Prebuilt PC choices

[Imperatore]

Hey all,

I miss PC gaming massively, PS3 just doesn't cut it and I'm getting another PC pronto. Dread the thought of building again so I'm going for a prebuilt which narf seem pretty good value these days.
Looked at a few companies like Cyberpower and OC and decided to stick with OC as they do just that to the CPU thus saving me the time.
I always seem to get average PC's that never really shine on top games so this time I'm going to invest a bit more.
I'm out of touch on hardware but I've decided on an I7 930 cpu. These systems seems very similar though and they lack a comparrison feature so not sure where to go.
Would like to keep budget close to 1k but I'm probably going to get a 24" monitor as well, my 22 hisses randomly and I have to switch it off and on a few times to stop it.
Main question on all these is does the Radeon 5870 warrant the extra £117 over the 5850? Same amount of DDR5 but I expect higher clock speeds, but ofc can oc the 5850 if needs be. I talk about oc'ing but in reality I don't know if it would even be required as I dont know how powerfull these are in the scheme of things. I don't really know what's hot and what's not.

Here are the systems, in price order. Would be adding Win 7 home and a 5870 on the dropdowns.

Titan Onyx
Goliath MKII
Ultima Viper

Thanks for any help

[FatherJack]

does the Radeon 4870 warrant the extra £117 over the 4850? Same amount of DDR5 but

Did you mean a 5870 over a 5850, since you were talking DDR5? The 48xx have DDR3, IIRC.

In graphs, the 5850's peaks seem only to match the 5870's troughs, which is a fair indication of comfortable outperformance.

[Imperatore]

Yes sorry, I did mean that. Looks like the 5870 does indeed warrant the extra. Not keen on changing to NVIDIA really so not even considering.

[FatherJack]

Titan Onyx
Goliath MKII
Ultima Viper

Of those three, I'd avoid the middle one, seems overclocked to utter buggery and doesn't specifically mention a guarantee on that. All seem to only offer a year's guarantee, but you're not going to get FactoryOC processsors anywhere so I guess that's what you get. The third has the superior PSU and larger disk, but not sure they're worth the extra - perhaps more down to case preference on your part, but note the Antec (#3) doesn't list the (visible in the picture) case fans or lights in its spec.

[HereComesPete]

The 'pre-built' systems OCUK offer aren't very built at all, ask Roman for more info on how not built they are.

My 5870 has suffered only due to ATi's current mediocre driver releases and a lot of the problems are due to ATi and game dev's pointing fingers at each other over who fixes the problem. Other than that it's a great card, runs just about everything I throw at it smoothly and with low temps. Just remember to disable catalyst AI, it causes far more problems than it's worth imo.

The new nvidias are nice cards, as usual I'd suggest looking at benchmarks across multiple tests with things like the 460 vs the 5870 and their pricings to get a best bang per buck card regardless of manufacturer. Plus Nvidia cards always have better warranty and step up deals.

In terms of the i7's, look for the newer socket type and equivalent chips, just to futureproof yourself more.

/ramble

[Imperatore]

Ok, I'll do a bit more research, I might have another look on cyberpower then because whenever I build PC's they are very very noisy. Not watercooling again either, not cost effective and a hassle when upgrading.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

whenever I build PC's they are very very noisy.

I'd guess that's more related to the case and cheap fans than anything.

[Imperatore]

I'd guess that's more related to the case and cheap fans than anything.

Yeah probably, I did get this "silent" antec case once but it made little difference. The noise is what bugs me the most about PC's and a reason I was going to go for a Mac.

[Stoat]

Yeah probably, I did get this "silent" antec case once but it made little difference. The noise is what bugs me the most about PC's and a reason I was going to go for a Mac.

I'm usually quite pleased with how quiet my fans are, but then I do a lot of browsing around QuietPC.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

You just have to build smart really.

Fuck a silent case, get something with loads of big, slow fans, think antec 900. then add an arctic cooling heatsink to your gpu. (or buy a gpu with one fitted)

Then enjoy nearly silent gaming.

[spoodie]

cheap fans

They don't have to be top of the range just decent and ideally with speed control so you can optimise noise to heat. I use Quiet PC for my coolers and fans. I've not bothered swapping out the GFX card fan as it's quiet enough, surprisingly. Times have changed I guess.

[Imperatore]

Would you hook them straight up to a fan controller? narf I've never bothered with case fans, in my last PC it was the GFX card fan that was insane (4870X2) or something like that.
Those artic coolers look good but its an extra 40 notes to consider.

[spoodie]

Would you hook them straight up to a fan controller?

I wouldn't bother. The fans that came with my Antec 300 have 3 speed switches attached and I leave them on the lowest speed. For the sake of noise it's best to have more fans at a lower speed.

[buzzmong]

I wouldn't bother. The fans that came with my Antec 300 have 3 speed switches attached and I leave them on the lowest speed. For the sake of noise it's best to have more fans at a lower speed.

My Antec P180 has those fans with the switches in. All set on low iirc.

My other CoolerMaster Centrion has space for 140mm fans, so lots of CFM but quiet due to being slow.

[Imperatore]

OK so generally more is better at a lower rpm than less on high. You lot are pushing me towards building at this rate!

[Lee]

OK so generally more is better at a lower rpm than less on high. You lot are pushing me towards building at this rate!

Yep. I'd also look for something with fan filters, I have a Lian-Li case which has them and it's still as clean inside as it was when I built it over a year ago.

Lian-Li cases seem to be quiet in general even with the fans on maximum, I also got a better CPU cooler but Intel's coolers are just as quiet these days if you turn on the fan controller in the bios.

[Thompy]

You say you dread building one again, but what exactly happened last time? I built my first one last year without really knowing anything. I read all the instructions 10 times over paranoid I might do something wrong, but in the end it was literally plug and play right down to the CPU.

[Imperatore]

You say you dread building one again, but what exactly happened last time? I built my first one last year without really knowing anything. I read all the instructions 10 times over paranoid I might do something wrong, but in the end it was literally plug and play right down to the CPU.

I just don't enjoy it, some bits are very fiddly and I get frustrated very easily, especially with CPU fans with tricky clips.
My last one was watercooled including a big radiator with three fans, CPU and GPU block that I had to assemble, so I have the ability to do it.
I think because I do it all in one go I get annoyed, I could easily do it over stages I guess.
My biggest gripe is stiff PSU cables and trying to get the jumpers right on mobos for reset and power switch to work. I also don't understand if I should have fans taking air in or out and what to do if I don't have enough connectors on the PSU.
I also end up getting massive cases (last one was a cosmos-s) because I worry about things not fitting, especially with the size of some of these heatsink and fan combos.
I don't like not knowing if everything will fit basically.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

Air in the front, out the back/top.

An antec gaming case will fit anything you can buy.

Depending where you are, you could harrang a 5punker to put it together for you, we've enough people spread around the country that it shouldn't be a big job.

[friznit]

I bought a machine of OCUK last time, simply cos I was too fucking idle to build another one. Been very happy with it.