£400 for a mobo, cpu and gfx

Bikerz

Bikerz

Bikerz

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Ok people I have around £400 maybe £450 at a push for the above.

The mobo needs to be able to take a quad core (even if you dont spec me a quad chip) and need to have ddr3 capability too. Dont realy care about Sli as dont think il ever run 2 gfx cards(what sthe point i dream about having 1 8800 gtx never mind 2):( I also like asus so if its between 2 chose me asus please.

Im liking this so far http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-243-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=

It will be run with water cooling setup very soon and already have a thermalright heatsink and cooler so sure that will be ok for min(along with a antec 900 ultimate gaming case with 1X200mm top fan and 3X 120mm fans?)

I wont be overclocking it(well havent tryed overclocking anything yet but might in the future if I have the corage), just having water cooling for quitness and to show off to mates.

I want to run medal of houner airbourne and moto gp2007 well (thats the main reason for buying:rolleyes::D)

Open to advice, what do you think of above mobo? ticks all my boxes (it does take a quad core doesnt it?)

Cheers

Sheldon
 
Any reason for a DDR2+DDR3 motherboard? By the time DDR3 becomes mainstream and is actually worth getting their will be better boards out aswell as that your most likely have 4GB of DDR2 memory by that time anyway so are you really going to swap 4GB of DDR2 for 2GB of DDR3?

You will most likely be able to get 2X 2GB DDR3 Memory modules but i have a feeling they will be pretty expensive.

Anyway hows this:

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient 95W Edition" 2.40GHz
Abit IP35 Pro (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Dual Channel Kit

Total : £391.53
 
I dont need any memory mate already have great memory. I need:

Motherboard
CPU
Graphic card

Sorry
 
The monitor I have is a 22" Iiyama E2202 which will put out 1680 X 1050 so id love to be able to put out that but dout il be able to will I?
 
Come on people you normaly so helpful and quick at replying. Im trying to sorce a cheap cpu on ebay as I know I dont have a big budget for a nice graphics card, Id love a nice 8800
 
how about the following:

Gigabyte GA_P35C_DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 & DDR3 Motherboard £69.99 (£82.24)

HIS ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT ICEQ Turbo 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £79.99 (£93.99)

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £159.99 (£187.99)

Sub Total : £309.97
Shipping : £8.95
VAT : £55.81
Total : £374.73
 
capture_07102007_014357.jpg

This will be better for games than a quad with a lesser gpu you can either go this route or get a quad but sacrifice on the gpu.
Which will be better for gaming ? a quad with a 1950/2600xt or a duo at 3.2 ghz with an 8800 gtx ? personally i think the latter.
When you need a quad you just sell on the 2160 and get one i can't see any game struggling on a duo @3.2 and 8800gtx for a long time.

Do not be scared by overclocking these duo's they overclock with ease i definitely think you should consider my spec quads are not yet mainstream in games and make little difference i'd rather be sat here with a duo @3.2 with an 8800 gtx than a quad with a 1950/2600xt i can tell you that for sure.

I had never overclocked in my life before getting a core 2 duo i did a tiny bit with thunderbirds and bartons after my old pentium II and those didn't really clock that great so i never bothered but i followed a few simple guides for duo and a few minutes later was at 3.4 ghz without worry as they run a lot cooler.
 
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Cheers

C64 I like your advice never in my wildess dreams did I think I could afford a GTX. I take it that gigabyte board will take a quad chip in the future?
 
As Im going water cooling would it not be better to get a gts and upgrade to a water cooled gtx when I can afford it or will a air cooled gtx be fine? Reason I ask as leave pc on 24/7 so things must be very stable and cool
 
Bikerz said:
As Im going water cooling would it not be better to get a gts and upgrade to a water cooled gtx when I can afford it or will a air cooled gtx be fine? Reason I ask as leave pc on 24/7 so things must be very stable and cool
Click to expand...

aircooled will be plenty fine, you just wont be able to eeek out those last few mhz out of it. Which all things being equal is pretty unecessary at the current time, why dont you just swap the air cooler for a waterblock when you can afford full H2O?
 
Ah right didnt know you could do that. Is that easy enough to do? Cheers that makes me loads happier knowing that
 
Would you really want such a good GPU running on a system with only an E2160 CPU? A £300 grafix card and 50quid CPU just seems a bit of a waste if your buidling a gaming machine.
 
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dr. sarf said:
Would you really want such a good GPU running on a system with only an E2160 CPU? A £300 grafix card and 50quid CPU just seems a bit of a waste if your buidling a gaming machine.
Click to expand...

You dont know what your talking about, GFX card is eternally the limiting factor in a gaming PC always has been always will be (fundamentally ok, lets please not all chime in about how 2x8800's are CPU limited!). As has already been stated that CPU will overclock immensley and @ about 3.2ghz will destroy games leaving the graphics card to do the work it is capable of. Since your going WC you'll prolly get more out of the CPU than that, fact is its only £100 more to get a Quad 6600 which will clock to silly amounts on water.

Dont listen to people chiming in with things like dr. sarf has (not intended as a dig at you m8y but this is fact) what you have asked for, considering your budget, you have been given. If you can dig up another £100 then great put a Q6600 in there, of for another £40 put an E6600 C2D in there. But the fundamental spec for your money is top notch.
 
:eek: calm down lol
It just seems a logical observation to me. I mean, we don't see gamers choosing e2160s over e6***s or quads, generally?

But then maybe its personal preference, I'd just rather spend a bit more on the CPU and stick with an 8800GTS 640 or something. But as I say, persoanl preference. :cool:
 
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E2160 at stock WILL bottleneck a 8800 GTX, the higher the resolution of the monitor then the lower the bottleneck. You aren't overclocking either so you will be at stock all the time. You will still get good FPS with an E2160 and I'd still go that route with a GTX over something like an E6750 / 2900 Pro. You can always look at newer quads in Jan/Feb when the 45nm quads come.
 
Cheers all. i will go for that mobo and gfx card and just get the best c2d i can afford and upgrade when I can afford to
 
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