Comments on Proposed Build Please

[jim.mcintosh]

Case
COOLERMASTER SILENCIO 550 QUIET MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3470 (3.2GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
2GB AMD RADEON™ HD7870 - DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE
SSD CACHE DRIVE
20GB INTEL® SSD 313 SERIES - SLC CACHE DRIVE FOR SYSTEM / 1st HDD
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)
Processor Cooling
INTEL SOCKET LGA1155 STANDARD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8 Standard Edition 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
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 7 to 9 working days
Miscellaneous
FREE BIOSHOCK INFINITE & TOMB RAIDER with AMD 7850/7870 GPUs!
Quantity
1

Price: £866.00 including VAT and delivery.


Any comments on the build I've specced above? My Core 2 Duo I got from PC Specialist over 6 years ago, is getting close to the end and I'm hoping this will be a worthy replacement for the next few years.

It will be used for Photo Editing (Lightroom), games (iracing, Mechwarrior, Half Life 3 etc), general PC duties and will be hooked up to my shiny new 2713HM monitor.

One thing I am not sure about is the number and type of USB ports I will end up with. The build doesn't mention which ports will be USB3 or USB2. There are 4 USB3 on the motherboard (2 mid, 2 back), will they all be accessible? I assume the 2 on the back panels will be but wasn't sure what would happen with the mid board ones.

Thanks,

Jim.

 

[Karnor00]

I think the case you have selected only has 1 USB 3.0 port at the front, which means you may not be able to access one of the USB3 ports.

Also, I'm not convinced that cache drives are worth the money. They can be effective if you tend to access a fairly small set (20GB) of files on a regular basis. But if you use more than that then they don't add a huge amount to the performance. I'd suggest either finding funds for a full SSD, or simply drop the cache drive from the build (an HDD on its own is generally fine to be honest). You could use the money saved to upgrade the HDD to a Caviar Black, and maybe also upgrade the GPU to an HD 7870.

Finally I'd suggest upgrading the cooler to the Triple Copper Heatpipe. The default cooler is really designed for office use, rather than gaming/editing.

 

[jim.mcintosh]

Thanks for the advice. I have updated my quote and removed the cache drive (figured I could add it later if I had spare cash), upgraded the hard drive to a Caviar Black, changed the case to the Carbide 300 and added your cooler suggestion.

Think I'll place the order this weekend when I get an answer to my graphics card question in my other thread.

Thanks for taking the time to reply,

Jim.