Hey guys Building a Pc for my brother as he's off to university soon. He prefers a computer rather then laptop and enjoys games and movies. Computer needs to be small enough to travel when he comes home and so it doesn't dominate his tiny room (educated guess lol) Case - fractal design define R3 CPU - intel i7 2600k Cooler - corsair h-70 Mobo - gigabyte z68-ud4 (looks very pretty) Memory - 8gb corsair xms3 classic Gpu - gtx 580 evga SSD - 120gb OCZ vertex 3 HDD - 2TB west digital + intel 40gb SSD (for smart response) PSU - cosair AX850 (for SLI in near future) Any problems with that ?? Please drop your comment down all are appreciated Thanks P.s total price is £1,940 Monitor - dell ultrasharp 24"
Thats a solid build but i think it is a bit overkill for a 24inch monitor but hey if u can afford it why not? also is the I7 2600k necessary a 2500k would be more than enough for Gaming and some movies
decent build but saving some cash and not losing performance (only a little maybe) drop the 2600K to 2500K drop the mobo to a ASUS P8P67-M (why is everyone going for Z68 !!!) what memory config is that 2x4 or 4x2 ? GPU is massive overkill save the cash and you could grab a 570 or 6950 and it would be perfectly fine for 1920x1080. smart repsonse is a waste of time considering you have already spec'd a faster SSD. just prioritize your SSD with windows and games ONLY everything else dump it on the WD HDD. overkill PSU although not for SLI but again SLI is a waste on a 24" monitor and by the time you wanna upgrade the GPU it makes more sense to get a more powerful single GPU. with that in mind you could save more cash and drop it to 550-650W model. there ya go saved you 100's of pounds and lost hardly any performance.
I agree with what people are saying about the Fractal not being all that small for a LAN style/portable PC. I'd be much more inclined to go for a Lian-Li PC-Q11 with a Gigabyte H55N board, everything after that is your own choice. I've built a lot of tiny but mighty systems in Q11 cases in recent months
I have no idea about the cables routing or cooling (or of certain things will fit in for example) but the BitFenix Core Survivor seems custom made for what you want, even has a handle
Assuming that everything you ever want to be fast will sit on your SSD. I know I could never fit all my games, apps on my SSD, let alone my photo library that really benefits from being on an SSD. Heck I can barely fit it all on the HDD. If the budget's okay to go for a well specced machine then go for it!
why would a photo library benefit from been on an SSD ? for editing sure but there is no need to store it on the SSD after your finsihed. factoring in the cost of a Z68 board + mini SSD you could just buy a larger faster SSD to fit extra crucial programs.
Isn't 2 grands' worth of pc making your brother abit of a target? Maybe a cheaper case to hide it's true value? Just a cautionary though.
Ditch Z68, go P67. Ditch the smart response stuff, as you'll be using the larger SSD for boot and most game installs. Otherwise, looks a tidy build that'll keep up for many years to come, even without adding a second GTX 580. Wish I'd had £2k to drop on a PC when I went to uni!
My newly bought single 580 already suffers at 1920 * 1080, so I personally wouldn't recommend any less at the same resolution. TSB
How can a 580 be struggling at 1920x1080. I'm running a 560Ti at 1920x1200 and it's running everything I have perfectly and all the benches back that up as well. Even arma 2 and metro 2033 (just), techspot show the standard 560Ti at below the magic 25fps but I have the frozr so it should be just passed the gate and actual play doesn't show up any issues.
Tbh, that's quite a moderate spend to get a small form factor custom machine and if it makes him a target then he should move to a different area or get new accomodation... I lived in a student flat in my first year of uni and had well over 2 grands worth of computer stuff in there as well as my guitar and amp, and it was never in any danger of being nicked or vandalised. If it had, I wouldn't have had it there or wouldn't have been there myself.
I have to agree with the furry pink cat. My vote goes for the Antec p180 mini. Can you get a micro atxp67 board? 2k worth of a pc and no sound card?
As said, it is new, so there's the possibility it could be defective I suppose. But having major trouble with The Witcher 2 currently; the RED Engine or whatever (at work, can't verify for sure) that it uses has the GPU at 99% load and with circa 1400Mb graphics memory usage at all times in-game. This happens with v sync on and off. It's not as though I'm using silly settings either; as I'm more than aware of the limitations of the card. Addtionally the framerate isn't being CPU limited either, yet I'm barely getting 22fps. I've not got round to overclocking it yet, and I suppose that would help - but I honestly didn't think I'd have to just to make current games playable? TSB
I haven't played the witcher 2 but I seem to recall its pretty intensive. Whats the rest of the system. Hmm think I might be derailing the thread soz.
Should now appear correctly in my sig. Sorry back on topic, and contributing to the thread: System looks really good, is similar to mine which don't get me wrong I am very happy with, just having some minor niggles; but I suppose that's to be expected in the first few days of a build. Having games on an SSD is just glorious, and a dedicated sound card has made all the difference with audio... Now I just have to stump up for a monitor as good as yours and I'll be golden. TSB
Thanks for your responses they have all been helpful. He'll have plenty on insurance for any loss or thieft of his Pc He is currently studying and If he gets a summer job a 27" dell ultrasharp will be on the cards so gtx580 SLI should be the sweet spot. I think I'm paying for the system apart from monitor. He is the type of guy with alot of media. He always carries a camera with him and does post alot of videos on YouTube. He also is in charge of editing and filing the familys media onto the NAS drive we have. The motherboard choice was mainly looks based as it looks soo sweet with the black PCB. Also the features such as video and pci video capability makes me think it's abit better then p67 esp with all the scary problems it had with the Sata ports. Rather be safe then sorry. Memory is 2 sticks of 4gb ddr3. The case would be moved twice a year. Once to uni and once back home. So I think something smaller then a large tower would be fine. The idea behind having both SSD and intel smart response was to have windows and game and crucial software on the 120gb SSD then putting all other media (high def movies, videos, music and pictures) onto the smart response system to allow faster access. I'm sure he'll attach his samsung smart tv onto it to view movies etc Thanks again for any suggestions. All appreciated.
In terms of monetary value then great. But insurance can't replace uni work or family photos. Backup, ideally to somewhere off site if you're in uni halls.
