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03-26-2008, 06:58 AM
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#1 |
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Member (5 bit)
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 19
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First build new gaming rig £700
Hi there. So i'm building a new gaming computer around £700, looking to play all the most recent games (COD4, Wow, Bioshock, World in Conflict, Crysis....) on 1440x900 with some decent graphics hopefully. Few questions and points:
- I'm trying to build a computer that will be fairly futureproof and easy to upgrade, most likely i'll be moving to 45nm quad core processor and 4gb ram, + improved graphics cards etc. That's why i've gone for the more powerful PSU. - I'll likely be overclocking the graphics card and some mild OCing on the processor, nothing major. - I chose the motherboard because i want to keep my options open for SLI in the future, it seemed well priced and has had a lot of good reviews. + it can run both slots at x16 which i believe will be important for future cards. - I'm aware that SLI isn't a popular upgrade path, however i've seen some benchmarks showing 90-95% increase in performance on the 8800GT so i thought it may be a viable option. - Will the power supply be sufficient for future upgrades such as quad core, SLI and more ram? - Are all the components compatible and of a decent quality? That said, here's my spec: Case Aspire X-Cruiser Metal Case w/ Side Window-Black [No PSU] (£51.64) http://www.advancetec.co.uk/cgi-bin/...0614#a06010614 PSU Corsair TX 750W (£86.95) http://www.advancetec.co.uk/cgi-bin/...0726#a06040726 Motherboard Asus motherboard P5N-D nForce 750i SLI LGA775 (£81.51) http://www.lambda-tek.com/components...prodID=1455911 Processor Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.00GHz 6M Cache S775 1333MHZ (£121.41) http://www.lambda-tek.com/components...?prodID=B93598 Graphics card Club3D GeForce 8800GT 512MB PCIE DVI (£126.71) http://www.lambda-tek.com/components...prodID=B100286 Memory Corsair 2GB PC2-6400 (2x1GB) (£30.35) http://www.lambda-tek.com/components...?prodID=B94175 Hard drive Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB 7200RPM S300 8MB Cache (SATA) (£32.29) http://www.lambda-tek.com/components...?prodID=B78764 Optical drive LiteOn DVD+-R/RW/RAM/DL SATA (BLACK) (£16.02) http://www.lambda-tek.com/components...?prodID=B80565 Monitor LG L204WS-SF 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Silver/Black (£129.86) http://www.lambda-tek.com/components...?prodID=B84921 Speakers Logitech X-240 2.1 Speakers (£22.38) http://www.lambda-tek.com/components...?prodID=B73062 Heatsink Coolermaster Hyper TX2 (£9.39) http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=HS-024-CM Total: £708.51 Any comments/tips and help is very much appreciated, thanks for reading. |
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03-26-2008, 08:31 AM
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#2 |
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Avanzato Tecnico
Premium Member
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Illinois
Posts: 3,380
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It sounds to me like you may have a budget. I would go with the P5K-E Asus motherboards.
Your choice of processor is excellent. SLI is a waste of time unless you can afford 2 GTX cards or even better 2 Ultra cards. I have never heard of the video card brand you mentioned, can you get your hands on an eVGA or an Asus video card? The 8800GT will game very well. That power supply is over kill, 500 Watt is more than enough. Corsair is a good brand but if you can get a Seasonic or an FSP you would be doing yourself a favor. Stick to stock heatsink unless you don't mind losing the warranty on the CPU.
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03-26-2008, 10:36 AM
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#3 |
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Member (11 bit)
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,044
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For PSU check out this site and size accordingly for the video cards you plan to eventually use. The video card almost always determines the PSU requirements so if you can handle the cards you plan to use you should be fine with any future processor upgrade.
http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_build_psu.html Overclocking will void your warranties. I would check out some OC’ing sites and see what they recommend for cooler on a Nvidea board, the older Nvidea chipsets (650i and 680i) ran very hot and I don’t think they changed the architecture all that much with the new offerings. So find out what the experts are using. Looks like you have read up on SLI as an upgrade path but since you are providing benchmarks to support your choice I cant resist pointing out a couple of facts. First, if you have seen 90-95% increases in performance you where looking at resolution performance which is achieved on large monitors with high resolutions (like 28-30 ws!). With a 20 in monitor you will not see those benefits. Secondly, the fact that a single new 9800 GT already blows two 8800 GTs in SLI out of the water for about the same cost does not look good for down the road upgrades. Thirdly, if you consider the arrival of all the new X2 cards (3870X2 and 9800X2) which achieve basically the same functionality as SLI with a much lower power consumption the upgrade path really starts to look sad. SLI is designed to make the best better. It also has the ability to improve resolution when using very large monitors. It is not an upgrade path! Technology changes too fast. Upgrading to old technology is not upgrading! OK, off the soap box. I would also recommend upgrading you HD choice to the newer 7200.11 if you can fit it in the budget. It has a 32 mb cache which helps on seek times. The 7200.10 are usually 16 mb cache, which is fine if you need a smaller drive. The one you list says 8 mb cache, did not think the 7200.10 had any 8 mb cache but you should check that out before you buy, you might have just selected an older unit. Kat
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ANTEC 900 / ASUS P5K / C2D E6750 / SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 6750 1 GB/ CORSAIR 620 HX / CORSAIR XMS 4GB DDR2 800 / SEAGATE 320 GB / LITE-ON 20X DVD BURNER / WINDOWS 7 PROFESSIONAL / LOGITECH MX 518 MOUSE / SAITEK ECLIPSE KEYBOARD / ACER 22” WS LCD |
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03-27-2008, 05:58 AM
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#4 |
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Member (5 bit)
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 19
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You guys are right, not sure why i think going SLI is a good idea since every experienced builder has said it's a poor upgrade path.
- I went for the P5K SE because it was well priced and seemed to have what i needed, is this a decent board? - I looked for FSP and Seasonic PSUs but there were hardly any + corsair has good ratings everywhere anyway. Case Aspire X-Cruiser Metal Case w/ Side Window-Black [No PSU] (£51.64) http://www.advancetec.co.uk/cgi-bin/...0614#a06010614 PSU Corsair VX 550W (£52.39) http://www.lambda-tek.com/components...?prodID=B94885 Motherboard P5K SE ATX LGA775 (£55.17) http://www.lambda-tek.com/components...prodID=1407762 Processor Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.00GHz 6M Cache S775 1333MHZ (£121.41) http://www.lambda-tek.com/components...?prodID=B93598 Graphics card 1 of 2: - EVGA GeForce 8800 GT (£138.64) http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...56&subcat=1008 - Leadtek GeForce 8800 GT (£135.11) (Is leadtek a decent brand? worth saving £3?) http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...56&subcat=1008 Memory Corsair 2GB PC2-6400 (2x1GB) (£30.35) http://www.lambda-tek.com/components...?prodID=B94175 Hard drive BARRACUDA 7200.11 320GB 16MB (£50.91) http://www.lambda-tek.com/components...?prodID=B99920 Optical drive LiteOn DVD+-R/RW/RAM/DL SATA (BLACK) (£16.02) http://www.lambda-tek.com/components...?prodID=B80565 Monitor LG L204WS-SF 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Silver/Black (£129.86) http://www.lambda-tek.com/components...?prodID=B84921 Speakers Logitech X-240 2.1 Speakers (£22.38) http://www.lambda-tek.com/components...?prodID=B73062 New Total: £668.77 Is it worth using that extra money to buy vista? or shall i just stick with XP and upgrade some other components? Thanks for all your help guys. |
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03-27-2008, 07:28 AM
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#5 | |
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Member (8 bit)
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 155
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Quote:
No, I had a bad experience with leadtek a long time ago with a TI4200. Get the EVGA! They have superb customer service, plus a stepup kit. If you are thinking of overclocking at all, you should buy some aftermarket cooling. Also, if you are doing this, I would grab the corsair 620w for a little security in the future. |
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03-27-2008, 08:01 AM
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#6 |
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Member (5 bit)
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 19
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The 620w supply seems a lot more expensive for only 70w extra? is it worth it?
If i upgrade to 4GB ram it's actually cheaper to just buy a 2x2gb kit for £60.10: http://www.lambda-tek.com/components...?prodID=B97868 This would mean i can upgrade to 6/8 GB later on as well when i get a new OS. I'll take the EVGA card thanks for the advice. |
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03-27-2008, 08:50 AM
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#7 |
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Member (11 bit)
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,044
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Coirsairs are very well made PSUs and the 550 w will handle your system. Lots of people are recommending 4 GB of ram these days. 2 GB will handle just about anything out there, especially with XP which does not hog so many resources. But ram is cheap right now so having a bit of extra is not a bad idea. If you go with 4 from the start then definately go 2x2. If you are thinking down the road upgrade then stick with 1x2 for now. Good choice on the EVGA, they are just a top shelf unit.
Kat |
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03-28-2008, 05:16 PM
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#8 |
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Member (6 bit)
Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 55
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what about the case mr. rich is mentioning. i was thinking about the same case, but wasn't sure if the latest graphics cards would fit. i read somewhere that they might not. thanks...
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03-28-2008, 06:43 PM
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#9 |
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Member (10 bit)
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 762
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today games like black site area 51 are asking for 2 gig of ram as minimum req
so think about after 2 years? |
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03-29-2008, 10:26 AM
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#10 |
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Member (5 bit)
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 19
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Here's a vid with an ultra inside the xcruiser case.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=07JgV_ceDXI Also comparing the dimensions of this case with one such as the antec 900 which is definitely big enough there's not THAT much difference: x-cruiser : 19.25" (H) x 7.75" (W) x 17" (D) antec 900 : 19.4" (H) x 8.1"(W) x 18.4 "(D) |
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03-30-2008, 05:25 PM
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#11 |
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Member (6 bit)
Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 55
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thank you rich.
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03-31-2008, 11:41 AM
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#12 |
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Member (5 bit)
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 19
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Final build then, i reckon it's pretty tight, made a few changes:
- Changed to the P5K motherboard instead of P5K SE as the heat pipe cooling looks better. - Upgraded the screen to faster response time and higher contrast ratio. - Kept with 2GB ram since XP and vista-32 only support 3.5 anyway. - Upgraded to 500GB 7200.11 HDD. - Changed to PNY GPU as it was £17 cheaper and had all quality feedback. - Upgraded the speakers. Case Aspire X-Cruiser Metal Case w/ Side Window-Black [No PSU] (£51.64) http://www.advancetec.co.uk/cgi-bin/...0614#a06010614 PSU Corsair Memory 550W VX (£52.28) http://www.advancetec.co.uk/cgi-bin/...01076#a2801076 Motherboard Asustek S775 Intel P35 ATX GLAN (P5K) (£64.77) http://www.lambda-tek.com/components...prodID=1379078 Processor Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.00GHz 6M Cache S775 1333MHZ (£118.90) http://www.lambda-tek.com/components...?prodID=B93598 Graphics card PNY GeForce 8800GT 512MB PCIE DVI (£129.40) http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...56&subcat=1008 Memory Corsair Memory TWIN2X2048-6400 2x1GB DDRII SDRAM (£30.87) http://www.lambda-tek.com/components...?prodID=B94175 Hard drive SEAGATE BARRACUDA 7200.11 500GB 32MB SATA/300 (£59.60) http://www.lambda-tek.com/components...prodID=1412595 Optical drive LiteOn DVD+-R/RW/RAM/DL SATA (DH-20A1S-18C) (BLACK) (£16.07) http://www.lambda-tek.com/components...S&level1_uid=0 Monitor L206WTQ-SF - 20.1 LCD monitor (1680x1050) 3000:1 300cd/m2 - Silver Bezel (£142.89) http://www.lambda-tek.com/components...Q&level1_uid=0 Speakers Logitech Z-4e 2.1 Black Speakers (£46.59) http://www.lambda-tek.com/components...e&level1_uid=0 Total : £712.85 What do you guys think? |
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