New PC ordered but waiting for B3 stepping boards...

J

JaimzONeill

Member
So ive ordered this pc but have decided to wait for the new B3 stepping mobo. This gives me a little time to make some changes to the order, any suggestions?

FRACTAL DESIGN R3 - BLACK PEARL CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8P67: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™ SUPPORT
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (4 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6870 - 2 DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DirectX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
2nd Graphics Card
NONE
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
80GB Intel® X25-M 2.5" SSD (34nm / upto 250MB/sR | 70MB/sW)***SPECIAL***
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
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W TX SERIES (TX750) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£89)
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 GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD (£19)
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
TV Card
NONE
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£147)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
NONE
2nd Monitor
NONE
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
NONE
Eyefinity / 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 Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Data Recovery
NONE
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 11 to 13 working days
 
R

Roobarb

Bronze Level Poster
Your going to enjoy that rig when it arrives !!

Just spoke to PCS, after fast tracking my order, was just about to be taken to the build team :)

Hoping for Friday delivery.
 
R

Roobarb

Bronze Level Poster
Tell me about it, I've been with out a PC since end of November (popped the mobo) waiting to have cash to order a whole new setup.

Even better with the Friday arrival, as the wife is away all weekend visiting her sister !

Machine gonna get a battering that weekend, i think it will be an all nighter for sure.
 
J

JaimzONeill

Member
Do you reckon itll b worth getting two HD6870's in crossfire? or is there a better option for around 500 squid? (Just ad a look at your ordered spec.... Jesus thats a beast!)
 
R

Roobarb

Bronze Level Poster
Well, 2 are always better than 1. But it all depends on what you are really wanting/expecting from the machine ?

I choose my cards after reading a load of reviews, and they had a good history of being over clock-able. And fitted my budget (which i went over slightly when you include the newer chip, fast tracking, monitor, mouse and keyboard).

Also a lot of people have a preference in brand, i wouldn't use an AMD for instance.

Id recommend looking at bit-tech .com on reviews, and go with your heart and budget.

thanks, lookin forward to getting my hands on it !
 
J

JaimzONeill

Member
The 6870 has had a good write up on bit-tech (this is the review that had me sold tbh) and i do have a bit of extra money for a crossfire set up... however. Im not really a massive gamer but i do play games such as starcraft and command and conquer from time to time and a good gfx set up would probably encourage me to play a bit more. do u think a single 6870 would play these games on maximum details settings? and would a second card really make a noticable difference? im a complete noob wen it comes to gfx cards as ive only ever really used my computer to compose music and play the odd game on lowest settings. any advice is appreciated!
 
R

Roobarb

Bronze Level Poster
Ummmmm, I'm guessing that system would easily max them out..... But, as you said, this could get you into playing more games. More newer, graphic intense games, crysis or what ever its called and then the extra card would be a massive bonus.

IMHO, if you got the cash laying around spare, you may as well throw it at the machine and stay a little future proof. I think you will be suitably impressed with the performance of the system and when out shopping you'll fancy a snoop around Game, or some shop and think, ooooooh that looks fun, and then you'll think to your self, either i wish i got that extra card, or you will think glad i got that card now, this is awesome.
 
J

JaimzONeill

Member
yeh i think your right actually, better to have it if i need it... PLUS PCS prices on components seem to pretty close to the cheapest prices i can find myself. How much was your setup alltogether?
 
R

Roobarb

Bronze Level Poster
Umm, initial price of the tower from PCS was £2822 (got to add £35 for CPU update, and £60 fast track).

Nec 232WMi 23" widescreen HD monitor £285.
SteelSeries G7 keyboard £80
SteelSeries Cata mouse £57
SoundBlaster Arena 3D headset £65

So what ever that comes to....... Got to love my Wife for footing the bill on all of it.
 
R

Roobarb

Bronze Level Poster
Well, when i started to order and the prices started to go up, she said may as well get all new stuff as a lot of my gear was starting to push up daisies.

There is a pic of what i have setup already on my order stuff that has arrived.
 
L

LFFPicard

Godlike
Nice rig, couple of suggestions:

- Ram: A few people will say reduce this to save money, this is optional, personally I would keep this as it will be good for future use as minimam requirements for ram will increase over time.
- GPU: Your best option is to go for the single best GPU you can afford, unless your a ATI fan I would highly recommend the Nvidia 560Ti or the 570 or even the 580 if you can afford it, that way you have a hell of a machine now and when it starts to show its age you can just pop a second GPU in and keep going.
- PSU: I would recommend if you plan on Sli/crossfire to up the PSU to either the TX850 or higher, depending on budget this will ensure you can add extra to the system with no issues.
- OS: Just checking incase your selecting the best of every option, Do you realy need Win7 ultimate? There is not really nay benefit for home users for ultimate, the best you probably want to go for is Professional. Check this link for the features: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/compare Most people are fine with Premium.
- CPU: Are you planing to overclock? if not then you can loose the K version and just go for the standard, the onyl difference is the overclocking ability, so save some pennies and drop the K

The only other thing to note, you say your waiting on B3 of the chipsets, if this is the case it may time well with the next gen SSD's, this is what I am waiting on before I order, so if you want better value SSD's you might want to stick it out another couple weeks for those.

Otherwise, Looks good!
 
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J

JaimzONeill

Member
thats a good point i wont be overclocking so i have no idea why i have selected the 2600k. (Thanx for that!) as for the gpu the 570 looks like a better option actually. Will the professional version of windows be backwards compatible with older softwares? (I have a large amount of virtual instruments which i currently have installed on my computer which is running ultimate. If this is a seriously noob question ill apologise for it now. lol
 
J

JaimzONeill

Member
ive just looked up on this and wat i was talking about was the run in xp mode function... which professional does have so in total youve saved me bout 80 squid there, that shud be handy in gettin a heftier PSU. Thanx for the detailed reply!!!
 
R

Roobarb

Bronze Level Poster
I'm only getting win 7 ultimate, as it will be the first operating system I've ever owned for myself in over 20 years of owning a pc lol.
 
L

LFFPicard

Godlike
The only benifit in Ultimate over Preffessional is the bitlocker, witch is a personal choice over encypting your important data and using a security marke ron your portable drives.. and being able to switch between 35 languages. So unless you want to learn how to use windows in chinese Professional is just as good.
Professional does have the XP Mode but as mentioned it is a download from microsoft and not on the install DVD.

The 560Ti/570/580 will all be perfectly fine for a dual monitor setup.
 
L

LFFPicard

Godlike
Give this one a go:

Case
FRACTAL DESIGN R3 - BLACK PEARL CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8P67: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™ SUPPORT
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (4 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1280MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX570 - 2 DVI,mHDMI - DirectX® 11, 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
80GB Intel® X25-M 2.5" SSD (34nm / upto 250MB/sR | 70MB/sW)***SPECIAL***
2nd 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
CORSAIR 850W TX SERIES (TX850) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£99)
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 GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD (£19)
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£109)
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 11 to 13 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,466.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/intel-sandy-bridge-pc/
 
R

Roobarb

Bronze Level Poster
If you play WoW, Chinese is important.... you can talk to the person that's just hacked your account and stole all your gold.
 
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