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Thoughts on this rig?

L

Laffles

Gawd
Joined
Aug 23, 2011
Messages
903
For heavy Photoshop/Illustrator use and hoping that It will run BF3/Skyrim etc maxed out @ 1980 x 1080. budget was £1200, I just managed it with like £50 over. I live in London.. It's already ordered, as well as the 22" LED :)

CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K OC@ 4.7Ghz
CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 Water Cooler
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z68A-D3
Memory: 8.0GB Corsair DDR3 1600mhz XMS3 (4x 2GB)
HD: Crucial 64GB SSD S-ATAIII 6.0Gb/s
Second hard drive: NEW! 1TB S-ATAIII 6.0Gb/s
Optical Drive: 22x DVD±RW DL S-ATA
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 1,536MB
Sound card: Onboard 7.1 Audio
Monitors: LG 22' E2240S-PN LED
Case: NZXT Hush 2 Silent White
PSU: 700W Xigmatek
 
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Laffles said:
It's already ordered,
Click to expand...
So what's the point in asking for our thoughts then?

That is unless you're planning/willing on returning parts based on our recommendations? Because I already see a few parts that are pretty bad buys and that should be returned.
 
well I can phone up and charge parts I guess, and was just posting for thoughts, like i said in the thread title, someone's in a bad mood!

what would you consider 'pretty bad buys'?
 
Laffles said:
what would you consider 'pretty bad buys'?
Click to expand...

First off, the RAM: You will fill up all of the motherboard's RAM slots with only 8GB total of RAM. That means thay any RAM expansion will require throwing out some or all of your system's existing RAM. If you want 8GB, you're better off with 2 x 4GB sticks rather than 4 x 2GB sticks; that way you'd still have two open RAM slots for future expansion. Furthermore, that particular Corsair memory requires all of 1.65V just to even run at their advertised settings - but Sandy Bridge CPUs do not like RAM being run any higher than 1.575V.
Second is the Xigmatek PSU: Unless it is one of that company's most expensive models, the "700W" unit is based on one of HEC/Compucase's lesser-quality platforms that cannot provide anywhere near its claimed wattage without its ripple going way out of spec. And out-of-spec ripple can (and does) kill your system's components far earlier than anticipated. In fact, that Xigmatek PSU effectively delivers only 500W under realistic conditions.

Third, with most games the GTX 580 is way overkill at the target 1920x1080 resolution. You can achieve almost the same level of performance at that rez by choosing a card that costs half as much.

Fourth, the Corsair H60 cooler isn't needed for an overclock of an i5-2500K to 4.7GHz. In fact, self-contained liquid coolers AT ANY PRICE do not perform all that much better than a good-performing tower-style air cooler.
 
Laffles said:
someone's in a bad mood!
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Sorry, these kinds of threads rarely end well due to the OP usually ignoring whatever we say and sticking with their poor choices.
Laffles said:
what would you consider 'pretty bad buys'?
Click to expand...

1) The RAM: Why would you limit yourself to 8GB of RAM max? If you're really the heavy Photoshop/Illustrator user, you're should be getting 16GB of RAM. So return that RAM and go with 4 x 4 GB sticks. You don't need to buy the RAM as part of a 16GB RAM back. Just two individual 2x4GB packs would be good choices or even four seperate 4GB sticks. Also make sure that the RAM is rated at 1.5V or otherwise you may run into issues down the road. Also note that there is little to no real world performance difference between DDR3 1333 RAM and DDR3 1600 RAM. I would recommend these getting two sets of either of these RAM if you can:
$45 - G.Skill Value Series F3-10600CL9D-8GBNT 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$50 - G.Skill Ripjaws F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM

2) The case: It's very quiet but it's has really bad cooling. Even with a moderate powered video card, that system and GPU will heat up pretty badly. Considering that you chose the GTX 580, a fairly hot running video card, that case is really poor choice. So I would recommend any of these cases over that case:
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K56 ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$100 - Cooler Master HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$110 - NZXT Whisper WHI - 001BK ATX Full Tower Case
$100 - Lian Li PC-7FN ATX Case
$110 - Lian Li PC-60FN ATX Case
$113 - Velocity Micro GX2-W Silver Classic Aluminum Case with Side Window
$110 - Fractal Design Arc Mini Tower
$130 - Fractal Design Define R3 Black ATX Case
$140 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK Black Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - Lian Li PC-9F ATX Case
$140 - Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP ATX Case

3) That Xigmatek is of pretty low quality as it is made by HEC. Honestly can't say how long it's gonna last before it ends up killing your PC. But it won't be long thats for sure. So I recommend ditching that piece of shit PSU for something from Corsair or Antec:
$100 - Corsair 650TX V2 650W PSU
$110 - Antec High Current Gamer Series HCG-750 750W
$110 - Corsair 750TX V2 750W PSU

4) The GTX 580 is a really bad buy for the money. The HD 6970 2GB, HD 6950 2GB, adn the GTX 570 are all better bang for the buck values than the GTX 580. With that said, if you don't care at all about best bang for the buck value, by all means go with that GTX 580. Just make sure you get a better case and power supply for it.

5) That hard drive is probably a Western Digital or Seagate. As such, they're a tad overpriced considering that those drives perform as well or worse than this cheaper Samsung drive:
$60 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

EDIT: Damn E4g1e beat me to it. Well what he said +1 :)
 
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Really appreciate it guys, I am quite a n00b and the memory was a stupid mistake really. I will phone them up tomorrow

as for the PSU, I've read nothing but good reviews about it, as I'm on an electricity meter, it's also very economical so that was also a reason why I went for it - what makes you think it won't last long :( ?

in terms of the case, I live in quite a small flat so space is an issue, that case is reasonably small and quite minimal looking, a big phantom etc just would stick out in my living room.

in terms of cooling I am going to be putting an extractor fan in one of the top vents - do you think that would do?

Thanks again.
 
Laffles said:
as for the PSU, I've read nothing but good reviews about it, as I'm on an electricity meter, it's also very economical so that was also a reason why I went for it - what makes you think it won't last long :( ?
Click to expand...
Read what E4g1e wrote:
E4g1e said:
Second is the Xigmatek PSU: Unless it is one of that company's most expensive models, the "700W" unit is based on one of HEC/Compucase's lesser-quality platforms that cannot provide anywhere near its claimed wattage without its ripple going way out of spec. And out-of-spec ripple can (and does) kill your system's components far earlier than anticipated. In fact, that Xigmatek PSU effectively delivers only 500W under realistic conditions.
Click to expand...

Thats why I don't think it will last long. Whetever reviews you've read were more than likely done by peope who know nothing about PSUs as any PSU expert will know about and note the above issues with that Xigmatek PSU.

Laffles said:
in terms of the case, I live in quite a small flat so space is an issue, that case is reasonably small and quite minimal looking, a big phantom etc just would stick out in my living room.
Click to expand...
Ok fine, the Phantom isn't a good choice for you. But most of the other cases that I recommended are of similar dimensions to that NZXT case.
Laffles said:
in terms of cooling I am going to be putting an extractor fan in one of the top vents - do you think that would do?
Click to expand...
No. Not even if you fill that case up with nothing but extremely high-speed fans. For the HD 6950 2GB, GTX 570, HD 6970 2GB, or GTX 580 cards, that case simply does not provide enough cooling on account of the extremely restricted front intakes/panel/door.
 
so is this all lies haha ;) :http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...rp-pc702-700w-psu-review-testing-results.html

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story3&reid=213

This unit boasted very clean outputs, met all its efficiency targets, and survived a trip to the hot box where it was asked to put out all 700 watts with ambient temperatures up to forty-eight degrees. Good job, Xigmatek... let's see some more units like this one in the future.
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etc.

I'm not trying to be rude or anything. I just have done extensive research on the PSU and I find it hard to believe it's as bad as you guys are saying :p

I will shop around for some other cases :)
 
No problem, thanks again for advice on the memory - Have phoned and changed the order.
 
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