Sound Card for gaming PC

[liamnic2]

Hey guys

Getting a gaming PC in a few months.

Want it to last as long as it can.

Need budget to be under £2000 but things might get cheaper

This is what I have set out for the now

Motherboard

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

16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (4 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card

3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 590 - 2 DVI,mHDMI - DX® 11, 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk

1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk

120GB INTEL® 320 SERIES SSD, SATA 3 Gb/s (upto 270MB/sR | 130MB/sW)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive

24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply

CORSAIR 1000W PRO SERIES (HX1000) 80+ MODULAR PSU (£170)
Processor Cooling

COOLIT ECO A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£49)
Sound Card

Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Titanium PCI Express (£59)
Network Facilities

ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£16)

LOGITECH Z323 2.1 SPEAKERS

This comes at around £2035 but hopefully it will be cheaper in august christmas time.

I dont intend to overclock, I chose the OC stuff becuase It would make the PC last longer and still play games easy.

It is mostly for strategy games, i.e shogun 2.

Any advice would be helpful

Does anyone know if mobo channel 6 (5.1) High Def Audio will be ok for playing games ?

That way I can save money by not buying a sound card

 

[Drunken Monkey]

your pc specs are overkill for strategy games, you could save quite a bit of money by lowering the ram, losing the sound card, since onboard is just as good for video games

 

[Drunken Monkey]

Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8P67 PRO (NEW REV 3.0): USB 3.0/SATA 6Gb/s, CrossFireX™ & SLI
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1.5GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 580 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - DX® 11, 3D Vision Ready
Free Item
FREE Need For Speed™ World Starter Pack with any Nvidia® GTS450 or above!
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 510 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 450MB/sR | 210MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, 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 1200W PRO SERIES GOLD (AX1200) 80+ MODULAR PSU (£208)
Processor Cooling
COOLIT ECO A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£49)
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
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
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: £1,728.00 including VAT and delivery.

Even that is overkill but hey save some money !!!

 

[LFFPicard]

Hi!

Below is a spec that is more than enough for your needs and also saves you £500
16GB of ram is overkill for Shogun and any games out.
GTX590 is overkill as well.
You had the SSD as a 2nd hard drive witch means it would not be a bootable drive and makes the SSD a waste on performance. I moved it to the primary drive for windows and it will still have enough room for a couple of games for speed and then a caviar green as a second storage drive.

I missed the speakers off but as your £500 better off I am sure you can add them back in
The spec will last you a good few years and there is really no need to get big overclock parts for future when they are really not needed.
Also I gave you a GTX580 as it is the bets single GPU there is and gave you the Pro motherboard so you can drop another card in in a couple years for more performance. with the GTX590 you cant upgrade easily.

Case
ANTEC NINE HUNDRED TWO V3 - UK, The Ultimate Gaming Case, Evolved
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics - Plenty for gaming and there really is no difference in performance between this and the 2600
Motherboard
ASUS® P8P67 PRO (NEW REV 3.0): USB 3.0/SATA 6Gb/s, CrossFireX™ & SLI - Went for pro so you can upgrade Sli later if required
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB) - 16GB is major overkill 4GB is the recommended at the moment so I have doubled that for future proof
Graphics Card
1.5GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 580 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - DX® 11, 3D Vision Ready
Free Item
FREE Need For Speed™ World Starter Pack with any Nvidia® GTS450 or above!
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
160GB INTEL® 320 SERIES SSD, SATA 3 Gb/s (upto 270MB/sR | 165MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
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 1000W PRO SERIES (HX1000) 80+ MODULAR PSU (£170)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19) - More than enough, the water cooling is overkill
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD) - Just as good as dedicated sound card so saves pennies here
Network Facilities
ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£16)
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
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
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: £1,546.00 including VAT and delivery.

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

 

[liamnic2]

Thanks alot. I will have to wait till a few months until final set up but I have a few questions still.

Would'nt it be better to just go for the GTX590, shogun 2 running maxed with a 580 can struggle so wouldnt the 590 be better for future games.

I understand what you mean with the 8GB instead of 4GB but would wont games eventually need 8GB min.

I chose the watercooling and the big case :
1. the case looks awsome
2. It has plenty of airflow and space
3. And I am a big hater of dust

I also dont like to mess around with a PC incase I screw something up so getting all these things now will stop me having to upgrade in the future.

I know you say the 590 and 16GB RAM is overkill and yes it is but sooner or later the 590 will be like outdated and good enough and the soon games will also need 6-8GB RAM.

Plus If I buy all this stuff the now then that will save me even more money in the future.

Thnaks for all the advice though, ill consider some of it.

Just to let you know. I dont plan on going SLI, in the future I will just buy a better Graphics Card and swap it.

Also can anyone tell me if theres a diffrence between SATA 3 gb/s and SATA 6 gb/s hard drives ? If I dont need SATA 6 gb/s then that will save me some money.


Thanks

 

[Drunken Monkey]

I personally think by the time you will need 8gb and a 590 as standard, there will be better and cheaper options available to you. As for the harddrives, it refers to the transfer rate, (lol i hope i'm right about the harddrive thing) anyways the bigger the number, the faster it is, the faster it is the quicker stuff loads up ? :S

 

[LFFPicard]

The 590 is a duel GPU card, this means more heat more cooling required, more dust produced
But if your intention is to just replace the card when a better one comes out then by all means get a 590, I chose the 580 as it will be much cheaper up front, and much cheaper in a couple years to drop a second 580 in sli and it will outlast the 590 and still be cheaper by the end of its life.

If I remember rightly the 590 cant run in sli for two reasons. There is not a PSU powerful enough for it. And because it is a Dual GPU design it is fatter and you cannot get a second card in sli without serious issues with heat and airflow if at all.

And Shogun is by no means a struggle for the 580. Infact I have a friend running it on a sli 460 rig and it runs perfectly fine. Anybody who says different is just referring to the buggy campaign map as it is not the smoothest of maps to move.

 

[JSG10]

580 struggle with Shogun 2?? I very much doubt that! I'm hoping my GTX470 will still run it at max no problem! It should be able to! So a 580 will breeze through it

 

[LDUK]

With the SATA 3 gb/s and SATA 6 gb/s it makes no difference and is a gimmik, since no hard drive can transfer at that speed anyway. Even SSD's can't transfer data at them speeds. I still don't understand the whole point in it.

Either way, you'll notice no diffence so going for the 3 gb/s will be fine.

 

[liamnic2]

Thanks alot guys

I think I'll wait for what comes out in a few months and if nothing really changes then I'll just go for the 580 since it runs shogun 2 ok.
I think also since the 580 is 1.5GB I'll just go back to 8GB RAM, I dont think windows is going to use up 1.5GB of RAM lol

If I can, do you think I should get the ASUS MAXIMUS IV EXTREME. I think it will make the PC more future proof and it is supposed to have awsome mobo sound.
The only problem with it is that I cant get a sound card in becuase it only supports PCI-E0 devices.
If anyone thinks its a waste money then please tell me.

You have all saved me lots of money, thanks!

 

[LFFPicard]

The Maximus is another overkill item, stick with the Pro board, it has everything you need and the sound is perfectly fine for your needs.

 

[liamnic2]

OK guys.

After following some advice heres what I came up with.

Case

COOLERMASTER HAF-X FULL TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)

Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard

ASUS® P8P67 PRO (NEW REV 3.0): USB 3.0/SATA 6Gb/s, CrossFireX™ & SLI
Memory (RAM)

8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card

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

FREE Need For Speed™ World Starter Pack with any Nvidia® GTS450 or above!
Memory - 1st Hard Disk

60GB OCZ VERTEX 2 SERIES SSD, SATA 3 Gb/s (upto 285MB/sR | 275MB/sW)
2nd 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
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 GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD (£19)
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

BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Keyboard & Mouse

LOGITECH® INTERENT 350 USB KEYBOARD (£9)
Speakers

LOGITECH Z323 2.1 SPEAKERS - 30W RMS with 360 Degree Sound (£45)
Warranty

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


£1540 inc VAT and Delivery

I am hoping I will still max shogun 2 no probs.

One of the things that annoys me is the Triple Copper Heatpipe, it looks soo old compared to the Titan FENRIR EVO, which doesnt even fit on any of the mobo's so why is it even an option?

Does the Triple heatpipe really cool that well, even though it looks old?

I cut down to a 60GB SSD. Its for the OS, which should be around 15GB. Other stuff on it will just be JAVA, anti virus, flash player, basically all the stuff I need to watch youtube and play browser games like desert operations.

If the bullgaurd security trial runs out, can I just stay off the internet to avoid viruses. I can download all the programs within 90 days and have them checked.

Does anyone think the case is a bit much?
If I cut it back then I will go as far as the antec 902.
The reason I like the HAFX soo much is becuase its looks awsome, gives good airflow and is easy to clean.

 

[liamnic2]

Also, PCS should try and do some freebies.

Arbic,cyberpower and other sites are giving away free games like shogun2, mafia 2 etc.... Just for purchasing any PC with a GTS450 and above.

 

[Nemesis]

I think it depends on who they source their GPUs from alot of the time
e.g
PCS source most of their NVIDIA cards from Palit hence the NFS world starter pack deal with a GTS 450 +

 

[LFFPicard]

Also the Shogun offer is for ATI cards so it depend son that source as well.

My advice for your build would be to drop the ram to the Samsung to save some pennies. If you want to save some money on the case drop to the HAF 932, perfectly fine and not much different to the HAF-X.
As for the Anti Virus, you could remove the bullguard and just get Microsoft Security Essentials or another free anti virus like Avast! or AVG. All perfectly fine and sometimes even better than paid versions.

Otherwise solid build and will run Shogun no issues.

 

[JSG10]

Most definitely go and download Microsoft Security Essentials. Why would you leave such an expensive and brand new machine unprotected? Just asking for trouble.

 

[liamnic2]

Hello agian guys

Im going to get a SSD and a HDD.

The HDD is only for games. It will be the first time I will have two drives. Do I need RAID to be able to put games on the hard drive without any problems ?
Im used to just downloading stuff. How would Iknow which drive im downloading too.

Can anyone give me an example.

By the way I dont use steam.
All the games I play are bought on CD/DVD ROM

 

[Nemesis]

No you wont need raid to use more than one drive

When your downloading stuff the browser will normally ask you where to save to (You will then specify -Wherever- and that will become the default save location)

 

[liamnic2]

So all I have to do is just go to "SAVE TO" then go to my computer and then select the 1TB HDD. Seems easy enough thanks!

By the way. How many people roam these forums lol
It only took 2mins to get a reply!!

 

[Nemesis]

You dont get the name troll for no reason

Yeh but youll have to format the drive first (NTFS and such....)
But thats as easy as trying to open it in windows explorer