Im terribly sorry, but could you please "check ma' spec"

Ross1234 · 17 May 2009 at 20:11

Hi, im building an i7 mean gaming machine for 1280x1024 and 1360x768 (not at the same time)

My budget is ideally £600, this goes over

Any ideas on improvements etc?

This is all that I need. No hard drive, peripherals needed.

Thanks, Ross

karl01 · 17 May 2009 at 20:16

you will need a heatsink us you dont get one with the oem processor.

cmndr_andi · 17 May 2009 at 20:16

Couple of suggestions:

Do you plan on overclocking? If so then you will need an after market cooler such as this or this, also the d0 stepping is a better overclocker. If not, you will need a retail version which comes with the stock heatsink.

Also, are you needing a hard disk? If so, this is a good bet.

Ross1234 · 17 May 2009 at 20:33

I dont really need a hard disk. i have one already. is there a heatsink you reccomend? they seem rather pricey.

Plec · 17 May 2009 at 20:35

Edit - nwrong post

rowannew · 17 May 2009 at 20:35

you need a cooler and also i would change the power supply i wouldnt trust the "basiq" thats in there

especially on an i7

Ross1234 · 17 May 2009 at 20:39

rowannew said:
you need a cooler and also i would change the power supply i wouldnt trust the "basiq" thats in there especially on an i7

Ok, that will raies the price then

Plec · 17 May 2009 at 20:53

As you only want a mean gaming machine your other option is to save money and drop the i7 chip and use the saving to buy a better gfx card. Games are very GPU based and don't use the potential of the quad core. So the spec below would actually run your games a lot faster. The only draw back is that the rig would not be as future proof but you could upgrade it to the Core 2 Quad cores which are still very fast in the future.

Below is just a very quick example of what you could get for around £600 - and it would run all games very fast. Obviously, you would clock the cpu to 3+ GHz

cmndr_andi · 17 May 2009 at 20:53

Here is a good PSU. Its £4 and an extra 50W.

+1 for Plec's spec. With that budget, an i7 can't be justified if you want to game as the graphics have to be sacrificed.

Ross1234 · 17 May 2009 at 21:00

I would rather get the i7 for futureproofing. Thanks for the PSU reccomendation.

RJC · 17 May 2009 at 21:09

Not much better

Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - OEM £224.99
(£195.64) £224.99
(£195.64)

Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £164.99
(£143.47) £164.99
(£143.47)

Asus ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £79.99
(£69.56) £79.99
(£69.56)

Corsair VX 550W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-550VXUK) £69.99
(£60.86) £69.99
(£60.86)

G.Skill 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 NQ PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Triple Channel (F3-10666CL9T-6GBNQ) £42.99
(£37.38) £42.99
(£37.38)

Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black (No PSU) £32.99
(£28.69) £32.99
(£28.69)

Akasa AK-967 Nero Direct Contact Heatpipe CPU Cooler (AM2/AM2+/939/LGA775/LGA1366) £23.99
(£20.86) £23.99
(£20.86)

Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
(£15.64) £17.99
(£15.64) Sub Total : £572.10 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75 VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £87.58 Total : £671.43£660.00 with delivery removed.

ian|Squared² · 17 May 2009 at 21:10

yeah no need for a GTX 260 with your resolutions mate
Stick to i7 and go for 4850 or GTS 250 from nvidia

JonJ678 · 17 May 2009 at 22:59

If a 600 quid core2duo system will do the job you want of it better than a 600 quid i7, then get the c2d.

A 600 quid i7 system is not any more future proof than the quad core would be, what do you have in mind as potential upgrades to it?

After i7, i5 comes out with a different socket. Intel have no reason to use the i7 socket for the next generation, so almost certainly wont. The best i7 processor you're ever going to get is the D0 920, which you'd be buying now. Hardly future proofed

It's nice to have the latest hardware, but when at the price older hardware outperforms it, it makes no sense

Ross1234 · 17 May 2009 at 23:00

Are you sure they wont be using the i7 in the future? Also the i7 outperforms the 775 quads.

wbc1 · 17 May 2009 at 23:37

Why not try the Phenom series? the 720 and the 955 are both AM3 and "future proof".

JonJ678 · 17 May 2009 at 23:44

I don't doubt that people will use the i7 in future any more than I doubt people are still using X2s.
I doubt Intel will release radically different processors on the same i7 motherboards when they have no incentive to, and will make more money if they don't.
The i7 outperforms the quads clock for clock. How a 2.66ghz i7 compares to a 3ghz q9650 I'm not sure.

However, i7 costs more, and the price difference means a bigger graphics card for you, which is why the c2d system makes more sense.

^wbc may have a point there, amd are pretty good at back compatibility, and they're cheap. A tri core phenom might actually make more sense for a gaming rig

Ross1234 · 18 May 2009 at 03:04

im pretty much set on this now. What do you think? i decieded I would prefer a 4890 to an i7, and it meets my budget.

siumatfung · 18 May 2009 at 03:10

looks great

b build pics!

Ross1234 · 18 May 2009 at 03:12

OK

I should be ordering next week, so I will let you know how its going! I have never built a pc before although I have upgraded the last one. I am terrified of fitting the CPU

Is the RAM I chose there good? i just picked it randomly as I had no idea.

cmndr_andi · 18 May 2009 at 03:32

Looks very good. That RAM is very nice stuff, best deal for DDR2 imho.

If you can stretch an extra tenner, you can get the Titan Fenrir one of the best coolers on the market.