Spec check before purchase

[Kadan30]

Hi All

Just want to get some general feedback before purchasing on the selection below, for mainly gaming / watching movies.

What do you think to this lot -

Intel Core i7 950

Asus P6X58D-E Intel

Corsair XMS3 (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Triple Channel

1GB MSI GTX 460 HAWK Graphics Card x 2

Lancool Dragon-Lord PC-K62 Mid Tower - Red Dragon Windowed Edition

Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive

Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache

Samsung SH-B083L/BSBP 8x BluRay ROM / 16x DVD±RW Drive

Corsair Professional Series™ Gold AX850

Thermalright Silver Arrow

BenQ G2420HDBL 24"

Thank you

 

[AMDFTW]

nice that seems like a epic build,but i would make some changes

i would use the 930 instead of the 950 it overclocks just aswell fella and unless your going to watch blurays on a big screen then ditch the bluray drive and just get a normal optical drive,also the dh14 is the best cooler out and is Tom certified lol.

and casewise i would go with ither a CM ATSC or a corsair 700d

other than that it seems awsome good choice on the GPU's

 

[Kadan30]

I was thinking about the 700d but it came across more for watercooling and I wasnt sure on what fan setup would be best, tbh though i've changed my mind on the case so much its becoming boring lol, first it was haf x > CM DOM II > Nxzt phantom > corsair 600t then I saw the review that tom did on the lancool k62 R1 and decided to go with that one.

I will take your advice on the 930 and the optical drive, just saved myself about £50 by doing that.

 

[AMDFTW]

to be honest if your looking in the advance 2 haf x kinda way then the xigmatek utgard is the best case for under £100 just read the review on hear fella its awsome.

hm i though you would of saved more but its still a good amount.and the SSD you have listed,i would not go with that vairent i would go with the kingston SSDNow it has more balanced speeds and is very good for the money its your call for the money tho its £12 less.

dont forget to look at the noctua DH14 instead of the arrow

 

[Kadan30]

do you not rate the lancool k62 ? whats your thoughts on that case ?

 

[AMDFTW]

it looks like a advance 2 lol and IMO the utgard would be alot better and save you cash,the airflow is better it can house watercooling aswell

 

[Kadan30]

lol grrr will now be spending tomorrow reading reviews of the utgard now lol, one of the features I like about the Lancool is the black cabling it comes with instead of the rainbow crap in other cases.

 

[AMDFTW]

you can always hide them,or get some aftermarket ones,there is a review on hear mate

 

[siravarice]

+1 for the Cooler Master case. Make sure you can fit the cooler over the ram cooling fins too.

 

[alicarve]

when it comes to the Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache i would reconsider it, my brother has bought 4 of these and 2 have failed within 6 months.

and yeah take a look at the noctua dh14 as everyone else says as it the best air cooler out and if you had a haf x to go with that would be really cool

 

[Kadan30]

alicarve - What hdd would you suggest if that is the case with those drives ?

I will probably switch to the noctua dh14, I think tom is to do a review on the silver arrow at some point, plus I prefer the looks of the arrow compared to the noctua, but why do they always have these nice coolers but crap looking fans lol.

Utgarde is nice, I'm juggling between that, lancool and haf x now lol

Will hope to purchase all this stuff within the week or 2 and it will be my first ever build, no more prebuilt machines for me.

 

[alienware]

Yeah I can confirm a blu ray player is a waste of money if you're not watching movies. I bought a Sony player (£50) about 9 months ago and have only used it to watch the making of Fallout 3 about twenty times. That was why I got it tbh.

when it comes to the Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache i would reconsider it, my brother has bought 4 of these and 2 have failed within 6 months.

Primary cause of hard drive death is heat. The bearings overheat causing failure and the read arm crashes into the side of the drive. He could just be very unlucky (or they could have been manhandled in transit) but yeah, check his cooling.

 

[Diablo]

The F3s are very good. I've had one F1 fail on me (really annoying), and one F3 arrived with SMART errors. Normally the reason for failiure is the end user misusing them...dropping them, hitting them with something etc. The grease in the bearings is generally good to 60+

 

[CRAZYCAP]

Probably throwing a spanner in the works here, but I have just rebuilt my rig and I am using the K62 (completely black with the side window) case. All I can say is it is 'BLOODY AWESOME'. Enuf Said!

 

[Kadan30]

no spanner in the works, I will probably go with the K62 unless I hear a strong reason not to, I like the all red interior that was shown in the review, the red and black should look pretty nice. Money is ready just need the other half to let me spend it now

but I'm treating her to a Dell mini 1012 and a new mobile so should be easy enough.

 

[alicarve]

Primary cause of hard drive death is heat. The bearings overheat causing failure and the read arm crashes into the side of the drive. He could just be very unlucky (or they could have been manhandled in transit) but yeah, check his cooling.

yeah i checked his cooling to the hard drives and that was fine, it was just the readers on the HD that went he has had warranty replacements for both so been fine, he is probs just unlucky, but im more than happy with my seagate barracudas

and case wise im currently without one but im going to go for the NZXT phantom cause of how sexy they look and the cooling performance doesn't seem too bad, but its not out for another few weeks in the UK

 

[Kadan30]

I was gonna go for that nzxt phantom but after some reading, it seems you are limited on what cpu cooler you can use if you want to make use of the side fan, which I think would be handy for the GPU depending on what sort your going for. Also it seems you cant mount the H70 in that case without hassles, but I do love the look of the case due to the black interior etc again

 

[Brooksie]

K62 R1 is awesome

.

 

[alicarve]

I was gonna go for that nzxt phantom but after some reading, it seems you are limited on what cpu cooler you can use if you want to make use of the side fan, which I think would be handy for the GPU depending on what sort your going for. Also it seems you cant mount the H70 in that case without hassles, but I do love the look of the case due to the black interior etc again

yeah, I did read that problem, i have just bought myself a thermaltake frio and that is tall so it is unlikely i will be able to attatch a side fan on the phantom but im still tempted in getting one. I was after a noctua dh14 but because of my ram i am unable to fit it onto my board

 

[Kadan30]

you can cut the fins off the ram from some posts I've seen if you have that type but not the something Id want to do. Maybe a new version of the phantom will come out one day with an bit of extra width. Lancool K62 it is for me.