Gaming Spec for Customer

[kcooke1983]

Hi Guys

I would appreciate feedback on this quick spec I have thrown together for a customer.

The customers request was:

I want it to ace World of Warcraft, Rift, Fallout New Vegas and Diablo3

Here is what I have so far and the cost to me:

Part
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit - £106.48
Intel Core i5 2300 2.8GHz Socket 1155 6MB Cache - £156.50
Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3 Z68 Socket 1155 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard - £84.77
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz CL9 1.5V Non-ECC Unbuffered - £44.99
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 590 607MHz 3GB DDR5 PCI-Express DVI miniDP GB - £589.99
CM Storm Scout Case + Coolermaster Silent Pro 700W - £129.99
Corsair 120GB Force 3 SSD CSSD-F120GB3-BK (For Boot Partition) - £130.00
WD 1TB Caviar Green 3.5" SATA-III 6Gb/s Hard Drive - 64MB Cache - £125.00
Samsung SH-B123L 12x BD-ROM DVD±RW DL & RAM Lightscribe SATA Optical Drive - £41.23
Total Price to me - £1,408.95

This is me quickly putting this spec together. I expect to have missed something or not thought of something so I welcome any constructive feedback.


EDIT: I remember a link kicking about for a site that advised the minimum wattage for a PSU based on your spec but cannot remember it.

 

[16k_zx81]

Hi Guys

I would appreciate feedback on this quick spec I have thrown together for a customer.

The customers request was:


Here is what I have so far and the cost to me:

Part
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit - £106.48
Intel Core i5 2300 2.8GHz Socket 1155 6MB Cache - £156.50
Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3 Z68 Socket 1155 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard - £84.77
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz CL9 1.5V Non-ECC Unbuffered - £44.99
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 590 607MHz 3GB DDR5 PCI-Express DVI miniDP GB - £589.99
CM Storm Scout Case + Coolermaster Silent Pro 700W - £129.99
Corsair 120GB Force 3 SSD CSSD-F120GB3-BK (For Boot Partition) - £130.00
WD 1TB Caviar Green 3.5" SATA-III 6Gb/s Hard Drive - 64MB Cache - £125.00
Samsung SH-B123L 12x BD-ROM DVD±RW DL & RAM Lightscribe SATA Optical Drive - £41.23
Total Price to me - £1,408.95

This is me quickly putting this spec together. I expect to have missed something or not thought of something so I welcome any constructive feedback.


EDIT: I remember a link kicking about for a site that advised the minimum wattage for a PSU based on your spec but cannot remember it.

1. 700w is heaps. Google 'power supply calculator'

2. why not the 2500k?

3. Crucial M4 128GB for SSD?

4. have you read Toms Hardware's take on the 590GTX compared to the crossfire ATI option?

 

[kcooke1983]

Thanks man.

I will check these out this evening.

Haven't had proper chance to research it yet.

Sent from my HTC Hero using Tapatalk

 

[kcooke1983]

1. 700w is heaps. Google 'power supply calculator'

2. why not the 2500k?

3. Crucial M4 128GB for SSD?

4. have you read Toms Hardware's take on the 590GTX compared to the crossfire AMD option?

1 - Now why didn't I think about that. Thanks Man. See what happens when I only got 4 hours sleep last night!
2 - Good call again. Not bad, only £14 more expensive.
3 - Don't have a great deal of experience with SSD to be honest. I know it will boot quicker and plan to use it for the boot partition. What is your experience?
4 - I have no experience of AMD Graphics cards, I tend to stick with the Nvidia.

Any further thoughts are appreciated.

 

[sassenach]

For gaming I'd swap the CPU for an i5 2500k and get a good aftermarket cooler for it (something like a CoolerMaster 212 as the minimum)

 

[kcooke1983]

For gaming I'd swap the CPU for an i5 2500k and get a good aftermarket cooler for it (something like a CoolerMaster 212 as the minimum)

Hi there.

Thanks.

I tend to anyways. I don't like the stock coolers at all.

I think I will switch to a 2500k.

 

[Rosco]

an i7 is not that much more expensive.

i would put 16 gigs of ram and a 2 gig video card. plus and 180 gig SSD is the way to go.

doesnt seem like you marked it up at all. your time is important

 

[kcooke1983]

Hi Bob.

I will look at an I7.

16gb...ram and that spec ...I may not want to part with this machine.

I think that gtx590 is a 3gb card.

I haven't marked it up yet. I intend to tho. Those are supplier prices.

Once I get the spec nailed down I will source best price and then mark up.



Sent from my HTC Hero using Tapatalk

 

[Rosco]

I think that gtx590 is a 3gb card.

its also 600 bucks. just pick a SuperClocked GeForce GTX 560 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 for $250. Works awesome even without upgrading the ram to 16.

built this computer a couple months ago:

ASUS P8P67 DELUXE
Intel Core i7 Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (Quad Core)
Crucial Ballistix sport 16GB 240-Pin DDR3 1600 (4 X 4GB)
1. OCZ Agility 3.5" 180GB SATA II (SSD)
2. Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s(2 of them)
LG Blu Ray burner
LITE-ON DVD Burner
SuperClocked GeForce GTX 560 2GB 256-bit GDDR5
Windows 7 Pro 64 bit edition
COOLER MASTER Black Steel ATX Full Tower
Rosewill 1000watt 80Plus Bronze Certified
1. Rosewill 40-in-1 3.5" Internal Card Reader w/ USB port
2. Rosewill 4+1 VIA USB 2.0 PCI Adapter
3. MSI TV Tuner Card with FM Tuner Plus PCI Interface

blow anything else i have used look like a old 486. didnt want to give it up

 

[16k_zx81]

3 - Don't have a great deal of experience with SSD to be honest. I know it will boot quicker and plan to use it for the boot partition. What is your experience?

Look to the benchmarks first then bang for buck. This SSD does pretty well in both regards hence the recommendation.

4 - I have no experience of AMD Graphics cards, I tend to stick with the Nvidia.

Personally I buy on features rather than doggedly sticking with a particular brand no matter what. The article I referred you to discusses the pros and cons of both options. The AMD option comes out on top for some good reasons.

Years ago I bought a gaming card from a computer store. I had read a bunch of reviews about a particular nVidia card and that was what I intended to buy. Anyway, the computer sales guy banged on and on about the ATI option and I ended up being convinced and getting that. There was a bit of argh-bargy in the conversation with an offsider in the shop who mentioned that this guy loved AMD and ATI. Didnt like nVidia or Intel.

Anyway after I got it home the performance was abysmal. I took it back and overheard the guy with some other customers. Basically he only ever recommended AMD for CPUs and ATI for GPUs. In this instance the recommendation was just outright screwy - the ATI card was nowhere near as good as the nVidia card at the same price point. I never went back there after that.

There's a lot to be said for recommending the right hardware for the job, and not sticking with a brand just because you, personally, like it. Expert reviews, independent benchmarks and cumulative peer-ratings should be your guide.

Anyway, good luck with it.

 

[TopLevelComp]

Let the customer know, you may build a FAST machine, but WoW is known to drop FPS when it's loading a highly populated server in the main cities (Orgrimmar and Stormwind) as was as other certain areas. I made the mistake of selling a gaming computer and not knowing this and thinking it was the computer when the customer called to complain.

Also have the customer understand with WoW, a large 25 man raid, is going to kill the FPS.
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?&m=1137989&mpage=1

Take note of this as well:
http://www.arenajunkies.com/topic/111259-blizzard-quad-core-cpus-wow/

Definitely upgrade to 16GB memory.

Does your customer really need BluRay?

With that video card and other components, definitely look into a better case, that will be a big let down with that case. Look into the Silverstone Raven series, the RV02 and RV03 will provide great temperature baselines, if that's a budget buster, the NZXT Phantom is another great starting point.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cases/2010/09/09/silverstone-raven-rv02-review/1
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cases/2010/08/04/nzxt-phantom-case-review/1

 

[kcooke1983]

Thanks Guys.

I will definitely look at your suggestions.

 

[d3v]

Just gonna quickly butt in here so I apolagise if already pointed out.

Why the $500 GPU? I put my current gaming rig together 13 months ago and use a £110 an Inno3D GTS 450 and guess what... it plays all the latest games on the highest detail levels at 1600x1024 resolution, with anti-alising on low or very low.

And what I mean by the "latest games"...

modern warfare 2
mafia 2
red orcestra 2
mount and blade warband with 450 men in battle
napoleon total war with upto 8 large armies on screen at once
Crysis 2
Americas Army
latest GTA
....many more!!!

The only game it had trouble with was Armed Assault 2... but then again even £2000+ gaming rigs have trouble running that game!


My point being.... get him a much cheaper GPU. I reccomend the model a few steps above mine... the GTX 260

Also, halve that RAM down to 4GB for the love of god!

 

[kcooke1983]

Why the $500 GPU? I put my current gaming rig together 13 months ago and use a £110 an Inno3D GTS 450 and guess what... it plays all the latest games on the highest detail levels at 1600x1024 resolution, with anti-alising on low or very low.

And what I mean by the "latest games"...

modern warfare 2
mafia 2
red orcestra 2
mount and blade warband with 450 men in battle
napoleon total war with upto 8 large armies on screen at once
Crysis 2
Americas Army
latest GTA
....many more!!!

The only game it had trouble with was Armed Assault 2... but then again even £2000+ gaming rigs have trouble running that game!

My remit is to build a rig capable of playing the latest games and those coming in the near future as well. Obviously, computer parts go out of date very quickly so I am looking for a high end card which will age well.

Also, halve that RAM down to 4GB for the love of god

Why? RAM is inexpensive and it means that with the quad-core 2500k and Win 7 64-bit the machine will make use of all the resources available to it. I know this client and major multitasking and gaming is the order of the day.

 

[Rosco]

Also, halve that RAM down to 4GB for the love of god!

even cheap computers have more than 4 gigs of ram these days. thats a bad idea. ram is pretty cheap. the customer wants a pc that will play games. even most laptops i sell have 6 gigs or ram.

when people that come to me for a rig like that they expect to pay more but they are getting the best parts and my knowledge.(custom builds are about 35% of my business) If you dont give them that what is stopping them from going to geek squad or easy tech. You dont want penny pinching clients anyway for a job like this.

 

[kcooke1983]

even cheap computers have more than 4 gigs of ram these days. thats a bad idea. ram is pretty cheap. the customer wants a pc that will play games. even most laptops i sell have 6 gigs or ram.

when people that come to me for a rig like that they expect to pay more but they are getting the best parts and my knowledge.(custom builds are about 35% of my business) If you dont give them that what is stopping them from going to geek squad or easy tech. You dont want penny pinching clients anyway for a job like this.

exactly.

filler filler filler

 

[KompuKare]

Although I'd question the value of the 590GTX (or the HD 6990), if that's what your specing, I think you should budget better quality than Cooler Master PSU. For that kind of money I'd recommend a Seasonic or Seasonic made one (some of the Corsairs for instance). Perhaps the 850W PSU, Seasonic SS-850KM (£150 from Scan.co.uk). Those Seasonics can generally actually cope with more than their rating. A lot of money for a PSU I know - alternatively check out an actual review of that CM (www.jonnyguru.com/ is very good for taking PSUs apart).

Using the Antec calculator (http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine), but with a 2500K (at that price 2300 doesn't make much sense), it comes up to 555W but that's without anything else aside from two 120mm fans, some USB load, and a card reader plus fan controller, and no overclocking. I find it unlikely that someone would have a K chip and not overclock at some point: a modest clock to 4300 @ 1.4v is another 130W.

 

[16k_zx81]

Just gonna quickly butt in here so I apolagise if already pointed out.

Why the $500 GPU? I put my current gaming rig together 13 months ago and use a £110 an Inno3D GTS 450 and guess what... it plays all the latest games on the highest detail levels at 1600x1024 resolution, with anti-alising on low or very low.

And what I mean by the "latest games"...

The only game it had trouble with was Armed Assault 2... but then again even £2000+ gaming rigs have trouble running that game!

My point being.... get him a much cheaper GPU. I reccomend the model a few steps above mine... the GTX 260

Also, halve that RAM down to 4GB for the love of god!

No one plays games at 1600x1024 any more. Gamers are looking for benches at 2560x1600

4gb RAM? Seriously? This isnt an office machine - its a performance box. RAM is not an expensive component and the small investment now will save the customer annoyance and additional expense in future when the 4gb machine would have needed upgrading.

Its fair to assume the customer has discussed budget before the build, and the right thing to do in this instance is provide the best possible parts for the budget.

Sorry, I dont follow your reasoning. Its like a car salesman getting a customer who does weekend racing asking for a Ferrari and then trying to sell them a Fiesta to save them some cash. In the same way, the customer aint going to thank him when it can't keep up.

Bizarre.

The thing about performance machines is that you are building them not only to play games now, but to play games in 12 or 18 months or 2 years time. The last thing the customer wants is to find that they have just bought a machine, and one of the latest games, and have to upgrade to play it. For us, this is simple, we know what to add. For them, its a big inconvenience - they dont know what they need, or how much it costs, and they have to put up with the machine not working properly while they figure it out. AND they have to PAY someone to do the work PLUS the cost of the upgrade part. The whole time they're contemplating what the machine cost them and who didnt do the build properly in the first place.

 

[Rosco]

^^^^^^^^^ well said jim

 

[Vicenarian]

Might want to consider two GTX560ti's in SLI rather than a 580. Proven to give you more performance for less $$$