Advice needed! Thanks.

L

lewwoo

Active member
Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 932 FULL TOWER GAMING CASE (£120)

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-760 Quad Core (2.80GHz, 8MB Cache) + Turbo Boost

Motherboard
ASUS® P7P55D-E PRO: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™ / SLI SUPPORT

Memory (RAM)
4GB KINGSTON HYPER-X BLU DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 2GB KIT)

Graphics Card
768MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11

2nd Graphics Card
768MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11

3rd Graphics Card
NONE

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)

2nd Hard Disk
NONE

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NONE

Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT

Power Supply & Case Cooling
CORSAIR 650W PSU (TX650) 80+ ULTRA QUIET (£76)

Processor Cooling
COOLIT ECO A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£59)

Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT

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 & Video Editing
NONE

TV Card
NONE

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

Monitor
22" Wide TFT Silver/Black 1920 x1080 2MS D-Sub, DVI, 21.6" Panel (£119)

2nd Monitor
NONE

DVI Cable
NONE

GeForce 3D Vision
NONE

Keyboard & Mouse
NONE

Mouse
NONE

Speakers
NONE

Webcam
NONE

Headsets (VOIP)
NONE

Surge Protection
NONE

Printer
NONE

External Hard Drive
NONE

Home Installation
NONE

Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

Data Recovery
NONE


Just wondering about the 768 MB GTX 460 in SLI? Would this be better than one 2GB 460? Also would the case be suitable for SLI, could it keep it cool well?
 
Sleinous

Sleinous

Author Level
Yes it would, and yes, the case would keep it cool, HOWEVER, i'd strongly advise you going for say, a GTX 470, which, is slightly les spowerful than 2x GTX 460s, BUT still maxes out ALL games released today and will for a good while yet. The main advantage to this is....you can add the second GTX 470 later on in SLI, and, those 2 will thrash the 2x GTX 460s. (The cost for a GTX 470 is nearly the same as for 2x GTX 460s).

Good choice on the WD1002FAEX 64mb cached drive, do remember that youw ont see any speed increase over 6gbs and 3gbs on a mechanical drive, BUT, that 64mb cache will help alot more than say just 8mb :)

If you want to save an extra £15 you can downgrade to Samsung RAM @ 1333mhz and you won't notice much diff unless you plan on overclocking (again).

I'd suggest silver warranty too, £5 for 1 year fo collect and return instead of 1 month should anything go wrong. Consider ditching the liquid cooling if you arent going to overclock teh rig at all, if you are, you can keep it, but the Titan fennrir is also an excellent overclock fan. if you go for the GTX 470 option, chose an HX100W PSU, as you will need this wattage for when you add the second GPU :)

Here is the spec with suggested modifications:

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 932 FULL TOWER GAMING CASE (£120)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-760 Quad Core (2.80GHz, 8MB Cache) + Turbo Boost
Motherboard
ASUS® P7P55D-E PRO: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™ / SLI SUPPORT
Memory (RAM)
4GB KINGSTON HYPER-X BLU DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 2GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1280MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX470 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
Free Item
FREE MAFIA II Game (RRP: £34.99) with a qualifying GTX 4xx Series GPU!
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 & Case Cooling
CORSAIR 1000W MODULAR PSU (HX1000) 80+ ULTRA QUIET (£169)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
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 9 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,137.00 including VAT and delivery.

P.S. Forgot to add your monitor to that, so add £119
 
Last edited:
Phoenix

Phoenix

Prolific Poster
It would be also worth changing the RAM to 1333mhz speed if you're not overclocking the CPU as you won't notice the difference between the two in performance.
 
L

lewwoo

Active member
The thing is, I don't think I will be splashing out on a PC like this again for a while. So if I did go with that 470 then I probably would not get a second one. What about the difference between the 768MB, 1GB and 2GB versions of the 460?
 
D

Darko

Well-known member
Check this spec if you got with gtx 460 :)

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 932 FULL TOWER GAMING CASE (£120)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-950 (3.06GHz) 4.8GTs/8MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P6X58D-E: DDR3, USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, 3-Way SLI
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
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 & Case Cooling
1010W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£109)
Processor Cooling
TITAN FENRIR EXTREME DIRECT TOUCH COPPER CPU COOLER (£39)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
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
Monitor
19" Wide TFT Silver/Black 1440 x 900 5MS, D-Sub, DVI, 18.5" Panel (£89)
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 9 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,183.00 including VAT and delivery.
 
L

lewwoo

Active member
There is only one graphics card on that. Is 2x 768 Mb better than x1 1GB or 2GB? Plus is that PSU as good as the Corsair ones? A 22" screen is also a must.
 
Sleinous

Sleinous

Author Level
lewwoo said:
The thing is, I don't think I will be splashing out on a PC like this again for a while. So if I did go with that 470 then I probably would not get a second one. What about the difference between the 768MB, 1GB and 2GB versions of the 460?
Click to expand...

2GB version has a 'slight' overclock. But, I dont think you'd get a total of 4GB GDDR5 memory anyway so a bit pointless.

I'd still go for the 470 anyday. If you dont intend on splashing out, then this would be the best option, as, all you need to purchase later on is a second GTX 470, which, would be way way cheaper than teh first was and will prolong the life of your PC by a long shot more than 2x 460s :)

Basically, I can guarantee you that you WILL splash out on a new PC much much sooner with the 2x 460s than with 2x 470s
 
L

lewwoo

Active member
I really can't afford much more than that. The 470 also requires a higher PSU. I think I would prefer to stick with the 460's, my turn over of PC parts isn't that high. Would 650 Watt psu be enough for 2 of them?
 
L

lewwoo

Active member
Mine comes to £1,213.00 inc VAT inc screen, with 750 watt psu and Sound blaster audigy.
Edit: £1,225.00 inc VAT, forgot to add the CPU.
 
Gorman

Gorman

Author Level
lewwoo said:
There is only one graphics card on that. Is 2x 768 Mb better than x1 1GB or 2GB? Plus is that PSU as good as the Corsair ones? A 22" screen is also a must.
Click to expand...

As Sleinous suggests vmem in SLI / crossfire does not stack, nor does physx ability etc, its purely game rendering. So 2 x GTS 460 768 MB = 768MB total, however vmem really isnt going to make an impact on games unless you are playing in VERY high resolutions such as 2500 x 1600 etc
 
L

lewwoo

Active member
Ah okay. So 768 MB is for me. The last post I meant to say PSU not CPU. This PC is mainly so I can reach the glorious number of 250 FPS in cod4 and not get lag on those beautiful DX11 cutscenes in CIV V and get ready for Shogun Total War 2.
 
Sleinous

Sleinous

Author Level
Also consider whether the soundcard is 100% required, unless you go for a very expensive one, onboard is usually as good, or nearly as good nowadays.
 
Gorman

Gorman

Author Level
lewwoo said:
Ah okay. So 768 MB is for me. The last post I meant to say PSU not CPU. This PC is mainly so I can reach the glorious number of 250 FPS in cod4 and not get lag on those beautiful DX11 cutscenes in CIV V and get ready for Shogun Total War 2.
Click to expand...

Ah, i see. I must call you on your 250 fps comment. As your going to be using an LCD TFT screen as most people do nowadays, it will only display upto about 60 fps, unless it is a 120hz version. So your PC will render 190 FPS that your monitor cant display :/

lewwoo said:
Wouldn't that soundcard help me hear where enemies are in games?
Click to expand...

No not really, Nothing an onboard card cant do.
 
Last edited:
L

lewwoo

Active member
Isn't that got something to do refresh rate? Configs in cod4 allow for a setting to disable it. I have got a 19" LCD screen now and I used to be able to get 250 FPS, before my CPU mess up.
 
Last edited:
Gorman

Gorman

Author Level
Your thinking about Vsync which will automatically cap the amount of frames your card draws to 60 fps so it is more in sync with your monitor. Disabling Vsync will allow the card to render as many frames as it can, but this doesnt change the fact the monitor can only display 60fps unless its a 120hz model

Anything above 60 fps on a LCD TFT and your card is drawing frames you cant see, the card putting out 60-90 fps will give the smoothest play, any more than that and the page tearing will get really bad, depending on game.
 
L

lewwoo

Active member
Oh I understand. Do you mean that if I put a fps counter on it will stick to 60, or I wont notice the difference of anything above 60?
 
Sleinous

Sleinous

Author Level
Gorman said:
Your thinking about Vsync which will automatically cap the amount of frames your card draws to 60 fps so it is more in sync with your monitor. Disabling Vsync will allow the card to render as many frames as it can, but this doesnt change the fact the monitor can only display 60fps unless its a 120hz model

Anything above 60 fps on a LCD TFT and your card is drawing frames you cant see, the card putting out 60-90 fps will give the smoothest play, any more than that and the page tearing will get really bad, depending on game.
Click to expand...

Would this happen to have anything to do with why when I forced VSYNC on, in my nvidia control panel, fraps recorded my screen much much better with NO lag, than ever before? GPU was outputting 60fps max and had way more free time to deal with the screen capture maybe?

EDIT: Lewwoo, you wont notice the diff, as the monitor will display 60 frames per second, even though the GPU may be sending out many many more.
 
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