First custom made gaming/multimedia rig – help welcome!

hey_barn

hey_barn

hey_barn

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5 Sep 2006
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13
OK, always wanted to build my own custom PC system and now have the budget and competent workmate (to guide me) to make it a reality :-] Have pretty much decided on the following (unless halted here from advice):

£634.49 Monitor: Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey (MO-009-DE)
£93.99 Case: Antec P180 Advanced Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Black) (CA-049-AN)

And now need help and advice on building the rest of the machine - really open to some knowledgeable recommendations! Friend uses ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X but I was looking at the GeForce 7950 GX2. Rest of it pretty open really – heard AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ was very good, but hey maybe I’ll just see what you experts can say. Here’s my initial attempt:

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£634.49 Monitor: Ultrasharp 2407WFP 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey (MO-009-DE)

£93.99 Case: Antec P180 Advanced Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Black) (CA-049-AN)

£352.49 Graphics card: BFG GeForce 7950 GX2 1024MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-022-BG)

£199.74 Motherboard CPU: ?help? AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4800+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA4800CDBOX) (CP-129-AM)

£55.17 Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB ST3250620A ATA-100 16MB Cache (HD-087-SE)

Memory RAM: ?help?

Power supply: ?help?

Soundcard: ?help?

£25.79 DVD-RW Drives: NEC ND4570 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-030-NE)

£55.17 Speakers: JBL Creature II 2.1 Speakers - (Black or Red) Retail (SP-006-HK)

£62.26 Operating system: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk (N09-01528) (OS-001-MS)
£25.84 Keyboard: Microsoft Laser Mouse 6000 - Retail (KB-056-MS)
£32.89 Mouse: Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 (KB-055-MS)
£26.97 Switch: Netgear GS605 5-Port Gigabit Desktop Switch (NW-100-NG)

--- --- --- --- --- ---

MAIN USES: Flash animation and detailed vector and Photoshop illustration/design + lots of GAMING (want it to be amazing!) & DVD watching.
OVERALL BUDGET: £2000 (so approx £1300 left after monitor & case).

Bring it on with many thx!

NB please excuse pricing and spelling mistakes – hammering this out at work :)

PS actually just laughed whilst drinking my tea – “hey_barn Thug” hehe...
 
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In my opinion you would be better off looking at a system based around the new Intel chips.

I would go for the E6000 Core2 Duo and a Gigabyte DS3/4 or the Asus P5B board.
 
Sounds card wise get a Creative X-Fi, i went for the Platinum, although they are not on sale in the UK officially, OcUK got mine from Germany. Going by the box. :D

Tagan seem to be the in thing for psu, you will want between 500-600 watts.

Ram wise 2Gb of whatever works with the motherboard you get. It seems the latest Intel boards are picky about which ram to use, for a good idea on mobos and ram look at the bundles section, if the mobo you get is in there, get the ram OCuk have paired with it. :)

The ATI 1900XTX is not worth the price hike over the XT - I would say get an HIS 1900XT and if you want to clock her up slightly to XTX speeds if you can. The Geforce 7950 is a good, if very expensive card, are you trying to out do your friend or just have more money than know what to do with it ? If you want it get it, it will come in handy on a 24' screen though. :D

I would use the money saved from the 7950 to get a pair of Seagate Barracuda 10 320Gb hard drives instead of the one 250Gb hard drive as games eat up space, quickly, espcially the likes of BF2, the patch for it is about 500mb.
And it runs oh so smooth on a 1900XT. :p
 
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Definately go with the Conroe. The 6600 is probably your best bet as it has the extra cache. It may be more expensive than the 939 X2 4800 but it will absolutely massacre it with everything you throw at it. Have a read of the Conroe threads to see about matching components. 939 is dead now so you will be stuck with a rig that you can't upgrade and parts that you would'nt be able to carry over to the likes of AM2.

I agree with the X1900XT-X not being worth the extra price premium over the XT. The XT will easily clock to XT-X speeds and is considerably cheaper too. As you are having such a huge monitor you may see a benefit from the 7950 but remember that not all games make use of Sli.
 
Some fast and great responses here, so wow, cheers. Checking out Conroe now and the bundle deals. Keep it coming, more from me soon, but first coffee... :D
 
Gigabyte GA_965P_DS4 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
£104.99

Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
£197.99

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit
£149.99

HIS ATI Radeon X1900 XT ICEQ 3 SILENT Heatpipe 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
£194.99

NEC ND3550 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM
£19.95

Gigabyte G-Power Pro (Socket A/754/939/478/775) Cooler
£23.50

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB ST3250620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
£49.95

Western Digital Raptor 74GB WD740GD 10,000RPM SATA 8MB Cache - OEM
£87.95

Tagan TG600-U25 600W ATX2.0 Dual Engine Silent SLi Compliant Silent PSU
£81.99

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music - OEM
£49.50

Lian-Li PC-S80B Black Aluminium Full Tower Case
£148.95

Viewsonic VX2235wm 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black
£314.99

Logitech MX 5000 Laser Cordless Bluetooth 2.0 Desktop Combination
£79.99

JBL Creature II 2.1 Speakers - (Black) Retail
£46.95

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk
£52.99

Netgear GS605 5-Port Gigabit Desktop Switch
£22.95

Subtotal £1,627.62
VAT £284.84
Total £1,912.46

Here you are mate, this should do the trick. the sound card is very good for £50 but the speakers will be holding you back, you would be better off buying a better set of speakers, the jbl ones look good but dont produce much high quality sound really. It wouldnt be making use of that X-fi card.

The dell monito u mentioned is nearly £700, you would be better off getting 22" for around £350 and putting the other money somewhere else into the comp. Have a look at the one i mentioned, meant to be a v.good monitor

Alex :p
 
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CP-128-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-128-IN)
£197.99 £197.99
MB-152-AS Asus P5W DH Deluxe WiFi (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-152-AS)
£129.99 £129.99
GX-053-HT HIS ATI Radeon X1900 XT ICEQ 3 SILENT Heatpipe 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-053-HT)
£194.99 £194.99
HD-079-SE Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB ST3250620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-079-SE)
£49.95 £49.95
CD-030-NE NEC ND4570 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-030-NE)
£21.95 £21.95
BU-000-AK Akasa Eclipse 62 Aluminium Case & Window (BU-000-AK)
CA-006-AK Akasa Eclipse 62 Window Side Panel (CA-006-AK) 1
CA-005-AK Akasa Eclipse 62 Aluminum Case (CA-005-AK) 1
£82.90 £82.90
CA-024-EN Enermax Liberty 620W ELT620AWT ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CA-024-EN)
£89.99 £89.99
MO-009-DE Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey (MO-009-DE)
£539.99 £539.99
KB-069-LG Logitech G5 Gaming-Grade Laser Mouse - Retail (KB-069-LG)
£33.99 £33.99
MY-058-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) (MY-058-GL)
£149.99 £149.99
KB-055-MS Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 (KB-055-MS)
£27.99 £27.99
OS-001-MS Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk (N09-01528) (OS-001-MS)
£52.99 £52.99

Subtotal £1,572.71
VAT £275.23
Total £1,847.94
 
Will both the HIS ATI Radeon X1900 XT ICEQ 3 SILENT Heatpipe 512MB and the BFG GeForce 7950 GX2 1024MB work happily with the following bundle???

CPU: Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-128-IN)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA_965P_DS4 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-062-GI)
Memory RAM: GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) (MY-058-GL)

One again, thanks for responses – very excited and a wee bit nervous, but all good! Planning away here, many lists...
 
Will the following:

CPU: Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-128-IN)
Motherboard: Asus P5N32-SLi SE Deluxe nForce4 SLi X16 (Socket 775) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-174-AS)

Fit correctly with:

Memory RAM: Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) (MY-108-CS)

???
 
FYI, I have my HIS IceQ3 X1900XT clocked beyond XT-X using ATI overdrive utility. This is a very nice and quiet card. After hours of heavy gaming the GPU temps reach around 71°C and the fan has never kicked in at the higher and noisier speeds..... Except during boot when it sounds like a very powerful vacuum cleaner for abour 3 seconds. But that could be all 6 fans in my system hitting their max rotation at boot :D After 3 seconds it is all very quiet, even with my case open to assist the cooling of my rather heavily O/C'd E6400. I sit with PC under desk and it doesn't impinge on my watching of TV or DVD's, even with the side panel removed.

As for other components you have two very good systems specced by other posters. I can't improve on that. Just thought I would mention how happy and impressed I am with the HIS IceQ3. imho, bang for buck it eats the GeForce 7950 GX2.

I have read of no compatability issues between the components you mentioned. The corsair *should* be OK with that mobo/processor. There is probably someone here with actual experience of that combination, they would be more qualified than I to confirm this.

If you want to watch DVD's think about getting a 5.1 or 7.1 speaker system to hook up to that Creative card. The sound stage created by a good speaker set up is amazing. You are in the movie my friend ;) It all happens before you, beside you, and behind you.

good luck with your new build :)
 
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