Ho Ho Ho, Build Advice Please :)

[Absomalutely]

Hey Guys,

I've decided to build myself a casual gaming rig to play (mostly) TF2 and Source Games, although I do occasionaly do some photoshop work etc too. I'm on a fairly tight budget of around £650, but I already have a 22inch 226BW, keyboard, mouse etc.

Ideally, I want to play TF2 at native res 1680x1050 with the eye candy

I've built a fair few machines, so it would be nice if this is as future proof as possible (looking to buy a new quad when they finally arrive next year). A fairly quiet machine is favourable.

I've had a quick flick through and I've come up with the current build:


Qty Price Line Total
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3250410AS) £38.99
(£45.81) £38.99
(£45.81)
Asus DRW-1814BL 18x DVD±RW IDE Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - Retail £16.99
(£19.96) £16.99
(£19.96)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail £49.99
(£58.74) £49.99
(£58.74)
Abit IP35 Pro (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £104.99
(£123.36) £104.99
(£123.36)
OCZ StealthXStream 600w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply £49.99
(£58.74) £49.99
(£58.74)
Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case £61.99
(£72.84) £61.99
(£72.84)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775) £14.99
(£17.61) £14.99
(£17.61)
OcUK GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £139.99
(£164.49) £139.99
(£164.49)
Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX (2x2GB) £64.99
(£76.36) £64.99
(£76.36)
Sub Total : £542.91
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £97.28
Total : £653.14

Will the above RAM/Mobo config be ok for the current build as well as a new spangly quad core as and when they arrive?

Any Other Suggestions?

Thanks peeps

 

[semi-pro waster]

It is all compatible although I'd be tempted to drop the motherboard to simply the IP35 and put the money towards a better cooler - either the Tuniq Tower or Noctua NH-U12F would be good choices.

I'd change the DVDRW to a SATA model - NEC, Pioneer and Samsung do suitable models.

Finally I might change the PSU to a Corsair HX 520w but that might be mainly down to personal preference.

 

[Absomalutely]

Thanks, I've made those changes

Is the 520Watt corsair likely to be future proof? Or should I consider a slightly higher rated PSU?

 

[semi-pro waster]

Systems are tending towards being more power efficient rather than less at the moment so I'd say the HX 520w should be fine and it is a very well built PSU, I perhaps wouldn't use it for a high end dual graphics card system but that is about the only thing I wouldn't use it for.

 

[Absomalutely]

Ah cool thats fine, I'm not after a SLI system at any point tbh !