Building £1,400 gaming machine: Need advice

neithcat

neithcat

neithcat

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My Dell xps gaming laptop has died on me, so I've decided to build a powerful desktop PC. This is what I've come up with, after a lot of research over the past 2 weeks. I was hoping some of you guys wouldn't mind commenting on the parts I have chosen, let me know if there would be any compatibility issues, or if I'm missing something. I'm not sure about the power supply either, I would like to be able to run 2 4870x2s in crossfire eventually which must require a lot of power.

The purpose for the computer will be primarily for gaming, but I've also just started going to uni for a computer science degree that will eventually focus on game development and graphics, so I would benefit from having the computing power for that too.

Here are the components:

Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2048MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail
Samsung SM-2443BW 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black
Asus Rampage Formula Intel X48 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 Dominator PC2-8500C5 TwinX (2x2GB)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM
Hiper Osiris Case - Silver
Corsair TX 750W ATX2.2 SLI Compliant PSU
Saitek Cyborg Illuminated Gamers Keyboard - Multi-Colour Backlight
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM
Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM

Total cost including VAT and shipping: £1,423.50

Any comments or advice would be appreciated.
 
For that kind of budget maybe you should try going for an i7 system. Or if you are mindset on a Core 2 system, go for something better than a Q6000.
 
I would go for a Asus P5E Deluxe rather than the rampage formula as there are a lot of gimiky features that do not get used and the P5ED Is just as stable. I would go with a E8500/8600 as they can be run at 4ghz/4.5ghz pretty easily on that board with a good air cooler like the Tuniq.

Also i think the 750w Corsair Is a bit overkill. Go with the 620w as thats Modular and the 750w isnt.

And finally if you are good with backing up/archiving then i would go for 3 x 160Gb and run in RAID 5. Makes a decent improvement disk access and loading games/levels...
 
lunarwolf said:
since this gaming spec you want

1. get a e8xxx dual core; higher clock will benefit more than extra cores for games
Click to expand...

Debatable surely...

Maybe so for older games (but difference unnoticable), questionable for forthcoming games?
 
As your gaming possibly look at the E8XXX range, and possibly look at the Corsair 620w or 650w PSU, the 620w vs is modular.
 
Im not sure its right to plan to upgrade to a 2nd 4870x2.

1 4870x2 would be overkill on 24", never mind crossfire. A Q6600 would bottleneck on a 4870x2 crossfire aswell. Bearing that in mind, if you do want a 2nd x2 then you will need another monitor and cpu if you do go down that road.
 
EvilOne said:
Im not sure its right to plan to upgrade to a 2nd 4870x2.

1 4870x2 would be overkill on 24", never mind crossfire. A Q6600 would bottleneck on a 4870x2 crossfire aswell. Bearing that in mind, if you do want a 2nd x2 then you will need another monitor and cpu if you do go down that road.
Click to expand...

Save yourself £600 and just get a Q6600 and a standard 4870... :)
 
As others have said I'd look at spending a little less on the motherboard. The P5Q range for instance are great overclockers and really wouldn't hold you back at all.

And I wouldn't plan to get a second card either. Really you won't need one for 2 years if you get the 4870x2 and by that stage there'll be another single card solution along to fulfill all your needs much better then a second 4870x2 could.

And I'd look at the E8500 and OC that up past 4Ghz. It'd run a lot faster in games then the Q6600 would.

I won't say I know a load about future game engines but from my modest knowledge of their inner workings I'd say that 2 fast cores are better then 4 slower cores and will be for quite some time. Until we get true multi-core rendering then that's not going to change. And multi-core rendering is only mentioned in DX11 so no need to hold your breath for that :)
 
Darg said:
And I'd look at the E8500 and OC that up past 4Ghz. It'd run a lot faster in games then the Q6600 would.
Click to expand...

Possibly... Maybe...

Eg:-

So current games:-
E8500 = 200fps
E6600 = 160fps

Future games making better use of multicores?
E8500 = 30fps
E6600 = 45fps

In L4D I can see all the cores being used heavily...
 
tbh, i wouldnt change the op's spec.

just makes ure you have decent cooling, and u could get that chip 3.8GHz+

mbaye save money on the motherboard unless you defo plan to go quadfire with 2 x 4870x2's.
 
EdGey said:
just makes ure you have decent cooling, and u could get that chip 3.8GHz+
Click to expand...

Hmmm... From what I've seen/read - unless you're going mad - 3.2->3.4 are likely, 3.6 is less likely... 3.8...? MY Q6600 runs at 3.4 with just a minor voltage increase, nothing else required.... I'm happy with that :)
 
Thanks for the responses, I have much more to think about now.

The 2 major changes I'm considering now are to get an Asus P5Q Pro instead of the rampage formula, saving me £80.

Then changing the Q6600 to a E8600 which will cost £36 more.

I could also lower the power supply wattage to 600ish.

The mobo and power supply changes assume that I will not ever be running crossfire video cards on this system.

Here are links to the parts.

Asus P5Q Pro Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 LGA775 'Wolfdale' "Overclocking E0 Stepping" 3.33GHz (1333FSB) - Retail

I was very impressed with everything I had read about the rampage formula mobo, but to be realistic the luxuries it offers would probably be wasted on me. Still a tough choice.
 
OP! I have the exact same setup apart from the motherboard (i have the one that you linked in your latest post)
Im really happy with my system. Get a cooler cause your 4870x2 will average 18fps on Crysis (Very high on 1680x1050) because the Q6600 really does bottleneck, and reduces the performance of your card.
 
neithcat said:
Which cpu cooler would you guys recommend?
Click to expand...

Are you getting the hiper case?

I got the Noctua NH-U12P cooler, and then changed all the case fans & the Noctua's to the hiper blue chrome fans :)

They're the same as the case fans already in the Hiper, just blue LED chrome :)
 
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