High-end desktop Windows PC

**TheFaQQer** · 5 February 2015, 16:15

Last time I bought one, I custom built it with pcspecialist.co.uk

Fully customisable so you get exactly what you want in there.

**OwlHoot** · 5 February 2015, 16:21

Originally posted by TheFaQQer View Post

Last time I bought one, I custom built it with pcspecialist.co.uk

Fully customisable so you get exactly what you want in there.

Yes that's what I did last time.

The cost does add up though if you choose the best of everything, as I inevitably would!

Also, although rapid obsolescence is inevitable, I'd prefer this not to occur within a few weeks! So, as I said, I'd prefer to time the purchase just after Intel have released a major new generation of hardware.

**anonymouse** · 5 February 2015, 16:49

Intel i7 Gen5 not fast enough?

Intel Core i7-5960X Extreme Edition 3.00GHz (Haswell-E) Socket LGA2011-V3 Processor - Retail | BX80648I75960X

I went for this before Christmas
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/c...646i54690.html

As usual, it depends on what you want to do with it. 8GB RAM, with 256GB SSD. Upgrade from Windowze 8.1 to Win10 preview took 10 minutes for a full install. There's quicker kit out there, but quick enough for me. Installed in a small form factor mounted on VESA behind 23 inch touch screen monitor. Zero noise from PSU, CPU or case fans.

I7 are gen 5, with I5 being gen 4, but no news on I5 gen upgrade though.

**TheFaQQer** · 5 February 2015, 16:52

Originally posted by OwlHoot View Post

Yes that's what I did last time.

The cost does add up though if you choose the best of everything, as I inevitably would!

Also, although rapid obsolescence is inevitable, I'd prefer this not to occur within a few weeks! So, as I said, I'd prefer to time the purchase just after Intel have released a major new generation of hardware.

They did that last month

Intel

**sal** · 5 February 2015, 16:58

Intel's next generation Broadwell is expected to arrive mid 2015. Not worth waiting for as it's mainly a die shrink of Haswell to 14nm. You can read about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadwe...roarchitecture)

In any case now days high performance is associated mainly with the GPU(s) not the CPU. What are you going to use it for?

USB3.0 is present on most MBs from the bast 2 years, so you don't need state of the art to get that.

Are you looking to build it yourself or just buy a customized one "off the shelf"?

If it's the former i can give you some advises having been building my PCs for 2 decades, currently with Intel 4770K, 32GB RAM and 3xRadeon 290 all water cooled (don't ask about the price tag...)

**Platypus** · 5 February 2015, 17:51

I used scan to build my last PC. It cost £1800 inc vat but that was just over 3 years ago and I can't imagine I'll need to upgrade for another couple of years at least, probably longer. I'm pretty happy with it. My previous PC, an HP Pavilion, lasted me more than 8 years IIRC.

Best thing I did was put high-end graphics cards in it to drive multiple monitors. Actually, no, the best thing was SSD. Worst thing I did was add a £100 sound card, just to go beep. Although sometimes I watch a movie on one screen while "working" on another, so maybe that wasn't a total waste.

Oh, and it's a 'kin huge tower case with about 8 drive bays, so I have lots of HDD in it for backing up.

Have you though about getting an iMac and running Windows on that? I must admit I have but that can wait until this one dies.

**woohoo** · 5 February 2015, 22:09

I've ordered a pc from cyberpowersystems.co.uk, mate said he had used them a few times and all good. Should arrive Friday.

Here's the spec, if it helps. Oh they have upgraded the SSD to the same model, read/write speeds etc but 512GB.

They also upgraded the graphics card, but I'm waiting for them to get back to me with details on that.

I've ordered a 4k monitor from Amazon so that's not included in the spec.

BLUETOOTH: None
CAPTURECARD: None
CAS: Thermaltake Urban T81 Full Tower Gaming Case Black w/ USB 3.0 & Window Side Panel [+22] (Black colour)
CASUPGRADE: NONE
CD: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+/-R/+/-RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE. (BLACK Colour)
CD2: NONE
COOL: NONE
CPU: INTEL(R) Core™ i7-5930K Six-Core 3.50 GHz 15MB INTEL Smart Cache LGA2011-V3 ***Overclockable XXX*** [+142]
CS_FAN: Default Case Fan
DONGLES: NONE
EXPAN: Internal USB Expansion System + BlueTooth module -- NZXT Internal 2.0 USB HUB provide more USB headers / connections, including BlueTooth USB module [+19]
FA_HDD: None
FAN: Corsair Hydro Series H100 Performance Liquid Cooling system w/240mm Radiator (OEM Version) [+22] (Corsair CPU Water Cooling ***Overclockable XXX***)
FLASHMEDIA: None
HDD: 256GB (1x256GB) Plextor M6e M.2 PCIe Solid State Drive, Read: 770MB/Sec, Write: 580MB/Sec, Controller: Marvell 88SS9183 Controller [+144] (256GB Plextor M6e M.2 PCIe Solid State Drive)
HDD2: 2TB WD Black WD2003FZEX SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64M Cache 7200rpm Hard Drive [+105] (Single Hard Drive)
HOMEINSTALL: NONE
IEEE_CARD: NONE
INSURANCE: NONE
KEYBOARD: NONE
MEMORY: 32GB (8x4GB) DDR4/2400mhz Quad Channel Memory [+439] (HyperX Predator w/Heat Spreader)
MONITOR: NONE
MONITOR2: NONE
MONITOR3: NONE
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS X99-A INTEL X99 Chipset, 3-Way SLI/Crossfire supported, 4 Channel DDR4 ATX Mainboard w/ 8 RAM slots, UEFIBios,Thunderbolt Ready,CrystalSound 2,Turbo LAN,USB3.0,SATA-III RAID,3 Gen3 PCIe x16, 1 PCIe x16 & 1PCIe x 1 ***Overclockable XXX***
MOUSE: NONE
NETWORK: ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT -- As standard on all PCs
OS: Microsoft(R) Windows 8.1 Pro (64-bit Edition) [+102] (64-bit Edition)
OVERCLOCK: S&S Overclocking (CPU Safe and Stable overclock: guaranteed min. 10%, max. 20%.) [+39]
POWERSUPPLY: 1000 Watts Power Supplies [+81] (Cooler Master 1000watt Silent Pro M2 Modular Gaming Power Supply - Triple SLI Ready)
RUSH: NONE
SERVERUNIT: NONE
SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
SPEAKERS: NONE
TEMP: NONE
TVRC: NONE
UPS: None
USB1: NONE [+0]
VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 2GB 16X PCIe 3.0 Video Card [+49] (Single Card)
WARRANTY: DESKTOP STANDARD WARRANTY: 3 Year Labour, 2 Year Parts, 1 Month Collect and Return plus Life-Time Technical Support
WNC: TP-Link PCI-E Wireless 802.11ac 450Mbps Network Interface Card [+28]

**minestrone** · 6 February 2015, 00:20

Surface 3 i7, docking station, massive monitor. Sorted.

**d000hg** · 6 February 2015, 08:26

Unless you're doing something fairly unusual, you don't need a high-end PC, especially if a PC that pre-dates USB2 has been good enough (I doubt this, are you sure?) Even cheap PCs are very powerful indeed now and I'd be focusing on SSD and a nice chunk of RAM, not that RAM is pricey either.

A high-end PC would normally include a fancy graphics card and unless you're a gamer or into GPGPU/CUDA/etc you won't need that. A bog-standard i7 with a big SSD and 16-32Gb RAM would be night and day to any pre-SSD PC.

Nice dual monitors are awesome but they are separate to the PC in my book, i.e. you refresh your PC and monitors in different cycles.

High-end desktop Windows PC