Need a new computer, Suggestions?

flake99

flake99

flake99

Associate
Joined
30 Dec 2007
Posts
49
Hi there.

Well as you can see I’m a first timer here so please bare with me :)

I would consider myself a gamer, by this I like to play a lot of recent/up-to-date games such as COD4 and new games next year however the problem comes down to the PC I have. I’ve had this computer for 3-5 years (can’t remember but very long) and while at the time it’s been alright (not perfect/good) for games such as WOW, COD2 etc. I feel to be able to progress and play brand new games set for 2008 I have to either slightly upgrade my PC (graphics card), buy a setup PC or build my own. Now I’ve never really built my own PC before so I’m a beginner at it therefore I may be more suited towards the built ones on OC’s website however if upgrading my PC or building a brand new one from scratch is better, not that hard and cheaper then I’m up for that.

My budget is around the £500-700/800 point and would like a nice 19-22” monitor to go with it but not much of an importance however the cheaper the better :P

This PC should be good enough to last another 1/2+ years and be upgradable if needed in the future.

My current PC specs: (yup my pc sucks)

Motherboard: Intel Bonanza D875PBZ
PSU: Model No: FSP300-60THN-P
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition SP2
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.40GHz
Memory: 2046MB RAM
Card name: RADEON 9800 PRO 128MB

Now for my options:

Upgrading – Not much I can really do besides updating the graphics card to an ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB (AGP) and a 500W + PSU.

Built PC – This sounds a good option since I’ve never built a PC in my life therefore would make it easier for me so anything within the budget.

Build my own – While I’ve never built my own PC before if this turns out cheaper, not that hard to do then I will give it a go. Price budget stays the same.

Sorry for rambling on a lot but I wanted to clear everything up.

Thanks for reading and can’t wait for your replies :)
 
800 quid should easily allow a quad core, 4gb pc8500, a gt or gts 512mb card for dx10 and a ddr2 and ddr3 mobo :) as well as all the HDD's, drives and case + PSU.

are you happy with xp? i.e. you don't want us to include vista :)

and a self build is easy, its like large lego :)
 
if you want to build your own, this will be a start

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK) £57.99
(£68.14) £57.99
(£68.14)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3250410AS) £38.99
(£45.81) £38.99
(£45.81)
OcUK Value IP35 Pro Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £54.99
(£64.61) £54.99
(£64.61)
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £129.99
(£152.74) £129.99
(£152.74)
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) £5.99
(£7.04) £5.99
(£7.04)
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £27.99
(£32.89) £27.99
(£32.89)
Asus GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £179.99
(£211.49) £179.99
(£211.49)
Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £27.99
(£32.89) £27.99
(£32.89)
Sub Total : £523.92
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £91.69
Total : £615.61

i have left out:
- case, i think this is a personal choice, but i may suggest you look at lian li for quality
- monitor, i have little experiance in that area as im still using a 5year old 17" TFT and a CRT
-operating system ,im not sure if you want to change or not
 
jak731 said:
if you want to build your own, this will be a start


Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) £5.99
(£7.04) £5.99
(£7.04)
Click to expand...


eek ive just ordered components which are arriving today but didnt order any thermal compound- i thought brand new allready has the stuff on-have i goofed?
sorry dont mean to sidetrack thread but its just a quickie question
 
fantasticlees said:
eek ive just ordered components which are arriving today but didnt order any thermal compound- i thought brand new allready has the stuff on-have i goofed?
sorry dont mean to sidetrack thread but its just a quickie question
Click to expand...

It'll be on the retail cooler, but not a TT. That said, the TT will come with some. Which cooler will you be using?
 
Q6600
Tuniq Tower
Asus P5K motherboard
8800 GT gfx card
2-4GB of your favourite coloured PC 6400 RAM
Corsair 520W PSU

Should do the trick.

fantasticlees and flake99 - welcome to the forums :)
 
thanks melbourne, its appreciated. its my first build so prepare to suffer a torrent of questions lol. first one is ive got my processor fan here and i cant see any thermal grease on it-the package was factory sealed. is this grease easy to spot because i cant see it?

the cooler is the one which comes with the q6600 quad 2.4ghz 8mb l2 cache 1066mhz fsb processor
 
Last edited:
Tbh if he also wants a monitor with it I'd go for a E2180 and overclock it. It's not like he can use the Q6600 now really anyway. With the price of a E2180 he can always upgrade in half a year and grab a newer Q9450 or something then.

E2180
Tuniq Tower
Asus P5K motherboard / Gigabyte P35-DS3R series
8800 GT gfx card
2-4GB of your favourite coloured PC 6400 RAM (I'd say GeiL ULL)
Corsair 520W PSU
 
fantasticlees said:
thanks melbourne, its appreciated. its my first build so prepare to suffer a torrent of questions lol. first one is ive got my processor fan here and i cant see any thermal grease on it-the package was factory sealed. is this grease easy to spot because i cant see it?

the cooler is the one which comes with the q6600 quad 2.4ghz 8mb l2 cache 1066mhz fsb processor
Click to expand...

Should be on the back of the stock cooler like this:-

conroebuild_1.jpg


the three lines of grey grease, on the copper heatsink.

Otherwise, get some of this:- http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=AC-000-AC
 
Thanks for all the replies :)

I did a little look around and put together eveything you guys have said and I hope its alright. I'm not too sure on the case whether its fine or if you guys can recommend a better one for roughly the same price or near abouts. Also if there is anything i need to add such as fans or other components just let me know :)

occoha6.jpg


This PC should last at least 1/2 years or so before I either upgrade the graphics card or processor so I hope its fine.

In terms of a monitor well I was thinking of THIS though not sure just yet

Anyways thanks again for your replies and thanks for the warm welcome melbourne720 :D
 
No worries - and change the case, you're about to buy 2 PSUs!! :eek:

I'd suggest a Akasa Eclipse for that quality feel, or Antec P180 for sound-proofing.

edit: Good choice of monitor, I like my samsung :)

edit 2: You might consider 2 hard drives, improves system performance immensly with virtual memory off the boot drive.
 
Last edited:
personally, i'd rather build a PC than buy one off the shelf (such as Dell's, Compaq's etc), as you now exactly what you are getting which will most likely be much better quality parts for you money. You could buy one of OC's own pre-build PC's, which use quality parts, but you don't get the sense of satifcation off building your own PC.

as for spec's, very similar to one above, but different graphics card, mroe memory etc

flake99.jpg


the graphics card is probs one of the best graphics card ATI sell, so you might not feel you need something as good and you could get a ATI 3850 instead
Or if you want to go with Nvidia, look at the 8800GT series which are similarly priced to the 3870's.
You might not feel you need 4gb of RAM either, so that could be halfed to 2Gb.

i'm not very key'd up on monitor's, but the one above seems to get brilliant reveiws by all those who have bought it, and its very well priced.
I haven't included a case, as its a personal thing, Antec and Lian-Li make good cases.
Also haven't included a operating system, as you might already have one, or know what you want.
 
Thanks again for your help :)

Lol didnt know about the extra PSU in that case :P the akasa looks nice so i may go for that.

Two hard drives that sounds good so do i go for two of the same ones I've selected in my build or the one wingnuttz has posted?

In terms of graphics card as I'm no expert which of the two is better, the BFG GeForce 8800 GT OC 512MB or HIS ATI Radeon HD 3870 XT ICEQ3 512MB that wingnuttz has posted in his build?

I just remembered that I can get a free copy of a Windows Vista Business Edition through my university so would that be a good option or should I stick to xp? however if I do get the vista business edition I will increase the memory to 4gb so there any preferences to which ones to go for?

Thanks again :P
 
re: Hard Drives, I have been most impressed with the Samsung 500GB drives over the WD, haven't tried the Seagate. All 3 are supposed to be pretty good.

8800 GT is bettwer than any ATi card out at the moment. But get the cheapest, IMHO the premium for the BFG is unlikely to be worth it.

I'd use Vista myself, as it's free. You could always buy XP later if you have to. Only Vista 64Bit will see all of 4GB mind, but RAM is so cheap at the moment I would go for it anyway.
 
Thanks melbourne720 for all the help. K I put everything together but went for 4gb of memory, bigger hard drive, graphics card changed to a cheaper model and the akasa case.

Im not sure whether the memory or graphics card are of good quality so please let me know before finalizing everything :)

occo2.jpg


Thanks
 
Last edited:
Ops I forgot to mention the following things:

I've noticed I havent got a sound card, what would be a nice one for gaming but not too expensive?

melbourne720 I noticed you said 2x hard drives are good, so should i get a 80gb for the boot drive and a 250 for the main hard drive or just stick to the one in my list above?

Finally in terms of the memory I picked is it better or if it will work to get 4x GeiL 1gb ULL as it is cheaper or get the 2x 2GB of any manufacturer?

Thanks
 
If I go for a 2 hard drive setup would having a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 80GB as the boot drive and a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB as my secondary hard drive be alright? I noticed the WD raptors but they are too expensive so what I just said be alright?

Plus as I'm new to all this, how would setting up the 2 hard drives work, install OS etc. on the boot drive and the rest of the applications, games etc. on the secondary hard drive?
 
Last edited:
That sounds good.

When you install windows, first you'll need to create partitions on the boot disk. Then you'll install windows on that partition. No need to mess around with master / slave drives with sata.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom