I've just bought a new pc :)

[Dewey]

RADIUS Core i5 BUNDLE         Overclocked at 4.0 Ghz

                           
Specifications

             

• Intel Core i5 760 - Quad Core CPU
  
• 4Gb Corsair Dominator 1600Mhz
  
• Asus P7P55D-E (I upgraded to Pro version for an extra Ã,£4)
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• Akasa Venom Performance Cooler
  

Corsair 850w modular PSU
x2 MSI 460 GTX 1GB GPU
CM 690 II Advanced

Got to say I'm absolutely delighted with the performance. Bought it from Scan, who o/c the chip from 2.8ghz to 4ghz and it flies.

In BC2 I'm  averaging around 80-100fps at 1920 x 1600 with 32AA and HUBO on. The sli 460's are awsome, being very small and the MSI ones having a very large custom fan attached - in game temps haven't risen above 60 degrees.

After about 6 years I've finally replaced my case a CM Stacker which though bomb proof is just enormous and to big now for my needs - plus newer cases have a lot more features and lower temps. After deciding between a CM Sniper (awsome but too expensive/large), a CM Scout (great case but didn't have all the featuers I wanted) the case I chose was the CM 690 II Advanced - the case has a unique feature in that you can hotshoe an internal HD straight into the top of the case which I'm currently using as my copy of win7 is an upgrade and the boot manager is still on the original vista drive! Soon to be replaced by a proper win7 install.

[video=youtube;hGvBjEmXJnI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGvBjEmXJnI[/video]

The guys at Scan were very knowledgable and helpful - they didn't however ring me when some of the products I'd ordered were out of stock, so I rang on the off chance and reshuffled my order around a bit to get things that were in stock - that aside they were always courteous, willing to help etc. The PC had 24 hour burn in and testing for the o/c to ensure stability and it arrived pre-built which made installation into the new case very easy. The ability to track the parcel and them tell me when the bits would be delivered within a 60 minute window was very useful.

All I need now is another samsung F3 and I'll be sorted for another 2 years.

[BrotherTobious]

Nice rig Dewey v nice

[TeaLeaf]

Looks a sweet rig - especially on the gfx front!  Green monster time!

[Tutonic]

Nice rig Dewey - we all hate you now.

[Penfold]

Nice rig Dewey - we all hate you now.

As opposed to ?

Heh seriously - lovely rig. Did you go SSD in the end?

[Dewey]

No mate - SSD while a nice to have doesn't effect in game performance and I don't believe they represent good bang for the buck presently - that isn't to say I wouldn't like one of course - also I'm waiting for them to get faster...

I'm happy with my samsung F3's for now.

As opposed to ?

Heh seriously - lovely rig. Did you go SSD in the end?

[Penfold]

Was this off the shelf or how did you work it for scan?

I like the case you've got and would want that with my machine but can't see it with intel.

 I was going to order mine from PC Specialist but it works out that if I can spend Ã,£2,000 in one hit, the way my flat rate vat scheme works means I can get 100% of the vat back as a capital asset. Anything under Ã,£2,000 doesn't work so it's worth spending it to get Ã,£350 back on my next vat bill. So I guess that's PC Specialist out the window as I can buy a machine at Scan and top up with toner, a projector and external HDD's etc. It's fine so long as everything is bought at once from one supplier.

[Dewey]

Hi Pen,
 
with scan you can either just buy the components seperately or they do overclocked bundleds (mobo, ram, cpu and cooler) or they do full systems - the service I felt was very good and I've just bought another HD from them. Magnus recommended them to me and I've since recommended them to some of my friends.
 
You can also ring them and have a chat - they were very knowledgable and offered different options to suit my budget.
 

Was this off the shelf or how did you work it for scan?
 
I like the case you've got and would want that with my machine but can't see it with intel.
 
I was going to order mine from PC Specialist but it works out that if I can spend Ã,£2,000 in one hit, the way my flat rate vat scheme works means I can get 100% of the vat back as a capital asset. Anything under Ã,£2,000 doesn't work so it's worth spending it to get Ã,£350 back on my next vat bill. So I guess that's PC Specialist out the window as I can buy a machine at Scan and top up with toner, a projector and external HDD's etc. It's fine so long as everything is bought at once from one supplier.

[Penfold]

Yes, their service is superb. I normally buy my kit from them but never a full PC. I'll give them a call and then post up a revised spec for my clever friends here to ratify or amend

[Dewey]

I noted they had won a number of awards for building systems.

[Liberator]

And on a down note, I just received all the components from SCAN that I ordered yesterday, only to find that the CPU cooler had already been used.

One of the rubber mounts is snapped and the thermal grease has been used and there are remnants on the bottom of the heatsink.

Now I have an old tube of "ArcticSilver 3" compound, but it's old and I don't know how it compares to the grease that should be with the cooler and the rubber mount is snapped in a position that doesn't stop it from working.

I've emailed them and have a ticket number, lets see what they can do, but there goes tonights build.

[BrotherTobious]

Really that suck Lib sorry to hear that, first I have ever heard of that kind of behevoiur from scan.  Chief looking forward to you rig being finsihed soon mate

[TeaLeaf]

Almost certainly the AS3 is fine and way better than anything that comes *free* with a CPU cooler.  Use the AS3, but get a new one damn it, getting a used one delivered sucks huge.  My tube of AS3 is about 5 years old and still going strong.

[T-Bag]

AS3 is anything up to 10 times better than reasonable thermal compounds (the sort it would have probably shipped with)...don't think twice about using it, it's more than up to the task.

[Tutonic]

That sucks Lib - I hope they sort it out quickly.

While you're waiting, you can amuse yourself with this fake i7 that NewEgg delivered to someone in the US...