Hey guys,
Well I am buying a new PC soon, in the next few weeks. It will be built by myself and the components brought individually.
Information:
Budget = £2000
Usage = Gaming, Performance (Using multiple Virtual Machines)
Wants = Intel Quad Core, Nvidia Graphics, 1080p (24inch Monitor), OC Ability
Ok, so above is a simple explanation of what I want and the money I have t do it, Now below is what I have come up with and reasons why I chose, I would like your views on this and tips/hints as I have no great experiance in this, first time I have built a system myself
.
Monitor
Dell Ultrasharp 2408WFP 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey
£458.24 inc VAT
Link
(Chose this because as I said, I want 1080p (1900x1200) playback, DELL because I heard nothing but good things about modern DELL monitors especially this one)
CPU
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.66GHz 12MB-cache (1333FSB) Processor - Retail
Link
or
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.83GHz 12MB-cache (1333FSB) Processor - Retail
Link
Best CPU
(Now I first looked into with the QX9650, because I thought with £2000 I could buy more or less the best everything, but this isnt the case at all, I then found that these two new processors were coming out using the new 45nm and Yorkfield, as well as having the same 12MBL2 cache as the QX9650 just lower speed, so I thought maybe I could buy this, save £200-300 and then clock it to 3.2ghz or 3.4ghz which is faster than the upcoming QX9750)
Motherboard
Asus Maximus Extreme Intel X38 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
£199.74
(Right, Well I was all set to buy a Striker II motherboard with the 780i chipset, but I was told by many and read some reviews which stated it was overpriced and the only really unique good thing was the SLI, which in my eyes is overkill if you have a good card to start with, So I looked into the Intel upcoming x48 chipset and was set on that but then realized that the only real differences are
-10 Gigabit LAN
-Removal of LPT PS2 ports
-Wi Fi
To be honest I don't like the idea of Wi Fi on my motherboard, 10 gigabit to me is also overkill and keeping the PS2 and LPT might not be so bad, so i checked out x38 and found this one, I wanted DDR3 to be future proof I guess, and now it is a time where its good to buy some DDR3.
PSU (Power Supply Unit)
Tagan 1100W Modular BZ Piperock Series
(I chose Tagen because most my friends who build PC's say Tagen are the best make for different reasons, I chose the BZ series as it seems to be the most current and 1100w should easily last me even if I did crossfire)
Memory
OCZ 4GB DDR3 PC3-10666C6 1333MHz ReaperX (2x2GB) Dual Channel DDR3
LInk
or
OCZ 4GB PC3-10666 Reaper HPC (2x2GB)
(I am not entirely set on which memory to get to be honest, I was going to get a DDR2 motherboard as I remember hearing DDR3 was pointless but now when I ask, people seem to say the opposite plus it would be a good idea to have a mobo that supports all the current tech and is future proof, how does this memory sound?)
Graphics Card
Ge Force 8800 GT 512 (Current) / Asus Extreme 8800GTS 512MB TOP PCI-E 2.0
(This is the card in my current PC which btw is a AMD 4400 X2, Nforce 4 A8N-SLI (It was when AMD was the kings) I think due to cost issues as I will keep this card for now, It's still a good performer and even the new G92 8800GTS isn't leaps and bounds ahead of it, I will perhaps upgrade to a 9800GTX or similar when the time comes later this year)
Case
I dont really know to be honest, few friends use ANtec Gaming case, the price seems good. I have been told LIan Li is the best make but they seem expensive, any help on this?
What about?
Antec P182 Advanced Super Midi Tower Black £78
Sound System
Creative GigaWorks 5.1 G550W THX Wireless Speakers
£199
Link
(I was all set on the Logitech 5.1 THX Certified, but then I saw this Creative set which has the same THX Certified status, same watts and the added benefit of wireless although I prefer the look/design of the Logitech one, I think I will be having this one for sure)
Hard drives
500GB Seagate Barracuda SATA2 32MB ST3500320AS 7200RPM x 3
(I think Seagate are a good make but so is WD and Maxtor I guess, I want 1TB of space and reliability so I intend to use Hardware RAID 5 and get a 1tb of usable space out of the 1.5tb available, thoughts?
Optical Drive
Pioneer BDR-202BK / Asus DRW-2014L1T 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter (Black/Silver) - Retail
Link 1
Link 2
(I was thinking of this, but its too expensive and would push me over budget, I could always get blu ray at a later date plus reviews of this are not so great, I will just get a £20 normal DVDRW DVDDL as listed above)
Keyboard & Mouse
I would prob spend £80 on these together perhaps, Id like an illuminated keyboard and a good mouse, I have these in mind thoughts?
Razer Lachesis Banshee Blue 4000dpi High Precision Gaming Mouse - Retail £46.99
Link
Saitek Eclipse 2 Illuminated Keyboard - Blue/Red/Purple
£23.49
Link
Note: Apart from the illuminated part those keyboards don't look great, an all black one might be better like the one I have currently have.
Cooling
I wanted to do liquid cooling but then thought it was too expensive, Using the case fans and obviously the normal CPU fan, will I be able to overclock to a good degree?
Thanks very much, sorry about the length but this is £2000 after all, look forward to receiving your input.
P:S
If I have forgotten a component, please tell me so I don't look dumb for too long
ATLANT3AN
Well I am buying a new PC soon, in the next few weeks. It will be built by myself and the components brought individually.
Information:
Budget = £2000
Usage = Gaming, Performance (Using multiple Virtual Machines)
Wants = Intel Quad Core, Nvidia Graphics, 1080p (24inch Monitor), OC Ability
Ok, so above is a simple explanation of what I want and the money I have t do it, Now below is what I have come up with and reasons why I chose, I would like your views on this and tips/hints as I have no great experiance in this, first time I have built a system myself
.Monitor
Dell Ultrasharp 2408WFP 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey
£458.24 inc VAT
Link
(Chose this because as I said, I want 1080p (1900x1200) playback, DELL because I heard nothing but good things about modern DELL monitors especially this one)
CPU
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.66GHz 12MB-cache (1333FSB) Processor - Retail
Link
or
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.83GHz 12MB-cache (1333FSB) Processor - Retail
Link
Best CPU
(Now I first looked into with the QX9650, because I thought with £2000 I could buy more or less the best everything, but this isnt the case at all, I then found that these two new processors were coming out using the new 45nm and Yorkfield, as well as having the same 12MBL2 cache as the QX9650 just lower speed, so I thought maybe I could buy this, save £200-300 and then clock it to 3.2ghz or 3.4ghz which is faster than the upcoming QX9750)
Motherboard
Asus Maximus Extreme Intel X38 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
£199.74
(Right, Well I was all set to buy a Striker II motherboard with the 780i chipset, but I was told by many and read some reviews which stated it was overpriced and the only really unique good thing was the SLI, which in my eyes is overkill if you have a good card to start with, So I looked into the Intel upcoming x48 chipset and was set on that but then realized that the only real differences are
-10 Gigabit LAN
-Removal of LPT PS2 ports
-Wi Fi
To be honest I don't like the idea of Wi Fi on my motherboard, 10 gigabit to me is also overkill and keeping the PS2 and LPT might not be so bad, so i checked out x38 and found this one, I wanted DDR3 to be future proof I guess, and now it is a time where its good to buy some DDR3.
PSU (Power Supply Unit)
Tagan 1100W Modular BZ Piperock Series
(I chose Tagen because most my friends who build PC's say Tagen are the best make for different reasons, I chose the BZ series as it seems to be the most current and 1100w should easily last me even if I did crossfire)
Memory
OCZ 4GB DDR3 PC3-10666C6 1333MHz ReaperX (2x2GB) Dual Channel DDR3
LInk
or
OCZ 4GB PC3-10666 Reaper HPC (2x2GB)
(I am not entirely set on which memory to get to be honest, I was going to get a DDR2 motherboard as I remember hearing DDR3 was pointless but now when I ask, people seem to say the opposite plus it would be a good idea to have a mobo that supports all the current tech and is future proof, how does this memory sound?)
Graphics Card
Ge Force 8800 GT 512 (Current) / Asus Extreme 8800GTS 512MB TOP PCI-E 2.0
(This is the card in my current PC which btw is a AMD 4400 X2, Nforce 4 A8N-SLI (It was when AMD was the kings) I think due to cost issues as I will keep this card for now, It's still a good performer and even the new G92 8800GTS isn't leaps and bounds ahead of it, I will perhaps upgrade to a 9800GTX or similar when the time comes later this year)
Case
I dont really know to be honest, few friends use ANtec Gaming case, the price seems good. I have been told LIan Li is the best make but they seem expensive, any help on this?
What about?
Antec P182 Advanced Super Midi Tower Black £78
Sound System
Creative GigaWorks 5.1 G550W THX Wireless Speakers
£199
Link
(I was all set on the Logitech 5.1 THX Certified, but then I saw this Creative set which has the same THX Certified status, same watts and the added benefit of wireless although I prefer the look/design of the Logitech one, I think I will be having this one for sure)
Hard drives
500GB Seagate Barracuda SATA2 32MB ST3500320AS 7200RPM x 3
(I think Seagate are a good make but so is WD and Maxtor I guess, I want 1TB of space and reliability so I intend to use Hardware RAID 5 and get a 1tb of usable space out of the 1.5tb available, thoughts?
Optical Drive
Pioneer BDR-202BK / Asus DRW-2014L1T 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter (Black/Silver) - Retail
Link 1
Link 2
(I was thinking of this, but its too expensive and would push me over budget, I could always get blu ray at a later date plus reviews of this are not so great, I will just get a £20 normal DVDRW DVDDL as listed above)
Keyboard & Mouse
I would prob spend £80 on these together perhaps, Id like an illuminated keyboard and a good mouse, I have these in mind thoughts?
Razer Lachesis Banshee Blue 4000dpi High Precision Gaming Mouse - Retail £46.99
Link
Saitek Eclipse 2 Illuminated Keyboard - Blue/Red/Purple
£23.49
Link
Note: Apart from the illuminated part those keyboards don't look great, an all black one might be better like the one I have currently have.
Cooling
I wanted to do liquid cooling but then thought it was too expensive, Using the case fans and obviously the normal CPU fan, will I be able to overclock to a good degree?
Thanks very much, sorry about the length but this is £2000 after all, look forward to receiving your input.
P:S
If I have forgotten a component, please tell me so I don't look dumb for too long
ATLANT3AN
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