New Summer Gaming PC; help appreciated :)

[Ronaldspiers]

Hey all,

So 2 years ago I decided I wanted a gaming PC for some games I liked the look of. I don't regret it and now I do not wish to go back to console gaming. However when I bought this PC I literally had no idea what I was doing. I bought it based purely on the fact it could "run crysis". I am slightly more computer savvy now and it turns out, to upgrade my current PC I would need a new Motherboard, CPU, graphics card and (because I cant tell if some of the better graphics cards would fit) maybe a new case too. So i figure it would be more beneficial, albeit expensive, to buy a new one and I want a PC that will keep me going for at least 3/4 years before it needs an upgrade.

The main purpose is going to be gaming and watching blu ray movies, there are some things I do not understand about PCs yet and would be graeful for any advice. My Budget is £1200.

Case
InWIN BLACK DRAGON RIDER GAMING CASE

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3570 (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache

Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V: PCI-E 3.0 READY, WIFI, SLI, CROSSFIREX

Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPERX GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1866MHz X.M.P(2 x 4GB KIT)

Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 670 - 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
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
4x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ROM (£26)

Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX750 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£86)

Processor Cooling
Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler (£19)

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 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Office Software
FREE 60 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 2013

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 7 to 9 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,118.00 including VAT and delivery.


Few things:
1- The Motherboard I chose was because it supports SLI, but the LK/LX versions are cheaper. Is there a formidale difference between them?

2- SSD: I've heard that SSD loads games faster but do the games need to be ON the actuall SSD for these faster load times?

3- is an upgrade to 16GB RAM worthwhile/necessary?

4- I think in time I would like to add a second 670 into the rig (hence the 750W PSU) do you think the Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler (£19) will be sufficient to keep this cool? Or should I get the next tier cooler?

5- With 2 670s in SLI PCS quotes that it will use 701W, I have this strange logic in my head that makes think: "The closer a computers power consumption is to the capabilities of a PSU the more heat the PSU will generate and the more cooling the PC needs". Is there any basis behind my reasoning here, or am I being paranoid?

6- And on that same note, i know for SLI you need the GFX cards to be the same. But If I was to buy an extra one down the line would it matter the make of it? I was thinking the EVGA FTW 670 seems pretty sweet and has some nice reviews, would this be able to work in SLI or would I need 2 of the exact same models as well. So 2 EVGA FTW 670. But impossible would be an EVGA and an ASUS 670 in SLI.

Thank you for any replies. Sorry for a long long post. I hope you all have a great day/evening.

 

[keynes]

1. apart from SLI and wifi I don't think there is much difference
2. an SSD is not essential, I have personally not noticed a significant difference when loading games from an SSD.
3. for gaming 8gb is plenty.
4 the triple copper heatpipe is a cooler for the CPU not for your graphic card
5 the configurator adds a 20% allowance to your power requirements, for the spec you posted and with a 2nd Gtx 670 the psu you have chosen should be fine.
6 it will be fine to mix different manufacturers as long as they have the same vram

 

[DavidM4164]

I'm buying pretty much this exact build, too. I believe a 650 PSU is plenty for SLI'd 670s. the compatibility checker doesn't tell you to upgrade if you add a second 670 to the quote. Not sure if this is worth it, but opting for the K version of the I5 means you could overclock it in he future to squeeze more juice out. Until then, you'll probably be fine with the stock CPU cooler.

 

[keynes]

I believe a 650 PSU is plenty for SLI'd 670s

With a similar spec posted I get a warning message with a suggestion to upgrade to 750w PSU.

 

[Target Practice]

Same here. There's not much in it, I don't think, but I definitely got a warning to upgrade when I added a second 670.

 

[Ronaldspiers]

Thanks for the replies, as for the CPU cooling thing; What I meant was with 2 670s SLI they CPU will have to work harder right? So just wondered if that was enough cooling

 

[keynes]

Thanks for the replies, as for the CPU cooling thing; What I meant was with 2 670s SLI they CPU will have to work harder right? So just wondered if that was enough cooling

As far as I know the cpu cooler and gpu are independent, regardless of how many graphics card you put if you are not planning to overclock your cpu the triple copper heatpipe will be fine.

 

[Ronaldspiers]

As far as I know the cpu cooler and gpu are independent, regardless of how many graphics card you put if you are not planning to overclock your cpu the triple copper heatpipe will be fine.

Ooh awesome I didn't realise that thanks.

One last silly question. With the SSD, Do the games have to be ON the SSD to get the benefit of shorter load times? Or is just having an SSD in the system enough?

 

[keynes]

Ooh awesome I didn't realise that thanks.

One last silly question. With the SSD, Do the games have to be ON the SSD to get the benefit of shorter load times? Or is just having an SSD in the system enough?

You would need to have the game on the SSD, as I mentioned before in my case I have not noticed a significant difference in loading times between an SSD and a caviar black.