+/- £1k for gaming rig, spec help plz

jubei

jubei

jubei

Soldato
Joined
3 Apr 2003
Posts
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Hi guys,

Have decided to take the plunge and upgrade my rig sooner rather than waiting for new hardware, with a view to possibly selling the gfx card i get further on in the year to upgrade it to a 9800 or ati offering for next gen power.

I already have a case, however its coolermaster pretorian and i kinda like the look of that 900gamer case on most of the specs here as looks like will run cool and help me get a decent overclock. Want to clock the system on air if possible as much as can be safely done.

Am keeping speakers/mouse/keyboard from old rig, looking to buy everything else. Would like to upgrade from my 19" L90D+ tft to a new widescreen model 22-24", the OcUK value 24" seems to have a good following in the monitor section.

Am also under impression that onboard sound is a bunch of tripe and that should get a seperate card, have audigy 2 in this machine currently, not sure whats cards are decent though.

System is used mostly for gaming, competative FPS games mainly, though i also enjoy a bit of wow and some rts. Ideally want to spend no more than a grand but the spec i came up with was quite a bit overbudget but i cannot see any way to cut costs, however i have no idea what brands are good, what memory is good etc. Here is what i came up with, any input or help more than welcome :)

specsd2.jpg
 
Change the ram and get some cheap Geil or ballistix 4x 1gig is fineand cheaper.

Get the OEM Q6600 as you don't need the cooler.
 
I'd get the 8800GTS 512mb over the GTX. Get two 2x1GB GeiL kits and replace that Tuniq for a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme and a Yate Loon :)
 
jubei said:
Am also under impression that onboard sound is a bunch of tripe and that should get a seperate card, have audigy 2 in this machine currently, not sure whats cards are decent though
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Onboard is quite decent these days especially on the more expensive mobos like the IP35 Pro. Also the added bonus of (properly) working drivers in Vista :)
 
hp7909 said:
Onboard is quite decent these days especially on the more expensive mobos like the IP35 Pro. Also the added bonus of (properly) working drivers in Vista :)
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Agree,

I ditched my Xfi and use onboard.

Easier and less hassle without creatives pants drivers.
 
Defo drop the soundcard unless you have really really good sound setup, and the AS5 isn't needed tbh since most coolers come with their own which is just as good if not better these days.

Swap the DVD drive for this Samsung that's £4 cheaper and better spec'ed:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-096-SA

And the Corsair HX520W should be sufficient IMO.

No idea how well 4 sticks of RAM clock on the IP35 Pro so I can't recommend any cheaper alternatives, although you can't beat these for value if you go 2x2Gb
 
Skyboat said:
Defo drop the soundcard unless you have really really good sound setup, and the AS5 isn't needed tbh since most coolers come with their own which is just as good if not better these days.

Swap the DVD drive for this Samsung that's £4 cheaper and better spec'ed:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-096-SA

And the Corsair HX520W should be sufficient IMO.

No idea how well 4 sticks of RAM clock on the IP35 Pro so I can't recommend any cheaper alternatives, although you can't beat these for value if you go 2x2Gb
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Arent the timings on those memory chips worse? 5 5 5 instead of 4 4 4? i admit i actually dont know what it means, but figured *** lower numbers were better :)

Reason i went for the 620w was for a bit of futureproofing, also if i am looking to upgrade to 9800 at some point in the year i figure its likely to be power hungry.

Picked the dvd due to brand i admit, if samsung are decent and reliable i can happily change that, also i chose that cooler as i was under the impression that you had to hack hardware to pieces to fit that thermalright cooler?

See no reason to change from gtx to gts for sake of 30 quid as gtx is so much better at the higher resolutions, may change it down if go for 22" samsung monitor instead of the ocuk one though.

Can drop soundcard if its not needed, i always assumed it was better to have everything seperate in order to prevent slowdown on a machine and to get the most of it.

Any other motherboards worth considering? Any other input? Thanks for all the help so far guys :)
 
With a quad-core processor any overhead from onboard sound will just not be noticeable, at all.

Also processors are getting less power hungry with each generation as they get smaller, this applies to both CPU and GPU. The Corsairs are very efficient and I really doubt you'd even get near 520W of usage.

Motherboard-wise, to be fair any P35-based one will do, just depends on your needs (RAID, Firewire, etc) and how far you'll be overclocking.
 
Skyboat said:
With a quad-core processor any overhead from onboard sound will just not be noticeable, at all.

Also processors are getting less power hungry with each generation as they get smaller, this applies to both CPU and GPU. The Corsairs are very efficient and I really doubt you'd even get near 520W of usage.

Motherboard-wise, to be fair any P35-based one will do, just depends on your needs (RAID, Firewire, etc) and how far you'll be overclocking.
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Well i am undecided on raid at the moment as a lot of people seem to think its not worth the risk. If i were to raid it would be the one to increase speed of 2 drives, raid-0 i believe? is it a good speed increase?

Also i was under impression the seagate were the recommended HDD but threads in last week or so seem to indicate the hitachi?

I want to overclock as much as possible without having to do any crazy modding on the machine, i will pay for a good heatsink etc but i dont wanna take a hacksaw or soldering iron to my kit :) 3.2 would okay i think?
 
Okay what is currently considered the best HDD to go for in a new build? should i be gettin 1 500gig drive or 2x250 and raid them?

Also if i order all the components are there any leads likely to be missing that i will need in order to connect my drivers up, 1 or 2 sata hdd + a sata dvd.

Anyone have an opinion on the 24" OcUK value monitor vs the 22" samsung monitors for gaming? will also be looking to buy another in a month or two to dual screen.
 
Surprised no-one has picked up on this...

Around the CPU socket area, we find an ample amount of room for the majority of cooling solutions. We utilize the stock heatsink/fan in our base testing but also installed several aftermarket Socket-775 cooling solutions such as the Tuniq 120 and Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme during our overclocking tests. However, based upon our initial overclocking tests, if a vertical mounted fan in an air cooling unit such as the Tuniq 120 or water-cooling is utilized then additional air cooling will be required on the MCH and PWM areas. In other words, the heat pipe system works best with a downward blowing CPU HSF fan in mind.
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http://http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3142&p=2
 
What do people think of the coolermaster realpower psus? Can get the 700*** modular one here for around £80. Arent realpower meant to be the best brand? Would i be better off getting the 700watt for future use?
 
I agree with the GTX. I have the exact same one in my system and it rocks! I think re-sale value once the 9800 series hits will be higher as well. Plus it does pull ahead at high res/image qual due to the larger memory interface.
 
this is a nightmare. The more I read threads on the forums the more i think I should be holding off for this 9800 gfx card :( on the other hand no1 seems to have concrete info on when it will be out.

Also the comment that computer would struggle within a year is offputting too, is the q6600 likely to be redundant within a year? Sorry for all questions but I am bad at decisions at the best of times and this is a lot of money to be spending for me so can't afford mistakes.

Sorry for spelling or format errors, am posting from my phone in bed.
 
jubei said:
this is a nightmare. The more I read threads on the forums the more i think I should be holding off for this 9800 gfx card :( on the other hand no1 seems to have concrete info on when it will be out.

Also the comment that computer would struggle within a year is offputting too, is the q6600 likely to be redundant within a year? Sorry for all questions but I am bad at decisions at the best of times and this is a lot of money to be spending for me so can't afford mistakes.

Sorry for spelling or format errors, am posting from my phone in bed.
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It is extremely unlikely the Q6600 will be redundant in a year. More likely the GFX will be struggling in a year's time but that's an easy upgrade. These cpus are bearly tapped right now especially the quad cores.

And btw, you can keep holding out forever for the next best thing cause it'll always be like this. The key is to sit down and figure out what will give you the best bang for buck for the time period that you want it. It's that simple.

Even when the 9800 comes out, how much is the 8800 going to go down by? £50? £100? By the time you want to upgrade the 8800 it's likely the next gen will be out (10800?) and you can get a 9800 for dirt cheap.

Just go with what you feel comfortable spending now and don't listen to garbage like Q6600 will be redundant in a year...please
 
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