I have nearly £1400 pounds to spend on a tower, have some ideas but need help

NeilCardiff

NeilCardiff

NeilCardiff

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I have spent the last week looking at possible ideas for my gaming PC.
I have changed my mind from the pre build I was after and now I want to build my own,

I want to overclock my system and these components come well recommended (except the ram),
if they actually offer great potential then I also need a motherboard to get the most out of them.

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.83GHz

2 x BFG GeForce GTX 260 OCX MAXCORE 896MB GDDR3, SLI

G.Skill 4GB DDR3 HZ PC2-12800C7 (2 x 2GB), 1600MHz CL 7-7-7-18 @ 1.9V

Asus Triton 81 Quiet CPU Cooler or Noctua NH-U12P

Antec 1200 Full Tower Case with Antec side panel GPU fan fitted.

I am new to overclocking so need some advice

I am not sure about the ram either, it has good latency but I’ve never
heard of the brand or overclocking potential.
Is ram overclocking a major advantage?

Also I want brilliant game performance and future proof components
so is ddr3 needed or can I do with the fastest ddr2,.
Does the fact that the gpu uses gddr3 matter with respect to mobo ram type?
I have also read about the frequency at which the CPU runs
affecting maximum ram frequencies/speeds, advice please.
If you could also recommend a good psu that can handle this
system for up to around £100.

There’s so much to consider and as a total newcomer to overclocking
I’m getting quite overwhelmed by the choice of components and possible compatibility issues.
Basically I want to build the fastest gaming tower I can for about £1400,
I have a dvdr and all peripherals, I have xp pro, but I don’t mind buying
vista on top if needed.

Possibly vista 64 to handle all the ram of the system (well over 5 gig as it is), dx10 etc?
Once I have a system with real potential to overclock I can spend
all the time I want reading up and tweaking,
I am looking forward to the challenge and would like an ideal platform
to learn on and develop some skills.

Please give me any thoughts you might have and any changes
I might make. Even if you think I should start from scratch, I am always open to ideas.
Neil
 
I was looking at the i7 920 with 3 gig triple chanel, Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5V mobo same gfx cards, but I was told it doersnt have much advantages in games, it was just much better at video etc.

Is the 920 the way to go, as the 940 is much more expencive for little improvement and the 965 is way too much

P.S. is the gigabyte a best mobo for i7 at the price?
 
This would be my choice for 1400 notes (based on what you have specced on)

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail £219.99
(£252.99) £219.99
(£252.99)
Asus P6T Deluxe Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard Asus P6T Deluxe Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £214.99
(£247.24) £214.99
(£247.24)
BFG GeForce GTX 260 OC MAXCORE 896MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail BFG GeForce GTX 260 OC MAXCORE 896MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £199.99
(£229.99) £399.98
(£459.98)
Antec 1200 Twelve Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black (No PSU) Antec 1200 Twelve Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black (No PSU) £124.99
(£143.74) £124.99
(£143.74)
Corsair 3GB DDR3 XMS3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz (3x1GB) Triple Channel DDR3 (TR3X3G1600C9) Corsair 3GB DDR3 XMS3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz (3x1GB) Triple Channel DDR3 (TR3X3G1600C9) £109.99
(£126.49) £109.99
(£126.49)
Corsair TX 750W ATX2.2 SLI Compliant PSU Corsair TX 750W ATX2.2 SLI Compliant PSU £69.99
(£80.49) £69.99
(£80.49)
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/LGA775) Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/LGA775) £29.99
(£34.49) £29.99
(£34.49)
Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
(£19.54) £16.99
(£19.54)
Sharkoon Silent Eagle 2000 120mm Fan - 3/4 Pin Sharkoon Silent Eagle 2000 120mm Fan - 3/4 Pin £6.99
(£8.04) £6.99
(£8.04)
Thermalright LGA1366 Bolt-Thru-Kit Thermalright LGA1366 Bolt-Thru-Kit £6.99
(£8.04) £6.99
(£8.04)
Sub Total : £1,200.89
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DHL Select Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.99
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £180.13
Total : £1,381.02
 
Not sure but some Staff Member here seem to denie an issue that even Mobo makers and Intel state (The Voltage increase from Memory affects CPU).

I ain't a kid or dumb and have had AMD64 rigs with Integrated Memory Controllers years ago and they never had this issue.

I bought 1st gen once and got nothing but trouble from it, let it mature unless your rich IMO.

The 1st Gen will also be old sooner rather than later, look at C2D FSB, going from 800 to 1066 to 1333 (1 is 1600).
 
I heard something about the memory voltage having a 1.65 v limit otherwise it could burn out the cpu, not good, BTW im not rich this is going to be it for a couple of years so i want to get the best I can without any hassles,

what do you think of the 9550 as a cpu, it has been around a while and surely has less potential issues, any other cpu you would recommend? i

f you have any ideas what would be a good mobo for me to use?

Grimley, have you heard of any issues with the i7?
 
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The newer 775 45nm Quads are good esp the new E0 Steppings.

A good 775 Rig is going to last you at least 2 years, a new gen GPU out soon will also cover you for this period.
 
Seems a bit backwards to only get 3GB RAM in a new high end system, regardless of whether it's fast triple channel.
 
I was going to go with 4 gig and possible upgrade later. with the 9550, yorkfield, but im even more confused than when i started.

Im really unsure about the i7 , it being so new, and i would rather be certain with so much money at stake.

Have you any other suggestions for a 775 cpu and a good mobo to go with it

that was another thing i want advice on should i go for ddr2 or ddr3. is ddr3 worth the extra at the moment ad will it be better than ddr2 iin time?
 
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2*Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2048MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.83GHz 12MB-cache (1333FSB) Processor - Retail
Asus P5QL-E Intel P43 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103UJ)
Antec NeoHE 550W Modular ATX2.0 PSU
Antec 900 Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black (No PSU)
2*OCZ Solid Series 30GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-1SLD30G)
GeIL 4GB (4x1GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Black Dragon DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GB24GB8500C5QC)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775)

1389.07 inc shipping...

Intel chipset on MB, so dual SSD in raid should give you blistering load times in games etc, just make the windows page file on the Samsung 1TB, along with all your other stuff etc...

You could go with a single G card the now, and double up later xfire, just check this MB has two 16x slots...

DDr3 aint worth the extra atm, and wouldnt have any noticable diff

I've probs underdone this cooling wise, but sure others will chip their opinions in...

what about checking out the tower build thread?
 
I would do something like this. I would def go i7 for that price.

4340_Untitled.jpg
 
OneTime said:
AcidHell2's spec is a good one. i7 with SLI 260GTX...obviously change the case if you don't like it.
Click to expand...

I agree.. why go for anything other than i7 atm if you can afford it?

Look at the benchmarks, they speak for themselves...

Plus.. at least if you have a 1366 motherboard with DDR3 then you are covering yourself for 18 months or so...
 
Thanks so much everyone, you have given me so many options. Looks like im going to be reading a lot of reviews.
thanks also for pointing at that thread will take a look .

I read a review of the zotac 260 and it doesn't overclock as much as the bfg but it is £100 cheaper for sli so i might go with that, if i go the 260 route
 
psykix said:
I agree.. why go for anything other than i7 atm if you can afford it?

Look at the benchmarks, they speak for themselves...

Plus.. at least if you have a 1366 motherboard with DDR3 then you are covering yourself for 18 months or so...
Click to expand...

Psykix your running an i7 rig, have you noticed any issues with it like the ones helmut was concerned about?
 
AcidHell2 said:
I would do something like this. I would def go i7 for that price.

Click to expand...

AcidHell2's spec is very good and I agree i7 is the way to go if you're building a brand new rig with that budget. Pretty much the same spec I'd chose except the case. :)

If you're spending £1.4k it might be worth waiting until January when apparently some new Nvidia and ATI graphics cards are coming out.
 
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