Few questions on a new order spec

[Zoso]

Hey folks,

I'm looking at a spec for a new 3XS PC; it's to sit in a living room, so the priorities are silence and subtlety rather than supreme overclocked power (dull, I know...) Mostly for gaming, I'm not too fussed about running everything at 300fps with the detail sliders cranked to the top, but it'd be nice to get a couple of years out of it before needing a serious upgrade. Bit of advice would be appreciated:

I'm looking at the 3XS P55 OC Series, along the lines of...

Case: Coolermaster Elite 335 Black Mini Tower Case
CPU: Intel i7 860 2.80Ghz 8Mb Cache - Hyperthreading Enabled
CPU Coolers: Prolima Megahalems Super 6 Heatpipe Tower Cooler - Award Winning Cooler
Memory: 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS3 DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600)
ATI Graphics: 1GB XFX HD 5850 725Mhz GPU 1440 SPs 4000Mhz GDDR5
Power Supply Unit: 550w Corsair VX Series PSU (Single Graphics Card)
System Drives: 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 7200rpm 32MB Cache
Solid State Drives: 64GB Corsair Extreme Series X64 (Read 220MB s Write 135MB s)
(Usual card reader, DVDRW, etc etc.)

Case:
Has to pass the Wife Approval Test (tucks neatly by the desk so not too deep, quiet, "looks nice", i.e. not a HAF922). I've currently got an Antec Sonata II, would something like a Sonata III/Elite or a Coolermaster Sileo keep an i7 cool enough with twin 120mm fans without having to ramp them up to full speed? The Antec P183 isn't bad, but a bit larger than I'd really like, and the Lian-Li PC-B25F looks pretty nice, with 140mm roof fans to keep things cool, £170 is a bit steep but it could be an option if Scan get it in. Any other suggestions along those lines?

Memory:
Probably stick a couple more Gb in there

Graphics:
Having trouble deciding between a 4890 with Vapor-X to hopefully keep things a bit quieter, a GTX260 to tide things over until more DX11 cards or out, or a 5850.

PSU:
I hear good things about the BeQuiet! range, so tempted to go for a Dark Power Pro 550W instead of the Corsair.

SSD:
This thread (http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...r-ocz-ssd.html) suggests the 80Gb Intel X25, which looks good, but if stock is a problem I guess the Corsair would do the job.

OS:
I got a copy of Windows 7 from Amazon at the early pre-order price, is it possible to get an install up to the point that it needs activation so I just need to stick the key in? If not, no worries, I'll install myself from scratch.

Thanks in advance for any pointers!

[Noggin]

"Memory:
Probably stick a couple more Gb in there"

6GB isn't really a sensible option with that cpu, you can do it but it probably costs more than going for 8GB. So I'd go with 4 or 8 and honestly there isn't going to be much benefit over 4.

"Graphics:
Having trouble deciding between a 4890 with Vapor-X to hopefully keep things a bit quieter, a GTX260 to tide things over until more DX11 cards or out, or a 5850."

5850, great bang for your buck, dx11 and will run pretty much everything on full settings for a couple of years + Of course stock could be an issue but better to wait a week or so longer and be happier for the next 3 years imo. Unforunatly my scan computer got delayed yesturday because of the 5870 stock, my e-mail reply was a little blunt rather than filled with normal warmth and friendlyness, sorry phillp was a bit disapointed so should have waited 10 mins before replying.

"SSD:
This thread (http://forums.hexus.net/scan-3xs-sys...r-ocz-ssd.html) suggests the 80Gb Intel X25, which looks good, but if stock is a problem I guess the Corsair would do the job."

I think the intel is the way to go and the stock thing says stock due today though I think it also said that yesturday.

"OS:
I got a copy of Windows 7 from Amazon at the early pre-order price, is it possible to get an install up to the point that it needs activation so I just need to stick the key in? If not, no worries, I'll install myself from scratch."

yes it is, that is what they are doing for me, certainly the way to go I think.

[inter8ection]

I agree about the ATI 5850, although in pure noise terms, under load we have:

GTX 260 @ 48 dB
5850 @ 56.5 dB
5870 @ 61.5 dB

According to AnandTech 5850 review which I can't link for you. Personally I went for the 5870, and hoping the Coolermaster Cosmos will help out with noise.

You do have the choice of swapping to the non-OC BIOS profile if you wanted, in which case you won't need a CPU fan, that mammoth heatsink would cool the i7 passively.

Might as well go for 8GB since it's dual channel.

[Noggin]

.ignore this post please, made an error

[inter8ection]

Yeah totally, destroys is the word

If you want performance it's 5850/5870 all the way, especially if you're ordering Windows 7 / DX11.

[Noggin]

Yeah totally, destroys is the word

If you want performance it's 5850/5870 all the way, especially if you're ordering Windows 7 / DX11.

sorry deleted the post you replied too (assuming wrongly I was quick enough for no one to see it) as the anandtech review I was looking at was very contridictory to an another anandtech review, I guess they were using different versions of the 260 to take db measurements from. One of them has the 260 at about 15db higher underload than the other one.

The bit inter8ection replied too (and I shouldn't have deleted) was me saying that even though the 260 may be quiter than the 5850 the performance of the 5850 completely destroys it.

[Zoso]

Ta muchly; I'll go for the 5850 and Intel SSD, and hope supply catches up with demand before too long!