Review my £1-1.3k Cyberpower PC

[allbies1]

Hello Tomshardware,

I live in the UK and I am buying a new PC for various reasons. I do not want to build the PC myself, and am sceptical about ordering parts and paying someone to build it for me, due to negative experiences in the past regarding this method, including not getting money back for parts that had been damage either in transit or by those building the PC.

I do not need a monitor, mouse, keyboard or headset.

I put together a Cyberpower PC with these specs:

•CAS: Cooler Master K350 Mid-Tower Gaming Case w/USB3 Black
•CASUPGRADE: NONE
•CD: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE. (BLACK Colour)
•CD2: NONE
•COOL: NONE
•CPNR1: Cyberpower Anti-Vibration Fan Mounts -- reducing the noise transmitted from Fans [+9]
•CPU: INTEL® Core™ i5-4690K Quad Core 3.50 GHz 6MB Cache LGA1150 + HD Graphics ***Overclockable XXX***
•CS_FAN: 3 x 120mm Silent Case Cooling Fans in selected case key areas for ultra silent operation [+33] (1,200 RPM AKASA Silent Fans with Sleeve Ball Bearing 17 dBA and LED light to match the Fans already in the case)
•DONGLES: NONE
•EXPAN: NONE
•FA_HDD: None
•FAN: Be Quiet Dark Rock 3 CPU Fan with 7 x Direct Contact heat-pipes ***Overclockable XXX*** [+15]
•FLASHMEDIA: None
•FREEBIE_CS1: ASUS PCE-N15 PCI-E Wireless 802.11n 300Mbps Network Interface Card [+0]
•HDD: 120GB Samsung 840 EVO SATA III Gaming MLC Solid State Disk [+16] (Single Drive)
•HDD2: 1TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive [+39] (Single Hard Drive)
•HOMEINSTALL: NONE
•IEEE_CARD: NONE
•INSURANCE: PC / Laptop Value £1000 - £1499 [+66] (1 Year Insurance policy - Protect your investment against Theft / Fire / Flood and Accidental Damage)
•KEYBOARD: NONE
•MB_SRT_Z87: None
•MEMORY: 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3/1866mhz Dual Channel Memory (HyperX Fury White w/Heat Spreader)
•MONITOR: NONE
•MONITOR2: NONE
•MONITOR3: NONE
•MOTHERBOARD: ASUS Z97-P INTEL Z97 Chipset, ATX Mainboard w/ 4 RAM slots, HD Audio, HDMI, GbLAN, USB 3.0, SATA-III, 1x Gen3 PCIe x16, 1x Gen2 PCIe x16, 2x PCIe x 1 & 2x PCI [+4]
•MOUSE: NONE
•NETWORK: ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT -- As standard on all PCs
•OS: Microsoft® Windows® 7 Professional [+102] (64-bit Edition)
•OVERCLOCK: XXX Overclocking (CPU Extreme overclock: guaranteed min. 20%, max. 30%.) [+49]
•POWERSUPPLY: 600 Watts Power Supplies [+34] (Corsair 600 Watts CX600 Gaming Power Supply, 80+)
•PRO_WIRING1: Professional Wiring for All WIRING Inside The System Chasis - Minimize Cable Exposure, Maximize Airflow in Your System [+19]
•RUSH: NONE
•SERVERUNIT: NONE
•SOUND: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy FX 5.1 PCI-Express Sound Card [+19]
•SPEAKERS: NONE
•TEMP: NONE
•TVRC: NONE
•UPS: Belkin 6-Socket Surge Protector [+9]
•USB1: NONE [+0]
•VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 4GB 16X PCIe 3.0 Video Card [+176] (Single Card)
•WARRANTY: DESKTOP STANDARD WARRANTY: 3 Year Labour, 2 Year Parts, 1 Month Collect and Return plus Life-Time Technical Support
•WNC: NONE
•XWNA: NONE
Total: £1267

WNC is listed as none as I assumed the ASUS inferface card listed under "freebie" will provide me with my wireless internet access, but please correct me if im wrong and need something else too.

Is cooling sufficient? The site defaulted to liquid cooling when i selected overclocking but is that really necessary? I'd like this PC to be cool and silent.

I am open to suggestions on how to improve this build within my budget, even other websites similar to Cyberpower that would be worth looking into. I'm still not convinced by ordering the parts seperately, and have no problem paying a little more for a job well done.

Thanks,
Allbies1

 

[Jdogz427]

YES, the liquid is VERY important because you picked extreme overclocking. also i would try to get a better Power supply that one is OK, but you could do a lot better.

 

[Jdogz427]

Also you do not need the 1866 Mhz memory, just get 1600, it will not make that much of a difference unless you are editing videos, in which case you could just install more ram

 

[zenx]

Actually it would not make a difference at all since intel based architectures only run memories at up to 1600 mhz regardless of what ram you get beyond that.
Also keep in mind, while people like to praise liquid-cooling systems it's not always better.. Any of the higher-end air coolers can do a much better job at cooling you cpu than most of the cheaper liquid systems can (comes down to the actual heat sink and it's heat transfer rate). But you said you wanted a really quiet system so if noise is a factor then yes liquid cooling systems are quiet

 

[allbies1]

does the liquid cooling require any attention and upkeep? ive never had to do much apart from dust my pc and im unsure of any possible complications with liquid cooling

 

[Jdogz427]

Actually it would not make a difference at all since intel based architectures only run memories at up to 1600 mhz regardless of what ram you get beyond that.
Also keep in mind, while people like to praise liquid-cooling systems it's not always better.. Any of the higher-end air coolers can do a much better job at cooling you cpu than most of the cheaper liquid systems can (comes down to the actual heat sink and it's heat transfer rate). But you said you wanted a really quiet system so if noise is a factor then yes liquid cooling systems are quiet

well he is getting the Nepton 240 L which is a very good AIO cooler and does not require any upkeep, it is sealed from the factory, and the new fan design should keep it cool while remaining quiet

 

[zenx]

Yea, I kinda skipped that part ) lost in the wall of text. Also here's a review on it Allbies1 in case you were wondering what to expect http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/cooler-master-nepton-240m-review.html
edit: it's the M version but you get the idea 😛

 

[allbies1]

I read the article. If I ring Cyberpower and ensure they dont push the system to an extreme, just a moderate OC, would a high end cpu air cooler be sufficient? I'm just sceptical of liquid cooling, I'm unaware of the cons and understand they need occasional maintenance. What would the maxiumum OC for the CPU be for air cooling to be sufficient?
Thanks for your responses zenx, jdogz

 

[tiny voices]

I would go for air cooling. Same performance but MUCH less noise. AIO coolers are quite loud compared to high end air coolers.

 

[allbies1]

Thanks for the reply. One additional thing, is the ASUS network card all I need for wireless net access to my home router? There were a few "card" options which I were unsure of upon configuration but im under impression I just need that card. Is that true?

 

[tiny voices]

Can you link the card?

Also change the PSU. The Corsair CX units are pretty low quality.

 

[zenx]

Allbies1, for example I'm running a non-k i5 3470 (3.2 ghz) at 4ghz with a thermaltake nic c4 air cooler and even while stress testing with prime95 it stays around 50C if I turn the VR knob up a bit (this cooler doesn't have a pin for fan speed control, it uses a knob instead to change the speed directly) but it is pretty damn loud when turned up, however for games I can just set it to a 1100ish rev and it will still keep it cool while staying perfectly silent.

 

[zenx]

Can you link the card?

Also change the PSU. The Corsair CX units are pretty low quality.

Funny how you remind me in every thread that I just recently bought a baaad psu )) But yea I knew what I was buying (and it was damn cheap) but somehow this forum makes me feel much worse about it than it actually is 😛

 

[allbies1]

I believe it is this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/131393774452?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=108&chn=ps&device=c&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108

The issue I have with the PSU and cyberpower is that they only offer the Corsair CX in the 600 and 750 watt range. The next is (Cooler Master 850watt Silent Pro M2 Modular Gaming Power Supply - Triple SLI Ready), obviously being bigger than I need. Do I need to not get the CX series? Seems I have little option with PSU choices from Cyberpower

 

[zenx]

Well obviously people around here don't like them very much..
The biggest problem with the Corsair CX series is that it actually has little to do with Corsair besides the brand name so no, they don't make it.
I just bought a cx750m a week or two ago since it was the cheapest from the 750 category. Basically they're not that bad.. they just have some chineese capacitors in them 😛 😛 so not really recommended for gaming machines.. but still.. I have one

 

[tiny voices]

I would stay away from the CX units. They are pretty bad for high draw machines. The caps are junk and love to fail .I see it all the time.

A cx600 is NOT a safe bet for overclocking an i5 and powering a gtx970. I would DEFINITELY not choose it.

 

[allbies1]

Well obviously people around here don't like them very much..
The biggest problem with the Corsair CX series is that it actually has little to do with Corsair besides the brand name so no, they don't make it.
I just bought a cx750m a week or two ago since it was the cheapest from the 750 category. Basically they're not that bad.. they just have some chineese capacitors in them 😛 😛 so not really recommended for gaming machines.. but still.. I have one

well obviously my issue is with the investment im putting into this build, I don't want to include something that can potentionally harm my PC in the longrun. The trouble is Cyberpower do not have any other PSU options at 600/750 🙁

 

[allbies1]

I would stay away from the CX units. They are pretty bad for high draw machines. The caps are junk and love to fail .I see it all the time.

A cx600 is NOT a safe bet for overclocking an i5 and powering a gtx970. I would DEFINITELY not choose it.

Okay mate I trust your advice. I guess I will have to look for a different website in which I can configure a PC to be built. Do you know of any other than Cyberpower for the UK?

 

[zenx]

Well obviously people around here don't like them very much..
The biggest problem with the Corsair CX series is that it actually has little to do with Corsair besides the brand name so no, they don't make it.
I just bought a cx750m a week or two ago since it was the cheapest from the 750 category. Basically they're not that bad.. they just have some chineese capacitors in them 😛 😛 so not really recommended for gaming machines.. but still.. I have one

well obviously my issue is with the investment im putting into this build, I don't want to include something that can potentionally harm my PC in the longrun. The trouble is Cyberpower do not have any other PSU options at 600/750 🙁

Nah that wouldn't be the case.. it still features the protection functions like most modern PSU-s it's just that it has some lower quality materials involved - it won't catch fire any sooner than others would and probably won't harm your components either.. it would just simply fail sooner when overheating than others so you'd need to get a new one.

 

[tiny voices]

I wouldn't be so sure. I see Cx units fail here multiple times a week with threads trying to figure out what is wrong. Many times they harm components. I would NOT risk it on this level of PC. On a $500 budget build, sure. NOT on anything more.

 

[zenx]

Well I risked it in my budget build 😛 https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_BnyspwxMlnLU1ad3JwSWFnUDA/view
Notice the no-name case and the SSD mounting options provided... also how I squeezed that 970 in there ))

Anyway, Allbies1 what other options do you have for the PSU? perhaps you could look at the 550w ones as well since those would still be enough to run your system

 

[tiny voices]

It isn't a budget build with a STRIX 970 in it. :lol:

 

[zenx]

Okay.. checked out that site and yes you're right they don't really offer much in that range besides the CX series...
But they do have a single Cooler Master V650 80 Plus Gold hidden among them

 

[zenx]

It isn't a budget build with a STRIX 970 in it. :lol:

Well... that time I had a slightly higher budget ))))

 

[tiny voices]

The V650 is a VERY VERY good PSU. Get that for sure.