Gaming PC

Luke1987

Luke1987

Luke1987

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Joined
6 Feb 2006
Posts
13
Hey im a long time reader of these forums but ive never posted before. Im looking to build myself a new gaming rig and i have a few questions and would also like some feedback if theres anything i should change. I have around £950 to spend. I would also like to have a little go at overclocking :)

The current spec is:

CP-121-AM AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3700BNBOX) (CP-121-AM)
£137.95 £137.95
MB-014-DF DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-014-DF)
£84.95 £84.95
MY-046-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL)
£99.95 £99.95
CA-005-HP Hiper HPU-4K580-MK Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU - Black UV (CA-005-HP)
£51.95 £51.95
HD-023-WD Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 80GB 800JD SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-023-WD)
£33.95 £33.95
CA-012-TT Thermaltake VA3000BNA Tsunami Dream SuperMidi Aluminium Tower - Black (CA-012-TT)
£61.95 £61.95
GX-047-CO Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (3056) (GX-047-CO)
£304.95 £304.95
Subtotal £775.65
VAT £135.74
Total £911.39

I see there is a OEM 3700+ which is £20 cheaper both come with heatsink and fan but will the normal clock higher?

Any more suggestions of Mobo or Memory?

Is the X1900 XT worth the extra £££ over the X1800 XT?

The memory and case are on this weeks deals so any qucik replys would be great :)
 
The difference between OEM and retail processors is the heatsink - OEM CPUs just come in little plastic box (well, they used to!), retail CPU's come in some nice packaging with a bundled heatsink - get the OEM version if you're buying your own heatsink/fan basically :)

HTH
 
Luke1987 said:
I see there is a OEM 3700+ which is £20 cheaper both come with heatsink and fan but will the normal clock higher?
Click to expand...

just a note on this, i believe that its a typo on the website... if your buying an OEM processor you WONT get a "boxed retail version with heatsink/fan" as it says... you will simply just get the processor, which is why its cheaper.
as for overclocking, if you got EXACTLY the same thing retail and OEM, there should be no difference.

the motherboard is good, very nice for overclocking and lots of features with it too!

perhaps change from GeIL to something like G.Skill HZ, ZX or HS (ZX would be personal prefference) although that might stretch your budget but it would help with overclocking.

good spec overall though :)
 
Luke1987 said:
I see there is a OEM 3700+ which is £20 cheaper both come with heatsink and fan but will the normal clock higher?

Any more suggestions of Mobo or Memory?

Is the X1900 XT worth the extra £££ over the X1800 XT?

The memory and case are on this weeks deals so any qucik replys would be great :)
Click to expand...

IMO - For the money you're spending you should think about going dual core and definitely up th HDD to at least 160gb.

Memory is good and Mobo is the best currently available.

As for the Gfx card I dont think it's worth the extra, I am currently looking at a new rig myself and i'll be buying either a 7800gt or an X800XL cos the difference in performance between these two and the top cards is not really enough to justify the extreme price tag.
 
fenderbass86 said:
Don't you need any more space than the 80GB you've specced. Other than that, what a great spec! ;)
Click to expand...

I have my current 120gb drive which im going to use for stroage (music, videos ect ect). I specced this size SATA for just putting my windows installation and games on with it being a whole load faster than my current 120gb.

Would it be worth buying the OEM and spending the extra £20 on a better HSF to up my possible clocks? Any HSF for around £20 that you could recomend?

Im trying to keep the costs as low as possible so would changing to the GSkill ZX for the extra 30 odd quid really help my clocks that much considering im not looking to push it to the max?(im only a n00b :p ) just a nice overclock would do.
 
Monstermunch said:
IMO - For the money you're spending you should think about going dual core and definitely up th HDD to at least 160gb.

Memory is good and Mobo is the best currently available.

As for the Gfx card I dont think it's worth the extra, I am currently looking at a new rig myself and i'll be buying either a 7800gt or an X800XL cos the difference in performance between these two and the top cards is not really enough to justify the extreme price tag.
Click to expand...

Don't agree with this at all... I've gone from a X800GTO2 (running as a 850XT) to a X1800XT and the difference is VERY noticeable in games which push the graphics ( my favourite is EQ2 for this as the graphics in that are superb and even a X1900XT probably won't give good framerates at utterly max settings ).
 
Luke1987 said:
Would it be worth buying the OEM and spending the extra £20 on a better HSF to up my possible clocks? Any HSF for around £20 that you could recomend?
Click to expand...

yeah it would help as the stock ones, whilst are obviously decent - seem to be a little loud and not as efficient as they could be.

for £20? i strongly recommend the Artic Freezer 64 Pro :)

Im trying to keep the costs as low as possible so would changing to the GSkill ZX for the extra 30 odd quid really help my clocks that much considering im not looking to push it to the max?(im only a n00b :p ) just a nice overclock would do.
Click to expand...
it will help, but not HUGELY... the GeIL stuff is still very good memory and will still clock quite nicely :)
 
nikebee said:
yeah it would help as the stock ones, whilst are obviously decent - seem to be a little loud and not as efficient as they could be.

for £20? i strongly recommend the Artic Freezer 64 Pro :)


it will help, but not HUGELY... the GeIL stuff is still very good memory and will still clock quite nicely :)
Click to expand...

Well seeing as for the same price i can make my rig quieter i think ill just go for the OEM 3700+ and the Artic Freezer 64 Pro :)

I think im just going to stick with the GeIL if there isnt a huge difference. Im already using more ££ than than i should ;)
 
BigDom said:
Don't agree with this at all... I've gone from a X800GTO2 (running as a 850XT) to a X1800XT and the difference is VERY noticeable in games which push the graphics ( my favourite is EQ2 for this as the graphics in that are superb and even a X1900XT probably won't give good framerates at utterly max settings ).
Click to expand...

I think the question that needs to be asked is what monitor does he have.. bit pointless going for the x1900xt if he plays at 1280, probably not notice a huge difference against the x1800xt.
 
Madwelsh said:
I think the question that needs to be asked is what monitor does he have.. bit pointless going for the x1900xt if he plays at 1280, probably not notice a huge difference against the x1800xt.
Click to expand...

I have a 17" CRT which goes up to 1280 x 1024 but hopefully in a few months when i can spare the cash hopefully i can get a TFT.

At 1280 x 1024 i take it there wouldnt be much difference between the x1800xt and the x1900xt in FPS and overall visuals? Roughly how much longer do you think a x1900xt would last before an upgrade was needed compared to a x1800xt?
 
Luke1987 said:
I have a 17" CRT which goes up to 1280 x 1024 but hopefully in a few months when i can spare the cash hopefully i can get a TFT.

At 1280 x 1024 i take it there wouldnt be much difference between the x1800xt and the x1900xt in FPS and overall visuals? Roughly how much longer do you think a x1900xt would last before an upgrade was needed compared to a x1800xt?
Click to expand...
if your going to be gaming at 1280*1024 for a big part of the near future, then obviously the x1900 will last longer than if you were at huge resolutions.

you could say something like an x1900 is a bit overkill for 1280*1024 but it will mean you'll be playing games maxed out for quite some time hopefully, obviously its a good choice as well if you plan on buying a HUGE monitor as well.

good choice on going with the OEM 3700 and the Artic Freezer, pretty much the same as you'd pay for the retail processor but now you've got a much better fan too
icon14.gif
 
Madwelsh said:
I think the question that needs to be asked is what monitor does he have.. bit pointless going for the x1900xt if he plays at 1280, probably not notice a huge difference against the x1800xt.
Click to expand...

hehe I run windowed mode in all games possible - at 1280x1024 and had to shrink the window AND suffer slower frame rates at the settings I use now in EQ2.
 
nikebee said:
if your going to be gaming at 1280*1024 for a big part of the near future, then obviously the x1900 will last longer than if you were at huge resolutions.

you could say something like an x1900 is a bit overkill for 1280*1024 but it will mean you'll be playing games maxed out for quite some time hopefully, obviously its a good choice as well if you plan on buying a HUGE monitor as well.

good choice on going with the OEM 3700 and the Artic Freezer, pretty much the same as you'd pay for the retail processor but now you've got a much better fan too
icon14.gif
Click to expand...


Yeah i think ill stick with the X1900XT because hopefully i should be getting a nice big tft soon :) (when the buget allows :p ). Also for the extra £6 the X1900XT is costing over the PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB i might aswell get the newest tech.

Thanks for help everyone im hopefully going to be ordering tonight :D but if anyone has any other advice just throw it at me.
 
Best to get some. 1 tiny wafer thin daub of arctic silver, applied by putting a pin ***** slice of silver on a piece of plastic bag stretched over your finger (to create a smooth surface) and then spread so its is a really thin layer over the entire core should do a nice job.
 
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