Anyone fancy specing me a machine?

Corbula

Corbula

Corbula

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Joined
10 Mar 2008
Posts
195
Hi,
I was just wondering if anyone can help me spec a machine. I plan on building my first pc over easter and need some help. I have a budget of £1000but i might be able to streach it by a couple of hundred.

I want it to include an Intel Quad core and one of the new Nvidia Geforce 9800s. (i know there not out yet and theres no price, so keep a couple of hundred under the budget so i can add it when there out).

Apart from that i am thinking off the NZXT Huch classic cases, are these any good? (quiet, good airflow, plenty of room).

Thats pretty much it. If theres any other questions just ask.
 
Welcome to the forums, this might do you as a basis, if you are going to be overclocking (and I'd suggest you probably should) then I'd also get an aftermarket cooler - the Tuniq Tower or Noctua NH-U12P are good choices. I've tried to leave around £300 in the budget as going by the prices of the past few releases that should get you something mid-high end in the 9800 range although I haven't checked to see if there are any prices released yet.

G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PQ PC2-8000C5 (2x2GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ) £69.99
(£82.24) £69.99
(£82.24)
Asus P5E Intel X38 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £126.99
(£149.21) £126.99
(£149.21)
NZXT Hush Classic Series Silent Midi-Tower Case - Black £56.99
(£66.96) £56.99
(£66.96)
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.66GHz 12MB-cache (1333FSB) Processor - Retail £219.99
(£258.49) £219.99
(£258.49)
Sony NEC Optiarc AD-7200S 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
(£19.96) £16.99
(£19.96)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD3200AAKS) £44.99
(£52.86) £44.99
(£52.86)
Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK) £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Sub Total : £595.93
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £106.20
Total : £713.08
 
Chris C whats wrong with a 9800?

thanks for that. A have a few questions:

Although would a 520W PSU be enough would it not need to be at least 600W?

Also i would need a bigger hard drive than a 320GB. I was thinking of a small hard drive solely for the operating system, say a 32GB or something at 10000RPM. And a bigger one for everything else at 7200RPM. Do you think this would be worth it or not. Try and keep it fast with all the stuff i have.

Would it be worth an after market CPU cooler or not?

Anyone else have any suggestions?
 
Last edited:
Corbula said:
Chris C whats wrong with a 9800?
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9800 is supposedly double the power of an 8800, totally overkill if you ask me, an 8800GT/GTX can still well and truly cut the mustard.

Corbula said:
Although would a 520W PSU be enough would it not need to be at least 600W?
Click to expand...

Assuming the 520w isn't some generic junk it'll be fine.

Corbula said:
Also i would need a bigger hard drive than a 320GB. I was thinking of a small hard drive solely for the operating system, say a 32GB or something at 10000RPM. And a bigger one for everything else at 7200RPM. Do you think this would be worth it or not. Try and keep it fast with all the stuff i have.
Click to expand...

The WD AAKS HDD's are awesome, they aren't much slower than Raptors for a lot less money.

Corbula said:
Would it be worth an after market CPU cooler or not?
Click to expand...

Definitely, Assuming your going to overclock, try the AC7Pro or Tuniq Tower.
 
Thanks i was getting a 9800 because its better to get new then it will last longer. If its truely twice as powerful as the 8800 then it will last a few extra years. And there not much more than an 8800.
 
Corbula said:
Thanks i was getting a 9800 because its better to get new then it will last longer. If its truely twice as powerful as the 8800 then it will last a few extra years. And there not much more than an 8800.
Click to expand...

I was actually talking about a 9800GX2 BTW, and the 8800GT/GTX are still seriously beefy cards, depends on what you want to play really and at what resolution, a GTX would be the best bet though.
 
The 9800GX2 would be to expensive for me its basically two cards in one. I was thinking the 9800GTX or GTS. You can spend £200 on a 8800GTX it will be about an extra £100 for a 9800GTX. so why not go for the more powerful card?
 
Corbula said:
The 9800GX2 would be to expensive for me its basically two cards in one. I was thinking the 9800GTX or GTS. You can spend £200 on a 8800GTX it will be about an extra £100 for a 9800GTX. so why not go for the more powerful card?
Click to expand...

Like I said, it depends on the usage, does your gaming needs/resolution warrant such a card? and cost!
 
The Corsair HX 520w is easily sufficient for any single graphics card system assuming you don't have 10+ hard drives as well, the 620w version has been demonstrated multiple times with quad-core, watercooling, SLi'd 8800 series cards, multiple hard drives etc etc.

As deleted says the AAKS series of drives are very good for the money, I just picked the 320gb version as it is a decent price and left ~£300 still in the budget for a graphics card which is probably around the sort of region you should expect to spend on a 9800 series card if the past couple of releases are anything to go by.
 
So do you think it would be a good idea to have a fast hard drive but small (36GB at 10000RPM) and a big one for everything else (500GB+ at 7200RPM).

Also if in the future i wanted to put watercolling into the NZXT Hush Classic, would i have to start cutting holes and stuff into it?
 
I'm not a huge fan of Raptors as a general rule since they don't offer a great price/performance ratio and newer 7200rpm drives such as the AAKS or 7200.11 series' have got very close in speed terms but it is up to you.

I'm afraid I don't know too much about watercooling so I'll have to leave someone else to answer.
 
Re: HDD's. Originally having a Raptor as my OS drive and now having just got an AAKS for more storage, I don't think there is anything in the two. I'd agree with Semi-Pro, and that you are better off geting two AAKS (one small for OS & another large for files) if you want to split your storage.

Re: PSU. Very happy with my 620HX, which gives me more than I need for my current single card plus 3 HDDs cooling, etc, so I would definately recommend the brand quality.
 
Corbula said:
The 9800GX2 would be to expensive for me its basically two cards in one. I was thinking the 9800GTX or GTS. You can spend £200 on a 8800GTX it will be about an extra £100 for a 9800GTX. so why not go for the more powerful card?
Click to expand...

Where have you seen the 9800GTX is more powerful than the 8800GTX ?

If you keep the 19" LCD at 1280 X 1024 I would just get a 8800GT or 9600GT, if you get a larger monitor I would get a 8800GTX.
 
It may have a new number 9, but its still 8 series tech. Its an overlocked 8800GTS with faster ram so it will struggle to beat a 8800GTX with high res and AA but that wont bother you with your 19".

So to save money get a 8800GT or 9600GT. I have a 8800GT and it plays everything out there except Crysis. Cracking card.
 
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