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Thread: Advice on upcoming gaming system purchase.

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    Advice on upcoming gaming system purchase.

    Dear all,

    In July, I am considering purchasing a gaming system.

    I am mainly into MMORPGs and RPG games. I currently own a Dell system – approx 4 years old (with an ATI 4850 card). It has served me well over the years – but the high temperatures reached by the card and the poor cooling in the system were off-putting at times. I am not very hands-on with taking PCs apart or putting them together – hence my preference to buy from a reputable company who offer an onsite warranty, where appropriate onsite support can be provided in the case of something going wrong with hardware. I did consider Dell again, but it seems the Dell owned Alienware was the only way to go for gaming- and they don’t seem good value for money. Scan seem to be the only other company I can find that offer an onsite warranty and who have a good reputation.

    With the above in mind, I am looking at gaming systems. My budget is approx £1300, and I would want the system to last me approx 3 years before I consider buying another. I would be looking for the system to play games at mid to high level settings – I am not an enthusiast and I don’t look for perfection with graphics or frame rates – just smooth play in general.

    This is the spec I am considering £1,381.74:
    3XS Z77 Performance GTX - Custom Series - Updated May 2012

    Coolermaster CM 690 II Lite, Black, Mid Tower Case (£51.69)
    Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H, Gen 3, Intel Z77 Chipset
    Intel Core i5 3570K, Ivy Bridge, 3.4GHz, Quad Core, 6MB Cache (£144.95)
    Thermalright Macho Performance CPU Cooler
    No overclocking (in the interests of stability)
    8Gb (2x4Gb) Corsair Vengeance LP, DDR3, 1600Mhz
    2GB EVGA GTX 680, 1006MHz GPU, 1536 Cores, 6000MHz GDDR5
    600W Corsair Gamer Series
    60GB OCZ Agility 3, SandForce SSD, Read 525MB/s, Write 475MB/s
    2TB Seagate Barracuda, SATA 6Gb/s, 7200rpm, 64MB Cache
    Pioneer DVR-S19LBK DVD Writer
    Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
    2 Years Scan Extended System Warranty (£1001 - £2000)


    I have a few questions, and would be grateful for any advice:
    1) How does the above spec look, as far as lasting for 3+ years of gaming
    2) Is there any noticeable benefit of the Intel i7 over the i5 processor?
    3) Will a 650W Corsair Enthusiast, Modular PSU provide any significant benefit or greater reliability over a 600W Corsair Gamer Series PSU?
    4) Thermalright Macho Performance CPU Cooler reviews look ok – I did consider the Corsair H80 Hydro Series, however reviews on the web note how noisy it is. Does anyone here have any specific thoughts on the H80 vs Thermalright Macho?
    5) I know nothing about cases – all I am after is a case that has good cooling, is very easy to open if needed, and comes with decent fans (unlike my current Dell). After doing some reading, the Coolermaster CM 690 II Lite seems to fit that bill - But I am out of my league here! – does anyone have any further thoughts on appropriate cases?

    Thank you in advance for any advice!
    Last edited by cactusjack22; 26-05-2012 at 05:54 PM.

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    Re: Advice on upcoming gaming system purchase.

    Jack I tried to post a link to a review of the 3XS Z77 Performance GTX, but forum won't let me post links yet.

    I have read the review myself and that is one kickass pc.

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    Re: Advice on upcoming gaming system purchase.

    Dummy post to get my post count up.

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    Re: Advice on upcoming gaming system purchase.

    Same again sorry.

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    Re: Advice on upcoming gaming system purchase.

    Hope this will let me post links now

    http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/system...rformance-gtx/

    It looks like they have a upgrade on the case.

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    Re: Advice on upcoming gaming system purchase.

    1) The nVidia 8800GT is about 5 years old and it still appears as the minimum requirement for GPU in games like Battlefield 3. The GTX680 is the best single GPU card out there at the moment so I think it will have no problem with games three years down the line.

    2) I couldn't find a comparison between the new Ivy Bridge i5 and i7 but with Sandy Bridge they were very close in performance for games with the i7 only getting a few frames per second more than the i5, see this comparison to find out for yourself. I think the gaps between the new i5 and i7 would be about the same percentage differences as they are in this link.

    3) You don't need 650watt, 600watt should be adequate, but I would still pick the 650watt if the price difference is small, just to have the extra power should I need it later.

    4) I prefer the H80, I'm using the H50 and on a case with a big window I prefer to look in to see my motherboard instead of a collection heat pipes on a skived aluminium block.

    5) Cases are really down to personal taste, I would recommend seeking out unboxing and video reviews of different cases within your budget range and then select the one that appeals most based on that, I would not want to tell you that you will like my case as much as I do, and I do, but it is not the easiest of cases to work in.

    *** Edit ***

    Please don't spam the forums like that, if you need to add more content to a post then use the edit button. Spamming just annoys people, you can get your post count up through positive contributions and people will appreciate you more for it.

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    Re: Advice on upcoming gaming system purchase.

    Thanks Darski and KeyboardDemon, your replies are much appreciated.

    I read the review posted by Darkski, which recommends downgrading from the GTX 680 to 670 to save some money, which can go towards other components.
    Looks like the 670 is not too far off from the 680 in performance, and will suit my needs fine.

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    Re: Advice on upcoming gaming system purchase.

    That seems like a good idea, the GTX670 is a great performance card.

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    Re: Advice on upcoming gaming system purchase.

    Dear all

    A final question - if selecting a SSD drive (for programs) and a normal hard drive for data, would I need RAID?

    In the ordering process it says:

    If you have selected multiple system drives, you may wish to have them configured in a RAID array. Which configuration do you require? (Requires Identical Drives)
    No RAID array required.
    RAID0 (Stripe) array required.
    RAID1 (Mirror) array required.

    1) In order to juggle programs on one drive and data on the other, is RAID needed?
    2) If yes to question 1, is RAID0 what I would need?
    3) If no to question 1, is there any huge benefit to having RAID rather than not having it

    I hope the above makes sense.

    Thanks.

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    Re: Advice on upcoming gaming system purchase.

    No, raid not required. And if you had an 1 x SSD and 1 x Hard Drive it wouldn't work practically anyway.
    Jon

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    Re: Advice on upcoming gaming system purchase.

    Ah I see, so raid is for just multiple hard drives.
    Thanks!

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    Re: Advice on upcoming gaming system purchase.

    I am considering the GTX670 as noted above, but did some reading about EVGA, and how some 670s are being recalled. This has naturally made me scared about the 670 - just to check, would I be safer with the 680 (from a reliability stand point), or is the 670 viewed as safe.

    http://www.guru3d.com/news/evga-reca...-670-sc-batch/

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    Re: Advice on upcoming gaming system purchase.

    As far as I am aware it is EVGA that are issuing the recall and not nVidia, this indicates that the issue is something to do with EVGA's cards and is not something that is affecting other brands, just don't buy an EVGA and you should be fine, nVidia have a number of excellent card manufacturers that have partnered with them so you still have a few to choose from.

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    Re: Advice on upcoming gaming system purchase.

    It was the first initial run of the 670 SCs, specifically the ones with P3 codes on the serial from EVGA, I've got a P4 run 670 SC and no issues here. Its one mighty fast card tbh.

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    Re: Advice on upcoming gaming system purchase.

    I'm ready to buy now (thinking about a tweaked Vengeance OC system) and so I've been doing my research.

    Quote Originally Posted by Jasp View Post
    It was the first initial run of the 670 SCs, specifically the ones with P3 codes on the serial from EVGA, I've got a P4 run 670 SC and no issues here. Its one mighty fast card tbh.
    Regarding the above 2GB EVGA GTX 670 SC issue. Looking at the EVGA website it has removed this card from sale now and (certainly in the US product listings) the price of the FTW card has been reduced to that of the removed SC card. This is backed up by comments in various threads on the EVGA forums.

    The Gigabyte Windforce GTX 670 3x seems to be quite highly regarded (going by various forums) and suggested by Scan when I queried the EVGA issue with them.

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    Re: Advice on upcoming gaming system purchase.

    670 should be more than enough for you. And like Jasp said, it was just a select few recalls, not a reflection on the 670s themselves.

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