PCSpecialist Vortex 1000 for DCS

[Ratfink]

I'm considering a new rig based around DCS and have found myself looking at PCSpecialist here in UK. They feature regularly in mags like PC FORMAT and I haven't read a bad word about them.

 

Here's a link to what I've been browsing, and would appreciate your thoughts.

 

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/view/Vortex-1000-gaming-pc/

 

The Vortex 1000 Gaming PC

 

Specification Snapshot:

 

• Intel® Core™ i5-3570K
  
• ASUS® P8Z77-V LX
  
• 8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X 1600
  
• 2GB GEFORCE GTX 660 Ti
  
• 120GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K
  

[Ebs]

Ratfink, take a look at my thread...directly below yours ;)

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=99633

[Ratfink]

Hi Ebs, thanks. I read your thread seems like maybe the spec of the PCSpecialist may be ok.

 

This time, I'm looking to buy a rig having built my last 2

[Ebs]

I hope so fella. I'm going to pick it up this week :)

[Ratfink]

I hope so fella. I'm going to pick it up this week :)

 

So what spec did you go for in the end?

[Rubberduck]

Ratfink,

Just ordered mine on this http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=99177

thread from them, i have ordered from them before, really good company. I hope they will be with this one too :)

Edited January 2, 2013 by Rubberduck
dodgy hyperlink

[Bodo]

Ratfink, I'd swap out the mobo for something slightly better, more options and better power design to allow for more stable overclocks. Otherwise no point getting a k version o the CPU.

 

I'd buy a Fractal Design R4 or some other case with that build. I'd also look at changing the GPU to a 670. Swap the H40 cooler for something quieter if you aren't OCing, again, if you are gonna OC then change the motherboard. If you need a hi spec cooler, add more to the cost of the case so you can compensate, nothing worse than a hoover for a PC. Still I'd get something other than the H40. I can't remember any other reasons other than noisy but I like a good quality heat sink and some Noise Blocker/Nexus/Scythe 120mm fans et cetera.

 

Other than that I'd ask why bother buying a pre built rig since you have built before? What went wrong or why the change? Changing the mobo picked to the V Pro that I have results in a stupid price increase....The CPU to a 3770K is a justifiable increase but still...

 

I'd recommend Samsung low profile RAM :

 

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-017-SA

 

A GTX 670

A 3570K or if you're using the PC for any audio/video editing or you spend a lot of time rending or converting or compressing data then a HT enabled i7 3770K would be qhat I'd go for.

 

I would take advice about what brand to go for with a pinch of salt. I've used Giga and ASUS and altho I've had a less than desirable experience with both, mostly they've been very pleasing so I stick to em. Atm my ASUS P8Z77 V Pro bard is perfect for me.

 

The ASROCK boards do seem to get praise but I also see them getting knocked down, too. I can't help but think it's underdog predilection, which isn't necessarily a bad thing on the whole, as to why many people are lamenting of the pros of the ASROCK boards. I was tempted to get one but for certain reasons steered clear. Mainly it was because for audio work, a low DPC latency helps me keep stutters and clicks from low latency audio recording down to a minimum. The ASUS board came near top on Anandtech. The ASROCK were close tho.

 

Other than that, Kingston RAM should be fine. SSD wise I'd go for Samsung as it's what I use in an 830 series drive and it's great. Dunno what I'd recommend after that or what your options are..

 

Hope some o that helps. Again, the 3570K might be best suited when allowed to be used with a more OC friendly board. Swapping the LX for a V Pro seems to be a silly price difference, though..

 

Good luck

Edited January 2, 2013 by Bodo

[Ratfink]

Ratfink,

Just ordered mine on this http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=99177

thread from them, i have ordered from them before, really good company. I hope they will be with this one too :)

 

Thanks Rubberduck, that's good to know. Please let me know what fps you get in DCS and with what settings :thumbup:

[Ratfink]

Ratfink, I'd swap out the mobo for something slightly better, more options and better power design to allow for more stable overclocks. Otherwise no point getting a k version o the CPU.

 

I'd buy a Fractal Design R4 or some other case with that build. I'd also look at changing the GPU to a 670. Swap the H40 cooler for something quieter if you aren't OCing, again, if you are gonna OC then change the motherboard. If you need a hi spec cooler, add more to the cost of the case so you can compensate, nothing worse than a hoover for a PC. Still I'd get something other than the H40. I can't remember any other reasons other than noisy but I like a good quality heat sink and some Noise Blocker/Nexus/Scythe 120mm fans et cetera.

 

Other than that I'd ask why bother buying a pre built rig since you have built before? What went wrong or why the change? Changing the mobo picked to the V Pro that I have results in a stupid price increase....The CPU to a 3770K is a justifiable increase but still...

 

I'd recommend Samsung low profile RAM :

 

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-017-SA

 

A GTX 670

A 3570K or if you're using the PC for any audio/video editing or you spend a lot of time rending or converting or compressing data then a HT enabled i7 3770K would be qhat I'd go for.

 

I would take advice about what brand to go for with a pinch of salt. I've used Giga and ASUS and altho I've had a less than desirable experience with both, mostly they've been very pleasing so I stick to em. Atm my ASUS P8Z77 V Pro bard is perfect for me.

 

The ASROCK boards do seem to get praise but I also see them getting knocked down, too. I can't help but think it's underdog predilection, which isn't necessarily a bad thing on the whole, as to why many people are lamenting of the pros of the ASROCK boards. I was tempted to get one but for certain reasons steered clear. Mainly it was because for audio work, a low DPC latency helps me keep stutters and clicks from low latency audio recording down to a minimum. The ASUS board came near top on Anandtech. The ASROCK were close tho.

 

Other than that, Kingston RAM should be fine. SSD wise I'd go for Samsung as it's what I use in an 830 series drive and it's great. Dunno what I'd recommend after that or what your options are..

 

Hope some o that helps. Again, the 3570K might be best suited when allowed to be used with a more OC friendly board. Swapping the LX for a V Pro seems to be a silly price difference, though..

 

Good luck

 

Bodo, thanks for the excellent advice. At the mo I'm just toying with the ideas, you see from my sig the current spec I have is knocking on a bit and yet with mostly high settings for scenery etc I get respectable FPS in IA and single missions. Just campaigns that are frustrating now. Your advice is about OC is spot on, I haven't usually bothered but it would be nice to keep options open.

 

I am considering buying because this time round, there seems to be much better choice at a reasonable price than my previous attempts (last being 3 years ago). I'm also at the stage in life, I'd sooner pay someone else to do the legwork and I just open the box :)

[Ratfink]

Just a thought, are the DCS titles Windows 8 friendly?

[Ratfink]

How about this instead?

 

 

 

Case

FRACTAL DEFINE R4 BLACK PEARL QUIET MID-TOWER CASE

 

 

Processor (CPU)

Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3770K (3.5GHz) 8MB Cache

 

 

Motherboard

ASUS® P8Z77-V PRO/THUNDERBOLT: PCI-E 3.0 READY,WIFI, SLI, X-FIRE

 

 

Memory (RAM)

8GB KINGSTON HYPERX GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1866MHz X.M.P(2 x 4GB KIT)

 

 

Graphics Card

2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 670 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready

 

 

Memory - 1st Hard Disk

240GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)

 

 

2nd Hard Disk

1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE

 

 

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive

10x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW

 

 

Power Supply

CORSAIR 750W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX750 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£86)

 

 

Processor Cooling

Corsair H40 Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler (£39)

 

 

Sound Card

ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

 

 

Network Facilities

10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs

 

 

USB Options

6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD

 

 

Operating System

Genuine Windows 8 Standard Edition 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

[Bodo]

Would kick some ass, yeh..

If you really need the Hyper Threading, which only certain bits of software can make a good use of, for example I use an i5 3570K and for when I make audio and it may make a difference for rendering tracks and bouncing files about the places, same with video editing and compression and so on, if I had an HT chip. But...I really don't think it makes or would make that much difference for me and I prefer saving the 60-70 quid and just went for the 3570K. More so this is true with games let alone DCS which would barely use two of the four cores on a non HT chip like a 3570K.. If you are doing a lot of video/audio editing etc and the software you run supports HT then you may benefit from it. At some point in the future I guess I can 'upgrade' to a 3770K when prices have dropped a little and maybe get some of the benefits of that chip, maybe at a time when those benefits are more widely available.

 

Kingston RAM have lulled a bit since I bought 3200 RAM some years ago but they seem to be stable as ever and coming out with some great performing RAM at the moment. I just stick with Corsair as they've never let me down... May well go with Kingston again soon. I really like the Samsung low profile RAM that overclocks really well according to reviews out there.. I think I put a link to them in a previous post.

 

Maybe you could drop a bit of Wattage on the PSU, although 750W is fine and perfectly adequate but you may be able to get a more efficient PSU at a lower wattage for a slightly lesser cost. I'm fairly sure that your PC won't use much more than 300W when fully loaded and mostly it'll be idling at around 100W, this is pretty inefficient...I'm kinda in the same boat and think/know that my 850W PSU is actually charging me a lot more in electricity than I want, due to my PC not running it at its peak efficiency much more than 30-40% of the time.....So be careful here..

 

Other than that the other stuff seems great.

 

However,.....I'd be tempted to wait it out in your position. The 670 would be a great addition and will last you for another year or two I'd have thought, if you bought that and that only as a temporary upgrade...this coupled with your current system might just give you a good enough boost whilst you can wait for next gen stuff to come out, lowering the price of the spec you are looking at but also giving you the option to upgrade to whatever's next at that point in time.... Another 4 GB of RAM on your system wouldn't do any harm, either...

Edited January 5, 2013 by Bodo

[pacotito]

Just a thought, are the DCS titles Windows 8 friendly?

 

I run windows 8 and haven't had any issues with dcs.

[Dave317]

Why don't you want to build one again? You could spec it to exactly what you want, shop around for the best prices for each part and as you know it doesn't take long to put it all together. Can you not get a faster cpu for your motherboard, put in another 4 gb of ram and get a ssd? I've only ever had nvidia cards so i don't know if yours needs upgrading or not.

[Bodo]

Yup, I agree..Forgot to mention SSD but it won't make a huge difference with running games. Altho it makes a great general upgrade.. If you haven't got the time to build tho...well yeh, ya buy the best ya can...saves time and headaches on getting an install wrong or finding a dodgy component.

Edited January 5, 2013 by Bodo

[Ratfink]

Bodo, thanks again for the excellent words of advice. I won't be upgrading existing, my plan is to get a whole new rig and 'demote' the current one to the become the general family machine.

 

Dave, just looking for the easy option with pre-built from PC Specialist. I built my last because the OEMs didn't have what I wanted for the money, now they seem to be more flexible.

[Ratfink]

I run windows 8 and haven't had any issues with dcs.

 

Thanks pacotito :thumbup:

[PoleCat]

Just a thought, are the DCS titles Windows 8 friendly?

 

Yes! :)

 

Out