Would like a little advice...

greyeric

Member
Here's what I'm thinking of:

Case
ANTEC 900 BLACK GAMING CASE (£79)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-950 (3.06GHz) 4.8GTs/8MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P6X58D-E: DDR3, USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, 3-Way SLI
Memory (RAM)
6GB CORSAIR XMS3 TRI-DDR3 1600MHz (3 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
2nd Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
640GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD6402AAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk
640GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD6402AAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
RAID
RAID 0 (STRIPED VOLUME - 2 x same size & model HDD / SSD) (£9)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply & Case Cooling
CORSAIR 850W PSU (TX850) 80+ ULTRA QUIET (£100)
Processor Cooling
TITAN FENRIR EXTREME DIRECT TOUCH COPPER CPU COOLER (£39)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
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
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED


I'm interested in peoples thoughts on the case, the cooling and the PSU?

Any comments are appreciated!

Will
 

Meds

Moderator
Moderator
Hi Will,

The specification as a whole looks great - everything is compatible and well balanced so you're not going to have any performance issues, that's for sure!

A couple of points though;

1. Raid 0 - do you really need it? RAID 0 splits the data between both HDDs to increase the read/write speeds when loading/saving to the HDD. The downside to this, is that RAID can sometimes be a bit "flaky", if the RAID degrades it is very difficult to repair and generally will require it to be deleted and created again resulting in a loss of data and full re installation of OS, drivers and all software. I personally wouldn't want to run the risk of going through this for a minimal performance increase.

2. Case - the Antec 900 is a very popular case with us and in the gaming community in general. However, they are quite small and the cable management isn't the best. Poor cable management can lead to inferior cooling and reduce the aesthetics of the internals (un-used cables stored where you can see them). It all depends how picky you are with little things like this :) The CM690 Advance & HAF 922 in my opinion is are better cases.

Apart from that, every things else is great.
 

Gishank

Bright Spark
Looks a good rig and should perform well, PSU should manage. I am curious as to why you chose RAID 0, considering it barely gives any noticable performence increase for the average user and in turn doubles the risk of data loss. If one HDD fatally dies it's all your data gone with no chance to recover it.

EDIT;
The PCSpecialist forums need that dynamic thread updating feature methinks, lol.
 
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Gishank

Bright Spark
Essentially if a reply is made, then it is added to the thread dynamically with a notification to the user so the new or edited posts can be read without interruption and whilst posting a response. I have seen the addional feature on several other vBulletin boards. (Assuming that makes sense far too early for my brain to function.)
 
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greyeric

Member
It's like in gmail when you get a new email in a conversation and it pops up at the bottom asking if you want to see the new message ;)

Thanks for the input on the spec, gonna get rid of the raid 0 - the main reason I'd chosen it was because I had had it recommended for performance. Have changed the case to the HAF 922 as well!

Just out of interest does anyone know when PCS will be getting more GTX 460s in stock? If I select the 5 day dispatch I get a message saying there might not be enough stock in time.

Thanks for all the help!

Will
 

PCS

Administrator
Staff member
I see what you mean - so it's Ajax based. I'll look into it, thanks.
 

greyeric

Member
Hi all,

I have a quick further question. After the help here and some chatting with the online support (who are awesome!) I've changed the spec around a little...

I was looking at the case and cooling options and running the two GTX 460s (which I am told can run up to 90*c ?) will make the case quite hot.

Does the temperature in the case have a major effect on the life of the components? And what sort of life do you guys think I'd be looking at with this spec?


Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-950 (3.06GHz) 4.8GTs/8MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P6X58D-E: DDR3, USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, 3-Way SLI
Memory (RAM)
6GB KINGSTON HYPER-X TRI-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (3 x 2GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
2nd Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st 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
Power Supply & Case Cooling
CORSAIR 850W PSU (TX850) 80+ ULTRA QUIET (£100)
Processor Cooling
TITAN FENRIR EXTREME DIRECT TOUCH COPPER CPU COOLER (£39)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
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
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
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 5 WORKING DAY DISPATCH (£29)
Quantity
1

Price: £1,218.00 including VAT and delivery.





Once again thanks for all your help!!
 

Sleinous

Author Level
My 470 has never gone to 90deg yet so I wouldnt worry about it. have you considered just one GTX 480 or 470 as well? Giving you the option of buying the second one later on when they go down in price giving you - in teh long run - a far more powerful pair of GPUs than the 460s? Just some extra thoughts :)
 

greyeric

Member
Ah ok :)

how does a 470 compare with 2 460s?

I'm a little bit hesitant because im a student, dont have much money and have worked through summer to afford this - im not sure i will have the month in 12 months time to buy another card...
 

Sleinous

Author Level
2x 460s equates to about 1 470 + about 1/2 470.

2x 470 = 1x 480 + 1/3 480 ish

2x 480 = Immense.

2x 460s will cost you more (I think) than a 470 seeing as its £100 more for teh 470. Im using a 470 right now and its breezing through GTA, BFBC2 etc etc, I expect it to breeze through TDU2 as well, so it should last way over a year. Yep, im a student too :p had to work most my holiday to pay for it, as im not using my grant for this lol, doesnt even cover tuition fees -.-
 
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greyeric

Member
Thanks for the comparisons - I've been flicking through quite a lot of benchmarks but those are really handy!!

I'm in absolutely the same position then :p well my thinking was: may as well spend the extra and have the better graphics while i can afford it...!

How does your 470 handle far cry 2?
 

Sleinous

Author Level
I dont have far cry 2 unfortunately but, a quick search on youtube and I bet there will be someone playing it hehe. I can play GTA IV on near max, obviously the drawback is all that holds me back, if you wanted max drawback youd probs need like 20 GTX 480s lol.

Bfbc2 is maxed, so I think far cry 2 should be maxable, ill have a look at the specs now.

EDIT: recommended specs are 8600GS, so yes, it will blow it away on max.
 
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Phoenix

Prolific Poster
2x 460s equates to about 1 470 + about 1/2 470.

2x 470 = 1x 480 + 1/3 480 ish

2x 480 = Immense.

Two GTX 460's in SLI will actually beat GTX480 nevermind a GTX470!

Crysis test:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-460-sli-geforce-gtx-480,2694-6.html

DIRT 2 test:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-460-sli-geforce-gtx-480,2694-7.html

Alien Vs Predator test:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-460-sli-geforce-gtx-480,2694-4.html
 

Sleinous

Author Level
:O

All the more reason to get a 480 now and get a second later :p Imagine what 2x 480s would be? Equivalent of atleast 4 GTX 460s and when you consider that buying one GTX 480 now and one later at (lets say) half teh cost of the original one, its gonna be way cheaper than buying 2 GTX 460s now which will basically equate to a 480
 

greyeric

Member
Wow, thanks for the links there!

Well the difference is like £70 between 2x 460s and a 480. so I'm leaning towards the 460s at the moment (mainly due to budget).

The graphics card(s) is currently the one bit I'm really unsure about....

Will
 

PCS

Administrator
Staff member
Your spec looks great and you have aselected a really good cooling solution with your case, CPU fan and PSU, so there's nothing to worry about here and you will get years of use from your PC. :)
 

Sleinous

Author Level
Wow, thanks for the links there!

Well the difference is like £70 between 2x 460s and a 480. so I'm leaning towards the 460s at the moment (mainly due to budget).

The graphics card(s) is currently the one bit I'm really unsure about....

what about a gtx 470 then? Everything i throw at it passes with flying colours and 1 x 470 is cheaper, and when u add the 2nd itll outperform the 2x 460s. Tbh there are very very few games out there that will push a 470 anywhere near its limits.
 
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greyeric

Member
what about a gtx 470 then? Everything i throw at it passes with flying colours and 1 x 470 is cheaper, and when u add the 2nd itll outperfotm the 2x 460s. Tbh there are very very few games out there that will push a 470 anywhere near its limits.


Good shout, so I'm now considering 470 or 480... but yeah 470 sounds like a good idea - then I'll probably put like £150 to one side and when they have come down in price to ~£180 I'll buy another!
 
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