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- Joined
- 26 May 2008
- Posts
- 2
Hello,
I built my first self-build around 4 years ago, and now its too slow to cope with.
I am a moderate gamer, although recently haven't played much because my hardware is not up to scratch.
Examples of games I will be interested in playing with a new computer include Spore and Grid. I will be playing these games on a 22 inch TFT monitor with resolution of 1680*1050, but also have a secondary monitor which is 19" with resolution of 1440*900.
The PC will also be used as a HTPC. I have a TV tuner already, but this is not compatible with Vista 64 so I will be limited to Vista 32. I have a surround sound system which accepts 5.1 through the analog outputs of the motherboard.
The PC will also be used in moderation for video and photo editing.
I want to overclock it a bit, but not massively, so air cooling is fine.
I have a budget of around £600, although this is somewhat flexible if much better components are available for slightly more.
I probably don't need a new case, but might consider getting a new one if I have some spare cash as my current one is a very cheap one.
I have done a bit of research into components and have come up with the following core components which I think would be good:
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo, E8400, Wolfdale Core, S775, 3.0 GHz, 1333MHz, 6MB Cache, Retail £127.59
GPU: 512MB EVGA 8800GT PCI-E 2.0 (x16), Mem 1800MHz, GDDR3, GPU 600MHz, Stream 112, 2x DL DVI-I £126.77
Memory: 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-18 £58.33
Hard Drive: 1000 GB Samsung HD103UJ Spinpoint F1, SATA 300, 7200 rpm, 32MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ £99.63
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1* 32Bit 1Pk OEM (DVD) £60.50
DVD-Writer: Pioneer DVR-215BK 20x DVD±R, 10x DVD±DL, DVD + RW x8/-RW x6, DVD-RAM x12, SATA, Black, OEM £17.85
Questions I have:
What mobo and PSU should I get? What wattage PSU is sufficient, given that SLI wont be used probably. For the mobo, I don't need anything too fancy apart from 5.1 output for surround sound, and something which is easy to overclock.
I have only used ASUS mobo/GPU before, what are EVGA and the others like?
Is 800Mhz memory fast enough?
Can factory overclocked GPUs be overclocked further? If a factory over-clocked GPU is only a few pounds more than the base model which should I get?
Is this the right time to buy a new comp? Or should I wait a while for the next round of GPUs to come out?
General advice on the above components...
Thanks for your help!
I built my first self-build around 4 years ago, and now its too slow to cope with.
I am a moderate gamer, although recently haven't played much because my hardware is not up to scratch.
Examples of games I will be interested in playing with a new computer include Spore and Grid. I will be playing these games on a 22 inch TFT monitor with resolution of 1680*1050, but also have a secondary monitor which is 19" with resolution of 1440*900.
The PC will also be used as a HTPC. I have a TV tuner already, but this is not compatible with Vista 64 so I will be limited to Vista 32. I have a surround sound system which accepts 5.1 through the analog outputs of the motherboard.
The PC will also be used in moderation for video and photo editing.
I want to overclock it a bit, but not massively, so air cooling is fine.
I have a budget of around £600, although this is somewhat flexible if much better components are available for slightly more.
I probably don't need a new case, but might consider getting a new one if I have some spare cash as my current one is a very cheap one.
I have done a bit of research into components and have come up with the following core components which I think would be good:
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo, E8400, Wolfdale Core, S775, 3.0 GHz, 1333MHz, 6MB Cache, Retail £127.59
GPU: 512MB EVGA 8800GT PCI-E 2.0 (x16), Mem 1800MHz, GDDR3, GPU 600MHz, Stream 112, 2x DL DVI-I £126.77
Memory: 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-18 £58.33
Hard Drive: 1000 GB Samsung HD103UJ Spinpoint F1, SATA 300, 7200 rpm, 32MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ £99.63
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1* 32Bit 1Pk OEM (DVD) £60.50
DVD-Writer: Pioneer DVR-215BK 20x DVD±R, 10x DVD±DL, DVD + RW x8/-RW x6, DVD-RAM x12, SATA, Black, OEM £17.85
Questions I have:
What mobo and PSU should I get? What wattage PSU is sufficient, given that SLI wont be used probably. For the mobo, I don't need anything too fancy apart from 5.1 output for surround sound, and something which is easy to overclock.
I have only used ASUS mobo/GPU before, what are EVGA and the others like?
Is 800Mhz memory fast enough?
Can factory overclocked GPUs be overclocked further? If a factory over-clocked GPU is only a few pounds more than the base model which should I get?
Is this the right time to buy a new comp? Or should I wait a while for the next round of GPUs to come out?
General advice on the above components...
Thanks for your help!
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