Multimedia PC for £2500? Spec advice please

Spon

Spon

Spon

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Joined
9 Jan 2003
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243
Hi Guys,

Its coming up to new build time and looking at the possibility / practicality of all-in-one multimedia setup for my flat after the July quad core price drop.

Budget £2500.00

Vista 64 bit quad core O/C games machine 24"+ W/S
HD TV / HD Home theatre
Music THX/Dolby sound 5.1
Console use at 1080p if possible?
As quiet running and good value as is practical considering requirements:-

Monitor: I lean towards LCD monitors over HDTV's for high res gaming, but can be persuaded otherwise considering the costs. 24" widescreen upwards, not too large as it will be used for desktop comp work/games (at 3 to 5 feet back) as well as viewing TV/DVD's at 10 - 15 feet. Needs to be able to handle high definition
TV/DVD's/console use (PS3). Sound will be handled separately so that’s not important. I'm hearing 1080p is the new standard is this possible with a PC setup?

CPU - Intel Quad core after price drop (I estimate around £300+ do you agree?).

Mobo/Ram - Will be overclocking so happy to pay more for a good mobo and good stable RAM. I here more than 3 gig RAM is counter productive is that true?

Graphics - Need guidance here. Needs to handle high res to a 24" monitor or higher. The 8800 GTX seems the best to go for but I’m not sure how the new AMD cards are being received? I'd rather not go SLi due to cost/budget.

TV - I've never used a PC for TV but I’m guessing a separate tuner card is needed. I have Telewest cable TV ATM so it'll need to handle that input then display through the graphics card?

Drives - Fast access for the OS (Raptors?) and a second large drive for data storage? Standard DVD drive as I’ve found I never backup to disk. I hope to use a PS3 for Blu-ray?

Cooling - The big one, I want to try my first water cooling setup. Whilst i understand that you can get all in one kits to this I read (like PC building) its best to hand pick the cooling components yourself for best results? Any advice here would be greatly appreciated.

Case/PSU – I’m going to need a PSU with enough power for everything with some left over for later additions. A good practical case with functional access (I prefer function over fashion. No pretty lights for me)

Mouse/keyboard etc... - I liked my old intelimouse and the razor I’ve being using since. I see there is a HABU mouse combining the two so that a no-brainer unless you suggest otherwise?
Keyboard wise I'm not fussy, just a good responsive one for gaming. Wireless is not necessary (I hate buying batteries) I hear Sietex are good?

Sound/Amp/Speakers - I want a good sound setup for gaming/movies etc.. I'm a firm believer in a stand alone sound card over on board sound so a Creative card seems a no brainer? I currently have a set of Logitech Z-640 6 Surround Sound speakers but would consider an upgrade if needed. My main thoughts are on handling all multimedia outputs and wondered if I should consider a small Amp to plug in the consoles, tv etc...?

Software - Vista Ultimate. - I know its taking its usual time to get up to speed but since im upgrading i might as well take the plunge and a few months of pain until the DX10 games start appearing. I'm currently running win 2K.if you can believe that :)

One last concern is the generated heat and component reliability as the system would be running quite a lot of the time for its various uses. Do you think it’s a practical to use an overclocked PC for all this?

It seems I’ve rambled on a bit here sorry. I’d love to hear any pointers of advice :)

Thanks
Ian
 
stickroad said:
An Hour later..................... :p :D
Click to expand...
Pretty much! :p

Anyway, here goes:
specqd4.png

That's everything but the watercooling kit. OcUK didn't seem to stock some of the bits I see as being highly recommended so I left them out. £200 headroom should be sufficient to sort your cooling. I'm no watercooling expert but I suppose the following wouldn't hurt.
D-tek fusion
DD Dualbay res
DDC ultra 18w with plexitop.
Thermochill PA 120.3
DD Clearflex 60 tubing 1/2
DD & EK highflow barbs all round

I'd also like to include the Silverstone Temjin TJ-07 case as it's perfect for watercooling but OcUK doesn't stock them so I included a different case. The Noctua fans in the spec are intended to go on the 120.3 radiator.
 
Thats a seriously nice spec Billy! Thanks :) and thanks for the cooling system list i'll look into those parts with great interest!

Your comment on my budget is well understood. I need to repalce my telly, PC etc.. Originally i was looking at a 30" moniter which was £1000+! but thinking about it I could get a HD telly, a little amp AND a 24" PC monitor for the same money if not less. I think i need to re think a bit :)

Is 4gig RAM actually usable? I heard a rumour 3gig was was the practical limit?
 
Spon said:
Is 4gig RAM actually usable? I heard a rumour 3gig was was the practical limit?
Click to expand...
32-bit operating systems are unable to address more than 4294967295 addresses. In application most motherboards will chew up even more of this leaving you with 3.5ish GiB. With a 64-bit OS the theoretical limit is 1.84467441 × 10^19 addresses, that's 17179869184 GiB. It's up to the motherboard but most nowadays can take up to 16 GiB. Go for a 64-bit OS.
 
Last edited:
Spon said:
but thinking about it I could get a HD telly, a little amp AND a 24" PC monitor for the same money if not less. I think i need to re think a bit :)
Click to expand...
If you have 2.5k to spend on ALL of that, you should pick out a TV and amp then subtract their cost from the total. You could certainly get away with spending less on the computer and still have a good rig.
 
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