New Build Help Required

8ball2253 · 18 Jun 2009 at 23:24

Hi there everyone,

I just need some help on a new build. I'm off to uni this september to hopefully study medicine and I need a new PC for the 13 week holiday i have now, then as my main source of entertainment for movies games etc at uni. I also need it to be small(ish) size and not too loud when running under load.

I have a budget of around £600 (ideal, can stretch to £650) and would like this PC to be able to run COD 4 at max 1680 x 1050 and FSX at max/ultra at the same resolution, with a comfortable FPS, 20fps+

I also need this PC to have lots of processing power, so I'd most likely go for the Q6600 at stock speeds (no overclocking) and an aftermarket cooler.

I had this build in mind

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Energy Efficient 95W edition Socket 775 (2.40GHz) G0 Stepping L2 8MB Cache OEM Processor
Arctic Cooling AC-FRZ-7P Freezer 7 Pro Socket 775 Processor Cooler
Asus P5Q PRO P45 Socket 775 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard
OCZ 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 1066MHz/PC2-8500 Reaper Memory HPC Edition Dual Channel
Asus HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 Top Edition Dual DVI HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card With Free Battle Forge Game While Stocks Last
Casecom Black Mid Tower Case - Front Blue LED 120mm Fan - With Side Window
Arctic Power 500W PSU With PCI-E 2x SATA, 20+4 ATX12V 8pin +12V Connectors - Retail Boxed
Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB SATA II 7200RPM 16MB Cache - OEM
Microsoft Wireless Black Optical Desktop 1000 - USB - Keyboard and Optical Mouse

Comes to £645 inc next day delivery

Any help please? Comments/improvements on the chosen build.

I'm welcome to any suggestions on a brand new build

Thank you!

8ball2253 · 18 Jun 2009 at 23:38

It seems to me intel perform better at gaming on FSX and COD4. Or maybe i've been mistaken?

I also invested in that motherboard because i couldnt seem to find a 1033mhz FSB with ram support for the 1066mhz dual channel. plus Asus have been very good experiences for me

8ball2253 · 18 Jun 2009 at 23:43

Sparx said:
This seems pretty good to me..

By the way, just a note - I'm not sure if your aware or not but you have no optical drive (CD/DVD) in there? Unless your using one you already have?

You've also got the option of paying another £20 or £30 whatever it is to go from the 4870 to 4890 but I can't justify the price different for a few FPS mind you..

I also went for a more nicer 'gaming' orientated mouse and keyboard for you than the ****ty M$ wireless combo crap you picked.

Just under your budget! Hope this helps..

That rig looks killer. Mind you i do prefer a wireless keyboard and mouse because it frees up desk space at uni. Yep my old PC (custom build 2 years ago) died on me a few weeks ago, so ive got an old samsung DVDRW (IDE however...) i can whack into this

would this rig do well at COD4 at 1680x1050 and give me a nice experience at FSX (considering i play FS04 at full, something that looks better than that would do it for me haha)

sorry just a quick question. i know quad core is futureproofing, but for gaming and movies etc. can a E8400 do the job?

8ball2253 · 18 Jun 2009 at 23:51

goujon945 said:
Yup an E8400 would do that but with not much in it price wise i would get the quad. Tbh any recent cpu could do that, AMD and Intel are pretty much equal in terms of gaming performace but Intel is faster for encoding.

And that spec would easily max out COD4 at 1680x1050, cant comment about FSX though

seeing as though Q6600 has been phased out by these new 45nm processors, which is the best quad that would futureproof me enough for the next 5-6 years of uni?

thanks for the help so far guys, appreciate it.

i do have an AMD 6000+ in the rig that mysteriously died on me, with a 2 year old asrock agp mobo and new 2gb ram. i really dont know what happened. one day i turned it on, after 30 seconds it goes off again. turn it on again its off by 5 seconds. no idea- could be cooling perhaps but ive never had cooling issues, the side is open all the time

8ball2253 · 18 Jun 2009 at 23:59

Sparx said:
Well, lasting 5-6 years is a tough one, because no CPU really will, haha.. But to prolong it, the best for a Socket 775, I'd go for the Q9550.. Quite cheap nowadays it seems and it is on the This Week Only offer as well conveniently for you if you order soon!

How's this? Including the Q9550 and your diabolical wireless ****, haha..

haha that pc looks awesome. i just remembered my mums taking my laptop when i go uni and ive got a wireless keyboard and mouse for that so ill use that. in that case that rig goes down to 620ish. shame i wont be ordering this week though

any idea on how high the q9550 would go to?

and before anyone asks i prefer working on desktops to laptops, and that laptop really wont cut it as my only source of games/movies at uni

8ball2253 · 19 Jun 2009 at 00:07

well i am either ordering 2 weeks from now, and am debating this:

should i order it run it on my copy of xp i used on my other pc or
order a pc when windows 7 is released- benefit from windows 7 and reduced component prices.

i hate vista.

8ball2253 · 19 Jun 2009 at 00:11

is it stable enough to run as a main operating system with games/office and stuff?

im especially concerned with drivers for all these new components im whacking in

8ball2253 · 19 Jun 2009 at 00:15

alright guys thanks for the help! i'll let my mum know of this build.

glad i asked you guys- i would have brought my first rig- more expensive and would have prolly cocked it up with that case

everything should run cool and smooth yep? i heard lots of positive reviews on the arctic freezer pro 7 ( i think thats it). its about a tenner cheaper than the one recommended by sparx

how big is the antec 300 case by the way? is it a mid size or full size atx? would using an IDE dvd rw bottleneck the system? should i invest in a SATA?

8ball2253 · 19 Jun 2009 at 00:23

well i guess now the keyboard and mouse has gone and saving a tenner on freezer pro saving 30 in total i think id just get the dvdrw and call it a day

thanks for all your input guys! im sure ill be back here, got a cousin who needs a £450 rig

8ball2253 · 8 Jul 2009 at 20:20

hi there again

i've purchased all this and put it together, three different sites including this one, i got it all for £604 inc delivery.

Its all been put together now with my atrocious cable management but im having a small problem.

im using windows xp 64 bit edition and i cant get the front panel audio to function. i plugged it into the motherboard via the hd audio plug but it just doesnt seem to be working.

what driver should i be using, if any? what could be the problem?

8ball2253 · 9 Jul 2009 at 10:08

specs are the items posted by sparx

Q9550
Asus P5Q Pro
4GB Ram
Antec 300 Gaming Case
OCZ ModXstream 600W PSU

8ball2253 · 9 Jul 2009 at 12:17

Hi there,

I installed the Audio driver from the ASUS website and still no luck- for some reason something on the High Definition Audio bus is being recognised in device manager as an ATi Function Driver for High Def Audio ATi AA01. Could this be the problem?

The BIOS is set to HD Audio and some ST thingy output.

I'm currently in the process of installing a copy of Vista Ultimate 64 bit I used on my laptop before I downgraded that to XP, so once all that is installed I will report back with any news