I am looking at upgrading (rebuilding) my gaming pc and could do with a little advice. I am currently on a AMD FX-57, 7800gtx x2 PC. Which as you can imagine is starting to show its age quite badly.
I was really tempted by the overclocked Intel Core i7 920 as it is obviously a fantastic deal, and would provide me with a near top of the line new mobo, processor, heatsink and RAM for around £600.
So my first question is what is the difference between the Gigabyte and Asus motherboards bundled with the offer?, I know that the Asus boards generally carry a premium as to their superior quality and oc'ing ability, but looking at the specs they seem the same, are there any obvious differences I am missing?
Secondly how stable is the overclock?, not that I am doubting OcUK's ability but my PC generally gets left on 24/7, and what kind of warranty (if any) do you get with the OC'ed processors?
I got a new power supply less than 6 months ago so that should survive to the new build, its on the graphics department I am struggling to decide.
I am loathed to shell out loads of money on graphics cards as new ones tend to come out every 6 months and no sooner had I spent £300 each on my 7800gtx then they were out of date and rumours persist that DX11 is around the corner, however I am not going to play the waiting game.
Sli has been nothing but a waste of time for me as it has never been enabled, it is too much hassle and it rarely ever gives a performance boost.
However I do run 2 monitors and a TV (hdmi) off my graphics cards, and use them all regularly to watch video files and various other things. So if was to continue this would I have to get 2 cards? in Xfire or Sli, assuming there are no cards with 3 outputs. Would it be possible to run a new card along side my old 7800gtx just for 3 monitors not for Sli, or for this do the cards have to be the same core?
Anyway I am looking for ideally one card up to about £250, mainly for gaming. I was looking at the Asus ATI Radeon HD 4890 as it seems to give good performance at a decent price.
Optically i was looking at the Pioneer BDR-203BK or LG GGW-H20L unless anyone has any comment on this, I will go pioneer as there stuff is always top quality and its cheaper.
On the case front, I am undecided, I currently have a thermaltake Armour model, (about 4 years old). It is a full tower case so room isn't a problem, however if i am to get a i7 oc'ed to 4ghz, temperature/airflow might be. At the moment the case only has a 120mm fromt fan, an 80mm rear fan and a another smaller one for the hard drive cage. Is it worth the money to get a new case and if so where should i look for about £100-150. I was looking at Coolermaster RC-1000 or Antec 1200?
Finally, I am pretty sure on this but better check, I am currently running an OEM version of Vista Ultimate, obviously building a new PC, would I definetly require a new operating system? If so should I just download and run windows 7 RC untill it comes out?
If anyone can decipher my English
and has any comments I would be grateful
I was really tempted by the overclocked Intel Core i7 920 as it is obviously a fantastic deal, and would provide me with a near top of the line new mobo, processor, heatsink and RAM for around £600.
So my first question is what is the difference between the Gigabyte and Asus motherboards bundled with the offer?, I know that the Asus boards generally carry a premium as to their superior quality and oc'ing ability, but looking at the specs they seem the same, are there any obvious differences I am missing?
Secondly how stable is the overclock?, not that I am doubting OcUK's ability but my PC generally gets left on 24/7, and what kind of warranty (if any) do you get with the OC'ed processors?
I got a new power supply less than 6 months ago so that should survive to the new build, its on the graphics department I am struggling to decide.
I am loathed to shell out loads of money on graphics cards as new ones tend to come out every 6 months and no sooner had I spent £300 each on my 7800gtx then they were out of date and rumours persist that DX11 is around the corner, however I am not going to play the waiting game.
Sli has been nothing but a waste of time for me as it has never been enabled, it is too much hassle and it rarely ever gives a performance boost.
However I do run 2 monitors and a TV (hdmi) off my graphics cards, and use them all regularly to watch video files and various other things. So if was to continue this would I have to get 2 cards? in Xfire or Sli, assuming there are no cards with 3 outputs. Would it be possible to run a new card along side my old 7800gtx just for 3 monitors not for Sli, or for this do the cards have to be the same core?
Anyway I am looking for ideally one card up to about £250, mainly for gaming. I was looking at the Asus ATI Radeon HD 4890 as it seems to give good performance at a decent price.
Optically i was looking at the Pioneer BDR-203BK or LG GGW-H20L unless anyone has any comment on this, I will go pioneer as there stuff is always top quality and its cheaper.
On the case front, I am undecided, I currently have a thermaltake Armour model, (about 4 years old). It is a full tower case so room isn't a problem, however if i am to get a i7 oc'ed to 4ghz, temperature/airflow might be. At the moment the case only has a 120mm fromt fan, an 80mm rear fan and a another smaller one for the hard drive cage. Is it worth the money to get a new case and if so where should i look for about £100-150. I was looking at Coolermaster RC-1000 or Antec 1200?
Finally, I am pretty sure on this but better check, I am currently running an OEM version of Vista Ultimate, obviously building a new PC, would I definetly require a new operating system? If so should I just download and run windows 7 RC untill it comes out?
If anyone can decipher my English
and has any comments I would be grateful
