Help for a new build to be built mid January 07

[GraemePaul]

Hello Folks,

I am currently backpacking around Thailand but I will be back in Guernsey (Channel Islands) Early January 07.

Now my old build as you can see by my Sig is a little long in the tooth and I want to either build a new system or get a pre-built system from this site.

I have no intentions to overclock this system to begin with but I may do so as I get more confident with my own abilities.

What I need is:

A large, good quality Widescreen LCD screen. I was looking at the 24" BenQ

Good Graphics. DX10 is not nessisary at this point but the ability to upgrade into it is. I also want a silent solution on the Graphics Card. It does not have to be a passive heatsink, an Artic Cooler or similar is sufficent. I have always liked Nvidia in this area. Especially as the 7900 series runs cooler than the X1900's (that said the X1900's are more capible cards). This is to be a single card solution. No SLi or Crossfire (at least to begin with). The games it will be playing are CS:S, Oblivion, Warhammer Online and when they are out, Quake Wars: Enemy Territory, Hellgate London and Stalker.

Core 2 Duo. This does not need to be the top model. I was looking at the 6600 for Price vs performance.

SATA II HDD. I dont need either a Raptor or a Raid Array but a solid performer with good reliablilty and speeds. around 250 - 300GB

A nice Sexy case with above all excellent airflow. I was looking at the Antec 900.

A good Reliable PSU. Is Tagen still considered the best for Performace?

2GB of RAM. I prefer high quality low latencey modules.

Good Optical Drives. Not Interested in either Blu Ray or HD DVD at this stage. A DVD RW is fine.

Floppy Drive... Are these still used?

Card Reader - For my Camera SD memory Card as well as moving files around.

Sound - On board is usually Good enough. Anything with Intel HD Audio. However is it worth using a seperate Soundcard?

Speakers. A good 5:1 soution. I usually use creative for this.

Motherboard. My choice of MB will decide my choice of GPU is the Intel chipsets worth using or is the Nvidia 680i better for my needs.

I am looking at a Budget of around 1,500 pounds (thank god for Tax rebates) and note that as a Channel Island resident I do not pay the VAT of 17.5%. As a final note I intend to buy everthing I need off this site as of all the PC Etailers I have used Overclockers are the most reliable.

Thanks for your time folks.

Graeme

 

[GraemePaul]

Cheers for the spec Trigger.

I was also doing some speculative builds myself and I have come to the conclusion that it might be the wrong time right now to start putting together a new system.

My reasons being

R600 is not out yet and no one knows what the performace of this will be so at the moment G80 is the only DX10 soultion and I dont like the current high end cards for DX9c.

AMD will be releasing their answer to Conroe and it will be interesting to see what they come up with.

Motherboards and memory at the moment are confusing the hell out of me. When I built my original AMD Barton system I did not have to worry too much about this. It was a matter of getting an NForce 2 Chipset and some PC3200 DDR Dual Channel Ram.

If I ever wanted to go for Dual Graphics I am restricted to which Chipsets I use and in the case of the NForce 680i if I use a Nvidia GPU I get slight increases in performace. Would I get a decrease in performace if I used a ATi card?

I know this is a bit like a chicken and Egg question. And it does not matter when you build your PC as there is always something better around the corner. However just looking at the hardware market I wonder if it may be better waiting till end of Q1 07 as the hardware market will be a little more certain then.

Cheers for any replies

Graeme