Well hello there you chaps and chappesses. I'm Ian and I'm on the verge of a new build! I've been reading custom pc for about 6 months and a regular reader of the reviews bit-tech have to offer. I've had all the consoles and I've had an old pentium 4 for the past 4 years which has done me proud with the 512mb graphics card and the type of games I play/ed. Used to be into EQ and EQ2 and warcraft but those days are behind me now that I'm in my late 30s and have blood pressure issues. Last thing I want is a 14 year old induced coronary because I failed to click a button the right millisecond. so now I'm into things such as bioshock, fallout fable etc. I was wondering if you guys could give me advice as I'm currently choosing my case. I'm seeing a lot of sexy matx cases but then I read that they don't work so well as everyday gaming machines. my question is - am I shooting myself in the foot with an matx case? I'm not fussed about case size, would like to spend around 80-90£ and would prefer it to be on the quiet side... probably looking at i5 2500k as that seems to be the gamers choice atm. Whatever happened to AMD? They always seemed to be the one people flocked to? thanks I advance and excuse all the peddling mistakes. I'm in bed on a webOS product... :hardtop:
Are you sure you are not fussed about case size? Because cases can vary to the height of your desk. You say you like Matx cases so I was thinking you will like this case which is very compact for a atx case. It also has a lot of potential when it comes to modding. http://www.scan.co.uk/products/lian-li-pc-a05fnb-aluminium-tool-less-midi-case-black-usb30-w-o-psu
I have that case. It's really nice Only thing i'd say was I had a few issues with heat, easily solved by cutting a fan hole in the top (You can get replacement tops as well if you don't fancy modding)
Thanks for the help with that. Are there any other suggestions before I batter my credit card? Ta in advance,
As much as I like the Lian... can anyone else let me know if I can get a decent gaming rig based around an mATX mobo? my current monitor only has a max resolution of 1440x900 so I was thinking of upgrading that at a later date. I will be needing a graphics card - was thinking if 1gb would be enough or should I plump for 2? If I could get your thoughts on this based on high to very high settings running the newly installed Skyrim... at a decent framerate that doesn't look like an old pron video streaming over 56k... Lets be honest - I'm going to be playing a lot of hours on that game... might as well get something worthwhile. Lastly, is it worth going down the AMD route even though CustomPC was not too kind on the Bulldozer? I mean, the new AMD-type mobos have got that future-proofing... Thanks you guys - much appreciated!
Hey mate, generally no (in terms of amd), the 2500k would be the way to go (or certainly the 1155 socket should budgets restrict ppl from leaping straight to a 2500k -g850 for example). As for graphics something like a 1gb 6870 would do you nicely now and in future when you upgrade monitors and are available for around 130 at the moment.
Thanks a lot! That's great advice - especially as I got a ton to spend in vouchers at amazon... speaking of which, this seems like a good buy... http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004CRSM4I/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE
you aren't really shooting yourself in the foot at all with mATX, it's evolved quite a lot recently. You can get a highly competitive SLI/Crossfire-based gaming machine with a top of the line processor in a mATX case. Absolutely recommend any Lian Li case, they're stylish, easy to work with, and durable. For CPU, AMD is absolutely NOT the way to go with gaming. The bulldozer chips are a joke, even the mighty FX-1850 being rolled over by the significantly cheaper i5-2500k. As far as graphics go, I'd recommend a 1gb 6870 or GTX 560 ti, possibly the 448-core version if you want to spring for it. That should keep you playing long into the future and you can always add another one and take advantage of the excellent multi-GPU scaling afforded by current architectures. Good luck with the new computer.
MATX motherboards have come a long way since a only a short few years ago. Just look at the rampage series to find the gene version which has all of the over locking potential of its bigger brothers. I've certainly gone down this route with the Antec P180 mini case and Matx motherboard and don't regret it at all although I'm not quite sure if I'd want to squeeze another gfx card in there.
Thanks for the support guys - my last regular input on a forum was EQFlames and the level of help there was... shall we say... lacking. I've got a funny feeling that I'll be copying a sig or two with a few adjustments - the Lian Li case above is pretty nice - I know it's not the be all and end all but I do prefer reading trusted reviews and I notice the Bit-Tech team have not reviewed that particular case. Off to see the diminutive Tom Cruise jump out of a hotel. Tara for now...
OK - saw the Arkham City PhysX video and thought that's the way to go... Saw this - it's within my budget (200): http://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-GTX560Ti-OC-4200MHz-Graphics/dp/B004K8R8AI/ref=pd_cp_computers_4 I know I keep linking Amazon but until Scan accept Vouchers and Gift Cards from Amazon, I'm looking at spending some money there. I don't notice anywhere that suggests the card above supports dx11... Am I able to get a card that would do both PhysX and DX!!? Thanks Ian
For an Matx case don't know if anyone's mentioned it try the FT03, beautiful case bit pricey but very well designed, I would link you but I'm on my phone at work and it's a pita as for motherboard try an Asus Matx p8Z68 M Pro it's about £120 on scan.co.uk
Post up the complete spec you're thinking of going for beforehand. 560ti's are great btw, definitely recommend I have a lian li case too and it does look stylish.
Pre-build OK - I have a preliminary build and some choices/ questions for review. Here we go... Silverstone Temjin 08B-E Fractal Design Arc Mini Asus P8Z68 M Pro Intel I5 2500 - is it worth buying the OEM version for the small saving? 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance - with or without the heat dissipator? I don't believe I'm doing anything special with this build so if you can suggest a cheaper alternative, I can put that towards graphics card Be Quiet Dark Rock Advanced Thinking about the 560gtx ti twin frozr 2GB. Unless you guys recommend the 1 or 1.25 versions. And if you do recommend the 1 or 1.25 versions, will I be able to buy a duplicate card to run in games in the future? I'm assuming the onboard sound capabilities are fine for headphone setup, I have existing hard drives and I can salvage the DVD drive from my current system at the moment. With all this in mind and the likelihood of future purchases, what would you suggest as a decent PSU? Phew - looking forward to your responses! Ian
That sounds good, did you look at the silverstone FT03? http://www.scan.co.uk/products/silv...ack-microatx-aluminum-mini-tower-case-w-o-psu motherboard is a good choice, make sure you go for the K unlocked chip, otherwise you won't be having any fun with overclocking! as for buying the OEM version, I'd say its not worth it for the few pounds saving, plus with the retail version you get a 3 instead of 1 year warranty, an intel heatsink (woop te fricity doo!) but it can come in handy if you need to test things and what not with the corsair vengeance ram makes sure its the low profile ram otherwise you'll have trouble installing the ram with the dark rock advanced as for the GPU good choice with the GTX 560ti as for the amount of vram it all depends on your resolution, for 1920x 1080 or below 1Gb vram is perfectly adequate for 99.9% of games, but when you start getting into 1920 x 1200 or 2560 x 1440 etc that's when you will start to struggle with games if you only have 1Gb of vram as for a decent psu, I would suggest something in the 650W bracket, its overkill for your system, but gives you wiggle room for future upgrades. something like this would be my suggestion at the bottom end of the price bracket http://www.scan.co.uk/products/650w...us-bronze-sli-crossfire-eps-12v-quiet-fan-atx or http://www.scan.co.uk/products/650w...-bronze-sli-crossfire-eps-12v-quiet-fan-atx-v and at the top end http://www.scan.co.uk/products/650w...-80-plus-gold-sli-crossfire-eps-12vquient-fan those are all good solid power supplies, but I will say the Corsair AX units are amazing, 90% efficient, lovely black 'sleeved' cables, which are all modular, so gives you a nice tidy build and the PSU's are so efficient that when the PC's at idle the fan won't even turn on.
that does seem like a nice setup, however i could suggest 1 or 2 different things for the setup you require, hope it helps, please see higlighted points below of my system spec and my comments. hopefully somthing you see may be a better idea COOLERMASTER HAF X This case not to everyones taste but i find that with it being larger it seems to help with cooling better than the smaller cases that i have had in the past - again like i said it is quiet big and a little more expensive than what you had in mind, it comes in at about the £140 region ASUS P8Z68-V i5 2500K @ 4.5 Ghz STABLEWhen coupled together i can't fault the setup and if your into gaming, maybe even OC is an option and once again, when i throttle my system it hasn't struggled yet Antec Kühler H2O 620 I have not had a problem with this yet and does a very good job of keeping my system cool, there are better ones on the market like the corsair hydro H100 but for a simple (budget if you like) its not bad and copes with anything i throw at it Corsair Vengeance Jet Black 1600 DDR3 8GB with heat sink No problems here Corsair Force Series 3 120GB SSD Not had a problem with mine except when the drivers wern't updated (my fault) again there are betyter ones on the market but for the price you can't go wrong, would also like to point out thtat it helps with smoother and faster running of windows and programs Western Digital 2TB Caviar Green VTX 2GB RADEON HD 6950 A bit cheaper than the twin Forza II and it does a really good job with graphicly challenging games - especially when i set the graphics to the highest - Powercool 850w Modular Hasn't let me down and doesn't struggle when i, shall we say, like abusing the power option lol 200mm red led coolermaster fan x 3, 200mm coolermaster fan x 1, 230mm red led coolermaster fan x 1 and Akasa 120mm fan x 3 even with all these fans in the system you wouldn't believe how quiet it is Windows 7 Home SP1 OP's choice really
ft03 is just out of my range I'm afraid. It was sitting on my top 3 case choices but unless I come into some money soon, I'll have to stick with one of my two...
thanks for those options! 2 other questions... was thinking of picking up the OEM version of windows - again, to save money. This wouldn't hinder me if I was just adding a gfx card or a couple of hard drives, right? also, am I limited to nvidea type cards for the PhysX option? Funny that PhysX reverts to PubeS on my autocorrect...
