bigsinky

Well Chaps,

got an email form Aria this morning stating they were doing free delivery on overclocked bundles. Went online and got a web special for £201.95. got to the checkout screen and because i live in NI it wanted to charge me £11.95 delivery. So i email Aria asking why and they said free delivery normally excludes NI because their courier charges them more, but because the advert had failed to state this they would do a free delivery.

It would be rude not to so i bit the bullet and ordered this

Cheap and cheerful. would have liked a i7 - 2600 Sandybridge but way to dear for me atm.

CPU Overclocking to 4.40GHz
• Intel® Core™ i3-540 Processor
• Integrated Intel HD H55 GPU
• 4GB Mushkin (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz 9-9-9-24 Silverline
• Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H Intel H55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 PCI-Express Micro-ATX Motherboard
• Coolermaster Hyper TX3 CPU Cooler

7 - 10 day lead time though Just going to stick my old NVidia card in instead of the onboard graphics. might do a gfx upgrade later but i dont really play games.

XRS

Looks like good value - tempted myself

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

I wondered why they could do an i3 bundle so cheap, then I noticed its not a sandybridge (1155) but the clarkdale (1156), still its not a bad bundle for the price

Tony

dunx

iTrader: (3)

If you don't play games the on-board graphics are fine on a 1080P TV...

I got the ITX version of the Gigabyte H55 + I5 665K

dunx

Barty77

iTrader: (4)

built something similar for my parents ... i went for the sandybridge I7 2600K, 8gb ram 1tb HD and 2GB 6950 gfx card

bigsinky

Hmmmmm.......I wish

jura11

iTrader: (7)

If you are not fancy play games,on board GMA is still good for any application and will be good for older games...
Good bundle,but overclocking is useless in some apps(in games you will struggle get more than 4fps),but great for un-rar files or video coding...


Jura

bigsinky

just need a cheap ssd now for my OS install. any recommendations? would prefer named brand like kingston, ocz, WD etc. the small no name brands dont appear to have decent read and write speeds.

Saint AAI

I'm tempted by this for my new system, will take my total cost to £370 which won't be bad.

ChrisB

OCUK have some cracking deals on OCZ SSDs at the moment - 60GB for £65 or £72.

bigsinky

i can't justify the cost of the new i5 and i7 sandybridges at the moment. yes i would love one but i don't play games on my pc. i just surf, and use it as a big NAS to stream all my media to my AC Ryan Play On HD box.

having said that i have seen some of the new games like Crysis and Metro 2033. they look fabulous and with a middle of the road gfx card i would be able to play them on my 22" monitor with a max resolution of 1680x1050. hopefully that wouldn't tax one of the newer generation gfx cards too much?

if thats the case then i will stick a dual boot win 7 ultimate and ubuntu on the ssd. use linux for everyday stuff and if i want to play games boot into windows.

i will stick up some benchmark results when i get her all up and running (prime95 et al).

bigsinky

chris do you have any links? cheapest i can find a 60GB OCZ for is £102

jura11

iTrader: (7)

Hi matey have look on this here are links for OCZ SSD 60gb £65
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...=14&subcat=910
or
OCZ 60GB £73 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...=14&subcat=910

And about GPU,i would say 5770/5850 will good GPU if you like games...,just have look for bargains on eBay,i have sold recently XFX 5850...



Jura

bigsinky

thank jura. just ordered myself a 60gb ocz and a new 24x sata dvd

bigsinky

come on Aria FFS I am still waiting 12 days later

EddScott

I've got pretty much exactly the same in my PC coupled with a Nvidia 460GTX and I max every game I put on it. Games/Steam on a normal HDD and the OS is on an SSD.

IMO, while the games industy sucks the pink thick one of consoles and PC games are mostly ports, there is no need for super fast PCs anymore.

bigsinky

Well they ***** the order up. expected delivery on tuesday. they phoned to say wrong order had been sent out and they have recalled it. they stated my order would be dispatched on tuesday for delivery on wednesday. problem in the warehouse and said it would be picked up by courier for delivery today (thursday).

just check courier website and consignment has been rescheduled to 27th April. WTF!!!!no a happy bunny. phone city link and they say the parcel is physically not in belfast. phoned aria and they say it missed the flight to belfast last night. told aria to shove the whole system up their **** and give me a refund. they seem to be running a mickey mouse outfit. we will have to check where the parcel is and recall it before we can give you a refund. they have had my money from the 6th of April FFS. let us check the options for you, we might be able to deliver on saturday morning.

What's in it for me says I. we will get back to you before 3pm. I wait with baited breath never had these problems with Overclockers.

bigsinky

has Metro 2033 been ported to a console? i watched a xfx 6990 crossfire video last night and with enhusiasts detail it chugged along. admittedly 2550x1600 16xAA and loads of dx11 effects. I mean WTF!!!! £1200 worth of gfx cards and it still wont play the latest games on max detail.

bigsinky

Well chaps,

bits n pieces arrive yesterday. the mainboard is tiny compared to my last one and because Aria had the system on test the CPU and RAM where already on the board. the CPU cooler is massive. put it together with a new 60GB SSD and a 2TB Hitachi HDD. Stuck a copy of XP on first as i wont be using it as my main OS but Ubuntu. Both XP and Ubuntu went on smoothly and i have to say the thing is damn fast. XP boots in 15 seconds from initial XP splash screen. Ubuntu boots in about 7 seconds. I have just stuck the NVidia 6600GT card back in for the gfx.

downloaded CPUiD and SuperPi as these seem to be what the overclockers use. take a look at the overclock and the 32M SuperPi calculation. Just ordered another 2TB drive and and going to amalgamate all my smaller drives. If I get a few other benchmark tests i will post them up as well. For now very happy.

.

DJ_Jon

iTrader: (7)

Just built the following rig myself:

i5 2500k (overclocked to 4ghz) Sandybridge
Asus P8P67 mobo
2 x ATI 6950 (unlocked to 6970 spec)
4gb XMS 3 1600mhz ram
120gb SATA3 SSD
500gb SATA2 HDD
Coolermaster CM-690 case
Coolermaster silent pro 850w PSU
Asus 5.1 sound card


Current benchmarks:

BFBC2 @ 1680x1050 209fps at max detail & 8xAA

bigsinky

nice but your video cards alone cost twice as much as my whole system

not really a game player so it will do me for a while.

ChrisB

So far for my Sandybridge build I've got

OCZ Vertex 60GB SSD
8GB OCZ DDR3 RAM
Radeon 5850 1GB

I'm sure I'm missing something...

DJ_Jon

iTrader: (7)

This is a pure gaming rig, nothing more than that. I have an iMac & MacBook Pro for everything else.

Total cost was < £1400 - which is a lot of dough, but I enjoy my gaming & needed something that would perform at a res of 2560x1440

bigsinky

i take it that rig will run 3 x 2560 setup. just seen some videos of metro 2033 running across 3 x 30inch screens and all i have to say is WOW!!!!

I have been keeping an eye on ebay for some 5850s and 5870s but they always manage to creep above what i am prepared to pay, in fact they always seem to go for a nearly new price. saw a 5850 go the other day, was sitting at £62 for ages then went for £105 with about 5 seconds to go. they can be had from overclockers brand new for £115 ffs. i just can understand why poeple don't do their homework, it really baffles me.

bigsinky

Chris look at what a i7 990x is capable of on an x58 board. better save those pennies

dunx

iTrader: (3)

Brand new 5870 @ OCUK is less than some 2nd hand on ebay

Also spotted a GTX 480 for <£200 @ Scan !

dunx

P.S. BOINC cruncher not a gamer...

jura11

iTrader: (7)

Problem of Metro 2033 and few other games is designed or optimized for nVidia chips and PhysX.

Second option is buy cheap 8800GTX/GTS250 just for PhysX.


Jura