Budget Build... but is it OK?

macdotnub · 5 Jul 2007 at 12:22

Budget Build... but is it OK? [updated]

Hey All,

I'm building a new rig, want for some not too heavy gaming, but want some half decent performance at the same time - I already have the RAM (DDR2 800 Mhz) and the hard drives (200 GB, 80GB both WD) plus plenty of space elsewhere (laptop, USB HD's, and my NAS) and a PSU which will easily cope with all this.

Motherboard: Abit Fatal1ty FP-IN9 SLi nForce 650 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

Graphics Card: BFG GeForce 8600 GT OC 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

CPU: Undecided - Core 2 Duo of some description.

I'm looking to spend a Maximum of about £300 - motherboard is currently £82, Gfx Card is £92 which leaves me with about £126.

What, if anything would you change - or what alternatives would you suggest instead, and also what CPU would you go for, I want a cheap core 2 duo with plenty of OC'ing capability.

FYI: Old rig was ASRock 755Dual-VSTA (which was horrible!), 200 GB HD, 80 GB HD, 2GB 667Mhz RAM, HIS ATI Radeon x1650 Pro AGP 512MB IceQ

Cheers!

eyetrip · 5 Jul 2007 at 12:51

Firstly, jsut get the ocuk 8600gt for almost £20 less and oc yourself. Although if you are looking at the £95 range, you may be better off with x1950 pro.

CPU - just go with the e2140.

macdotnub · 5 Jul 2007 at 13:04

ffallic said:
Firstly, jsut get the ocuk 8600gt for almost £20 less and oc yourself. Although if you are looking at the £95 range, you may be better off with x1950 pro.

CPU - just go with the e2140.

Thanks for the suggestions, I'm not going to go with the ATI this time, as I've been extremely disappointed with ATI card performance before.

I take it the motherboard is OK then?

If so...

Mobotherboard: Abit Fatal1ty FP-IN9 SLi nForce 650 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E2140 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.60GHz (800FSB) - Retail

Cost £137 - which leaves me with £163

In that case is it worth going for a better nVidia Card such as a OcUK GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail or EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (320-P2-E811-AR) instead?

Ok, it's slightly over the £300 I wanted to spend (£320/£323 - plus P&P), but would it be worth it - or should I stick with the OcUK GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail? (£212 + P&P total)

eyetrip · 5 Jul 2007 at 13:18

You will see a huge improvement over the 8600gt going to a 8800 320mb.

But I would ask, do you have your heart set on getting an SLI board?

If not, I would suggest going with one of the P35 boards, bascially for their support up Intels next CPU's. There is an Abit for £76.

however, if you are wanting to stick with the 650 board and have the free cash, you can always get 2 8600gt's for about £150, and still be on budget. Apparently offers very close to 8800gts 320mb performance for slightly lower cost.

geezy · 5 Jul 2007 at 13:22

dont the p35's support crossfire?

if so, maybe a new ati card?

macdotnub · 5 Jul 2007 at 13:36

ffallic said:
You will see a huge improvement over the 8600gt going to a 8800 320mb.

But I would ask, do you have your heart set on getting an SLI board?

If not, I would suggest going with one of the P35 boards, bascially for their support up Intels next CPU's. There is an Abit for £76.

however, if you are wanting to stick with the 650 board and have the free cash, you can always get 2 8600gt's for about £150, and still be on budget. Apparently offers very close to 8800gts 320mb performance for slightly lower cost.

SLi is optional, but I'd like to have it for future upgrades.

Things I like about the Fatal1ty is the design, up to 32GB RAM support (provided of course you have a 64 Bit OS) and support for Dual/Quad Core CPUs.

By support for Intel's next CPUs, what exactly do you mean? What does the 650 not support that a P35 does?

If you stuck with the SLi board, would you go got 2 8600 gt's or a single 8800 gts?

Cheers.

eyetrip · 5 Jul 2007 at 14:23

The P35's officially supoprt Penryn processors which are coming out later this year.

Some people say that some of the 650 boards will be able to do so, but I decided not to base my decision on a maybe and went with a P35 board.

The 650's are still good boards though, but some are not too good at quad core overclocking - I had the Asus P5NE-sli and they are not too good with quads. The P35's exel here.

Personally, I have played with SLI for a bit, and had my fun with it, but will never go with it again. Single cards are just less hassle - although I have to say, I never really had any problems with SLI.

So personally, would I go for the single 8800 or SLI 8600? 8800, unless you really would like to save the extra £30 or so.

If you are only gaming at 1024 x 768 or something you might find one 8600gt will do you nicely for a little while. I have tried an 8600gt, and if you don't mind running without AA and medium settings one would be adequate.

At those sort of settings, games like Oblivion and F.E.A.R run well on the one card. All comes down to how much you want to spend.

macdotnub · 5 Jul 2007 at 15:12

geezy thanks for the input, yes some of the P35's support crossfire, but as I said I really don't want to go for ATI cards this time.

ffallic said:
The P35's officially supoprt Penryn processors which are coming out later this year.

Some people say that some of the 650 boards will be able to do so, but I decided not to base my decision on a maybe and went with a P35 board.

The 650's are still good boards though, but some are not too good at quad core overclocking - I had the Asus P5NE-sli and they are not too good with quads. The P35's exel here.

Personally, I have played with SLI for a bit, and had my fun with it, but will never go with it again. Single cards are just less hassle - although I have to say, I never really had any problems with SLI.

So personally, would I go for the single 8800 or SLI 8600? 8800, unless you really would like to save the extra £30 or so.

If you are only gaming at 1024 x 768 or something you might find one 8600gt will do you nicely for a little while. I have tried an 8600gt, and if you don't mind running without AA and medium settings one would be adequate.

At those sort of settings, games like Oblivion and F.E.A.R run well on the one card. All comes down to how much you want to spend.

Been looking at the P35 boards in more detail, it seems that (at least the ones I've seen) come with only one IDE connector, where as I'd need two, (one for the HD, one for the DVD-RW) so without purchasing an additional SATA to IDE connector they aren't suitable.

Also by the time I want to next re-build my PC (not just upgrade a a few components) I'll most likely be buying one of these, or whatever is the latest thing - and by that point a P35 board will undoubtedly be cheaper so I think for now, i'd probably be best sticking with a 650 based board, it has all the features I need for now, and the ability for SLi if I ever choose to go that way.

Thanks for all the input, I think I'm now happy with what I'm going to be buying!

Motherboard: Abit Fatal1ty FP-IN9 SLi nForce 650 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

Graphics Card: EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (320-P2-E811-AR)

CPU: Most likely a Intel Core 2 Duo E2140 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.60GHz (800FSB) - Retail - but for now i'm going to stick with my Pentium D 2.66 Ghz, just to see how everything performs with the new graphics card and motherboard!

Total Price for now: £279.92 including P&P.

~mac.nub

BAMBI · 5 Jul 2007 at 16:52

I wouldnt think too much in terms of upgradability as this time next year intels socket B is due.

macdotnub · 5 Jul 2007 at 17:33

BAMBI said:
I wouldnt think too much in terms of upgradability as this time next year intels socket B is due.

If I were to upgrade all I'd be doing is adding another Gfx card in SLi, and possibly a Quad Core 755 CPU and more ram in the future.

For anything else I'd be making a completely new rig from scratch, but that won't be for a few years (or at least until I have left university and have a proper Job) - student budgets suck.

~mac.nub