New gaming desktop - advice please

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kharzan

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Hi there,

So I'm looking to get a fairly substantial gaming desktop with all the trimmings and wanted to know what people thought about who to go to and what to get.

At the moment I'm thinking about the following:

I7-2600k processor
8GB RAM
nVidia GTX 580 graphics card http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/forums/index.cfm?action=showthread&threadid=395395&forumid=2#
24" Monitorhttp://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/forums/index.cfm?action=showthread&threadid=395395&forumid=2# of some sort
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/forums/index.cfm?action=showthread&threadid=395395&forumid=2#Blu-ray Rewriter drive
DVD Rewriter drive
120gb SSD
2 x 1TB storage drives (raid 0)
some speakers of some sort (2.1 since I'm not putting them around the room)
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/forums/index.cfm?action=showthread&threadid=395395&forumid=2#Keyboard and mouse of some sort
3 year full parts & labour warranty (important for me)
Internal Wireless card
TV Tuner & Remote (one that can pause & record live TV)
850W PS
Windows 7

Not sure if I'm missed anything, open to any advice. Any suggestions of parts/who to buy from?

Appreciate the help,
 
Welcome to the forums kharzan, good to have you onboard! :wave:

I've got one quick question first of all... do you have a budget in mind, as that may make it easier for people to suggest different components :). Also, I'm guessing you want to buy an off the shelf system (judging by the warranty mention)?
 
Thanks for the welcome!

Well I'm not particularly techy, I've arrived at the above spec's through my random google searching and forum surfing, so building one myself isn't something I'd consider. I'd prefer an extensive warranty so that I phone someone up, they'll come and get it and I'll have it fixed in a week/few days.

Budget? Around £2k all in, is what I was thinking.

Thanks again,
 
That sort of budget should be able to get you something amazing :thumb:.

I'm not up to date on the latest gaming PCs, however there are a number of other members here who are - so I'd wait for them to weigh in with their expertise. :)
 
Thanks Floppy, so how should I have the drives set-up? Not raid at all, just 2 separate drives?

Yeah I know the warranty is a pain, but I'm not technical enough or have enough time to be opening cases up and fiddling around, I'd rather someone just picked it up and magically brought it back later all sorted.
 
If your after one of the new Sandybridge CPU's i'd wait until they fix a small issues with the chipset on the motherboard.

Read here


Other than that it all looks good, like said above, storage drives in raid is worthless, better to have one disk for your documents and one for programs or similar.

As Abarb said, get yourself a headset of some kind (i'd avoid 'surround' one if i were you. Along with a decent soundcard it will sound far better, trust me i've been there.

What you have speced is very similar to my PC at the moment, i can tell you you will be very happy with the performance. :thumb:

I'll take another look later as i'm at work now and cant really stop.
 
If you were building your own, here's something to give you an idea. This isn't a Sandy Bridge CPU and it doesn't include headphones or postage.

All items are medium to high quality and apart from the three year warranty with collection/repair/delivery will meet all your requirements.

For an OEM copy of Win 7 Home Premium add £72.00

I don't think you'll find many online suppliers who would be willing to collect/repair/deliver for three years unless you pay a hefty warranty fee. You may find a local dealer who could supply that service if you got them to build a machine for you.

Anyhow, here's a suggestion, V_R is better versed in this type of machine than myself so he may care to comment later.

Click the beige coloured bar at top of image to view full size. This supplier is Scan, there are others who'll offer much the same service at much the same price.

EDIT/PS: You can deduct that £53 'Scansure' item at the end, that's not needed, it's some kind of insurance but the parts are covered by one year's warranty anyway.

scan_i7_03.JPG
 
On the list I posted it looks as if only one 1Tb disk has been priced so if we deduct the scansure thingie and add another hard disk price it works out to aprox 1950. Add postage and Windows 7 and it will cost aprox £2050.

But if you're not capable of building a machine then there's the cost of building the thing. Plus that 3 year warranty.

That price could be lowered a great deal by getting items not so highly specced.

Oh yes, one other thing - avoid MESH like the plague.
 
Thanks Floppy for the detailed help, I've had a quote come in from Spam removed - fbs as per the below:

Case: Xigmatek Midgard
Power Supply: Modular 850W Power Supply (80 Plus Certified)
Processor: Core i7 2600K 8MB Cache Socket 1155
CPU Cooler: Prolimatech Megahalem
Optimisation and Tuning: Wired2Fire Cable Management<br>Wired2Fire Overclocking<br>Wired2Fire Tuning
Graphics Card 1: nVidia GeForce GTX 580 1536MB GDDR5 PCI Express Graphics Card
Graphics Card 2: None
Memory: 8GB Corsair DDR3 1600MHz C9 Dual Channel Memory Kit (4 x 2GB)
Motherboard: Asus P8P67 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) Motherboard
Hard Disk Drive One: Corsair Force 120GB SATA II 2.5
Hard Disk Drive Two: Samsung 1TB Spinpoint F3 32MB Cache SATA 300
Hard Disk Drive Three: Samsung 1TB Spinpoint F3 32MB Cache SATA 300
Optical Drive One: DVD-RW 22x
Optical Drive Two: Blu-Ray Rewriter & DVD-RW Combo Drive
Removable Storage: None
Sound Card: Onboard HD 7.1 Audio
Speakers and Headsets: A220 Speakers
Monitor: Samsung 24\" TFT Monitor 1920 x 1200
Keyboard: Logitech 250 Deluxe
Mouse: Steel Series Kinzu Mouse
Miscellaneous Adapters: Compro Videomate Dual TV tuner
Miscellaneous Adapters: Wireless Adaptor
Software: None
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Build Options: Standard Build (5-15 working days)
Warranty: Collect and Return Warranty (3 years parts and labour)
Total: £2151.85 (Including VAT)

To me (a layman), they seem pretty similar, obviously I am paying for the Warranty which boosts up the price, and I guess the cost of someone building and overclocking it. But unless I'm missing something regarding the parts, is that a fairly reasonable deal then?
 
And there we have it folks, a blatant plug for a little known supplier who we know not a thing about.

Why did I just know this was going to happen?

Did I ever mention I'm not fond of spammers?

I did didn't I :)
 
Update: kharzan PM'ed me using a different user name and explained circumstances. I conferred with the guvnor and kharzan is now back with PC Review.

I mis-judged somebody in this case but after a while one gets highly cynical of being constantly bombarded with spammers and a person develops an itchy trigger finger ;)

Here's the company kharzan linked to, although I've never heard of them apparently they're quite well established Wired2fire

And that will be the last free plug Wired2fire get ;)
 
Yey, I am unbanned!

Thanks Flops for hearing what I had to say and letting me back in.

I guess my only question then, if anyone dares to return to this thread, is did the spec and price I quoted seem good/bad/ridiculous? Ignoring completely the company that quoted it, since it's not the only quote I received at around that level.
 
It looks ok, i'd like to know what brand the PSU is as you should get a decent one as it will be taking a lot of power to run that lot. Something like a corsair or similar.

Be mindful about hte motherboard, its a P67 Chipset, the one i posted above regarding the issues, can you ask them if its a B3 revision?
 
Just a quick one.... A v good pc for the money. :)

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Will check on the PSU, I think Corsair might have been mentioned but I will confirm.

I will also check that it's the correct motherboard, they did tell me it was the batch after the issues had been resolved, but I didn't realise that there was a name for it i.e. B3

That PC looks really good V_R, what is the difference between the I7-950 and the I7-2600k?
 
kharzan said:
Will check on the PSU, I think Corsair might have been mentioned but I will confirm.
Click to expand...
Good stuff, Corsair will get my vote, had a few of them and they've all been good.

I will also check that it's the correct motherboard, they did tell me it was the batch after the issues had been resolved, but I didn't realise that there was a name for it i.e. B3
Click to expand...
That sounds like its a B3 revision board then, but nice to check.

That PC looks really good V_R, what is the difference between the I7-950 and the I7-2600k?
Click to expand...
In the read world, not a lot to be honest. the i7 2600K is newer, but the performance is very similar.If you can get a B3 then do it, Slightly more futureproofed.

Incidentally, if you wondered what the 'K' stands for it means it multiplier is unlocked. :)
 
I had a quick look at Novatech from I read on their site I think they will build to the sort of spec you want it may be an idea to contact them and ask them to quote for your spec and advice. There is a link on the site that you can do that and they offer a 2 year warranty.
 
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