Planning to buy a new gaming desktop.

S

stalker

Member
Hello, could you please help me to choose. I am looking for a powerful gaming desktop and have a following configuration in mind:
Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X6 1100T (3.30GHz/9MB CACHE) - BLACK EDITION
Motherboard
ASUS® CROSSHAIR IV EXTREME: DDR3, USB 3.0, SATA 6.0Gb/s, R.O GAMERS
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
2GB AMD RADEON™ HD6970 - 2 DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
Free Item
FREE Total War Shogun™ 2 with any AMD® Radeon™ Graphics card!
Memory - 1st 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
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W TX SERIES (TX850) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£99)
Processor Cooling
COOLIT ECO A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£49)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) 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 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 11 to 13 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,209.00 including VAT and delivery.

Questions:
1) Not so sure about the case, don't really bother how it looks as long as it black. What I do care about is how efficiently its liquid/fan coolers can chill it.

2) As far as I am concerned, it is better to buy one good video card rather than 2 dual cards for the same price or I am missing something?

3) Liquid fan cooler vs Heatpipe CPU cooler (£39)

4) Hard Drive: SSD vs Caviar Black 1TB. If I get it right, SSD is a future generation hard drives which can read/write data really fast. Does it worth buying them now as long as they are quite expensive and low on capacity?

Thank you for your help
 
LinearHD

LinearHD

Rising Star
If you're not overclocking, I'd suggest reducing the RAM to the standard 1333, as the overclocked ram won't have any benefits until you overclock the CPU. For the same reason, reduce the cooling to the triple heat pipe as it'll do fine unless your overclocking. The CPU can go to 1090T if you do plan to overclock as the 1100T isn't worth the money. Also, the motherboard is specifically designed for overclocking.

The Fenrir Cooler is better then the ALC 120 according to several reviews/graphs.

SSD's will rapidly decrease in price over the next year so really, unless you have the money to blow, it's worth waiting a while and going for a Caviar Black drive.

With a budget like that, I'd suggest getting an i7-2600, but your call.
 
P

pcdan

Bronze Level Poster
you probably want to go for the silver warranty as well for £5 for a year return and collect
 
Fear

Fear

Prolific Poster
I will second the advice on the above 2 post's what is your budget ? maybe we can get you some alternative choices to consider.
 
S

stalker

Member
LinearHD said:
If you're not overclocking, I'd suggest reducing the RAM to the standard 1333, as the overclocked ram won't have any benefits until you overclock the CPU. For the same reason, reduce the cooling to the triple heat pipe as it'll do fine unless your overclocking. The CPU can go to 1090T if you do plan to overclock as the 1100T isn't worth the money. Also, the motherboard is specifically designed for overclocking.

The Fenrir Cooler is better then the ALC 120 according to several reviews/graphs.

SSD's will rapidly decrease in price over the next year so really, unless you have the money to blow, it's worth waiting a while and going for a Caviar Black drive.

With a budget like that, I'd suggest getting an i7-2600, but your call.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your advice.
What is the advantage of having i7 Intel comparing to AMD PHENOM II X6. I am not a specialist, however, price wise you can get 6 core processor with Phenom 2, where with in Intel, you get 4 core for the same money. I don't think I am going to overclock in the distant future, so probably, it is more wise to take Crosshair 4 Formula / M4A89TD Pro then, what do you think?
 
Fear

Fear

Prolific Poster
With regard to the 6 core and 4 core CPU's you will find that games will not make use of them i have a 6 core CPU and on most games it will virtually max 1 core out and use maybe a quarter to half of 2 more cores so this leaves 3 cores idle so you will get no benefit from the X6 also the i7 runs at 3.4 GHz which is a faster clock speed which will help speed things up hope this helps you out.
 
Last edited:
Fear

Fear

Prolific Poster
Not sure if you want the option for dual cards at a later date or not if you do you will need to upgrade the PSU's on the builds anyway i have done an AMD CPU/GPU and also Intel/Nvidia spec as something to consider both well under you budget also i have only put 4GB ram in you can stick with 8GB for future proofing but my system while running games is only using around 2GB.

Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 970 (3.50GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3) - BLACK EDITION
Motherboard
ASUS® M4A89TD PRO/USB3 : DDR3, USB 3.0, SATA 6.0Gb/s, CrossFireX
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
2GB AMD RADEON™ HD6970 - 2 DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
Free Item
FREE Total War Shogun™ 2 with any AMD® Radeon™ Graphics card!
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
640GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD6402AAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
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 750W TX SERIES (TX750) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£86)
Processor Cooling
TITAN FENRIR EVO EXTREME HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£39)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) 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: £1,023.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/amd-top-spec-pc/


Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V PRO: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, NVIDIA® SLI™, ATI® CrossFireX™
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1.5GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 580 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - DX® 11, 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
640GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD6402AAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
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
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TX SERIES (TX650) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£72)
Processor Cooling
TITAN FENRIR EVO EXTREME HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£39)
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: £1,300.00 including VAT and delivery.

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