turn this into a definite order.
Thanks for your comments.
 
DSN

DSN

Enthusiast
OK, thats not the best of specs either.

What is your budget?
Any flex in the budget, or extra input at a later date?
what do you want out of it ?
What activity have highest priority ?
how long are you planning on keeping it ?
What res are you gaming at ?
Is noise an issue ? (running in room ? )

Then we will look for a good spec for you.
 
L

lionelbeck

Member
Hi-
Budget? £1200
Any flex in budget? That's my max.
What do I want out of it, and priorities? Mainly all "Office"-style apps., Magix Xtreme Photo-editing & viewing, Xara Website designer, Quicken Home Accounts, listening to music, and (less priority) my "gaming" is normally limited to virtual model railway construction & operation, and Train Simulator programs.
Res 1280 x 960
Noise not a special issue.

Cheers.
 
DSN

DSN

Enthusiast
Do we need to add any additional, keyboard mouse monitor. What size is that monitor your using ?

Then ill go ahead and spec one out for you :D
 
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lionelbeck

Member
My current monitor is 19-inch. Asking for 22-inch.
I have satisfactory Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse, also Epson 1240 scanner and Epson Photo R220 printer, so nothing else required for time being.
Thank you for your trouble.
 
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