Need help speccing a new PC

DeadLOK

DeadLOK

DeadLOK

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Ok, i've not been into top end hardware for a long while now so I don't know whats good and whats not anymore.

-I'm looking to build a PC based around the Quad Core 6600.

-The top end of my budget is about 1500 but I'm not sure what it will all come to.

-I'm not sure what motherboard to use theres so many brands and models

-I'm not sure what graphics card configuration to use (Not ATi though. every ATi card ive ever owned has died wheras every nvidia card ive owned is still running somewhere).

-I wanted 2x10,000 rpm drives in raid0 my server has plenty of storage.

-Needs to be quiet

Basically I would like some help choosing what hardware to buy where each component is high end however before it goes silly money.

If you guys could spec me up or advise what hardware to put it that'd be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 
What kind of peripherals ? keyboard mouse speakers, screen ?
Whats it being used for, how much space do you need on those 10,000rpm drives ?
 
Just tower, I would like the option to over clock but I will probably be running everything standard to start with.

It will be primarily for gaming, I dont need much space - 2x74gb raptors? Most of my storage is on my server.
 
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "LGA775 Kentsfield" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
Abit IP35 Pro (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Dual Channel Kit X2
EVGA GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 5000AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache X2
Samsung SH-183LBEBN 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA Lightscribe ReWriter
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music 7.1 Soundcard - OEM
Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU
Akasa Eclipse 62 Aluminium Case - No PSU

Total : £1,280.54

Their you go. :)

I have put Vista Home Premuium in their for you since i have also put 4GB of memory in the spec. So you will have to use a 64bit O/S to ultilize all of 4GB of RAM. You may not want to go over to Vista stright away but since you have 2, 500GB Hard Drives i would higly recomend Dual Booting XP and Vista.
This way you can experince Vista fully but if you do start to have problems you will still have XP. :)

The Quad Core you should be able to overclock it to 3 - 3.2GHZ without to many problems and with reasonable temps.

The Abit motherboard is one of the new P35 Chipsets, very reliable, rock solid, great overclocking boards. They also support Intels upcoming 45nm processors. Fantastic boards all around.

The Memory 4GB as i said earlier. Overclocking potenial of the Crucial Ballistix is brilliant. Will hit 1000MHZ+ pretty easily.

The GTX, fantastic card, you wont be disapointed.

2 Western Digital Hard Drives. Very fast and quite.

The Samsung DVD Writer, very nice drive. SATA connection so you can get rid of them ugle IDE cables.

Since this is for gaming i would higly recomend a Sound Card. The diffrence it makes as opposed to onboard sound is quite a bit. Well worth getting.

The Corsair PSU is one of the best PSUs around. Very solid and very quite. 850 watts is a bit of a overkill.

Now the Akasa case, the build quality is of a very high standard and the cooling is very very good as well.

Yes i know, pretty much a quote from my other thread. :p

Anyway about the Raptors, the 74GB Raptors i belive arnt much faster than Hard Drives like the Western Digital drives, them Raptors are getting on a bit now. The Western Digital Raptor X 150GB are slightly faster but certainly not worth the cost to be honest. :)
 
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Hmm, those raptors are far from quiet but nevermind.
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£1,252.35 including p&p....its a bit low for a £1.5k budget, but anything more just seems like a waste to me.
 
Thats great, am I to assume that gigabyte board is best bang for the buck kinda thing the motherboard was the one I was having most trouble deciding over.

Also are these 2900 XT things worth looking at? my mate keeps going on about how theyre more future proof.
 
DeadLOK said:
Thats great, am I to assume that gigabyte board is best bang for the buck kinda thing the motherboard was the one I was having most trouble deciding over.
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I guess you could say that, but when spending that amount of money, the Abit board is worthwhile, one of the best P35 boards out if you ask me. :)

DeadLOK said:
Also are these 2900 XT things worth looking at? my mate keeps going on about how theyre more future proof.
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If you want the fastest now go for a GTX.

Your mate is probally talking about direct X 10 perfromance, the HD2900XT could well perfomr better than the GTX but no one really knows.
 
Also are these 2900 XT things worth looking at? my mate keeps going on about how theyre more future proof.
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the 2900XT is an ATI card lol, your not a big fan, remember ? :p ;)

Not ATi though. every ATi card ive ever owned has died wheras every nvidia card ive owned is still running somewhere).
Click to expand...

The abit board does have a very good reputation, but the one i selected is slightly more future proof. Either will probably do you fine.
 
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