Two possible systems, looking for advice

[captainspace]

Hi guys,

I've got a couple of potential builds in mind for my next machine. The first one uses a lot of parts by manufacturers I've used before and had a good experience with, the other one I can get for a decent reduction in cost, but I'm less sure of the manufacturers involved. I've used scan.co.uk for their saved basket function but if I go for option 2 I'll be sourcing the parts elsewhere. I'm mostly looking for some opinions from people on the parts that have been chosen and for some potential tweaks - though for option 2 (the cheaper) I'm limited to the parts listed (other than the monitor). Any help would be appreciated.

Option 1:

https://secure.scan.co.uk/aspnet/Shop/SavedBasket/Show.aspx?Id=e84ff98870864e09b6b9cf5dff090894

650W Corsair CMPSU-650TX, SLi/Xfire,Single 12V Rail, 80%+ Efficient, 120mm Quiet Fan, ATX12V v2.2
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition, S AM3, 3.4GHz, 8MB Cache, 125W, Retail
Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H, AMD 890GX, S AM3, PCI-E 2.0, DDR3 1866(OC), USB 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s, SATA RAID
500 GB Seagate ST3500418AS Barracuda 7200.12, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm, 16MB Cache, 9.5 ms, NCQ
1TB Seagate ST31000528AS Barracuda 7200.12, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm, 32MB Cache, 8.5 ms, NCQ
60GB Corsair Reactor Series, 128MB DDR2, 2.5", SATA II, USB 2.0, Read 250MB/s, Write 110MBs, Retail
1280MB Zotac GTX 470, 40nm, 3348MHz GDDR5, GPU 607MHz, Shader 1215MHz, 448 Cores, 2x DVI, mini HDMI
24" Acer V243HBD Black Full HD 1080P, Widescreen LCD, 1920x1080, 40,000:1 DCR, 300 cd/m², 2ms,VESA
4GB (2x2GB) Corsair DDR3 PC3-10666 (1333) Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.50V

Option 2:

https://secure.scan.co.uk/aspnet/Shop/SavedBasket/Show.aspx?Id=3e05c023339544a08641392b48998cef

650W Corsair CMPSU-650TX, SLi/Xfire,Single 12V Rail, 80%+ Efficient, 120mm Quiet Fan, ATX12V v2.2
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition, S AM3, 3.4GHz, 8MB Cache, 125W, Retail
Asus M4A89GTD PRO, AMD 890GX, S AM3, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR3 2000(OC), SATA 6Gb/s, SATA RAID, ATX
500GB Hitachi 0F10381 Deskstar7K1000.C, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.5 ms
1TB Hitachi Deskstar, 0S02573, 7K2000 SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm, 32MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ, Retail
64GB Kingston SSDNow V, Flash, 2.5" SSD, 1 x SATA 3Gb/s, Read 200MB/s, Write 110MB/s, Retail
1280MB Asus GTX 470, 40nm, 3348MHz GDDR5, GPU 607MHz, Shader 1215MHz, 448 Cores, 2xDVI,mini HDMI
BenQ G2420HDB 61 cm (24") LCD Monitor link
4GB Kingston HyperX KHX1600C9D3K2 link


I was also thinking about getting this case this case and was wondering if anyone had any experiences with it? Again, I can get this for much less than the listed price but was hoping for some opinions on it first (ease of fitting parts inside etc)!

Thanks in advance.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

I'd go for the second build personally, maybe swap out the gfx card though for an Ati Slice
Both Mobo's only use x8 on crossfire but thats not a massive issue tbh.
I assume you'll have Os on the ssd?
Case looks cool, should be a nice one to build into
Mobo

 

[captainspace]

Yeah, I've got Windows 7 for the SSD, I'll be keeping apps and data on the other drives. I'm not really planning on going for Crossfire anyway so that's not a biggy! If I go for the second build there's not much choice in the way of graphics cards (I'll see if I can find an ATI one) since I'm getting these at trade price, really I was wondering how the Kingston RAM and SSD would hold up versus the Corsair one, since I've used Corsair stuff in the past and been really impressed. Thanks for your input!

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Cool, Glad I've been a little helpful today
I'd say for gfx an 5770 at least,
850clock and 1200 shaders stock, mines pushed to 960/1400 no problems though
although if you can get a better/newer, card, go for it
theres a list of top cards on front page I believe to peruse
Kingston Memory's been ok for me in the past, but no reason you cant swap out for the Corsair if you prefer that, just remember to check Mobo and cpu for compatability before you splash the cash out
Moto