Advice on new gaming rig

Dodfather

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Hi folks! :hiya:

After a long stay away from pc gaming (and pc's in general actually) I've decided to bite the bullet and get myself an awesome new gaming rig! I've been looking around a lot and have provisionally decided on a system from Palicomp. I know they have a bit of a dodgy reputation but from what I can gather they seem to have sorted themselves out a bit now, and they do seem to have the best prices of all the custom build places I've tried.

Anyways seeing as I've been out of the pc gaming loop for quite a while I wanted to run the specs past people who are a little more up to speed than me to make sure everything is ok, which is why I've ventured into these forums!

This is what I'm looking at just now:

Coolermaster Storm Enforcer case
Gigabyte Z77x-D3H mobo
Intel i5 3570k o/c
Geforce 680gtx 2gb
Corsair 16GB DDR3 1866Mhz Vengeance Performance Ram
Crucial M4 128gb SSD
2tb HDD
Windows 7 Home Premium
Powercool 750w PSU

I think everything should be ok, but do I perhaps need some kind of cooling with the overclocked processor? Your advice and views would be greatly appreciated :thumbsup:
 
Specs look real good,but how much.?
 
£1379

Forgot to mention there is a 24" Asus monitor too (and a few other small things, like a warranty, keyboard etc), although I plan on using my 42" Panasonic plasma for games and movies.
 
Specs look decent but any point in having the monitor if you are not going to use it? I'm not sure what the PSU make is like either.

If you are sitting a distance back from the PC what controller are you going to use?
 
Well I will still use it as a pc for recording music or just surfing the net. Don't want to do that through my plasma.

Was just going to use a wireless keyboard and mouse. Maybe not the best but should do for now.

Yeah I should maybe try and look into the psu.

Thanks!
 
So you are going to have a 24" monitor next to your plasma? You could do the lot on the plasma but I suppose if gives the option to watch TV while you are using the PC.

I only mentioned to controllers as if it's any distance you need a long cable to the PC or to use wireless. Might be worth a wireless xbox controller depending on the games you play.
 
No the pc will be on the other side of the room from the tv, will just need a long cable! Don't fancy doing long recording/mixing sessions on the tv for fear of IR/screen burn.

Yeah I've got a 360 so could use the pad for some things but looking to play Battlefield 3 so keyboard and mouse will be much better.

Had a look at the psu and it does seem a bit crap, looks like I'll need to beef that up.
 
£1379

Forgot to mention there is a 24" Asus monitor too

A 120hz one I hope to take advantage of the monster card if you do want to do some gaming on it.

I'd change the PSU, powercool aren't a brilliant brand. 750W is also far more than you need, 600W would be sufficient unless you think you might add a second GTX 680 later. Generally anything close to or above £10 per 100W is a good buy.

If this is going to be purely a gaming and general use machine then you're unlikely to use 16GB of memory, most games are trying to stick to a 2GB limit at the moment for compatibility with 32-bit systems.

EDIT: Also, memory speed generally makes little difference in gaming, so don't pay extra for that.
 
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Apart from the PSU brand which I've not heard of the specs look good. If the CPU is overclocked you may want to consider a better cooler and low profile RAM to avoid any problems.
 
A 120hz one I hope to take advantage of the monster card if you do want to do some gaming on it.

I'd change the PSU, powercool aren't a brilliant brand. 750W is also far more than you need, ~600W would be sufficient unless you think you might add a second GTX 680 later. Generally anything close to or above £10 per 100W is a good buy.

If this is going to be purely a gaming and general use machine then you're unlikely to use 16GB of memory, most games are trying to stick to a 2GB limit at the moment for compatibility with 32-bit systems.

Yeah it's 120hz. Will be doing music recording/production occasionally too so the extra ram will be very useful. :D

There's an XFX 850w psu as an option on the site, is this a more reliable brand? Had a quick google search and they seem good. I'd like it to be pretty future proof so want it to be capable of maybe handling a second graphics card at some point down the line.
 
Apart from the PSU brand which I've not heard of the specs look good. If the CPU is overclocked you may want to consider a better cooler and low profile RAM to avoid any problems.

Ok, thanks. I'm not really sure what lower profile ram would be, do you mean lower than 1866mhz?
 
Would the ThermalTake Contac29 BP cooler be a decent addition?
 
Would the ThermalTake Contac29 BP cooler be a decent addition?

get something like the arctic cooling i30, and low profile ram or it wont fit- it means ram thats physically less high- so doesnt have the huge heatsonks on. And yeah the fxf psu will be a far better choice.
 
get something like the arctic cooling i30, and low profile ram or it wont fit- it means ram thats physically less high- so doesnt have the huge heatsonks on. And yeah the fxf psu will be a far better choice.

Thanks Chox!

Ok so I've changed the ram to Corsair 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz XMS3 (had to drop to 8gb because I'm right at the edge of my budget), which seems to have no heat sinks on, am I right? I'm a little restricted in the cooling because I'm buying the system pre-built as I'm not really confident enough to do a self-build. There's only a set list of coolers available - is the Zalman CNPS9900A LED a solid enough choice? Anything above that seems to be going into more expensive water cooling territory.

Sitting at £1424 with the changes to ram, cooling and psu.
 
Yeah that ram is fine.

You'd be better off with the thermaltake cooler, its better performing and quieter under load.

get something like the arctic cooling i30, and low profile ram or it wont fit- it means ram thats physically less high- so doesnt have the huge heatsonks on. And yeah the fxf psu will be a far better choice.

God i mustve been tired this morning :laugh:
 
Ok so this is what it's looking like now:

Coolermaster Storm Enforcer case
Gigabyte Z77x-D3H mobo
Intel i5 3570k o/c
Geforce GTX680 2gb
Corsair 8gb DDR3 1600Mhz XMS3 RAM
Crucial M4 128gb SSD
2tb HDD
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
XFX 850w psu
ThermalTake Contac29 BP CPU cooler

Sitting at £1404. Had a look around a few other places and can't get anywhere near that price for the same spec.
 
Ok, thanks. I'm not really sure what lower profile ram would be, do you mean lower than 1866mhz?

low profile refers to the height not the memory speed. Since your CPU is overclocked you'd be better buying an aftermarket heatsink which normally has clearance problems with normal height RAM.
 
low profile refers to the height not the memory speed. Since your CPU is overclocked you'd be better buying an aftermarket heatsink which normally has clearance problems with normal height RAM.

Sorry, I'm getting myself a little confused with all the terminologies here! Do you mean an aftermarket heatsink for the ram?
 
Sorry, I'm getting myself a little confused with all the terminologies here! Do you mean an aftermarket heatsink for the ram?
Smaller in height ram to sit under a bigger after market cooler for your cpu..:)
 
Sorry, I'm getting myself a little confused with all the terminologies here! Do you mean an aftermarket heatsink for the ram?

No, hes talking about aftermarket cooler for the cpu. Like the thermaltake.

Stick with the spec youve just posted, nothing needs or warrants changing, looks like a decent rig, I've never heard of this company mind but then its not my risk :)
 
Ah I see, thanks.

Yeah there is a few bad stories about them but they are all from a few years ago. They changed to MegaPC on ebay (to escape the bad feedback I guess) and their reputation seems a lot better now, 100% positive feedback. There is always some horror stories for small companies like that if you look for it I suppose, so I'm just gonna go for it.
 
Ah I see, thanks.

Yeah there is a few bad stories about them but they are all from a few years ago. They changed to MegaPC on ebay (to escape the bad feedback I guess) and their reputation seems a lot better now, 100% positive feedback. There is always some horror stories for small companies like that if you look for it I suppose, so I'm just gonna go for it.

Aye, fair enough, if youve got a credit card pay with that, at least that way there'll be a fair whack of security there in the event anything goes wrong.
 
So, after a bit of unexpected fannying about to get my money situation in order I've finally got this bitch ordered. Set to arrive on Tuesday:

Coolermaster CM690ii Advanced (changed as this seems to have better cooling than the Storm Enforcer case)
GIGABYTE Z77X-D3H
Intel Core i5 3570K
ThermalTake Contac29 BP cpu cooler
2 extra case fans
CORSAIR 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz XMS3 RAM
XFX850w psu
2tb 7200rpm HDD
128GB CRUCIAL M4 SSD
Geforce GTX680
Windows 7 Premium 64-bit
Logitech 2.1 speakers
24" Asus monitor

All of that plus warranty and delivery came in at £1478.50. The speakers are just cheap ones so that I can have sound without always hooking up to my home cinema system! Got myself a keyboard and mouse separately.

Thanks for all the advice, looks like I would've made some grave errors without it! :smashin:
 
nice, which 680 you go for?
 
The 2gb version, although couldn't choose the manufacturer of the card unfortunately, just the card itself. One of the disadvantages of not building yourself I suppose.
 

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