I finally done it, out with the old, in with the new :).

[Seventh777]

So, after many years of dithering and the occasional laptop I decided to finally order a new desktop P.C. Here she is in all her glory........

1 x Hex - X6 Gaming PC (HEXV5) = £1,156.25
Component Upgrades
Case Coolermaster CM Storm Enforcer
Power Supply Corsair TX650 V2 650W
Processor AMD FX 6100 3.3Ghz 6 Core
Overclocking None
Processor Cooler Stock Manufacturer Heatsink and fan
RAM 4GB Corsair DDR3 XMS3 1600Mhz/PC12800
Motherboard ASUS M5A97 R2.0
Graphics card AMD/ATI Radeon HD 7950 3GB
Hard Drive Seagate Barracuda 1TB Hard Drive 7200rpm 32MB Cache
2nd Hard Drive None
3rd Hard Drive None
RAID None
Sound card Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
Optical Drive Sony 24x DVD/CD ± Re-Writer Black
2nd Optical Drive None
Network card Integrated 10/100/1000Mbps
Wireless Card Asus N15 300MBPS
Memory Card Reader None
Extra Ports None
Case Modifications
Case Paint Standard Case Paint
Lighting Kit None
Case fans Standard Case Fans
Quiet Case Fans None
Cable Management UKGC Standard system
Cable Braiding None
Sata Cables UKGC Standard system
Hard Drive Dampening None
Thermal Compound UKGC Standard System
Fan controller None
Peripherals
Monitor Samsung 21.5" S22A100NS LED HD LCD
2nd Monitor None
TFT Dead Pixel Check None
Keyboard / Mouse Combo KeySonic 2.4Ghz Wireless HTPC Compact Keyboard and Touchpad
Keyboard None
Mouse None
Mouse Mat None
Headset None
Speakers None
Software
Operating System Microsoft Windows 8 Professional
Internet security None
Office Suite None
Multimedia None
After Sales
Warranty Standard 3 Year Warranty
Build Time Priority 3 - 5 Working Days
------------------------------------------------------
Sub-Total: £1,156.25
Standard Next Day (Mon-Fri 8am-4pm) (Fully Insured Shipping to England - Essex, United Kingdom ): £21.60
VAT: £196.31
Total: £1,177.85

Windows 8 pro, ready in around 5-7 days, and a very reasonable price imho .

 

[Dipity]

That seems extremely high price wise for the actual components you have...

Didn't fancy ordering parts yourself and building at home? Could've saved quite some money on that kind of system.

 

[incrediblestuff]

i was just about to say that ^^

Not too shabby though Roy, nice lil rig, me personally, am rather an Nvidia man,
and Intel to combine with.
Anyhoo, that rig should account for some easy gaming

 

[vinylweatherman]

Phew!

Looks like my Slotsmeister crown is safe for now.

I was considering something like that for my backup PC.

It is all very well saying "should have built it yourself", but for some this is being thrown in the deep end.

Now that I have got my new PC, I may probably have a go at building something myself knowing that if I screw up, I still have the main PC. If I don't screw up though, I might gain enough confidence to go for something bigger.


I can see one obvious mistake though:

Windows 8 What were you thinking


Good luck getting casinos to work on that


I nipped in quick so that I could AVOID Windows 8.

 

[Seventh777]

That seems extremely high price wise for the actual components you have...

Didn't fancy ordering parts yourself and building at home? Could've saved quite some money on that kind of system.

If I were to order the parts and build myself it would have cost......



That`s without delivery charges and a basic parts only warranty, and a few parts like my 21" monitor which is roughly £50 dearer than the one in the above estimate, so it`s roughly £80-£100 dearer but comes with a 5 year warranty .

 

[Seventh777]

i was just about to say that ^^

Not too shabby though Roy, nice lil rig, me personally, am rather an Nvidia man,
and Intel to combine with.
Anyhoo, that rig should account for some easy gaming

I built my present warhorse around 8-9 years ago and it has an AMD/Radeon combo that has never ceased to amaze me, i've been so impressed with this duo that I have decided to stick with it .

 

[Dipity]

If you're in the UK, you can take advantage of

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,

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and

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deals, of which there are plenty, especially in the run up to Christmas.

When my parents came out last, I got them to pick me up some upgrades from Novatech on the way over, which included a new SSD, AMD 7850 Graphics card, 2tb sata hd, mobo and i7 combination and some new ram (8gb). Thats basically the barebones of a very decent system, and i think in total it was about 7-800 GBP.

All you need on top of that is a case and a PSU and you're good to go.

RE: Building computers yourself - it's very hard to go wrong, unless you're a total luddite, as components will 99.9999% of the time, only fit in one specific slot in one specific way. Unless you're trying to jam ram into a pci express slot, you'll do fine!

 

[Seventh777]

Phew!

Looks like my Slotsmeister crown is safe for now.

I was considering something like that for my backup PC.

It is all very well saying "should have built it yourself", but for some this is being thrown in the deep end.

Now that I have got my new PC, I may probably have a go at building something myself knowing that if I screw up, I still have the main PC. If I don't screw up though, I might gain enough confidence to go for something bigger.


I can see one obvious mistake though:

Windows 8 What were you thinking


Good luck getting casinos to work on that


I nipped in quick so that I could AVOID Windows 8.

Afaik my copy of windows 8 is 7 with upgrade offer to 8 pro for £14, but I couldn't see anywhere why programmes running on windows 7 will not run on windows 8, the only problem being windows 8 and directx V 11.1, i`m pretty sure you can downgrade if this causes a problem. Not forgetting that windows 8 comes with hypervisor software that's built directly into the Windows 8 client and lets users run a virtual instance of Windows 7.

I would have built myself if not for a mate pointing me towards the place I ordered from, 5 year warranty for around £100 is well worth letting them build it for imho .

 

[Seventh777]

If you're in the UK, you can take advantage of

You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.

,

You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.

and

You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.

deals, of which there are plenty, especially in the run up to Christmas.

When my parents came out last, I got them to pick me up some upgrades from Novatech on the way over, which included a new SSD, AMD 7850 Graphics card, 2tb sata hd, mobo and i7 combination and some new ram (8gb). Thats basically the barebones of a very decent system, and i think in total it was about 7-800 GBP.

All you need on top of that is a case and a PSU and you're good to go.

RE: Building computers yourself - it's very hard to go wrong, unless you're a total luddite, as components will 99.9999% of the time, only fit in one specific slot in one specific way. Unless you're trying to jam ram into a pci express slot, you'll do fine!

Not forgetting a monitor, optical drive, OS, keyboard/mouse, wireless network card, and a 5 year warranty, most parts only cover a warranty for a year or 3 years if you pay more, as this is a basic rig that you add to it is subject to review and benchmarking, which in turn has led to a very good overall review and testimonials from customers ............

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[vinylweatherman]

Their Zeus model looks OK. I wonder how that would perform in the Slotsmeister

It seems the specialist custom build outfits are not much more than it would cost to build from parts. It seems more can be saved when it comes to the standard kit seen in PC world, where buying the budget parts they use and building it oneself can be half the price.

 

[incrediblestuff]

I built my present warhorse around 8-9 years ago and it has an AMD/Radeon combo that has never ceased to amaze me, i've been so impressed with this duo that I have decided to stick with it .

I heard that before! ^^
It's all about past experience and taste, so i reckon this is the best rig for you.
What was wrong with the old?
If you still have a working PSU and maybe a decent vid card, i hold myself reccommended:
I still need to fix my as good as dying pc...
Don't let the winner screenshots fool ya, i hardly ever cashout

Anyway, i am a tiny wee bit jeaulous

 

[Seventh777]

I heard that before! ^^
It's all about past experience and taste, so i reckon this is the best rig for you.
What was wrong with the old?
If you still have a working PSU and maybe a decent vid card, i hold myself reccommended:
I still need to fix my as good as dying pc...
Don't let the winner screenshots fool ya, i hardly ever cashout

Anyway, i am a tiny wee bit jeaulous

My old warhorse still chuggs along, it's had a few HD replacements but the MB, RAM, CPU, GFX card etc have all gone the distance, my set up is AGP (that`s how old it is lol) a Radeon x800 pro.

I cashout ardently at certain times of the year, Xmas being one of them - extra presents for my son including a Bush 21" flat screen TV with free-view, and built in DVD player, an X Rocker Daytona gaming chair, authentic GI parka as worn in `Nam`, perfume/after shave for my daughter and her man and some Euro`s to spend on their festive break in the Dam, my PC and new Dyson DC33 hoover, plus some cash into the family`s headstones fund.

Withdrawn around 4k the last week online and around 1400 won in my local casino .

3rd Xmas on the trot i've had awesome luck on the run in .

 

[Seventh777]

Their Zeus model looks OK. I wonder how that would perform in the Slotsmeister

It seems the specialist custom build outfits are not much more than it would cost to build from parts. It seems more can be saved when it comes to the standard kit seen in PC world, where buying the budget parts they use and building it oneself can be half the price.

Aye, and bearing in mind that comes with a 5 year warranty, the place is literally 5-6 miles from me also, I was going to build my own till a friend pointed me in the right direction, if you can get a cheaper custom built rig using identical parts they will refund the difference .

 

[vinylweatherman]

Aye, and bearing in mind that comes with a 5 year warranty, the place is literally 5-6 miles from me also, I was going to build my own till a friend pointed me in the right direction, if you can get a cheaper custom built rig using identical parts they will refund the difference .

I got mine from Chillblast in the end. What I found refreshing was the total lack of "crapware" that came pre-installed. No trial versions not asked for, and even the bonus software that came with the components has been presented as the CD ROM, and not all preinstalled. I have been given all the original component boxes, and all the extra leads, bits, etc that came with the parts, but were not used in the build.

I have had Dell in the past, but when trying to fix a problem with this Dimension E521, I found that Dell used non standard innards, making some things hard to fix. The motherboard is said to be this odd BTX format, which I have found to be very uncommon elsewhere, where they are all variants of the ATX standard.

I managed to "bodge" it in the end by finally getting past the keyboard error and into the BIOS setup, where I set it to ignore keyboard errors so that it wouldn't insist on me pressing F1 on a non-working keyboard. It wasn't the keyboard in any case, it was a motherboard communications problem.

This brand new PC still has the old school PS/2 ports in the back, something the Dell doesn't, and which would have made the problems of a keyboard communications error easy to get around.

I do not know how much cheaper it would have been to order the parts and build it myself.

I am not so keen on Scan after buying a GPU for my nephew from them which turned out to be faulty, and a returns process that doesn't seem to work. My nephew is going to try to sort it out directly with the manufacturer as Scan is now ignoring emails about the issue.

I have since found out about Novatech, which sells components as well as PCs, and has a place in Reading suitable for a visit in person should something go wrong. I chose Chillblast in the end because it got a "best buy" award from the Gadget show, along with a couple of PC magazines. They only sell builds though, not components.

From looking around, it seems the AMD range of processors is better than Intel at some things, whereas Intel seems to be most popular at the extreme end of custom builds.

From my benchmark run on the Slotsmeister, I have discovered that processing power is more important than a fancy GPU. I got an Intel i5, seriously overclocked. My thought are to look at the best AMD processor, maybe in a self build, and see how the two compare. With the right motherboard, it seems AMD processors are easier to overclock because of the AMD provided tools. They are also cheaper, useful if you fry it

My niece has bagged the old Celeron based PC downstairs, which lacks the power to do anything useful - it struggles with email and browsing. Yes - it's a Dell

 

[Seventh777]

I got mine from Chillblast in the end. What I found refreshing was the total lack of "crapware" that came pre-installed. No trial versions not asked for, and even the bonus software that came with the components has been presented as the CD ROM, and not all preinstalled. I have been given all the original component boxes, and all the extra leads, bits, etc that came with the parts, but were not used in the build.

I have had Dell in the past, but when trying to fix a problem with this Dimension E521, I found that Dell used non standard innards, making some things hard to fix. The motherboard is said to be this odd BTX format, which I have found to be very uncommon elsewhere, where they are all variants of the ATX standard.

I managed to "bodge" it in the end by finally getting past the keyboard error and into the BIOS setup, where I set it to ignore keyboard errors so that it wouldn't insist on me pressing F1 on a non-working keyboard. It wasn't the keyboard in any case, it was a motherboard communications problem.

This brand new PC still has the old school PS/2 ports in the back, something the Dell doesn't, and which would have made the problems of a keyboard communications error easy to get around.

I do not know how much cheaper it would have been to order the parts and build it myself.

I am not so keen on Scan after buying a GPU for my nephew from them which turned out to be faulty, and a returns process that doesn't seem to work. My nephew is going to try to sort it out directly with the manufacturer as Scan is now ignoring emails about the issue.

I have since found out about Novatech, which sells components as well as PCs, and has a place in Reading suitable for a visit in person should something go wrong. I chose Chillblast in the end because it got a "best buy" award from the Gadget show, along with a couple of PC magazines. They only sell builds though, not components.

From looking around, it seems the AMD range of processors is better than Intel at some things, whereas Intel seems to be most popular at the extreme end of custom builds.

From my benchmark run on the Slotsmeister, I have discovered that processing power is more important than a fancy GPU. I got an Intel i5, seriously overclocked. My thought are to look at the best AMD processor, maybe in a self build, and see how the two compare. With the right motherboard, it seems AMD processors are easier to overclock because of the AMD provided tools. They are also cheaper, useful if you fry it

My niece has bagged the old Celeron based PC downstairs, which lacks the power to do anything useful - it struggles with email and browsing. Yes - it's a Dell

All packaging, specs, instructions, boxes, hell, even the remnants of the heat cement tube should be included in the box of relative stuff you have just paid good money for.

The one down side of Radeon cards are the catalyst drivers - a few years ago some totally independent dude used to over-write the official ATI drivers with his own versions (Omega) they were awesome upto the stage he stopped updating them, around the time I built this rig Intel chips were used for nothing much more than office machines, Athlon along with Radeon cards were by far the superior set up for gaming rigs, then N-Vidia started to turn it around gfx wise especially with the arrival of PCI-E and dual gfx cards.

Kinda says it all really, in the end the only way Intel chips and N-Vidia cards could compete with AMD/Radeon set ups was the introduction of duo core processors and bridged gfx cards .

 

[vinylweatherman]

All packaging, specs, instructions, boxes, hell, even the remnants of the heat cement tube should be included in the box of relative stuff you have just paid good money for.

The one down side of Radeon cards are the catalyst drivers - a few years ago some totally independent dude used to over-write the official ATI drivers with his own versions (Omega) they were awesome upto the stage he stopped updating them, around the time I built this rig Intel chips were used for nothing much more than office machines, Athlon along with Radeon cards were by far the superior set up for gaming rigs, then N-Vidia started to turn it around gfx wise especially with the arrival of PCI-E and dual gfx cards.

Kinda says it all really, in the end the only way Intel chips and N-Vidia cards could compete with AMD/Radeon set ups was the introduction of duo core processors and bridged gfx cards .

It seems I made the right choice for my former top PC (apart from getting it from Dell that is) I got the AMD Athlonx2 version, rather than the Intel. It was considered that AMD processors and cards were better for multi media. Unfortunately, it seems Dell stuck in an Intel chipset motherboard, which means the AMD tools don't work. I won't let that one slip past me next time.

Surely if the independent ATI drivers were better than the official ones, it means the official ones could be improved, and I am surprised AMD haven't done this in order to take on Intel.

 

[Seventh777]

It seems I made the right choice for my former top PC (apart from getting it from Dell that is) I got the AMD Athlonx2 version, rather than the Intel. It was considered that AMD processors and cards were better for multi media. Unfortunately, it seems Dell stuck in an Intel chipset motherboard, which means the AMD tools don't work. I won't let that one slip past me next time.

Surely if the independent ATI drivers were better than the official ones, it means the official ones could be improved, and I am surprised AMD haven't done this in order to take on Intel.

Oh it was true, what they should have done was employ the guy who created the Omega drivers, guy was a fcking genius ...................................

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[Jinn]

RAM 4GB Corsair DDR3 XMS3 1600Mhz/PC12800

That would be my first upgrade, upgrading to (at least) 8GB because Windows will quickly fill 4GB and start using disk swap.

That motherboard also supports Dual Channel memory, so if you get another stick of ram that is exactly identical to your current stick (assuming you currently have 1x4GB, not 2x2GB) then they'll work together much faster than 2 different sticks.

 

[Seventh777]

That would be my first upgrade, upgrading to (at least) 8GB because Windows will quickly fill 4GB and start using disk swap.

That motherboard also supports Dual Channel memory, so if you get another stick of ram that is exactly identical to your current stick (assuming you currently have 1x4GB, not 2x2GB) then they'll work together much faster than 2 different sticks.

I have chosen this rig with hindsight in mind for upgrading if the need arises - The GFX card HD 7950 works awesome as a single entity and pretty damn good as a cross fire set up also, memory wont be a problem either as this rig will be purely for gaming purposes with not much running on it bar the bare essentials, I talked to the guy who will be building it and asked to partition my HD, I will apn use one of the partitions for my virtual memory (page file) needs, unless i`m running all 8 of the monitors my card can deal with, it`s 3gb of memory should be more than ample, although I really cannot wait to see what the games I normally play look like with AA, AF etcetera all set at HQ instead of high performance.

For now I can`t see memory being a problem 4gb of DDR3 = 4gb of actual and 8gb of virtual memory = 12gb of RAM, page file memory to what ever I set it at and 3gb of actual memory from my card, even if my card was under extreme usage and the checksum offload passed on the excessive work load to the CPU, there`s a mouth watering hex of cores there just waiting for it .

Cheers,

Roy.

 

[Seventh777]

Just received an update by email it's built and now under going a 24 hour test , hopefully i'll receive it tomorrow (like a big kid here, are we there yet, are we there? lol).

 

[Seventh777]

Receiving it today, like a big kid here lol .

 

[Seventh777]

Received it yesterday and wow, just wow, if it runs anywhere near as good as it looks i'll be very happy indeed, not had time to move my old warhorse and put together my new rig, atm i'm just gawking in awe at the gfx card, it looks like something that should be connected to a nuclear weapon .............




Runs very well as a single entity, and when I finally get around to playing games again I will add another and run a X-fire set up .

 

[Jinn]

it looks like something that should be connected to a nuclear weapon

Wow you weren't kidding, that thing looks like it could annihilate something

 

[Seventh777]

Wow you weren't kidding, that thing looks like it could annihilate something

Hehe it's awesome, it's as long as the motherboard and it's all you can see through the case, it's a black edition and fits in well with everything else inside the case which is black also including the PSU, the guys that made this really do have it spot on imho.

I was looking at some Dell Alienware rigs earlier and the nearest one to my set up comes with dual cards, inferior CPU and no monitor or extras and is over £600 dearer .

 

[Seventh777]

1st thing I must comment on is my first impressions of windows 8 are - I like it, a lot, haven't really had a chance to give it a solid road test yet though .