My new machine

[bmstalker]

@TurksMeister wrote:

What do you use the 3 monitors for? Minecraft?!

Nope, I’ve so far used it for Dirt 3, BF3 and World of Tanks. Looks awesome

[XDC wild egg tamer]

just been onto the pcspecialist site and specced a pc hopefully similar to what i will eventually be buying myself. I’d like some feedback if possible, in particular if it’s worth going for win 8 or is win 7 better? Also, should i just go for a higher capacity SSD and not have a HDD at all (i’ve a netergear readynas duo with 2x2tb drives installed on my home network) and if so, how much storage is needed for the OS and games like BF3?

spec:

Case
COOLERMASTER SILEO 500 QUIET MID TOWER CASE
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™i5-3570k Quad Core (3.40GHz @ max 4.60GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPERX BEAST DUAL-DDR3 2400MHz X.M.P (4 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 670 – 2 DVI, HDMI, DP – 3D Vision Ready
Memory – 1st Hard Disk
240GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB 3.5″ SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB 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 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H40 Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler (£39)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Sound Card
Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Xtreme Audio (£32)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT – AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8 64 Bit – inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
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 11 working days
Miscellaneous
FREE METRO: LAST LIGHT GAME with GTX 660 & UPWARDS GPUs!
Quantity
1

Price: £1,317.00 including VAT and delivery.

I intend to wait until BF4 is released as by then the new intel chips will be out as well as the next range of gfx cards from nvidia etc but also it gives me time to get some funds together but wondered if the above spec would handle games like BF3/4 at highest settings. One last thing, is there any point in having the audigy soundcard installed if i’m only using a headset or at best stereo speakers? I used to have (and still have them in the loft) a creative surround sound 6.1 speaker set up in my old office but now the pc is in the front room i can’t have the sound booming out like i used to 🙁

[bmstalker]

Looks like a solid setup WET.

A few things to note, although Intels next cpu will be out in a month or 2, the next gen GPUs will be next year at the earliest according to both manufacturers so likely, you will need to get current gen cards.

Also, BF4 is running on the frostbyte 2 engine, the same as BF3 so any card that easily handles BF3 just now will do similarly well in BF4. A card such as the 670, if you are running on a single screen at or below 1920×1080 will be more than enough.

In my previous machine, I had a creative X-Fi Xtreme gamer sound card. In this machine, I am using the mobo’s sound. It could be that I don’t appreciate a better class of audio, but I have noticed no difference in quality of sound (in the games I play, I don’t watch films/records music etc).

For windows, I guess it’s your choice. I had a few Win7 keys lying around so it would have been silly for me to buy a Win8 key. I’m not sold on Win8 and the only feature it has that I would like is a quick bootup tim of around 7 seconds. My PC boots in 15 now so not that much of a difference anyway, guess it’s down to personal choice and if you can get a hold of a Win7 key on the cheap, I would do that.

With the SSDs etc, it depends on how you use it. A 250GB drive, by the time you have installed windows, all its updates/sps and a game or 2, will likely be down to around 180GB. If you install maybe 10 games, you will be running low on disk space. HDs are cheap, I’d say go for the bigger SSD whilst you can and if you reach a point in the future where you need more internal space (to install more games/programs) go and buy another HD then, they are cheap and easy to install anyway.

These are of course all my opinion, but hope I’ve helped.

[XDC wild egg tamer]

cheers for the reply mate. BF4 is being built on frostbite 3:

http://bf4central.com/2013/03/battlefield-4-engine-frostbite-3/

Though what that would mean in real terms gaming i have no idea but assume a decent gfx card could still do it justice.
I’m currently using a standard 19″ monitor running at 1280×1024 though intend to get a 24″ at some point; seen this one:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-050-AS

which i like the look of and it seems to have a good response time so again assume it should be ok for gaming.

Regards the sound card, i may well just stick with the onboard, i do have an old audigy in my old pc which i could possibly still use if need be. The pc will only be for gaming, surfing the interweb and messing around with photoshop so no need to have sooperdooper surround 7.1 goodness blasting out 😉

With the SSD, i may well just go for the 240gb option. The only games i play are FPS so once set up i may well install BF1942 for some retro gaming and possibly arma2 for the DayZ mod alongside BF4.

I’d probably just go with win 8. The last version of windows i was using was XP so i have no win 7 keys to hand.

So tempted to just go for it now and get some BF3 games in but shall refrain lol.

[bmstalker]

Very interesting, I had read it was FB2. Either way, from watching the video, it doesn’t seem like a massive upgrade from FB2 and I’m sure at 1080p and below a 670 would achieve at least 60fps at ultra settings.

As it happens, I have a nice samsung 22″ @ 1680×1050 (£70) and 24″ @ 1920×1200 (£100 but possibly already sold) I’m looking to sell on the cheap but that monitor also looks sweet.

[Alzir]

There are a few areas you might want to look at in that build, which looks good but I’m curious how it tots up to 1300 quid, especially with no monitor in there.

The motherboard description caught my eye as it highlights Crossfire support with no mention of SLI, and a quick google turned up this: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/z77-express-ivy-bridge-benchmark,review-32489-6.html

Also missing are any PCIe 3.0 pathway switches, which would have made x8/x8 mode possible for the P8Z77-V LX’s two x16-length slots. Instead, users get one slot locked into 16-lane transfers and a second locked into four-lane PCIe 2.0 transfers through the Z77 PCH. That limitation still allows for CrossFire configurations, but crosses SLI off the feature list, unless you get your hands on a single-card, dual GPU solution.

Maybe the more technically minded can look into that a bit further for you, but that would suggest to me that you’ll not get the most out of two GTX 670’s.

That being said, if you’re still using a 19 inch monitor, you probably have no need for two in the first place. As Ben has told me a few times, the max resolution you can use in a game is limited by your monitor’s native resolution, which in turn is more or less determined by the screen size. For example, Ben plays at 1920×1080 on a 24 inch screen, whereas I’ll play at 1680 x 1050 on a 22 inch screen, which is the highest the monitor supports, however with a smaller screen area, the picture quality is pretty much the same. The lower resolution on the smaller screen is less demanding on the GPU (my laymans understanding of it anyway), so you could save yourself a healthy chunk of cash just by dropping one of those two cards, and even use your spare cash to go for a better monitor. Even one GTX 670 will likely run BF4 on top settings on a 24 inch screen (Ben has two cards because he has 3 screens).

There are small areas where you can save in there as well, for example the thermal paste is £9 you probably don’t need to spend, unless you plan on dismantling your entire setup to apply a new coat of paste to your CPU or GPU. If that’s something you’d not be comfortable with, drop it off the shopping list. If the need ever arises to do it yourself, you can easily pick a tube of paste up a local hardware store, for probably the same price.

As Ben also mentioned, the sound card is something you could easily drop as well, but that’ll boil down to personal preference. I have no issues with a set of £5 speakers/microsoft headset and mic, using onboard sound.

Regarding how big to go with your SSD, consider only how you’ll be using the machine. At the moment you’ve not got many games on your list, and if that remains the case, you’ve no need to go bigger than 240 gb. I have a lot of games installed and a 250 gb SSD just about covers the main ones I use, but I have to juggle things around sometimes. As time goes on I’ll expect this to be an area where I’ll have to upgrade, however as time goes on the price of SSD’s should also drop further than have done so far.

Re windows 8, I’m also not sold on it and don’t see the need to go for it at this time. Windows 7 is pretty good, and is probably going to remain the main OS in use for some time, much in the same way as XP was. If the supplier can offer you a cheaper price on win 7 than win 8, I’d take it.

Finally, regarding the hardware requirements for BF4, I think it’s safe to assume the jump in hardware requirements will not be as great as it was on BF3’s release. Aside from all the technical nonsense regarding the engine, EA are positioned this year to take a proper chunk out of Activision’s Call of Duty sales, and they’ll not want to jeopardise that by releasing a game that requires half the world upgrading their PC’s. Their focus this time around will likely be on making the game ready for the XBOX 720 so, while the engine may be called frostbite 3, it’ll probably just be a lick of paint over the current engine (maybe also some increased destruction), as far as PC users are concerned anyway. In short, I don’t expect them to push the boat out too far in terms of hardware requirements for BF4, and the i5, GTX670, and RAM listed above, will be more than enough for you.

[bmstalker]

Agreed with Matt’s comments about thermal paste, the main components I checked was the CPU/GPU etc. He only has 1x 670 on the list so lack of SLI isn’t an issue. You caould do it a lot cheaper and get more performance for your budget as matt said. When you come to buy, I can help you pick out exact components rather than the “rough” outline you have here if you’d like.

[XDC wild egg tamer]

cheers guys, i have no idea about mobo’s; SLI etc as that came along a while after my last pc build and i’ve been out the scene for a good few years now.

I’m not afraid to do a home build, i still have a decent case that houses the pc i bought off pharty some years back – a centurion i think it is (possibly coolermaster) which i could possibly still use if it can house the current gfx cards?

I’ll be sure to come and seek your advice chaps 😉

[Lammie]

Wet me ol Mucka, I’ve recently done a complete system build ( 3 months or so ago) and got away with just over £800 so that £1300 seems a bit steep. I bought all mine from Aria.co.uk and apart from their shite courier service ( they used Shittylink) all good. I’ve still to buy a monitor, but currently using a 32′ TV as an interim.

My Specs are:

Case :Coolermaster CM Storm Enforcer £71.50
Mobo: Gigabyte Z77X-D3H – £104.27 Same as Ben and is an awesome board!
CPU : Intel Ivybridge i5 3570K £176.40 – Solid performer and can overclocker like fook if you can be arsed. No need for an i7 unless you will be running true multithreaded applications.
CPU Fan : Stock Intel – runs fine, and as I’ve not overcloked the CPU no need for an aftermarket one yet…
Memory: 8Gb Corsair Vengence Red Dual Channel 1866Mhz £79.99 although you can buy cheaper memory
GPU : AMD Radeon HD7850 XFX Core Edition 2Gb DDR5 £143.99 – I can run BF3 on Ultra Settings across the board with no issues at all.
SSD : 128GB OCZ Vertex 4 £129.64
HDD: 1TB Seagate Barracuda SataIII £47.50
Soundcard : Using onboard with no issues.
PSU: OCZ ZT Series 650W Modular £85.00 – Tip do not buy a crap PSU get something half reasonable to protect your investment
OS: None – I had a copy of Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit spare so used that.

Total £838.29

So depending on your budget, and ultimatley what your going to use the PC for, you dont need to spend a fortune and get yourself a reasonable gaming PC more that capable of running the latest titles at decent resolutions and frame rates. Remember your eyes can only process so much information (99FPS from memory) so why pay for extra frame rates you won’t neccessarily notice because you eyes can’t process this information!?

[Occa]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-028-AS&groupid=17&catid=510

Im more than pleased with it. Saves you 20£ 😀 but youll lose 1ms in response time. Idd 1300 sounds much. And I still would go on W7. SSD if I was about to get one now I would go for 250G or bigger one as my 128G is getting quite full.

[XDC wild egg tamer]

cheaper is better believe me 😉

I’m not into overclocking so unless it comes pre-overclocked it isn’t something i’d consider doing myself. Also i’m content to go for an i5 as i have no current need for multithreading and it seems powerful enough for gaming and what little of photoshop i use.

I like what i see with lammies set up though would prefer a larger SSD and from all accounts the nvidia cards are better (are they?) though probably more expensive.

I’m guessing that the high price can in part be attributed to the CPU being overclocked, a gtx 670 gfx card, 16Gb of ram and a 256gb SSD. The thermal paste is what they put on the list so assume they do that as they also put the cooler on the list which is i assume because it’s overclocked.

I’ll have to check again but think the price is the same for win 7 or win 8 – being so then i’m guessing that maybe the way to go is win 7?

I’ll check some different suppliers and see what prices i can come up with from lammies spec, i could certainly use that £500 for other things.

cheers again guys.

[XDC wild egg tamer]

sorry guys, another question. Which version of win 7 do you guys recommend? I know it should be the 64bit version but professional;ultimate; home premium etc??

cheers again.

[Occa]

Home here.

[Lammie]

Doesn’t really matter to be honest you just get a few extra bells and whistles but nothing that would detract from a decent all round OS. Personally for a gaming PC I would use Win 7. Win 8 more geared up for touch screen type etc but would probably work all the same.

I agree with the larger SSD, I would have gone bigger had the budget allowed but it’s quite a price jump so settled on the 128gb. With regards to the Nvidia vs AMD all much the same but Nvidia cards are generally a lot more pricey. My advice is set a maxium budget your willing to spend and stick to it and then get the best components you can for that price.

I spent litterally months comparing prices, reviews, budgets but settled on the £800 -£850 mark which will still get you a decent gaming rig. You can always add to it later as funds permit. Get a solid foundation and the rest will take care of itself.

[bmstalker]

Lammie’s built is a great build, perfect for the budget he set. I would make the upgrades you mention, the bigger SSD, the graphics card, the RAM isn’t totally necessary but it’s so cheap you would be as well to. But that could be me being anal about spending as much on a graphics card as I can to ensure it lasts at least 2-3 years.

Nvidia vs ATI, I’ve never been 100% sold either way. ATI are generally more bang for your buck. The reason I went with Nvidia, is that when you go with 2x cards, you get “microstuttering” which causes FPS troughs which is apparently amplified on ATI cards, also, I was expecting some gold for World of Tanks which actually helped swing me over, even though in the end, the supplier had run out of vouchers 🙁

OS choice, it doesn’t really matter which version of Windows you go for, ultimate gives a few extras, like the ability to join a domain etc that wont really apply to you etc. I’ll see what I can do about getting you a Windows 7 ultimate key too, would save you some cash.

[Author]

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