£4000-5000 to spend on new pc's.

Okay so confirmed parts as follows. (unless someone picks them apart) I'm all for hearing different views.

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail X2 £376
Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU X2 £188
Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache X2 £152
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-8500 1066MHz SLI-Ready Edition Dual Channel DDR2 X4 £460 4gb per machine(I know I don't need that high speed but i'd prefer to have it and not need it than need it and not have it in the future)
BFG Ageia PhysX Accelerator - Retail (because of life time warranty) X2 £178
Asus DRW-1814BLT 18x18 DVD±RW Serial ATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) X2 £ 47
Lian Li PC-A16B Aluminium Full-Tower - Black x2 £188
--------------------------------------------------£1589

Grey area
Motherboards
If I go ATI then its probably
Asus P5K Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard X2 £186
not a fancy board but does the job and good price
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 2900 Pro SILENT Heatpipe 512MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual X4 £704
Zalman VF1000-LED VGA Cooler X4 £125
------------------------------------------------------------£1015



If I go Nvidia
EVGA nForce 680i SLi (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (I like the 10 year warranty)x2£354
Leadtek GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail X2 £450
Leadtek GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail X2 £660
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------£1464

So ATI base system = £2604
Nvida base system = £3053

Now too addons
Thermalright Chill Factor Thermal Compound (4.8ml) £3
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme CPU Cooler x2 £80
Sharkoon Silent Eagle 1000 120mm Fan - 3/4 Pin x2 £20
Razer Barracuda HP-1 Gaming Headset x1 £95
Razer Barracuda AC-1 Gaming 7.1 Sound Card - Retailx1 £141
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer 7.1 Sound Card - OEM £51
Logitech G11 Gaming-Grade Illuminated Keyboard - Retail x2 £80
Vista home premium 64 x1 £70

So total systems
Nvidia = £3523
ATI = £3074

Now as for the extra extras
office chairs leather with lumbar support *2 =£80
Samsung Bordeaux PS42Q97HDX 42" HD Freeview Plasma TV =£763
This is for xbox360 and skyhd, main room tv

Total Nvidia =£4366
Total ATI =£3917

That leaves atleast £600 for a new monitor (wife doesn't want a bigger one
or nicer one than her asus vw192s)
 
Two 2900pro or 8800GTS for a 19" screen (VW192S) is OTT.

Might be wrong, but the gains from either Crossfire or SLi are very little with current gen GFX vs games out. Besides, I would not spend that much on 2 GFX when new ones featuring DX 10.1, etc are round the corner.

You want either a WD ****AAKS or Seagate 7200.10 because they are faster thanks to Perpendicular recording technology.
 
hp7909 said:
Two 2900pro or 8800GTS for a 19" screen (VW192S) is OTT.

Might be wrong, but the gains from either Crossfire or SLi are very little with current gen GFX vs games out. Besides, I would not spend that much on 2 GFX when new ones featuring DX 10.1, etc are round the corner.

You want either a WD ****AAKS or Seagate 7200.10 because they are faster thanks to Perpendicular recording technology.
Click to expand...


I don't really want to change the HD i've chosen because I know the brand unless you can give me another reason other than its abit faster :)

Well the point of this machine is to semi futur proof it, yes its overkill now for wifes machine to have 2 gts's or 2 pro's but who knows what resources a game next year will be asking of her rig.

As for sli performance lets see all results taken from tomshardware.
3dmark 06 v1.02 hdr sm3 score
Nvidia 8800 gtx = 5781
Nvidia 8800 gtx sli = 7676

Battlefield 2142 Fraps/THG Demo suez canal (1600x1200x32, 4xAA, 8x AF, Max Quality
Nvidia 8800 gtx single = 68 frames per second
Nvidia 8800 gtx sli = 113.20

Doom 3 Timedemo1 (1600x1200x32 4x AA, 8x AF Ultra Quality)
Nvidia 8800 GTX = 113.50
Nvidia 8800 SLI = 171.40

Oblivion Fraps/THG-Savegame V1.1 (1920x1200x32 no AA, 8X AF, Max Quality, HDR-R)
Nvidia 8800 GTX 28.70
Nvidia 8800 GTZ sli 53.80


Now while some games don't take advantage some games do, so my idea is simply that its better to have and get the boost when it is used, then not have and one day need that extra :)
 
Hey Calranthe, welcome to the forums. :cool:

What size screen will you be gaming on?

I would also be very inclined to upgrade your wife's screen to a nice 24 inch screen.
 
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient 95W Edition" 2.40GHz x2
Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP-HC 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey x2
Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-620HXUK) x2
Samsung SH-S203NBEBN 20x20 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA x2
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM x2
OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB) PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel Vista Gold Series DDR2 x2
Gigabyte GA_P35_DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard x2 (can change)
OcUK GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) x2
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 2900 Pro SILENT Heatpipe 512MB GDDR3 VIVO x2
Antec P182 Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Gun Metal Black)
Antec P182 Special Edition Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Mirror Finish)

Then add a few extra things, CPU Cooler..what ever else.

Total: £3,408.38 inc.

:D
 
stickroad said:
Hey Calranthe, welcome to the forums. :cool:

What size screen will you be gaming on?

I would also be very inclined to upgrade your wife's screen to a nice 24 inch screen.
Click to expand...

I will be using a 24", don't know which one to go for yet.

She likes her 19" and a bigger monitor won't fit in the place she has setup.
 
System for yourself, if you dont intend to overclock, it will be very fast but if then you decide you would like to overclock, all of the below componets are suited towards that aswell.

Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "LGA775 Kentsfield" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme CPU Cooler
Noctua NF-S12 1200RPM 120mm Silent Case Fan - 3 Pin
Abit IP35 Pro (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX (2x2GB)
BFG GeForce 8800 GTX OC 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
Razer Barracuda AC-1 Gaming 7.1 Sound Card - Retail
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache
Samsung SH-S203NBEBN 20x20 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA Lightscribe ReWriter
Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU
Antec P182 Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU

Total : £1,843.36

The Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor is one of the best 24inch screen's for the money you will get in the current market. The image quality is superb and it also looks very classy. A must have.

The Q6600 is very fast even at stock speeds, you will be very pleased with it. The QX6850 is certainly not worth the extra £400 over the Q6600 espeically since you can overclock the Q6600 to 3GHz pretty easily and you shouldn't have any real problems hitting 3.4GHz - 3.6GHz. Yes the QX6850 can also be overclocked but is their really the need to have a processor running at 4GHz+ for what you will be using your system for, to me, i dont think so. A Quad Core running at 3.4GHz will be blistering fast as it is.

The Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme is one of the best CPU coolers you can currently get and for the price its currently at, its a steel. It will keep that Quad nice and cool even when overclocked. Since it does not come with a fan i have added a Noctua NF-S12 1200RPM 120mm Silent Case Fan which will be absoutly fine.

Abit IP35 Pro in my eyes is the best board you can currently get on the market today. It belongs to one of the newest chipset boards avalible, the P35 series. It fully supports Intels upcoming 45nm processors, fantastic overclocking potinal, great memory capabilites, a brilliant board all around.

Your looking at spending £450 on 4GB of Memory which (to put it blunty) is completely stupid. You do not need 8500 rated RAM (1066MHZ), the only reason to go for such fast Memory is if your doing Memory intensive tasks and even then thats debatable since the amount of Memory would be far more important than the actual speed in most cases.

Seriously that is a complete waste of money if you go ahead and buy what you have chosen. For what you will be using your system for, if you setup two systems, one with the memory that you have chosen and one with the memory that is listed above, you wouldn't be able to say this system has the 1066MHZ memory in or this one has the 800MHZ memory in. The difference is so small.

So i have put in 4GB of Corsair Memory for you, its 6400 rated (800MHZ) which is far from slow. Its very reliable and is from a great and very well known, reliable manufacturer. It also costs nearlly £300 cheaper than the memory that you have chosen.

Now i know that you want to go SLI or Crossifre but they are both currently a bad investment. It does not offer double the performance just becuase you have 2 phisical GPUs in your system, it does not work like that.

A single 8800GTX will be able to play most of the current games out their on max settings on a 24inch screen. You might have to turn the AA and AF down a bit when new games get released but at a res of 1920x1200 the image quality is superb anyway (even without any AA and AF) it will be hard to notice the difference. It certainly is not worth the extra £300-£350 to pay for a second card just to turn these up a bit and give you a few extra FPS.

Its best to stick with a single card and then upgrade when the next generation of cards come out.

I dont know much about the Razer Barracuda soundcard but since you have tried it already and would really like to have it, ive put it in for you.

The Western Digital Hard Drives are currently the best on the market, they are extremely fast, reliable and very quiet. Great drives to have in your system.

The Smasung DVD Drive connects to your motherboard via SATA connection this means you can cancel the onboard IDE controller which will help with boot times (slightly) but also you can get rid of them ugly IDE cables.

The Corsair HX 620 is a brilliant power supply, its built by Seasonic which just shouts quality anyway. They are very reliable and extremely quiet.

I haven't come across the NZXT case you have chosen so i cannot comment on it however the one i would recomend would be the Antec P182, the build quality is brilliant and cooling is of a very high standard.

One thing to note with the NZXT case is im not to sure if a 8800GTX actually fits in it without having to remove the hard drive cage (if you can), so something worth finding out about.

Finally Vista. Vista is a fantastic operating system (ignore all the Vista haters out their, they way over exagerate problems that they are getting which you actually find are most likely down to them and not the operating system, <sigh> at them.) Their was a few bugs here and their when Vista was first released but most of them are now fixed.

When building a new system like you are their is no reason not to go for Vista, its very stable, a breeze to use and is a great operating system overall.

Goodluck :)
 
Last edited:
Calranthe said:
Firstly the plasma is for tv pairing it up with my xbox 360 and sky hd, im against lcd's atm because of dead pixel issues as in if your unlucky enough to get a dead pixel unless you have 5-7 of them manufacturers of most won't replace.
Click to expand...

I believe most people are quoting the 24" dell LCD's, and, please forgive me if i'm wrong, don't dell have a no dead pixel guarantee?
 
lcd's r ace, plasma a bit old now surely, go in an electronics shop, lcd at the front plasma's stuck in a corner. £4000 a lot of money 2 waste on pc's however much fun they are, treat yourself some other way aswell. lol buy a dog, they'll cost you £1000's over their lifetime.
 
Hank_Marvin said:
lcd's r ace, plasma a bit old now surely, go in an electronics shop, lcd at the front plasma's stuck in a corner. £4000 a lot of money 2 waste on pc's however much fun they are, treat yourself some other way aswell. lol buy a dog, they'll cost you £1000's over their lifetime.
Click to expand...


This £4000+ is purely for the computers, we have a dog :) and this is in no way a waste, my wife was diagnosed with luekeamia, a form that is not curable and the drugs she has been on for the last 10 years are doing more damage than most can realise, trouble is if she comes off the drugs she has 6 months, so its catch 22, long ago she became too weak to go out even to the local shops, it brings things into sharp focus when your wishes are for your wife one summer to be able to walk outside the house..

I am her primary carer, and the computers are the only outlook on life, we play online games from counter strike to City of villains, in these games we can explore fantasy landscapes run, fight and join in epic quests... and it keeps us both sane.

No computers are not a waste to us and this is why I will take my time with this and not make any mistakes.
 
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail X2 £376
EVGA GeForce 8800 Ultra KO SILENT 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) X2 £940
Abit IP35 Pro (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard X2 £270
Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX (2x2GB) x2 £395
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM x2 £150
Samsung SH-S203NBEBN 20x20 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA Lightscribe ReWriter x2 £45
Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU x2 £190
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM x1 £70
Lian Li PC-A16B Aluminium Full-Tower - Black x2 £188
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme CPU Cooler x2 £80
Noctua NF-S12 1200RPM 120mm Silent Case Fan - 3 Pin x2 £30
Razer Barracuda HP-1 Gaming Headset x1 £95
Razer Barracuda AC-1 Gaming 7.1 Sound Card - Retail x1 £141
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer 7.1 Sound Card - OEM £51
Logitech G11 Gaming-Grade Illuminated Keyboard - Retail x2 £80
Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey x1 £440
Samsung Bordeaux PS42Q97HDX 42" HD Freeview Plasma TV x1 £764

Total £4305

Thankyou to all for the input, this still isn't set in stone but let me explain a couple of
the changes.
The Samsung bordeaux plasma is going to be used for the main tv in the room, sky hd etc I like it
plasma's may not be in fashion etc but its my choice on that.
I've took everyones advice and gone for a single graphics card
I have good reason for going with the EVGA Ultra
1)10 year warranty
2)90 day upgrade path, as in we all know the 8900's are coming out in the next few months
I can send in the 8800 ultra's if I like the look of the 8900's and pay only the difference
in cost :)
My wife is adamant lol she doesn't want a different monitor to her Asus vw192s, so its only
1 Dell ultrasharp, now I will wait atleast a month to see if anything else comes up
any ideas or situations that mean this lay out will change :)
 
Hey Calranthe, very nice spec, one thing though. The 8800Ultra isnt really worth the extra over the 8800GTX.

Also the 8900 are not the next generation of cards (They are not going to be better than the current line of 8800GTX/Ultra), the 8900 ae just like a stop gap until Nvidia release the next generation of cards which will most likely be out next year.
 
stickroad said:
Hey Calranthe, very nice spec, one thing though. The 8800Ultra isnt really worth the extra over the 8800GTX.

Also the 8900 are not the next generation of cards (They are not going to be better than the current line of 8800GTX/Ultra), the 8900 ae just like a stop gap until Nvidia release the next generation of cards which will most likely be out next year.
Click to expand...


I will be doing a lot of research on the ultra compared to the gtx to see how and what I should go with :)
Nice heads up on the 8900's :)
 
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