Page 1 of 3
1
2
3
LastLast
  1. #1
    Scarab Lord Djinni's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    West Sussex, UK
    Posts
    4,232

    Last Round: Building a Computer Ideas v3

    With just 10 days to go before I bite the bullet and fork over some money.




    Remove Item Description Quantity Unit Price (ex vat) Line Total (ex vat)
    LG E2350VR-SN 23" Full HD LED Monitor
    26 in stock
    LG-E2350VR
    1
    £108.32 £108.32
    Thermaltake Chaser MK-I Tower Case - Black (No PSU)
    6 in stock
    TT-CHASER1
    1
    £99.98 £99.98
    Corsair HX 850W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply
    9 in stock
    CSR-HX850
    1
    £104.16 £104.16
    Intel Core i5 2500K 3.30GHz (Sandy Bridge) Socket LGA1155 - Retail.
    10 in stock
    IL-I52500K
    1
    £133.32 £133.32
    Asus P8Z68-V PRO Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) Motherboard
    1 in stock
    ASU-Z68VP
    1
    £133.32 £133.32
    Thermaltake Frio CPU Cooler
    8 in stock
    TT-FRIO
    1
    £33.18 £33.18
    Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800 C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
    6 in stock
    CSR-LP8G16
    1
    £51.66 £51.66
    MSI GeForce GTX 560TI Twin FrozR II 1024MB GDDR5 PCIe
    16 in stock
    MSI-560TF
    2
    £149.99 £299.98
    LiteOn IHAS124-19 24x DVD+/-RW SATA Black - OEM
    19 in stock
    LIT-IHAS12
    1
    £14.16 £14.16
    Samsung Spin Point F3 SATAII 1TB 32MB Cache Hard Drive <8.9ms 7200rpm - OEM
    50+ in stock
    SAM-F31TB
    3
    £34.15 £102.45
    Cooler Master Mega-Flow Blue LED Silent Fan - 200mm
    2 in stock
    CM-MF200B
    1
    £8.33 £8.33
    Arctic Cooling F High Performance Case Fan - 120mm
    1 in stock
    ARC-F12
    1
    £3.33 £3.33
    Saitek Cyborg V7 Gaming Keyboard
    Out of stock: 10 Due Tomorrow
    SAI-V7CYBG
    1
    £47.47 £47.47
    Saitek Cyborg Rat7 Gaming Mouse
    2 in stock
    SAI-RAT7
    1
    £63.82 £63.82
    SteelSeries QcK Mass Gaming Surface
    9 in stock
    STE-63010
    1
    £8.22 £8.22
    Novatech Figure 8 Power Cable - 2m
    18 in stock
    CAB-POW7
    1
    £1.13 £1.13
    If you have a Novatech Promotional Code please enter it below and press the submit button.
    Delivery Options: -- Collect from store -- Wednesday 27 July 2011 (Next Working Day Service) £8.19 Monday 1 August 2011 (Economy Service) £5.19 Friday 5 August 2011 (Free 3-4 Day Service) £0.00 Wednesday 27 July 2011 (Pre-12 Next Working Day Service) £10.18 Saturday 30 July 2011 (Saturday Service) £17.19
    Total Basket Ex VAT: £1212.83 ex vat
    Delivery Charge: 0.00 ex vat
    Basket + Delivery Ex VAT: £1212.83 ex vat
    VAT @ 20%: £242.57
    Total Basket Value: £1455.40 inc vat





    Refresher:@

    Ok, You may have noticed over the past 2 months I've been bombarding these forums with questions and comparisons between various products, you might even remember me asking for a overview of a "similar" spec a while ago. (And here is why I started planning so early :P it shows me what's around, what its worth and more importantly gives me time to change my mind!). Here's why:


    Plan/TimeFrame: Start of September I will be going back to Uni, and will need to sort myself out a new PC for use, I plan to build this in August to give me a chance to make sure that everything works properly before taking it to Uni (This and I decided it would make far more sense to build it at home rather than send 20 boxes to my Uni address and expect none of them to get damaged.)

    The reason I am looking for opinions/advise now is because I have been advised that some of the items listed in the proposed spec will take up to 3 weeks to arrive and I intend to go down and collect everything from store in one go.

    Budget: roughly £1200 ex VAT
    Location: England/UK
    Site of prefference: http://www.novatech.co.uk


    Things I already have:
    External USB Creative SoundBlaster Live 24-bit soundcard,
    Microsoft Media Centre remote control,
    Samsung 2233RZ 120hz 22" 3D screen + glasses, (I'm not opposed to selling this so I can get 2 screens the same.)
    Samsung 226BW 60Hz 22" screen,
    (Rather battered) Logitech USB Headset (Current comparable is: http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...81-000262.html ) - This needs replacing but as I'm already over budget may have to wait a few months (That or annoy the girlfriend enough to get her to buy me a headset :P).


    What the machine will be doing:
    I will need to be running up to 5 simultainious Virtual Machines (typically 2 or 3) running graphically based simulations, a little bit of graphical design in Adobe and playing WoW with FRAPS and pretty much everything maxxed out pretty much whenever I'm not at Uni, browsing the web, listening to music watching movies all that jazz.
    Expected average usage while gaming:
    - Web Browser / Ventrilo + Messenger programs on screen 1, game on screen 2 (center), Movie on screen 3
    Expected work usage:
    - VM Workstation x2 on Screen 1, Web browser on screen 2, VM Workstation on screen 3
    ^- Assuming Screen 1 = Left, Screen 2 = Centre, Screen 3 = Right.


    Gaming includes:
    World of Warcraft, StarCraft:BroodWar, StarCraft2, Crysis, Crysis: Warhead, Crysis2, StarWars:The Old Republic, StarWars:Knights of the Old Republic, BioShock, BioShock2, Halo, Halo2, Stargate:Resistance, WarCraft 3: The Frozen Throne.


    What I'm looking for from you:
    Information!:
    Will there be any significant advancements that would change the specs of the machine I buy between now and september?
    What suggestions for upgrades do you have, and can you build it cheaper.
    Additional opinions on other hardware:
    I need to try and reduce the build cost somehow, by substituting various components for cheaper ones with close to the same performance.


    Q. Why am I using Novatech?
    A. Becuase they have all the bonuses of being an online store as well as having outlets and repair centres I can physically take things back to if they don't work properly.
    A2. They offer free lifetime technical support.
    A3. Dad has a business account with them so everything I do gets fast tracked! As well as the VAT being refunded pretty much automagaically. Since I do do alot of work for him on my machines. (Main reason for me not going elsewhere)
    A4. In the extreamly unlikely event that any components don't work properly, they actually have "stores" I can walk into and get same day replacements/repairs.

    P.S I also tend to play WoW in fullscreen windowed mode! When not running in 3D.
    P.S.S. Unfortunately unless a mod can reverse all the edit's I've done to the original thread there's no way to see what my last planned setup was
    Last edited by Djinni; 2011-07-20 at 09:15 PM. Reason: Posted in wrong forum.....

  2. #2
    Moved to the appropriate forum.

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Djinni View Post
    With just 10 days to go before I bite the bullet and fork over some money.

    What I'm looking for from you:
    Information!:
    Will there be any significant advancements that would change the specs of the machine I buy between now and september?
    What suggestions for upgrades do you have, and can you build it cheaper.
    Additional opinions on other hardware:
    I need to try and reduce the build cost somehow, by substituting various components for cheaper ones with close to the same performance.
    1)No, i think only the bulldozer is close to comeing out, but from what ive seen SB still beats Bulldozer, and I doubt it'll come out before november
    Allso waiting for new technology in a PC world is kind of stupid, you'll end up doing nothing but waiting for new shizz.
    2)You've done stuff quite nicely, i can't see anything bottlenecking something else.
    HOWEVER up to 5 virtual machines at the same time? I'm pretty sure 8GB of RAM is not enough, if i were you i'd fill up all my slots with them and go for 16 gig instead.
    3TB of HDD? if u need it u need it, but i doubt it, only thing i can come up with it for your uni work, but 3TB is alot bro, think u can lose at least 1 of the drives.
    3)I have some ideas but it would involve swapping way too much stuff (like Vengeance RAM means new CPU cooler in ur case)

  4. #4
    The Lightbringer Uggorthaholy's Avatar
    15+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Weatherford, TX
    Posts
    3,169
    Quote Originally Posted by Neeko View Post
    1)No, i think only the bulldozer is close to comeing out, but from what ive seen SB still beats Bulldozer, and I doubt it'll come out before november
    Allso waiting for new technology in a PC world is kind of stupid, you'll end up doing nothing but waiting for new shizz.
    2)You've done stuff quite nicely, i can't see anything bottlenecking something else.
    HOWEVER up to 5 virtual machines at the same time? I'm pretty sure 8GB of RAM is not enough, if i were you i'd fill up all my slots with them and go for 16 gig instead.
    3TB of HDD? if u need it u need it, but i doubt it, only thing i can come up with it for your uni work, but 3TB is alot bro, think u can lose at least 1 of the drives.
    3)I have some ideas but it would involve swapping way too much stuff (like Vengeance RAM means new CPU cooler in ur case)
    1) agreed
    2) extra storage is fun, and RAID setups are even more fun
    3) low profile vengeance ram won't require anything to change

    However, Djinni, I think your setup is finally good to go!

  5. #5
    Scarab Lord Djinni's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    West Sussex, UK
    Posts
    4,232
    Quote Originally Posted by Neeko View Post
    1)
    3)I have some ideas but it would involve swapping way too much stuff (like Vengeance RAM means new CPU cooler in ur case)
    Please share?

    ---------- Post added 2011-07-19 at 08:14 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by uggorthaholy View Post
    However, Djinni, I think your setup is finally good to go!
    Lol :P should know me by now... a build is never "good to go" till it's actually been built and the 14days has passed in which time I can change my mind for no reason and return everything for a full refund.


    EDIT: 3TB actually really isn't that much when its filled with lots of Virtual Machines, my entire of software, music and movie collection,
    Last edited by Djinni; 2011-07-19 at 07:17 PM.

  6. #6
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Djinni View Post
    Please share?
    It's not true, you buy the Low Profile Vengeance RAM, and you have no issues with coolers. He's refering to the Vengeance RAM with huge heat spreaders.

    Your build is fine by the way, now buy it!

  7. #7
    another HDD for fraps to record to it will let wow run better and more smoothly and if possible try to get a better cpu cooler

  8. #8
    Scarab Lord Djinni's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    West Sussex, UK
    Posts
    4,232
    Quote Originally Posted by Pyre Fierceshot View Post
    It's not true, you buy the Low Profile Vengeance RAM, and you have no issues with coolers. He's refering to the Vengeance RAM with huge heat spreaders.

    Your build is fine by the way, now buy it!
    he said ideaS plurral :P I take that to mean not just the RAM...

    ---------- Post added 2011-07-19 at 08:18 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Arkere View Post
    another HDD for fraps to record to it will let wow run better and more smoothly and if possible try to get a better cpu cooler
    Care to list any better coolers?

  9. #9
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Djinni View Post
    he said ideaS plurral :P I take that to mean not just the RAM...

    ---------- Post added 2011-07-19 at 08:18 PM ----------



    Care to list any better coolers?

    I was refering only to the RAM + CPU cooler part.

    I'd use a http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...e/clp0564.html over the cooler you have. Novatech doesn't sell the CPU I want to give you.

  10. #10
    Scarab Lord Djinni's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    West Sussex, UK
    Posts
    4,232
    Quote Originally Posted by Pyre Fierceshot View Post
    I was refering only to the RAM + CPU cooler part.

    I'd use a http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...e/clp0564.html over the cooler you have. Novatech doesn't sell the CPU I want to give you.
    lol? what cpu is that?

    Remember thats not the OCK version...

  11. #11
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Djinni View Post
    lol? what cpu is that?
    Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro. Though you really will need low profile RAM for it, as it covers all 4 sots. But its a beast of a cooler and whisper quiet.

  12. #12
    My ideas involve:
    -Using a OCZ agility 3 60GB to boost one of those drives instead of 3 WD caviar blacks
    -And yes, there are low profile vengeance modules, but not the 1866Mhz ones it seems (at least not in belgian stores)
    -Getting an i7 2600K instead of an i5 2500K, you probably decided to take the i5 instead of the i7 because of the 'gaming performance not being that different' but you forget that you are having 2 totally different requirements here ( Vitual machines(ram, amount of threads) vs Gaming(speed of threads, GPU power,...))

    You will beg for those 8 threads when u start up those 5 virtual machines.

    As for the 'coolers' i dont think theres a better cooler than that tbh, i use antec kuhler 960 myself but that is to conserve space... the performance of noctua NH-D14 seems to up to a degree better compared to anything else ( unless u get professional cooling )

  13. #13
    cooloermaster v6 or a corsair water cooler of any sort they have great products

  14. #14
    Scarab Lord Djinni's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    West Sussex, UK
    Posts
    4,232
    Following this review:

    http://www.kitguru.net/components/cooling/zardon/thermaltake-frio-review/4/

    I
    'm all for the Frio...

    I dropped to the i5 over the i7 because of the £60 price difference for something that isn't (forgive the pun) game changing... I can easily overclock the i5 to make up the difference. Besides... no matter who I ask everyone has a different opinion of HT "playing well" with virtual machines.

    The hard drives are also the much cheaper Samsung Spinpoint F3's... and I wouldn't be so objectionable to a SSD if they were better priced.

    ---------- Post added 2011-07-19 at 08:36 PM ----------

    the:

    Corsair Nova Series 2 60GB SSD

    Order Code:
    Manf. Code:
    CSR-V60GB2
    CSSD-V60GB2
    Corsair
    10 at Suppliers
    £77.99

    Unformatted Capacity 60GB
    Max Read Performance 270 MB/s
    Max Write Performance 240 MB/s
    Form Factor 2.5”
    Interface Type SATA 3.0 Gb/s (SATA 2)
    Onboard cache 128MB
    Operating Temperature 0C to +70C
    Storage Temperature -20C to +85C
    Operating Humidity 10% to 90% RH (0° to +40° C)
    Storage Humidity 5% to 90% RH (-10° to +60° C)
    Maximum Operating Altitude 3,048 m (up to 10,000 ft.)
    Maximum Non-Operating Altitude 12,192 m (up to 40,000 ft.)
    MTBF 2 million hours






    Is the best I'm going to do for a SSD I suspect... so I dont think i'll be getting one just yet.
    Last edited by Djinni; 2011-07-19 at 07:36 PM.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Djinni View Post
    Following this review:

    http://www.kitguru.net/components/cooling/zardon/thermaltake-frio-review/4/

    I
    'm all for the Frio...

    I dropped to the i5 over the i7 because of the £60 price difference for something that isn't (forgive the pun) game changing... I can easily overclock the i5 to make up the difference. Besides... no matter who I ask everyone has a different opinion of HT "playing well" with virtual machines.

    The hard drives are also the much cheaper Samsung Spinpoint F3's... and I wouldn't be so objectionable to a SSD if they were better priced.
    The SSD i meantioned, OCZ Agility 3 is one of the newer SSD's with one of the best performance out there and low price ( 114 euro compared to 76 euro for one of those WD caviar blacks in my store)

    If the virtual machines work anything like real Operating Systems(which i assume they do, i'm not a pro at Virtual machines as I prefer using dual boot for the sake of my RAM) then ur processor will be flooded with different 'threads' (programming ones, not processor ones)

    program requests something to do=> processor takes it=> resolves it ( or puts it back in cache if it takes too long)=> processor gives it back to program

    now let's assume you're building on 5 different VM's... thats alot of IRQ's, the speed might help a bit, yes, but 5 VM's is ALOT imo, don't forget that the i7 can be overclocks just as much ( if not 100Mhz more) than the i5.

    I'm not gunna claim that 8 HT cores give double the performance of 4 normal cores at same clock speed but it won't be far off. At least for running VM's

    (games only use like 2 threads either way, but if u run multiple games at the same time it would be the same case)

    Again, i'm pretty sure you've looked into this ALOT more than i have and your guess is probably better as mine, but you asked my opinion, and i'm giveing it to you... i7 2600K and 16 Gig ram, for the VM's sake.(gamingwise you're setteled)

  16. #16
    Scarab Lord Djinni's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    West Sussex, UK
    Posts
    4,232
    Quote Originally Posted by Neeko View Post
    The SSD i meantioned, OCZ Agility 3 is one of the newer SSD's with one of the best performance out there and low price ( 114 euro compared to 76 euro for one of those WD caviar blacks in my store)

    If the virtual machines work anything like real Operating Systems(which i assume they do, i'm not a pro at Virtual machines as I prefer using dual boot for the sake of my RAM) then ur processor will be flooded with different 'threads' (programming ones, not processor ones)

    program requests something to do=> processor takes it=> resolves it ( or puts it back in cache if it takes too long)=> processor gives it back to program

    now let's assume you're building on 5 different VM's... thats alot of IRQ's, the speed might help a bit, yes, but 5 VM's is ALOT imo, don't forget that the i7 can be overclocks just as much ( if not 100Mhz more) than the i5.

    I'm not gunna claim that 8 HT cores give double the performance of 4 normal cores at same clock speed but it won't be far off. At least for running VM's

    (games only use like 2 threads either way, but if u run multiple games at the same time it would be the same case)

    Again, i'm pretty sure you've looked into this ALOT more than i have and your guess is probably better as mine, but you asked my opinion, and i'm giveing it to you... i7 2600K and 16 Gig ram, for the VM's sake.(gamingwise you're setteled)
    I had the same opinion as you maybe 2 weeks ago (regarding Processor and RAM) but truth is the performance difference between the i5 and the i7 in the two environments isn't worth the price difference.. (At least not to me)

    And do you mean this SSD:

    OCZ Agility 3 SATA III 2.5" 60GB Solid State Hard Drive
    Read Speed: 525MB/Sec, Write Speed: 475MB/Sec, Flash: MLC, Controller: SandForce SF-2281, Buffer: 0MB
    Order Code:
    Manf. Code:
    OCZ-A360G
    AGT3-25SAT3-60G
    OCZ
    39 in stock
    £94.98

  17. #17
    That is the one i mean indeed ^^
    just saw u took samsung spinpoints and not caviar blacks, i got confused with the other thread, sowwy

  18. #18
    Scarab Lord Djinni's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    West Sussex, UK
    Posts
    4,232
    Quote Originally Posted by Neeko View Post
    That is the one i mean indeed ^^
    Yeah at £100 it's that or 3 screens... and guess which I'd rather have? :P

    ---------- Post added 2011-07-19 at 08:57 PM ----------

    Unless you can see a way to easily shave off £100 from the build above

    ---------- Post added 2011-07-19 at 08:57 PM ----------

    I would much prefer the WD's but the Samsungs are basically the same for almost half the cost.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Djinni View Post
    Yeah at £100 it's that or 3 screens... and guess which I'd rather have? :P

    ---------- Post added 2011-07-19 at 08:57 PM ----------

    Unless you can see a way to easily shave off £100 from the build above

    ---------- Post added 2011-07-19 at 08:57 PM ----------

    I would much prefer the WD's but the Samsungs are basically the same for almost half the cost.
    lose two of the harddrives i'd say, but then again, i think it wud be better then to buy more ram/cpu instead so nvm about it, maybe ram/cpu/hdd is something to think about when u try to upgrade(if you feel like you need it) like next year or so?

  20. #20
    Scarab Lord Djinni's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    West Sussex, UK
    Posts
    4,232
    Quote Originally Posted by Neeko View Post
    lose two of the harddrives i'd say, but then again, i think it wud be better then to buy more ram/cpu instead so nvm about it, maybe ram/cpu/hdd is something to think about when u try to upgrade(if you feel like you need it) like next year or so?
    Not enough space with only 1 x 1tb HDD.

    I could possibly get away with 2 x 1tb and add a third later....

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •