New PC for Christmas!

SamR

SamR

SamR

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26 Nov 2008
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Location
Leeds, UK
Hello!

Just specc'ed myself a new PC up for Christmas, or well tried to spec myself one. I have come up with the following, and would like any input you could give.

I am unsure on the CD Drive, and Hard Drives I have chosen so they may well not be the best I can get for the money.

I will be using this PC for gaming. I put in a Quad Core processor, but realise these arn't fully utilised by games at the moment? Although this will be better for future proofing myself?

Please feel free to change any parts you feel would be better suited. I reckon I would be happy enough to go up to £900. £950 if it is really needed.

This is what I came up with:

pctd2.jpg


Thank you in advance!
 
I would ditch the Hard drive for a 7200rpm one with at least 16mb cache, and, unless you do a lot of encoding / video work I'd consider the E8400 or E8500 Dual core CPU's.
The PSU is a nice unit but the draw on that system won't exceed 350W so a 500W unit would be ample and may save a few quid, the ram, again is nice enough but you can spend a lot less on some 800MHZ OCZ stuff (which will overclock to pC8500 rates at about the same timings anyway)
 
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ocuk55.jpg


Now normally I would spec a 4870 here, but thought at this price the gtx260 is a contender. The new 'maxcore' versions can overclock to the similar performances of the gtx280, which aint too bad for the money.

I agree with the others, go for a fast dual core for gaming. It should overclock pretty well with that ram and the tuniq tower.

A much better hard drive ;)

Just include the case you want, I've got both the antec 300 and 900 and can recommend them. More the 300, a great little case for the price, add a few extra fans and it's so much better.
 
Appreciated, especially after the numerous times you must get asked very similar questions !

I ask the next question in expectation of the answer "Don't be so stupid."

But, as was probably evident from my original choice of Hard Drive (:D), I'm not the most experienced in this.

This will be the first time i would have attempted to build my own PC from scratch. I have replaced various parts within my current PC, but never started from the beginning. I think I'd feel fairly comfortable about doing it, but is it too much money to be spending for a "first attempt".

Thanks again.
 
Just take your time and double check everything is the correct way round before fitting and it should be fine :) also you may struggle a bit with the 775 heatsink fitting on your first go but once fitted just make sure the hsf is 100% secure, have had so many people come to me with only 3 legs mounted correctly or sometimes none :(

Forgot to say I would also go with ro55o spec.
 
ro55o said:
Now normally I would spec a 4870 here, but thought at this price the gtx260 is a contender. The new 'maxcore' versions can overclock to the similar performances of the gtx280, which aint too bad for the money.
Click to expand...

Overclocking is also something I am a complete novice in; although is something I want to learn and get involved with eventually. So with that said, is it better for me to go with that 4870?
 
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Hi SamR, it looks like you have done a very nice specification there. May I make a few suggestions though....

The ATI Radeon 4870 is a fine graphics card and I'm sure you will be more than happy with it. Though, to keep your options open, you may also be interested in the Nvidia Gefore GTX 260 series such as this card here which is around the same performance as the ATI Radeon 4870. Have a look at this review here and see which one excels more in the games that you play.

I would personally keep the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 since it offers you slightly more bang for your buck. The Intel E8*** series does indeed offer higher clocked chips. However, the performance differences in games between the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 and say the Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale is pretty small despite the dual core being clocked quite a bit higher than the quad core CPU. Take a look at this thread here.

The memory that you have chosen is fairly expensive and isn't particularly worth the money in my opinion. You could quite easily get away with getting some cheaper memory such as the Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX (2x2GB) which if you do decide to stick with the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, that memory will take the chip all the way up to 3.6GHz which will be around the maximum you will be able to overclock the chip until temperatures start to come into play. Unless of course, you receive a chip that has a very low VID but they are hard to come by. :p

The Corsair TX 650W ATX2.2 SLi Compliant PSU is slightly higher wattage than you actually need for this particular setup but it will leave you room for upgrades in the future and at its current price, it will be a fantastic purchase.

As others have said, it will probably be best if you change the hard drive to a 7200 RPM such as the Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache which will be a great choice.

Finally, with regards to the CPU cooler you have chosen. The Artic Cooler Freezer 7 Pro is a pretty good cooler for the price. However, as you are not particularly strapped for money then I would personally advise to go for a slightly better aftermart cooler. The Thermalright TRUE Black 120 is one of the best CPU coolers you can get and would cool the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 very well.

I have just done a specification for you with some changes. If you have any questions about any of the components, feel free to ask. :)

Specification-16.jpg
 
SamR said:
Overclocking is also something I am a complete novice in; although is something I want to learn and get involved with eventually. So with that said, is it better for me to go with that 4870?
Click to expand...

Both the gtx260 and the 1gb 4870 perform to similar levels at stock, one performs better in other games and vice versa. Overclocking the GPU is very easy, I havent had an nvidia card for a while, but I think rivatuner is still the program to go for. It's just a simple case of changing the slider and testing out the new settings. It's the CPU overclock that requires going into the bios.

With Fire wizards spec, its the age old debate of quad vs dual, both are great chips, but it just depends on what you plan on doing with the computer. He's spec'd a great cooler, but it's a bit expensive, £55 is a lot for what it is.
 
Go for a 320GB or 640GB hard drive, they have dencer platers, so run quicker then 250GB/500GB models. (and are usally around the same price)

The 1GB ones can be tricky, as you can get either 4x250GB platters or 3x320GB ones (the 4x250GB ones are a little slower). Best to do research about the models if you do get one this big ;)
 
Now come up with this from a mish mash of the advice you guys have given :

pc2bm5.jpg


Fire Wizard has suggested a Case Fan, is this something i have missed and require?
 
I would change the cooler to this: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-000-TQ&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=821&name=Tuniq%20Core%20Contact%20Freezer%20CPU%20Cooler%20(Socket%20754/939/940/AM2/LGA775)

I have one, and is a great cooler and on many sites it keeps up with the TRUE in performance and is a fair bit cheaper.
Also either way you dont need the thermal paste as the cooler comes with some decent stuff anyway.

The case is personal choice but for some that is equal i would get the Antec 300 and is cheaper at 50 quid.

And get a modular PSU, something like this: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...man ZM600-HP Heatpipe Cooled 600W Modular PSU

Apart from that is looks pretty good.
 
The case fan he suggested was for the CPU heatsink. The Thermalright doesn't come with a fan, it's a passive cooler, so would need an extra fan. That's why I mentioned it was expensive, pushing on almost £55 with the heatsink and fan. A slightly cheaper alternative would be the noctua cooler, as I'm guessing your not a fan of the tuniq :p

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...=Noctua NH-U12P CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/LGA775)

I'd also suggest a modular PSU over the one you've shown. It makes the whole build a lot easier, you only use the cables you need, whereas with the 650W corsair all the cables come attached.

Also the CPU cooler will come with thermal paste, so you don't really need the artic 5 thermal compound.
 
ro55o said:
The case fan he suggested was for the CPU heatsink. The Thermalright doesn't come with a fan, it's a passive cooler, so would need an extra fan. That's why I mentioned it was expensive, pushing on almost £55 with the heatsink and fan.
Click to expand...

Aha, makes sense!

Another attempt! :

pc3tw8.jpg


Slashiem said:
The case is personal choice but for some that is equal i would get the Antec 300 and is cheaper at 50 quid.
Click to expand...

Heh, I'll be honest I wanted something a little bit 'different' :) (probably a bit sad, but so what!)

Edit: Just seen the Modular PSU recommendation and switched to that also!
 
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Your spec above looks pretty good to me, especially if you won't be overclocking straight away. You could save £20 or so by getting some PC2-6400 RAM instead of the 8500, as the 8500 is probably overkill unless you're heavily overclocking - something like this.Then you could put the money towards a bigger hard drive, as you could get a 640GB model for £20 more. I recommend the Samsung or Western Digital.
 
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