Peoples thoughts on the PC Gamer Rig

[Peter Radiator Full Pig]

I just wanted to know peoples thoughts on the PC Gamer rig. Bear in mind this isnt supposed to be a top end rig, but good value for money.

It is currently

CPU: Intel i5 3570k

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z77-D3H

Ram: Crucial Balistic Support (2x4Gb 1600mHz DDR3)

Case: Corsair Vengenance C70

HD: Westerdigital 2tb

GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD7850

PSU: Cooler master 80+ (650w)

Monitor: Viewsonic VX2336s


They say in the magazine that the HD7850 is still the best value for singe screen gaming, they didnt bother upgrading to something like the GeForce GT 660Ti because of that.

[Velko]

No SSD? I'd add one just for the fast booting.

[CuriousOrange]

An SSD isn't good value for money with gaming is it, so that seems like a sensible set up.

[Velko]

An SSD isn't good value for money with gaming is it, so that seems like a sensible set up.

Well, it depends. I mainly use my PC for gaming, but I know I'd value fast booting. My gaming time is rather randomly distributed around, and I often don't know how long I have time to play, so being quick with booting the whole thing up means a lot.

[neema_t]

Playing BF3 off my SSD has cut the loading times immensely, like probably more than 75% (absolutely made-up guess statistic but it feels like that much), so if there's just one or two games you play regularly then I'd say the SSD is worth it... Maybe. Still, the SSD isn't an 'either/or' thing, if you decide to add one later you won't be wasting anything you've already bought, you just buy one and slap it in there. So, yeah, not a big deal that it's not on the list.

One thing I'd add is that a couple of months ago when I was shopping for HDDs, the Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm 2TB was somehow much cheaper than the other 7200rpm options, but that was back in August/September so maybe that's changed now. I got it for £70 on Scan. In fact even now the 2TB Seagate is £70.55 and the 1TB Western Digital is £73.32! I'm assuming they're talking about the 5900rpm 2TB WD Caviar Green? Even that is £74.94.

[Sakkura]

PSU: Cooler master 80+ (650w)

Cooler Master PSUs are a gamble. I'd pick something from the reputable brands instead - Antec, Corsair, Seasonic, XFX... And 550W would be plenty for that build.

Also, you should get a decent cooler for the CPU. A Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo is a nice, affordable option.

[Kadayi]

SSD is great for the OS tbh. Definitely worth the money if only to cut down your boot time.

[Kelron]

Cooler Master PSUs are a gamble. I'd pick something from the reputable brands instead - Antec, Corsair, Seasonic, XFX... And 550W would be plenty for that build.

Also, you should get a decent cooler for the CPU. A Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo is a nice, affordable option.

They've had plenty of quality PSUs recently. My last two have been Coolermaster, reputable hardware sites had good things to say about them. I don't keep up with new ranges and reviews until I need to buy one, but unless there are recent reviews saying otherwise I'd count them amongst the decent brands, and good value for money too.

[Sakkura]

They've had plenty of quality PSUs recently. My last two have been Coolermaster, reputable hardware sites had good things to say about them. I don't keep up with new ranges and reviews until I need to buy one, but unless there are recent reviews saying otherwise I'd count them amongst the decent brands, and good value for money too.

I think they have always offered quality PSUs. They've also always offered bad ones though, and they still do. Here's the latest review of one of their PSUs at Hardwaresecrets, with a couple of comments from the conclusion:

We think it is simply ridiculous that in this day and age there are still well-known brands labeling power supplies with fake wattages.

...

Even if this unit were labeled with its real wattage (430 W), it would still be a bad choice. Voltages drop below the minimum allowed, and noise and ripple levels can increase above the maximum allowed, causing your computer to behave erratically. Also, this unit presents low efficiency.
There are better power supplies at the same wattage costing less.
In summary, we must recommend that you stay away from this power supply.

[trjp]

In the SSD topic - I'm not a huge fan of them due to a history of failures BUT they are pretty good value if all you're seeking is 'cheap performance'.

A 180Gb SSD is under £100 now - and that's actually quite a lot of space if you don't have 30 games and your entire 'DVD collection' installed.

Even a 120Gb - around the £70/$100 mark - would make a huge different to startup times - if that's your bag.

If you're not that bothered about that - you could probably make do with a slower GPU/CPU and less memory too :)

[y2rich]

That's very similar to the rig I just bought (same Mobo, CPU, ram amount) but I went for the beefier GFX card. I also went for a SSD for the OS and a couple of select games. Should see me through the next few years.

[Kelron]

I think they have always offered quality PSUs. They've also always offered bad ones though, and they still do. Here's the latest review of one of their PSUs at Hardwaresecrets, with a couple of comments from the conclusion:

Fair enough. Still a brand worth looking at if you can find reviews of the specific model.