RAM - 1600MHz vrs 1866MHzz vrs 2133MHz

[sonofsanta]

Cheers for the heads up @Arthur. Funnily enough, my mate said on Steam last night that I should avoid OCZ SSD's like the plague and go for a Samsung instead as their SSD kit is excellent?

Samsung are brilliant, but unfortunately they've just transitioned to a new model with the old one having just gone out-of-stock, so their prices are not as stellar as they once were. The 840 Pro would be the best SSD - bar none, IMO - but is £105 @ Amazon. The standard 840 is much cheaper @ £78 (Amazon again) and performs about the same as the old 830 did - we've used one here and they are still brilliant drives, the only potential issue is they are using cheaper TLC NAND and so should have a shorter lifespan. Samsung will have taken firmware-level steps to mitigate this and I would imagine the level of daily write you would need to do to wear it out is still enormous, but if you're planning on shuffling gigabytes of data on & off the SSD every day, it's worth bearing in mind.

If you're just sticking Windows & selected applications on it, mind, you'll be fine.

[Rawns]

Does anyone know what Scandisk SSD's are like in terms or performance and reliability?

[sonofsanta]

Does anyone know what Scandisk SSD's are like in terms or performance and reliability?

Not as good as the standard Samsung 840, and reliability is an unknown quantity still as they're so new. Anandtech seem to think it should be fine, given the market Sandisk has traditionally occupied, but they also say their OEM drives have been a bit iffy in the past.

If it's cheaper than the 840 then might be worth it, but the Samsung is better in a straight out fight.

[Rawns]

Not as good as the standard Samsung 840, and reliability is an unknown quantity still as they're so new. Anandtech seem to think it should be fine, given the market Sandisk has traditionally occupied, but they also say their OEM drives have been a bit iffy in the past.

If it's cheaper than the 840 then might be worth it, but the Samsung is better in a straight out fight.

Samsung wins then.

Thanks again.

[Rawns]

Right! Re-re-revised spec list as it stands!

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4GHz Socket AM3+ 16MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor (£15 more for the next one up! )
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3 Socket AM3+ 7.1 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard
RAM: Crucial 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz Ballistix Tactical Memory
OS HDD: Samsung 120GB 840 Series SSD Kit
Steam HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 2TB Hard Drive (7200rpm) SATA 64MB

Existing GPU: Nvidia Geforce GTX 280

[sonofsanta]

Samsung wins then.

Thanks again.

np

Right! Re-re-revised spec list as it stands!

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4GHz Socket AM3+ 16MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor (£15 more for the next one up! )
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3 Socket AM3+ 7.1 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard
RAM: Crucial 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz Ballistix Tactical Memory
OS HDD: Samsung 120GB 840 Series SSD Kit
Steam HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 2TB Hard Drive (7200rpm) SATA 64MB

Existing GPU: Nvidia Geforce GTX 280

Looking fairly well rounded to me now, the GPU will be the only thing that will hold that back for now but it's a solid foundation to drop in a 660Ti or 670 later on

What PSU/Case were you going for?

[Rawns]

np



Looking fairly well rounded to me now, the GPU will be the only thing that will hold that back for now but it's a solid foundation to drop in a 660Ti or 670 later on

What PSU/Case were you going for?

Yea, I'm liking the look of it too and getting quite excited about placing the order. Think I'm pretty much there now.

I've got a 1000w gaming PSU in my current rig so I'll just use that. I'm also tempted to use my existing case in the interests of saving some cash. However the door on the front is broken so I'm undecided. Again though, recommendations welcome.

Think my current GPU would perform better if I had better spec hardware. I'll see how it runs with it and like you say, can swap it out for upgrade at a later date. :P

[sonofsanta]

The Coolermasters are serviceable at the bottom end, and fine fine cases higher up (£50+). Corsair have built an excellent reputation recently, with all their cases. The Antec Three Hundred is a long time stalwart, as is the Fractal Design Core 3000.

Depends on how much you want to spend, what your priority is (noise or cooling) and your aesthetic preferences. There's plenty of reviews about for any decent case, anyway.

Also now I should stop pretending I'm getting to build a new PC and do some of my job, I suppose

[OB1]

If you can live with your current case for a bit longer I'd recommend saving up and really splashing out on a new one. It's the one thing that can stay with you for years, everything else is interchangeable. Good quality cases from Silverstone, Antec, Lian-Li and the like last forever.

[CHR1S]

+1 for any Fractal Design case, one of if not the best case I have owned/seen.

[Rawns]

I like plain and simple looking cases. I'm not a fan of the monster gaming rigs that look like UFO's built them!

Nothing toooooo big, with average noise and cooling. It's tucked under my desk so that shields most of the noise away.

[SYNACK]

If you can live with your current case for a bit longer I'd recommend saving up and really splashing out on a new one. It's the one thing that can stay with you for years, everything else is interchangeable. Good quality cases from Silverstone, Antec, Lian-Li and the like last forever.

+1 love me some Antec, use them a lot when I can.

[Rawns]

Now these are lush looking cases!!!

Fractal Design Core 3000 Case | Ebuyer.com

Antec All Black 302 Three Hundred Two Case | Ebuyer.com

[LosOjos]

Just to pipe in a little, if you keep an eye on Overclockers UK - Computer components, hardware & gaming PC B-Stock (listed under 'Clearance Lines'), you can get some real bargains, more often than not the only difference is any promo items are missing, for instance I bought a 560Ti that didn't include the advertised Arkham Asylum, but rather than costing £160 I only paid £60

[flyinghaggis]

If I was going to build another system in future I'd be tempted to go for one of these :-

BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case - Midnight Black [BFC-PRO-300-KKXSK-RP]

prodigyflexcagesmall.jpg

Looks really neat and, most importantly, it can take a full sized GPU card. The only serious drawback I can see is that the ITX board limits how much ram it can accommodate.

I'm actually tempted to build another PC when Haswell is released in June as my current one is now 3 years old but there isn't really anything out there it struggles with at the moment so it's pretty hard to justify except for fun!