New rig: £3000-4000

[Spoil3r]

Hi to all at Scan!

I have been looking to buy a pre-built PC for about 9 months now and although that sounds like quite a lot of time (believe me it is!) I have never found a machine that has matched my requirements nor budget. For the last 8 months I have been without a flat buzzer either and I wouldnt want the next door neighbour getting his grubbby hands on my new beast!!!

Just as a background I have looked at the following companies:-
Novatech - this is where I bought my "old" PC from back in the day that they were small and had good customer care. Would still be good enough as an entry PC today! Parts are of good quality but not the best spec for the money.
Chillblast - saw a review in a T3 magazine and decided to check them out. Seemed to offer a little more for a little more but did not have the case in stock. So i patiently waited 8 weeks (without making an order) only to find that in 8 weeks time (after several correspondence throughout) they would not use the case for the PC ... a little bit outraged and not particularly bothered chasing this up I checked out those people at ...
DELL - their XPS range seems quite good (and you pay for it too!) but they refuse to sell Vista 64-bit with their systems as it "ruins the hardware". They did offer me a small business PC (no style but BIG spec - the full 64 bit haul and upto 64GB ram .... should I ever want that! lol!) but the price really showed for it and it meant that other major compenents were not as good. Starting to get frustrated I thought for a laugh I would try the sister company ...
Alienware - £6,000-£7,000 for a PC?!?!?! no other comment required! I have also heard their components arent even the best of the best ... just branding gone mad me thinks!

This brings me to you guys at SCAN!!!

A good referral from someone who has used the HeXus forum for a long time recommended I check out you guys and I have done some careful research and I would say 90-95% of people are v.happy with the service provided and PCs made.

Now, I have had a go at using your component selection and specing up myself but I wondered without saying what I came up with what you would offer me if I tell you what I am after!?

- Quad Core (Extreme?)
- 4GB RAM (good speed)
- 1-2 high speed drives (boot up etc) - Raptors
- 1-2 storage drives (1-2TB)
- RAID 0 (can you have 2 RAID 0 ; one for boot/quick, one for storage)?
- 2-4 optical drives (at least 2 DVD Rewriters; poss one with LightScribe?!)
- Dual 768MB Nvidia (dont mind if its GTX/Ultra)
- Silent (or as quiet as you can get it!)
- Good air circulation (fans galore) - freezing if possible
- Good cooling equipment (not a big fan of watercooling, but if this is the best option I will take it)
- Vista 64-bit
- Creative X-Fi Elite Pro

I dont need all the small bits like speakers/headsets/software/network storage but I would take the guarantee/insurance.

I have two main priorities: heating and longevity!

My main concern is with overheating! Ive torched two laptops and destroyed 3 GFX cards through good(over) usage (and probably some poor cooling/air). So with regards to GFX cards, if the best card is the Ultra and there are no worries cooling it, I would take this.

I heard there is an issue with cooling the Extreme QX6800??? Again your suggestions welcome (you may decide 6700 is better?!)

Longevity in the sense that I would like my PC to not "die" or need component change in 3 years time ... I would like this rig for about 5 years (I may do small upgrades within this period).

Cases: I have been told the AKASA is good; what is the difference between this and the Silverstone TJ07B and which would you recommend? Again coming back to good air circulation; if the bigger case can offer better cooling/air flow this may be a better option?!

Are there any expected upgrades coming up soon that you would recommend waiting for (that arent too pricey!) ... such as DDR3? Is DDR3 any good?

Not too sure about the Ageia card ... would you say it is worth it to have or is it going to become obsolete?

Timing: I would be looking to try and get something before Xmas ... I have got used to using my knackered out laptop but I want to wait for the right PC!

Budget (the all important thing!): around £3,000, dont mind going up to £3,500... anything above this and it would really have to be better than sliced bread!

Looking forward to hearing from you guys with suggestions or comments!

I dont know everything about computers ---- but I dont know nothing either!

(Apologies for long meaningless post! )

-Spoil3r-

[Disturbedguy]

Im pretty sure you will be able to get what you hve listed for alot then the your outlined budget.

Alot of people seem to suggest the Q6600 for processor.

[moogle]

for quad get a q6600, as for ram, if your dishing out 3-4k might as well get 8gb, although 4 in 2 x 2 sticks will be sufficient. 2 gtx's or ultras? right now on futuremark the 2 cf 2900xt's beat the 2 ultra's in sli. Thats alot of savings and more power there. although yes i suppose the ultra beats the xt in other benchies too. but sli? what monitor will you be using. sli'ing does nothing much unless you use a massive screen. then it's power can be used fully. either try watercooling or get a thermalright extreme heatsink

[Lucio]

http://3xs.scan.co.uk/ShowSystem.asp?SystemID=744

Fairly simple, get that, drop the custom paint job, laser etching and downgrade the CPU to the Q6700 and it comes within your budget.

[Spoil3r]

for quad get a q6600, as for ram, if your dishing out 3-4k might as well get 8gb, although 4 in 2 x 2 sticks will be sufficient. 2 gtx's or ultras? right now on futuremark the 2 cf 2900xt's beat the 2 ultra's in sli. Thats alot of savings and more power there. although yes i suppose the ultra beats the xt in other benchies too. but sli? what monitor will you be using. sli'ing does nothing much unless you use a massive screen. then it's power can be used fully. either try watercooling or get a thermalright extreme heatsink

i knew i forgot something...

dell 2407 - the new one.

also got a 17 inch iiyama lcd from about 6 years ago if it can be used!!

thanks

[Mossy]

I am looking into this now but I will let you know you have come to the right place.

[Disturbedguy]

Well no one seems to have covered the air flow bit so i might aswell add summet about that.

A good way to increase the airflow within any case, is good cable management. By this i mean make sure cables are tiddly hidden out of the way, in doing this you will be allowing the air withing the case to freely move around the components you have within the case.

I personally have the cables in my system sleeved and tie wrapped and then hidden out of the way in the top of my case, being as carefull as possible not to obstruct the air flow for the PSU aswell.

(Sorry to hijack thread here)

Can anyone recommend any decent 80mm fans, my case doesnt any fixings or space to be able to install a 120mm fan within the case so am going to fully utilize the 5 * 80mm slots I have.

Btw, this Skythe Ninkja ive seen alot about, as these case or CPU fans?

[Mossy]

Hi Spoil3r

would it be possible to post you email address, I know you can not PM yet but I will remove the details straight away.

Regards

[Spoil3r]

Thank You :-)

[usxhe190]

for longetivity...i would really recommend you split your money into 2...i.e. £1500/£2000 and then use the other £1500/£2000 in 2/3 years time - you get more bang for your buck...my opinion though - why i say this is because hard disk is currently going through a new stage of improvement (more than previously I believe) ... i think lots of hybrid disk drives will come out within 2 years...and then after than lots of mainstream SSDs will come out as well...perfect for vista...

if not, i would also recommend getting a SSD instead for booting up vista....it would be more quiet than raptors and much better for booting up vista

[Mossy]

for longetivity...i would really recommend you split your money into 2...i.e. £1500/£2000 and then use the other £1500/£2000 in 2/3 years time - you get more bang for your buck...my opinion though - why i say this is because hard disk is currently going through a new stage of improvement (more than previously I believe) ... i think lots of hybrid disk drives will come out within 2 years...and then after than lots of mainstream SSDs will come out as well...perfect for vista...

if not, i would also recommend getting a SSD instead for booting up vista....it would be more quiet than raptors and much better for booting up vista

Although SSD is fast the boot up from 2 x WD Raptors and 2 x SSD was not noticable unless you have a stop watch. When we tested them the random read speed was fast but in some area's the raptors was better. Write speeds on SSD is terrible and my over all conclusion was over all Raptors at this time are the better option.

[usxhe190]

Although SSD is fast the boot up from 2 x WD Raptors and 2 x SSD was not noticable unless you have a stop watch. When we tested them the random read speed was fast but in some area's the raptors was better. Write speeds on SSD is terrible and my over all conclusion was over all Raptors at this time are the better option.

thanks for your view paulm! i do agree with though that write speeds on SSD is terrible and there is good and bad with SSD and raptors...

[Spoil3r]

thanks all for replies so far! v.much appreciated!! keep them coming and lets give Spoil3r his dream machine!!!

paulm -- thanks for the e-mail: as im at work and going out for drinks tonight, il get back to you tomorrow regarding numbers. Also, the spec didnt include a dell 2407-hc ... i did add this but not on original post! also I will tell you what I specced out and you can tell me how wrong mine is!

thanks for the info on cable tidying ... im assuming scan would naturally do this for me!

iv not heard much about SSDs ... what is the difference?!

-Spoil3r-

[markbrown83]

I would go for an Auzentech Prelude 7.1 instead of the creative soundcard. Also stick with 2 x GTX as the ultra cards have had many problems going by what previous post have said.

[Mossy]

No problems spoil3r just reply when you have time have a good night tonight :-)

[Spoil3r]

ive heard a few whistles over the ultras as well hence my questioning them in the original post..

never heard of the auzentech before; ive always thought creative were the don as far as high performance sound cards go ... the remote and front bay are a seller! but i will check it out when i get home!

as im at work and for some reason banned from checking the customise screen I failed to mention some things I would like:-

one ive mentioned twice - 24inch Dell 2407-hc monitor (this may be dualed to a 17 inch Iiyama LCD)

keyboard and mouse ... kinda vital -- i was tempted with the Razers but I think a Logi G15 and G5 would do the trick?!

-Spoil3r-