Looking for advice/suggestions on a new build

[Viglione]

I was hoping to put off getting a new system till next year, but at the moment I think my current rig is on the way out, and basically if this computer dies before I know what I'm getting in a new one, then I'm screwed. (Here's what's wrong if anyone's interested)

Anyway, about what I'm looking for, first off I'm not a big PC gamer, I spend most of my time browsing the web and watching BBC iPlayer. Most of the time when gaming at the moment it's WoW, and the majority of the gaming done on the new rig will be WoW with the new expansion, probably the new Star Wars MMO Bioware are working on, and I'd really like to play Dragon Age: Origins on it too.

I'm not really looking to spend more than about £2000 overall, but I really like the idea of a quiet water cooled system as the fans in my current rig are kinda loud, the trouble is that the water cooled system I'm currently looking at puts me over budget by about £400. Anyway, here are the basics of the two systems I'm looking at, one is WC and over budget, the other is air cooled and on budget:

WC
Case: Silverstone TJ10B (Non-windowed version, I really like this case, but I'm open to suggestions)
PSU:650 Corsair HX Series Modular PSU
CPU: Intel i7 920
MoBo: Asus Rampage II Extreme
RAM: 6GB Corsair Dominator, PC3-12800
GPU: 896MB XFX GTX 275
System HDD: 300 GB Western Digital VelociRaptor
OS: Windows 7 (unsure as to which version to go for)

AC
Case: Silverstone TJ10B
PSU:650 Corsair HX Series Modular PSU
CPU: Intel i7 950
MoBo: Asus Rampage II Extreme
RAM: 6GB Corsair Dominator, PC3-12800
GPU: 1GB XFX HD 5850
System HDD: 300 GB Western Digital VelociRaptor
OS: Windows 7

Any suggestions about what GPU, version of Windows 7, etc are most welcome, but basically the question I'm asking is if it's worth going for a less powerful and over budget water cooled rig, or the more powerful air cooled one? I mean are there quiet enough case fans and acoustic padding so that I wouldn't really notice?

 

[dangerstat]

I was hoping to put off getting a new system till next year, but at the moment I think my current rig is on the way out, and basically if this computer dies before I know what I'm getting in a new one, then I'm screwed. (Here's what's wrong if anyone's interested)

Anyway, about what I'm looking for, first off I'm not a big PC gamer, I spend most of my time browsing the web and watching BBC iPlayer. Most of the time when gaming at the moment it's WoW, and the majority of the gaming done on the new rig will be WoW with the new expansion, probably the new Star Wars MMO Bioware are working on, and I'd really like to play Dragon Age: Origins on it too.

I'm not really looking to spend more than about £2000 overall, but I really like the idea of a quiet water cooled system as the fans in my current rig are kinda loud, the trouble is that the water cooled system I'm currently looking at puts me over budget by about £400. Anyway, here are the basics of the two systems I'm looking at, one is WC and over budget, the other is air cooled and on budget:

WC
Case: Silverstone TJ10B (Non-windowed version, I really like this case, but I'm open to suggestions)
PSU:650 Corsair HX Series Modular PSU
CPU: Intel i7 920
MoBo: Asus Rampage II Extreme
RAM: 6GB Corsair Dominator, PC3-12800
GPU: 896MB XFX GTX 275
System HDD: 300 GB Western Digital VelociRaptor
OS: Windows 7 (unsure as to which version to go for)

AC
Case: Silverstone TJ10B
PSU:650 Corsair HX Series Modular PSU
CPU: Intel i7 950
MoBo: Asus Rampage II Extreme
RAM: 6GB Corsair Dominator, PC3-12800
GPU: 1GB XFX HD 5850
System HDD: 300 GB Western Digital VelociRaptor
OS: Windows 7

Any suggestions about what GPU, version of Windows 7, etc are most welcome, but basically the question I'm asking is if it's worth going for a less powerful and over budget water cooled rig, or the more powerful air cooled one? I mean are there quiet enough case fans and acoustic padding so that I wouldn't really notice?

It's all relative mate, depends on how much you value quiet machines. I couldn't open the link you posted. In terms of version of W 7, I'd be tempted to just stick an RC on there for the time being until W 7 goes though the likely "OMFG there's loads of security holes lets release a service pack" stage. There's nothing in your post (unless I'm misreading it) that explains the need for two PC's.

Playing Iplayer etc is something an Atom or basic Celeron can cope with so if you only need one box for gaming (if there's only one of you?) then I'd be tempted in your case to get very low power Atom based machine for all your generic browsing, and a spec i7 box for your gaming and then a KVM swtich so you can control either from your keyboard, mouse, monitor combination.

 

[Viglione]

It's all relative mate, depends on how much you value quiet machines. I couldn't open the link you posted.

Ah, I think that might be because of the site it links to, it was just the forums so I thought it'd be ok, never mind, I'll quote it:

I turned on my computer at about 2pm today, when it was last on about 6 hours before then it had been working fine. After it had been on for a couple minutes the keyboard and mouse (both connected through PS2) stopped responding, the keyboard wouldn't even light up the caps LED when I tried it, but the laser on the mouse was still on, but again not responding to clicking or moving. I hit restart, but the screen would just go blank and not restart, the computer would still be "on", but not responding to the power button or outputting to my monitor or anything. After turning off the PSU and then trying again it started up eventually, but again after a minute or so the mouse and keyboard stopped responding. I switched the mouse over to USB and it worked, and after starting the on screen keyboard the physical one started responding again.

I decided to do a restart with the mouse still in USB and the keyboard in PS2, again the mouse responds, and this time the keyboard has continued working too. The problem came when I turned the computer off, I powered down and then tried to turn it back on and had the problem I had before, the computer powered up, but wouldn't output any signal, even the light that shows the computer is connected to my router was off and it took multiple attempts at turning the PSU off and on again to get the computer to properly start.

Any help would be very much appreciated!

In terms of version of W 7, I'd be tempted to just stick an RC on there for the time being until W 7 goes though the likely "OMFG there's loads of security holes lets release a service pack" stage. There's nothing in your post (unless I'm misreading it) that explains the need for two PC's.

So from my problem, it's not so much that I'd be getting two computers, I'm just kinda worried at the moment that if I turn this one off, it won't come back on again. As for W7, that's pretty much the reason I was going to wait till next year, but like I said, with this computer as it is, my hand has kinda been forced.