mATX build (laptop replacement)

[moriaty]

Hi all. cheeky of me to be asking tons of advice as first post, but here goes.

planning a small sized system with scope to use it mostly for music performance on the move, and production at home on a 3 x monitor setup. Some gaming too, but its secondary. no overclocking or any other fancy bs; i find computers are a headache enough running stock!

portability is a big factor, as im planning to use this for live music. ideally, the system will be a cheaper and perhaps more powerful & stable alternative to a top-spec laptop. looking to spend £700, but could stretch up to £800 for good enough reason.
already have input devices, 15" Vga TFT for mobility, and an Edirol UA-101 soundcard, so looking for advice simply on the box.

parts im considering:

case: SilverStone SST-SG02W-F
Psu: Antec True Power New 650W
Mobo: Asus P8Z68 M PRO
CPU: i5 2500K
memory: Corsair 2x2GB CMZ4GX3M2A1600C9B
system drive: OCZ Agility 3 120GB
Gpu: Gigabyte HD6850 1GB eyefinity
and some sort of dvd-r..

areas of debate:

case - haven't seem much talk about this chassis, but it seems right for the price. seemes a bit cramped, but there the option of the Silverstone NT06-E CPU Cooler, which mounts under the PSU's fan and uses it instead of its own. will i need that for standard clocking?
mobo - i've been reading on the p67/z68 debate, but prices are pretty much the same, so newer chipset should be the one to go for?
SSD - OCZ has been recommended to me. is the agility good enough, or should i cough up the extra £40 and go for a Vertex 3 ?
Gpu - eyefinity is a must for 3 monitors, as i'd rather not draw CPU power from the IGP. i take it the 6850 is good enough for some racing games..
PSU - my housemate got the corsair 850AX, and i'm absolutely gobsmacked at how quiet it is, but f**c paying £150. any other PSU as quiet up to £80?

that is all! thanks for reading my blabbering, any other advice on anything i may have missed is welcome.

[Pob255]

start with most psu's are quiet now, some of the very cheap ones are noisy that's mainly due to them using fast fans to try to make up for the cheap components.

A single 6850 for a triple monitor setup for gaming is not advisable, does depend on game, monitor resolution, graphics settings and frame rates you find exceptable.

If I remember correctly there's been issues with the new sandforce controller, if it's not been fixed yet then I'd look at the Crucial M4 ssd instead of the OCZ (uses the Marvell controller)

If you're not overclocking then a Cheap Z68 matx board will be fine.

It might be worth looking at the SG03 case it's a bit more expensive, but being full aluminium it's 1kg lighter.

ps with the given specs you could happly drop down to the 520w antec http://www.scan.co.uk/products/520w-...x-scan-exclusi

[moriaty]

thanks for the reply.
i should have been more clear about the monitor setup; only one will be used for gaming with the other two used only for my audio software GUIs.
i didn't know there were issues with OCZ drives, i'll have a look at a crucial.
That case looks good, but it is a lot more expensive, and considerably bigger too.

thanks!

[Pob255]

It's not the drivers it's the firmware on the SSD, I cannot remember the exact issue ether, need to go dig around to find it, the older Sandforce SSD's were very good.

Trying to setup 3 monitors via eyefinity but only using one on games might be an issue, eyefinity works by treating the three monitors as a single big monitor at a driver level, it doable but I think it'll involve turning eyefinity off every time you only want to use a single monitor.

Hopefully someone with experience of using eyefinity will chip in and can give better details


If you're not overclocking then you could drop down to an i5 2400 only slightly slower at stock speeds and will save you around £20 on top of that you could drop down to a cheaper mATX motherboard if you're not going to overclock http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...vga-on-board-m

[moriaty]

i wanst aware of that about eyefinity. i thought it would be similar to window's screen manager where you apply one screen as the main display. hope to hear some advice on this.
could go for the gigabyte motherboard, although i do have good experience with asus and i wouldnt want to risk it. are gigabyte as good as asus nowadays considering my requirements are only reliability and inputs?
as far as the processor, i have already shrunk back from an 2600K to the i5, id rather not lose even more power for £20, as some of the software i'll be using are quite taxing.

[scaryjim]

If you're not overclocking than an i5 2500k and a Z68 motherboard are pointless, tbh - you may as well go with an i5 2500 (non-k version) and an H6[i]x[i/] motherboard, which will save you a bit of money.

Pob is right about eyefinity treating all 3 screens as one big display - that's the whole point of eyefinity as a technology, it transparently fools the OS into thinking that multiple monitors are one surface. However there's nothing to stop you running three screens off an AMD card without using eyefinity, in which case it acts exactly as you describe above and Windows sees three monitors that you can configure separately. AMD cards are - pretty much - still the only ones that are capable of running 3 screens off one card. Don't forget, however, that you'll need a displayport equipped monitor or an active dongle to run the third monitor, unless you go for one of the Sapphire Flex cards.

[moriaty]

thanks for the reply.
good to hear i can run the monitors without eyefinity. i cant post links, but xfx do one for around £20; i guess that would do.
the difference in price between unlocked vs locked processor is negligible, around £6. similarly, a z68 is only £18 more expensive than a h67 with sata 6gb, and it's also lacking usb 3 which i think its worth the price.

[Pob255]

Yes the low cost z68 really are not much more than the H67, H61 has less sata and ram slots, if you're not overclocking then they should be fine, if you want to overclock then you want to spend more on the motherboard.

It's a shame you need both the sound card and graphics card otherwise you could go mini-ITX and make something even smaller.


If you don't want bluray then any DVDr/w would be fine, cost around £14, personally I prefer the Samsung and LG drives as they tend to be quieter.
The Pioneer & sony drives do tend to be a bit faster but they are louder.

[moriaty]

i was too looking for a samsung drive, thanks for confirming it. quiet pc will be fairly important when its used at home. im starting to reconsider some of the parts. perhaps go for the i7, as to get more power, and swap the PSU for a gold cert one, like a seasonic X or a corsair AX. but they are very expensive. would it be worth it ?

[Pob255]

Have a look at the NZXT hale for a cheaper gold cert psu http://www.scan.co.uk/products/650w-...et-fan-atx-v22
All told I don't think it's going to be massively worth it over a bronze rated psu, without overclocking your power requirement are fairly low, which means the overall saving on a gold psu isn't great, also gold psu's tend to start at higher wattage and when you're using less than 20% of the power output (which is very likely when idle) the efficiency tends to drop off.
the 520w I suggested before will be plenty is well within ATX spec's, again something like the corsair AX or seasonic X (which are the same inside) are some of the best unit's with the tightest regulation and tiny ripple which make the ATX sepc's look flabby and lose, this makes them very good for overclocking where you'll get better stability with the tighter specifications and be able to push the OC that little bit higher.
However if you're not going to overclock then anything inside the ATX sepc's will be just as good and the tighter regulation and ripple will have no effect.

[moriaty]

ok, i think im sold on this PSU now. OC is very unlikely for me, maybe in the distant future, once this machine becomes older. and by using the 520w, i can afford the 2600 i7 up to the budget of £800. i just hope its quieter than the existing Antec true power 650W Blue i have (old model), as it is a major nuisance at the minute.