New Build Advice

[evildude3uk]

I am a bit of a beginner when it comes to this so I am in need of some advice as to what to buy. I am looking to build myself a new desktop pc generally geared towards gaming. I mainly play the likes of overlord II, grand theft auto, halo etc. I am going to be saving up over the next few months and was wondering how much a build like this would cost.

Some of the parts I would like to have are as follows

Nvidia 9800gt

http://www.nvidia.com/object/product...9800gt_us.html

Intel I7 860 cpu

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=41316

Western Digital 500GB SATA drive

LG Lightscribe DVD Rewriter SATA

When it comes to power supply, mother board, fans etc I dont really have any idea where to start. Am I going over the top with the cpu, do i need a better graphics card?

If anyone could come up with a proposed build for me or offer any suggestions or alternative parts it would be extremely appreciated.

[Dark Nova]

set a budget and we'll help you as much as we can

[evildude3uk]

Thanks for the quick reply, Im thinking of around £700 but obviously the cheaper the better lol, as I say I dont really know much when it comes to this kind of thing so I dont know if im being unrealistic.

[Dark Nova]

Using your specs that you wanted, here is something to base your decision on.

Mobo: Asus P6T SE (200$)
CPU: I7 860 (300$)
VideoCard: Nvidia 9800gt (100$)
Ram: DDR3, check the prices, keeping in mind, Tripple channel is what you'd want for this mobo, also get a decent brand such as corsair
HDD: Id suggest getting a TB, not much more expensive nowadays
DVD drive: 30$
Case: Matter of preference, look at cases on newegg.com and get the one you like the most, I love the Antec Sonata series.
PSU: Get a good brand, check the PSU thread on this forum, don't need to exceed the wattage by a lot beyond what you'd need (you wont need like 1000W), So don't buy the most expensive one, cause that extra power wont be used.


Note this is US$, so in Euros its cheaper

[Dark Nova]

I chose that mobo, because you can easly upgrade

[evildude3uk]

Thank you very very much, from looking at the parts that are available to me here in the UK i am able to get them all for approximately £698 and that including going for a better case than i had originally looked at.

You help has been invaluable.

Again thank you!

[Khalil]

Ok, the 9800GT is not a good gaming card, when it comes to gaming you need to build your computer around a powerful video card, that Intel i7 860 is nice but won't do much for you with that crappy 9800GT video card.
I would go with an Asus ATI 5770 teamed with LGA775 processor like an E8500, the i7 are over kill and for your budget they won't help you much.
Most important thing is to choose a quality power supply. If you are interested in going this route we will gladly give you a nice parts list to fit your budget.

[glc]

The i7-860 will not fit in a P6T. For your budget, you should be looking at a i5-750 on an Asus P7P55D or a higher end socket 775 as Khalil mentioned.

[Dark Nova]

My bad, I didn't check the CPU socket type, I thought all I7 were 1366 sockets

[evildude3uk]

Thanks Khalil, I suppose you are right about the i7 being overkill, hence me coming on here for advice. If you could possibly come up with another possible build for me it would be very much appreciated.

[Masaki 7-11]

Something like this will work great for gaming (although you may need to buy an OS if you don't already have one; Windows 7 or Windows XP would be my choice):

Antec Three Hundred Black Midi Tower Case w/o PSU
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Antec...r-Case-w-o-PSU
£43.95

1TB Western Digital WD1001FALS Caviar Black, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm, 32MB Cache
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1TB-W...rpm-32MB-Cache
£70.94

1GB Asus HD 4890, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), Mem 3900MHz, GDDR5, GPU 850MHz, Cores 800, 2x DL DVI-I/HDTV
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-A...-DL-DVI-I-HDTV
£159.59

AMD Phenom II X4 955 BlackEdition, Sok AM3, 3.2GHz, 8MB Total Cache, 125W, Retail
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-P...he-125W-Retail
£127.13

650w Silverpower (Seasonic) SP-SS650HT "Green Power" 80 Plus Certified,Intel ATX 12V, 6×Serial ATA
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/650w-...2V-6Serial-ATA
£64.96

4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX XMS3, DDR3 PC3-10666 (1333) 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/4GB-(...d-CAS-9-9-9-24
£79.47

Asus M4A79XTD EVO, AMD 790X, AM3, PCI-E 2.0(x16), DDR3 1333/1600/1800, SATA 3Gb/s, ATX
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-...SATA-3Gb-s-ATX
£83.17

LiteOn IHAS324-32 24x DVD±R, 8x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, DVD-RAM x12, SATA, Black, Retail
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/LiteO...A-Black-Retail
£19.54



Net Total £564.13

Carriage £10.61

VAT £86.21

Total £660.95

[evildude3uk]

That sounds rather good actually, the only concern I have is that I have heard some bad rep about lite-on drives and have had some problems myself with the one on my laptop regards burning speed and being extremely picky about disks no matter how good a brand I have. Is it just the slimtype drives that are so troublesome???

[Khalil]

I agree with Masaki, the AMD rig will do very well for gaming. I did not suggest AMD because you seemed set on Intel and it is frowned upon on this forum to suggest AMD when someone is looking at Intel.

[Masaki 7-11]

Originally Posted by evildude3uk That sounds rather good actually, the only concern I have is that I have heard some bad rep about lite-on drives and have had some problems myself with the one on my laptop regards burning speed and being extremely picky about disks no matter how good a brand I have. Is it just the slimtype drives that are so troublesome???

I've used about 50 or 60 Lite-On drives so far and haven't had any troubles with them, perhaps it was that particular drive that wasn't working properly. If you find an optical drive you prefer over the Lite-On, go for it, for the most part the optical drive isn't that important anymore as you'll mostly use it for installing the OS and perhaps burning DVDs, since a lot of software is becoming distributed mainly through downloads (such as Steam or Impulse) and external hard drives are becoming much more common for backups and external storage than DVDs.

[glc]

Other reliable brands of opticals are LG, Asus, and Sony. Just stay away from Samsung/Toshiba.

[evildude3uk]

Masaki 7-11 thanks for the info on the optical drives, just wanted to make sure i wasnt being a bit of a retard and buying some P.O.S.

Khalil im not fussy regards choosing between intel and AMD as i know they are both very good companies although AMD seems to be slightly more towards gaming. Bit of a my bad reallly with pushing the intel i7, seen how good it looked and had a bit of a little britain head on 'i want that one'

thanks again you have been a great help!