Need Specs (£2k or lower)

Shiroi · 28 Oct 2008 at 22:10

Hey all, looking to upgrade my old comp to something worthwile.

I've been looking at the eVGA 790i *** board mainly but it seems like i could get the same stuff cheaper that it has...

I'm looking for a setup that can run 3-way SLI, quad core and DDR3 for a max of £2000

Case: Antec Twelve Hundred
PSU: Something that will support 1x GTX 280 (And maybe another in the future, i plan to bulk out to 3-way one day

)
Mobo: Needs to support C2Q, 3-way SLI and DDR3
Processor: Was looking at the Q9550, good choice or can i get better?
RAM: 2gb to begin, will upgrade to 4gb later on
GFX: eVGA GTX 280 ***
HDD/DVD: Already got

The £2000 budget is pretty hard to go over, but i'm looking for serious stuff, currently on a 680i + C2D E6750

Thanks

Pilky01 · 28 Oct 2008 at 22:16

With 2K spend I would wait for i7.

Leezy · 28 Oct 2008 at 22:18

Pilky01 said:
With 2K spend I would wait for i7.

+1

mattheman · 28 Oct 2008 at 22:20

Shiroi said:
Hey all, looking to upgrade my old comp to something worthwile.

I've been looking at the eVGA 790i *** board mainly but it seems like i could get the same stuff cheaper that it has...

Thanks

dont get that mother board heard they fail.

Strife212 · 28 Oct 2008 at 22:24

790i is fine

beefybarn · 28 Oct 2008 at 22:54

If youve got 2000 to spend i would get a different case, something like a Coolermaster, Silverstone or Lian Li

EdGey · 29 Oct 2008 at 01:41

yea get a classy looking case, silverstone style

or the p182

Chimerical · 29 Oct 2008 at 14:53

The P6T Deluxe i7 Motherboard supports both SLi & Crossfire (apparently) but Tri-SLi is the world's greatest waste of money ever invented.

mpj88 · 29 Oct 2008 at 15:02

beefybarn said:
If youve got 2000 to spend i would get a different case, something like a Coolermaster, Silverstone or Lian Li

agreed you can get something better than this, how desperate are you for this? as like sum have said wait for i7

Chimerical · 29 Oct 2008 at 15:12

mpj88 said:
agreed you can get something better than this, how desperate are you for this? as like sum have said wait for i7

If he wants GTX280 SLi though, surely he needs something like the Antec 1200 for sheer brute force cooling?

mpj88 · 29 Oct 2008 at 15:17

lol or the new antec skelton for SHEER brute force! But on a serious note, something like the lian li armoursuit, heaps of space and plenty of cooling

AlexTrickle · 29 Oct 2008 at 15:29

2k and getting 2GB ram?!?

But agreed with others wait until i7. Until i7 DDR3 is next to pointless waste of money.

TheCenturion · 29 Oct 2008 at 17:40

what monitor do you have?

Chimerical · 29 Oct 2008 at 17:48

mpj88 said:
lol or the new antec skelton for SHEER brute force! But on a serious note, something like the lian li armoursuit, heaps of space and plenty of cooling

The Armorsuit can't match the 1200 though.

Only one rear exhaust and a (poorly) positioned top exhaust fan. Using the PSU to directly exhaust heat rising from the CPU isn't great.

The Armorsuit is a fantastic case, but in terms of cooling, the 1200 wins.

puppetworx · 29 Oct 2008 at 18:11

Wait for Core i7. I'd probably get two 4870x2's, get some serious watercooling, massive monitor and the rest is just gravy.

Shiroi · 29 Oct 2008 at 19:00

2k is my max budget, i'm trying to go as low as possible, but 2k means a little more saving required, but i won't save for anything past it.

i7 i read mixed reviews, some say its more a server/workstation cpu, wheras i'm trying to get games running properly.

And i'm not getting two 4870x2's as i've always had bad experience with ATI boards. Owned 5 in the past and every single one right out of the box has given me screen flicker and tearing that gets progressively worse. Moved to nVidia last year and i'm glad i did.

I like the look of the 1200, and its pretty spacey and has good cooling.

Monitor is a 1680x1050 20.1" SyncMaster 204BW

Chimerical · 29 Oct 2008 at 19:06

Shiroi said:
2k is my max budget, i'm trying to go as low as possible, but 2k means a little more saving required, but i won't save for anything past it.

i7 i read mixed reviews, some say its more a server/workstation cpu, wheras i'm trying to get games running properly.

I like the look of the 1200, and its pretty spacey and has good cooling.

Truth. i7 will not make a massive (or any) difference to gaming performance. £270 for an i7 motherboard is a joke. A £100 P45 can overclock a Quad to 3.6Ghz. Why would you need more than that?

However, i7 is good if you want SLi. 790i + DDR3 is as much of a waste of money as spending a load extra for i7 (Core2Quads do not benefit from DDR3). But its your choice of course, just saying.

Chimerical · 29 Oct 2008 at 19:06

Shiroi said:
Monitor is a 1680x1050 20.1" SyncMaster 204BW

Will you be keeping this monitor?

If so, SLi is not needed.

Shiroi · 29 Oct 2008 at 19:08

I can pick up another monitor at some point.

TheCenturion · 29 Oct 2008 at 19:19

to start with, there will be no situation in which you will need tri sli! not in your life! so seeing as you are using a 22", why not get an intel board for now, or wait for x58?