Is this any good?

bobboberts · 7 Jan 2008 at 00:17

Right, I want a new gaming system that will keep me going for a while and let me play my games as they are meant to be enjoyed (1900x1200 would be lovely), and have this as my starting setup:

Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKS) £55.99
(£65.79) £55.99
(£65.79)
Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Case - EarthWatts 500W PSU £61.99
(£72.84) £61.99
(£72.84)
OcUK GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - OEM £204.99
(£240.86) £204.99
(£240.86)
Abit IP35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £72.99
(£85.76) £72.99
(£85.76)
Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX (2x2GB) £61.99
(£72.84) £61.99
(£72.84)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2200 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.20GHz (800FSB) - Retail £50.99
(£59.91) £50.99
(£59.91)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00788) £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Tuniq Tower 120-LFB CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £22.99
(£27.01) £22.99
(£27.01)
Pioneer DVR-212DBK 18x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
(£21.14) £17.99
(£21.14)
Sub Total : £609.91
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £108.65
Total : £729.51

Here are my thoughts:

1. Will that all fit in a Sonata case, or should I be looking for something bigger (P182? 900?)
2. I'll be looking to o/c, but is the Tuniq fan overkill?
3. Is the onboard sound any good? It'll be connected to a 5.1 system. Would the IP35-E be just as good (I've never used Firewire)?
4. Is there anything glaringly obvious I'm missing/should change? Budget can be increased a bit if there is stuff I should really have?

steve258 · 7 Jan 2008 at 00:30

1. the Sonata case should be fine in terms of space, the PSU is enough for the GTX.

2. No Tuniq Tower is brilliant and it's essential if you want the best OC you can get with air cool.

3. Onboard sound is very good nowadays for general use and can easily accompany 5.1 speakers. You can do without a X-Fi if you don't care about sound effects in games.

4. Nothing really assuming you already have a monitor, kb & mouse.

bobboberts · 7 Jan 2008 at 14:23

Is there any decent improvement I would see if I say upped the budget to £900?

TheNuju · 7 Jan 2008 at 14:37

Well you could always improve the CPU if you had more budget and you may get a more stable system by adding a different PSU in and keeping the one that comes with the case as a spare ... You could even buy a second HDD and run them in RAID for increased disk performance.

A lot of choices really. RAID is a quick boost in file access speeds for very little cost now as HDD prices are dropping rapidly!

Mike

steve258 · 7 Jan 2008 at 16:25

If you have the extra £200 I'd be looking at a Q6600, a better case (Antec 900 / Lian Li PC7) with a seperate PSU (Corsair 520W...etc).

Admiral Huddy · 7 Jan 2008 at 16:27

Looks good to me.. Although I do agree with steve258 as posted above.

bobboberts · 7 Jan 2008 at 19:35

steve258 said:
If you have the extra £200 I'd be looking at a Q6600, a better case (Antec 900 / Lian Li PC7) with a seperate PSU (Corsair 520W...etc).

I was thinking about a Q6600, but figure that currently there isn't anything I'd really benefit from by having one, plus with the new ones coming out soon it may be something to upgrade maybe in 6 months - a year.

Also, does the Tuniq Tower come with thermal paste? In another thread I got the impression that it didn't?

steve258 · 7 Jan 2008 at 19:42

Yeah it's a good idea to just get an E2200 and overclock it until the new generation quad core comes out.

But it's still worth getting a seperate case and a decent PSU that will last you a long time.

Yes the Tuniq Tower comes with TX1 thermal paste but it's not nearly as good as the newer TX2 or AS5 or MX1.

caithomas44 · 7 Jan 2008 at 19:47

very nice, but if you can i would squeeze a q6600 in there

bobboberts · 7 Jan 2008 at 19:47

steve258 said:
Yeah it's a good idea to just get an E2200 and overclock it until the new generation quad core comes out.

But it's still worth getting a seperate case and a decent PSU that will last you a long time.

Yes the Tuniq Tower comes with TX1 thermal paste but it's not nearly as good as the newer TX2 or AS5 or MX1.

So are you saying I need better paste, or should it be good enough?

Case-wise then (and I was debating this anyway), my brief look around seems to suggest it would be down to one of the Antec 900, P182 or Lian Li PC7, is that about right? If so, which would be better for me (any help with noise reduction would be good in addition to good airflow)?

steve258 · 7 Jan 2008 at 22:44

Ideally you should put an additional AS5 on order.

Regarding the case it's really a matter of personal preference but all three you've mentioned are very good cases.