gaming computer advice

[VeNoM56k]

Buying a new gaming pc in a few weeks and am looking around. I made this one on pcspecialist.co.uk

just want to know what yee think and if any of yee know if pcspecialist.com are any good.

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 922 MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® MAXIMUS IV EXTREME: INTEL P67 REPUBLIC OF GAMERS BOARD
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1280MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX470 - 2 DVI,mHDMI - DX® 11, 3D
2nd Graphics Card
1280MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX470 - 2 DVI,mHDMI - DX® 11, 3D
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
CORSAIR 850W TX SERIES (TX850) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU
Processor Cooling
COOLIT ECO A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER)
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

1690 euro for the lot.

Also if anyone else has any websites that do good systems send me a link so i can have a look. was originally going to buy an alienware but they are way overpriced for what you get.

anyway thanks.

[Baxter]

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE

this isnt a good drive for a primary disk, look for a black WD drive, samsung spinpoint f3 or seagate barracuda (its an ok secondary disk though)

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence

you can get an OEM version of this which should be cheaper ($100 AUD, so like ~60 euro?)

[VeNoM56k]

would a 1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm) be ok????

[Baxter]

yup, that would suffice

[KnowLedge]

I personally think ur paying wayyy too much.

Firstly, its a gaming computer... so you dont really need sound card unless you have plans to hook it up to a home theater system or something.....
Also, Ive had bad experience with nvidia, (driver problems, blue screens on their card, eventual death of card in 3 years)

now, here is my comp I build in the winter break, it cost me $600 Canadian $

4 gigs ram
1 tb WD HDD
MSI MOBO (with HDMI slot)
AMD quadcore 2.9 ghz
wireless adaptar card
and a $100 case from coolmax which came with a psu.

granted this comp cant play any current games on excellent graphics.. but when I add a $200 video card, Itl be just as well as yours..

I built this comp to connect it up to my LCD tv, mainly for entertainment.. SO when I decide to play games, Ill buy a video card..

I recommend buying a wireless pci card, simply so you can move the comp around your house and dont have to worry about getting the ethernet cable.

Other then that it looks fine.. but really $1600 Euro, you should jsut aim for a inter i7

[Iƒrit]

I'm currently in a Comp TIA class and have over 14 years of hands on experience with PCs Id personally recommend a AMD Phenom X4 955 and get a board that has easy to overclock features you can turn it into a X6 with a breeze. Just make sure you can give it the juice it needs and give it a nice cooler, I recommend a ZALMAN. Also I would use two hard drives, your primary drive as a Solid State Hard Drive (SSD) and use that for your Operating System, important programs, and games (64GBs is what I am using, no its not a lot, but I don't use it for storage, its for its seek time, and to give you an idea its load win7 twice as fast as my SATA drive). Your secondary drive can should be a SATA use this as your storage/non-important programs (I'm using a 300GB VelociRaptor). SSDs are more robust and faster then a magnetic drive. I know I have looked at that case before, can't remember if its the one with a 230mm side fan, if not I would recommend that. And lastly its recommended that you use a power supply unit (PSU) that is as close to 30% (as possible) over your system requirement, so that you get longevity of your system, and looking at your graphics cards, without actually going to check standards Id say you want something more powerful then a 850W, you can find a "power supply calculator" through google, just add 30% to that recommend and that is what you should get as close to as possible. Also spare NO cost on a PSU, electrical systems can cause most of your problems, even if intermittent, and you want one that will run healthy for as long as possible. They wear over time very easily, and even faster based on higher loads. DEFINITELY spare no cost!!

EDIT - just noticed the liquid cooling, if that is what you are doing then don't worry about the zalman cooler I recommended.

EDIT 2 - just added to the SDD/HDD recommended I posted.

[KnowLedge]

no way, 850 watts is way too much for that system..

btw AMD is more efficient, but if you are going for the upper end (ie quad core or more) then Intel is better because of its performance..

[Iƒrit]

no way, 850 watts is way too much for that system..

btw AMD is more efficient, but if you are going for the upper end (ie quad core or more) then Intel is better because of its performance..

P2 is only slightly lower then an i5 and cost drastically lower (the 955BE has the 3rd highest overclock ratings when comparing it to other processors in it league), why pay for such little improvement? If your plan is to get something lower in cost at the moment and that mobo supports the i7 then by all means go with the i-series the i7 has amazing reads right now, just its cost is way to high imo, specially when you can get near as good with the X6.

And what you are refering to specifically ('performance') is the "Turbo Boost Technology" it essentially allows lower clocks to run at higher speeds, and its only marginal, not something I would label "turbo".

As for the watts, if you are not following the 30% rule that is recommended by standards then 850 watts is fine, I came up with a total of 688 watts with what was given, there was some information missing, adding 30% puts it at 880 watts. The 850 watt will work, but its not "way to much", depends on how much life you want out of the PSU. Try reading cause I did mention I didn't check what I imagined to not be enough for longevity.

[GOLDEN WING]

Buying a new gaming pc in a few weeks and am looking around. I made this one on pcspecialist.co.uk

just want to know what yee think and if any of yee know if pcspecialist.com are any good.

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 922 MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® MAXIMUS IV EXTREME: INTEL P67 REPUBLIC OF GAMERS BOARD
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1280MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX470 - 2 DVI,mHDMI - DX® 11, 3D - Upgrade to 3-5GB Gfx card.
2nd Graphics Card
1280MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX470 - 2 DVI,mHDMI - DX® 11, 3D
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
CORSAIR 850W TX SERIES (TX850) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU
Processor Cooling
COOLIT ECO A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER)
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

1690 euro for the lot.

Also if anyone else has any websites that do good systems send me a link so i can have a look. was originally going to buy an alienware but they are way overpriced for what you get.

anyway thanks.

Highlighted green what is good added my 2 cents for what you need for the newer game expecally ones that run on Win7 with the Drx10 its got so i suggest spending a lil extra upgrading your HFX card to a good 5GB for barly any cost.

[RBR]

samsung spinpoint f3-500gb
the fastest hdd in the market, buy two of them and put them in raid
3 times faster then your 1t hdd

[TimeGap]

I personally think ur paying wayyy too much.

Firstly, its a gaming computer... so you dont really need sound card unless you have plans to hook it up to a home theater system or something.....
Also, Ive had bad experience with nvidia, (driver problems, blue screens on their card, eventual death of card in 3 years)

now, here is my comp I build in the winter break, it cost me $600 Canadian $

4 gigs ram
1 tb WD HDD
MSI MOBO (with HDMI slot)
AMD quadcore 2.9 ghz
wireless adaptar card
and a $100 case from coolmax which came with a psu.

granted this comp cant play any current games on excellent graphics.. but when I add a $200 video card, Itl be just as well as yours..

I built this comp to connect it up to my LCD tv, mainly for entertainment.. SO when I decide to play games, Ill buy a video card..

I recommend buying a wireless pci card, simply so you can move the comp around your house and dont have to worry about getting the ethernet cable.

Other then that it looks fine.. but really $1600 Euro, you should jsut aim for a inter i7

Uhm. No.

Why settle for the cheap components and substandard system... Indeed, it IS a gaming PC, and you want to squeeze every bit of performance out of it...

You WANT to run ANY game at full effects and still get max FPS...

And you want to do it at LEAST for the next year, which this machine can acheive...

As for the sound card, Im STILL using my Creative Audigy 2... Simply Awesome 5.1 sound, especially great for games like BFBC2 or even StarCraftII Having decent sound really increases the games in a big way, make sure you have proper speakers/headset for it though, Seinheisser have some awesome wireless headphones

Overall, as mentioned about the other primary drive, it seems like a decent pc allround.

But, why not go I7? Think about that

[Baxter]

the soundcard is actually part of the motherboard, is it not?

Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

[GOLDEN WING]

just put 1k euro into it buying 1 thing at a time instead of a bundle like they are offering. ends up much cheaper and spend the rest getting your system Over clocked like i did

[TimeGap]

the soundcard is actually part of the motherboard, is it not?

Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Do you see the problem? U highlighted it even...

Onboard will NEVER give you the same quality sound as a decent card... No matter what they say, its just not the same...

[Kit-Fox]

Removed