Advise for £1100 system, x38 with single Geforce??

Cyphizer

Cyphizer

Cyphizer

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14 Oct 2008
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36
Hey guys,

I've been umming and ahhing for a couple of weeks now on a new rig, I had my PC stolen and got a £1400 payout from the lovely insurance people and was looking into buying a £1100 system and a £300 netbook. I've been out of the game for the past 2 years and been struggling to play catchup.

My last PC was built to be a stable and fast system for music production, video and image editing and the basis of my Home Theater system, basically my pride and joy and I was lookin to do the same again. I'll stick down the part list of what I was thinking of, any comments or advise would be well appreciated as I'm still not 100% certain, here goes:

Antec 900 case
Corsair 650w ATX psu
Intel Q9550
Asus x38 maximus extreme (not gonna use water cooling though)
G.Skill 4GB DDR3 HZ PC2-12800C7 1600MHz
Western Dig 10,000 150gb
Seagate 7,200 500gb
Scythe Mini-ninja Heatsink
Any ol DVD rewriter
My mates Evga Geforce 8800gtx 768MB GDDR3 (for £150 mwaha :cool:)

I'm not sure bout puttin a x38 with the geforce, although I never plan to go sli, is there a nforce version of the Asus' price range/feature?

The whole DDR3 thing is new and excitin to me, but i'm not too sure about the RAM I have chosen and if it's worth it. I usualy really push my systems for the music production, hence the quad core.

Anyway, any comments would be grand! Thanks in advance :D
 
1100Spec.jpg


Right, to begin with, DDR3 is a waste of money. It just is, unless you're into extreme overclocking.

Theres also no point in buying an X38 designed-for-Crossfire board when you're going to be using an Nvidia graphics card. Conversely, NForce chipset boards suck...hard.

The Lian Li A17 is much, much better than the Antec 900 (which I used to own). The A17 is better built, gets less dusty, looks better and is better value for money.

The 640GB WD (or a Samsung) is supposed to be faster than 500GB drives.

I didn't know if you needed an OS, so I specced one anyway.

:)
 
Cyphizer said:
My mates Evga Geforce 8800gtx 768MB GDDR3 (for £150 mwaha :cool:)
Click to expand...
That looks like a great deal... for your mate lol. Better off getting one of the new ATI range imo (4850 or better).

If your going for 1 graphics card dont get a x38 motherboard, go for p45 or something like that. X38 are for crossfire at 16/16 pci-e 1.0, which you pay a premium for.
 
My mates Evga Geforce 8800gtx 768MB GDDR3 (for £150 mwaha )
Click to expand...

I sold my 8800GTX (reference model) about 3-4 months ago for £100 and was happy with that, far too much money for that card. Also would go ATI if your getting a x38 mobo (as said above)
 
Hey guys thanks for the speedy response!!

I've gotta copy of xp 64 which I'm gonna use so no need for OS, really want to stay away from Vista, g/f has it on this laptop and it makes me want to take a rusty screwdriver to my throat :mad:

Looks like I'm gonna stay away from that 8800GTX (and have words with the seller :p) and go for a new ATI gfx card. I'm REALLY in the dark here tho, dont do much gaming but I do have a 24" HD monitor and will be using my pc for a lot of multimedia and graphics. Would love to get a good gfx for once though, £200 budget, any ideas??

I think the main reason I went for DDR3 was future proofing, with all the changes that seem to be comming at xmas I felt that maybe it was just about worth it. Admitedly I'm not a hardcore overclocker, however I do overclock my systems as standard practice, would you say it's deff not a viable option for me?

Thanks for all the help, I'm shootin to the Apple store this weekend to look at the sexy new macbook pros :cool: shame you need to re-mortgage to get one in the UK :(
 
Cheers, I'll take your advise and build a DDR2 system and save a bit of moolah. Last question, is a 650W PSU alright for my system or should I go for a 750??

Ta!

Nige
 
porta said:
last I heard xp 64 was pants for gaming, with no driver support.
or am I talking rubbish.
Click to expand...

You're talking rubbish :p - every game i have tried runs perfectly with no problems on xp pro x64. Admittidely there are other programs with compatibility issues such as itunes, live messenger - but for most there is a work around.

E.g. for live messenger i just installed an older version then updated once installed, i.e. it was only the newer installers that didn't work.


Also to OP: 650W will be fine, althought I'd personally recommened the Corsair HX 620W which will have ample power and due to being modular will significantly improve clutter and cable management within the case.
 
Some older games have issues but everything within the last 1 1/2 years or so should be ok it's still slower than xp in a lot though.
 
Cheers, yeah I think I'll probs end up going for Vista Home Premium 64bit, as much as I dislike vista, I hear its improved with system updates recently and it seems the way everything is goin these days.

Anyways, after another sleepless night of working and planning my build in my breaks, here's my final part list. Out of £1500 I was hoping to spend £1100 on the pc and £400 on a netbook/laptop, think I'm over budget so any tips to cut down on price would be grand, tho because I'm stayin away from DDR3 I will be overclockin this mofo :D

Q9550 (£224.81)
WD 150gb raptor (£126.80)
Asus p45 p5q deluxe (£129.03)
OCZ 4GB FlexII (£99.86)
Vista 64 Home premium (£73.96)
Pioneer DVD (£16.68)
Corsair 620W Modular PSU (£85.76)
Freecom 500GB 7200 ext HD (£54.99)
Akasa AK966 (£24.66)
Powercolour 4870 1024MB ddr5 (£193.86)
Seagate 7200.11 500gb (£43.46)
Antec P182 (£93.99)

So £1169.87 and then £22 for shipping, so around £90 over budget. Any ideas to cut this back? I'm stumped!
 
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-050-DF&tool=3

DFI motherboard (£98.69)

P45 but cheaper, and DFI is a good make

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...00C5 1150MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX9200D2K2/2G)

Memory, 2GB only at a similar speed, unless you plan to overclock or upgrade sometime soon, 2x of these would save an extra £25. To save on money you may also want to skip the external hard drive for now, but that's up to you...

I have a pioneer dvd writer and it's very good, and I'm looking at that video card myself. generally looks like a good system
 
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