Brockwinch
Bronze Level Poster
I think i'll stick with the spec in post no.5 as with that one i can add a ssd later if i feel the hdd is not enough.
A good all rounder for under £900
- Thread starter Brockwinch
- Start date
Brockwinch
Bronze Level Poster
Ha everytime i think im done with my spec i think of another question.
Forgeting completly about graphics cards and games, in your opinion what would be better:
I7 cpu with 1tb cavilar hdd
Or..
I3 cpu with 500gb cavilar hdd and 125gb ssd
Forgeting completly about graphics cards and games, in your opinion what would be better:
I7 cpu with 1tb cavilar hdd
Or..
I3 cpu with 500gb cavilar hdd and 125gb ssd
Brockwinch
Bronze Level Poster
How do these two stack against each other ???
Case InWIN BLACK GR-1 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3570 (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard ASUS® P8H77-M: M-ATX, DDR3, USB 3.0, SATA 6.0Gb/s, CrossFireX™
Memory (RAM) 8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 660 Ti - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 120GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
2nd Hard Disk 500GB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 16MB CACHE
Or .....
Case InWIN BLACK GR-1 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3770 (3.4GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard ASUS® P8H61-MX USB3/SI: uATX, USB 3.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM) 8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 660 Ti - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk NONE
Case InWIN BLACK GR-1 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3570 (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard ASUS® P8H77-M: M-ATX, DDR3, USB 3.0, SATA 6.0Gb/s, CrossFireX™
Memory (RAM) 8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 660 Ti - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 120GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
2nd Hard Disk 500GB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 16MB CACHE
Or .....
Case InWIN BLACK GR-1 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3770 (3.4GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard ASUS® P8H61-MX USB3/SI: uATX, USB 3.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM) 8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 660 Ti - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk NONE
bigben
Master Poster
CPU: If it is going to be for gaming the i5 will be fine.
MOBO: Possibly worth seeing if you can afford one which will support SLI (as you are getting an nvidia card), making it more "future proof" as you will be able to add another graphics card to work with the current 660TI.
SSD vs HDD: SSD is very nice but probably not worth substituting other areas for. Caviar Black is still a fast drive.
PSU: If you can afford it, the Corsair PSU's are good quality, and from what I have heard on these forums very reliable. Again if you think you will want to upgrade in future, make sure that the PSU will handle what you plan to add, eg. an extra £50(ish) quid now could save you £80 (and the inconvenience of having to change over a PSU) a year or two down the line if you decide to upgrade- that's the way I saw it when I bought my rig anyway.
MOBO: Possibly worth seeing if you can afford one which will support SLI (as you are getting an nvidia card), making it more "future proof" as you will be able to add another graphics card to work with the current 660TI.
SSD vs HDD: SSD is very nice but probably not worth substituting other areas for. Caviar Black is still a fast drive.
PSU: If you can afford it, the Corsair PSU's are good quality, and from what I have heard on these forums very reliable. Again if you think you will want to upgrade in future, make sure that the PSU will handle what you plan to add, eg. an extra £50(ish) quid now could save you £80 (and the inconvenience of having to change over a PSU) a year or two down the line if you decide to upgrade- that's the way I saw it when I bought my rig anyway.
mgsolidus
Enthusiast
First one.
Performance margin between i5 and i7 isn't that much, but between the ssd and hdd, the margin is massive. That Caviar Black will read at about 140mbps and write at around 125mbps, the SSD will be around 460mpbs and 420mbps for read and write respectively.
People who tell you that SSD's aren't that great, or don't offer much of a performance increase simply don't have an SSD.
I use my laptop at night which has just a standard hard drive, and it feels painfully slow to me now.
vanthus
Member Resting in Peace
You say an "all rounder" but that's a bit vague really,do you intend doing any video editing or anything else CPU intensive,if so an i7 could be advantageous,if not an i5 will be fine.
And as Keynes said, I wouldn't get an SSD at the expense of downgrading another component like the graphics card for example.
And as Keynes said, I wouldn't get an SSD at the expense of downgrading another component like the graphics card for example.
Brockwinch
Bronze Level Poster
Do I need a sli motherboard to fit and run a second graphics card and do I need anything to fit and run a ssd at a later date ??
Brockwinch
Bronze Level Poster
I'm kinda into everything so that's why I wanted it to be a good all rounder, games, DVDs, music, film editing, downloading software, watching live sports ect
Goals for PC - can run games well, doesn't need to be high end games
- responsive and fast
- enough storage for films, games (a few), music and various video/music editing software.
Two choices:
Case InWIN BLACK GR-1 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3570 (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard ASUS® P8Z77-V LK: PCI-E 3.0 READY, SLI, CROSSFIREX
Memory (RAM) 8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 660 - DVI, HDMI, VGA - 3D Vision Ready
2nd Graphics Card NONE
3rd Graphics Card NONE
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk NONE
3rd Hard Disk NONE
4th Hard Disk NONE
RAID NONE
SSD CACHE DRIVE NONE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive NONE
Memory Card Reader NONE
Power Supply CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)
Processor Cooling Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler (£19)
Extra Case Fans NONE
Fan Controller NONE
Sound Card ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD (£16)
USB Options 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Modem NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND
Floppy Disk Drive NONE
Firewire NONE
TV Card NONE
Operating System Genuine Windows 8 Standard Edition 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor NONE
2nd Monitor NONE
3rd Monitor NONE
4th Monitor NONE
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables NONE
Eyefinity / GeForce 3D Vision NONE
Keyboard & Mouse NONE
Mouse NONE
Gaming Mouse Pad NONE
Speakers NONE
Webcam NONE
Headsets NONE
Surge Protection NONE
Cable Tidy NONE
Printer NONE
External Hard Drive NONE
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Home Installation NONE
Data Recovery NONE
Delivery STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Miscellaneous FREE £100 IN-GAME VOUCHER with GTX 660 & UPWARDS GPUs!
Pricing Information
Price (excluding VAT) £748.33
Price £898.00
Order Quantity 1
Bulk Discount £0.00
Total Order price (Ex VAT) £748.33
Total Order Price £898.00
P/O Number - Edit P/O Number
Payment Method
Wattage 398
Or ......
Showing Quote Reference 542922
Case InWIN BLACK GR-1 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3470 (3.2GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard ASUS® P8H61-MX USB3/SI: uATX, USB 3.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM) 8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 660 Ti - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
2nd Graphics Card NONE
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 120GB INTEL® 330 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 500MB/sR | 450MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk 1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
RAID NONE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive NONE
Memory Card Reader NONE
Power Supply 450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler (£19)
Sound Card ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD (£16)
USB Options 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Modem NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND
Floppy Disk Drive NONE
Firewire NONE
TV Card NONE
Operating System Genuine Windows 8 Standard Edition 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor NONE
2nd Monitor NONE
3rd Monitor NONE
4th Monitor NONE
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables NONE
Eyefinity / GeForce 3D Vision NONE
Keyboard & Mouse NONE
Mouse NONE
Gaming Mouse Pad NONE
Speakers NONE
Webcam NONE
Headsets NONE
Surge Protection NONE
Cable Tidy NONE
Printer NONE
External Hard Drive NONE
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Home Installation NONE
Data Recovery NONE
Delivery STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Miscellaneous FREE £100 IN-GAME VOUCHER with GTX 660 & UPWARDS GPUs!
Pricing Information
Price (excluding VAT) £746.67
Price £896.00
Order Quantity 1
Bulk Discount £0.00
Total Order price (Ex VAT) £746.67
Total Order Price £896.00
P/O Number - Edit P/O Number
Payment Method
Wattage
Maximum Required Power 389W
The second one is obviously better but I had to sacrifice the sli motherboard with is a bit disappointing as I won't be able to double up on the graphics cards when the games start getting more graphic intence
Goals for PC - can run games well, doesn't need to be high end games
- responsive and fast
- enough storage for films, games (a few), music and various video/music editing software.
Two choices:
Case InWIN BLACK GR-1 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3570 (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard ASUS® P8Z77-V LK: PCI-E 3.0 READY, SLI, CROSSFIREX
Memory (RAM) 8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 660 - DVI, HDMI, VGA - 3D Vision Ready
2nd Graphics Card NONE
3rd Graphics Card NONE
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk NONE
3rd Hard Disk NONE
4th Hard Disk NONE
RAID NONE
SSD CACHE DRIVE NONE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive NONE
Memory Card Reader NONE
Power Supply CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)
Processor Cooling Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler (£19)
Extra Case Fans NONE
Fan Controller NONE
Sound Card ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD (£16)
USB Options 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Modem NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND
Floppy Disk Drive NONE
Firewire NONE
TV Card NONE
Operating System Genuine Windows 8 Standard Edition 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor NONE
2nd Monitor NONE
3rd Monitor NONE
4th Monitor NONE
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables NONE
Eyefinity / GeForce 3D Vision NONE
Keyboard & Mouse NONE
Mouse NONE
Gaming Mouse Pad NONE
Speakers NONE
Webcam NONE
Headsets NONE
Surge Protection NONE
Cable Tidy NONE
Printer NONE
External Hard Drive NONE
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Home Installation NONE
Data Recovery NONE
Delivery STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Miscellaneous FREE £100 IN-GAME VOUCHER with GTX 660 & UPWARDS GPUs!
Pricing Information
Price (excluding VAT) £748.33
Price £898.00
Order Quantity 1
Bulk Discount £0.00
Total Order price (Ex VAT) £748.33
Total Order Price £898.00
P/O Number - Edit P/O Number
Payment Method
Wattage 398
Or ......
Showing Quote Reference 542922
Case InWIN BLACK GR-1 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3470 (3.2GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard ASUS® P8H61-MX USB3/SI: uATX, USB 3.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM) 8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 660 Ti - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
2nd Graphics Card NONE
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 120GB INTEL® 330 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 500MB/sR | 450MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk 1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
RAID NONE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive NONE
Memory Card Reader NONE
Power Supply 450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler (£19)
Sound Card ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD (£16)
USB Options 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Modem NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND
Floppy Disk Drive NONE
Firewire NONE
TV Card NONE
Operating System Genuine Windows 8 Standard Edition 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor NONE
2nd Monitor NONE
3rd Monitor NONE
4th Monitor NONE
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables NONE
Eyefinity / GeForce 3D Vision NONE
Keyboard & Mouse NONE
Mouse NONE
Gaming Mouse Pad NONE
Speakers NONE
Webcam NONE
Headsets NONE
Surge Protection NONE
Cable Tidy NONE
Printer NONE
External Hard Drive NONE
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Home Installation NONE
Data Recovery NONE
Delivery STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Miscellaneous FREE £100 IN-GAME VOUCHER with GTX 660 & UPWARDS GPUs!
Pricing Information
Price (excluding VAT) £746.67
Price £896.00
Order Quantity 1
Bulk Discount £0.00
Total Order price (Ex VAT) £746.67
Total Order Price £896.00
P/O Number - Edit P/O Number
Payment Method
Wattage
Maximum Required Power 389W
The second one is obviously better but I had to sacrifice the sli motherboard with is a bit disappointing as I won't be able to double up on the graphics cards when the games start getting more graphic intence
Last edited:
Brockwinch
Bronze Level Poster
Cool thanks, what about the two specs, which one in your opinion ..?
Brockwinch
Bronze Level Poster
I think im gonna suck it up and pay the extra 100 for the sli mobo.
I do have one last question though.
You can select the ssd in two places when configuring, either as your first hdd or at the ssd cache drive a few places below which only has one option of a 20gb intel ssd. There both around the same price which is wierd whats the difference?
I do have one last question though.
You can select the ssd in two places when configuring, either as your first hdd or at the ssd cache drive a few places below which only has one option of a 20gb intel ssd. There both around the same price which is wierd whats the difference?
vanthus
Member Resting in Peace
An SSD cache drive Is mainly used along with an HDD as a cache for frequently accessed data on the OS drive ,making it faster than an HDD-only system,you can't install anything on it.
Brockwinch
Bronze Level Poster
That doesnt mean anything to me, in simple terms please.
vanthus
Member Resting in Peace
Not sure how to explain it simpler,hopefully someone else can.
Last edited:
Brockwinch
Bronze Level Poster
So choosing the 120gb ssd as first hdd is better than choosing 20gb ssd cache drive ??