New build - Looking for some advice

trixx_SG · 30 Nov 2009 at 14:26

Hello everyone, im new to the forums and look forward to becoming a valued member of what seems to be a thriving community!

To start, i was just wondering if anyone could give me a hand here on the spec i have in mind for my new build. It is a budget build, im at college and without a job so this is due to the sale of my guitar, laptop and christmas haha ; )

Basically here is what i have been looking at so far, if anyone could give me any tips on where im going wrong or if the build seems like it will work well, it is my first you see, that would be great.

CPU - Intel Q8300 Quad Core CPU 2.5GHz - £107.00

Motherboard - Unsure on this one so far

2gb Kingston DDR2 - £35

GFX - Nvidia geforce 9800gt

PSU - Would the above included PSU suffice? I guess not, so i was looking at the corasair CX 400w for £37

The rest i already obtain (Hard drives, optical drives etc)

So if anyone could give me some advice on whether this build would work, or if im about to make a mistake i would appreciate it. I think i have posted this in the right place, apologies if not.

95thrifles · 30 Nov 2009 at 15:19

Hi and welcome, you'll have to remove the link, theres no linking to competitors allowed, and that includes the bay
Re your build, I wouldnt base a new build on socket 775, its End of Line now so theres going to be no real chance to upgrade that system, for similar sort of budget have a look at AMD's AM3, have a read of the thread in my sig/at top of page for a bit more info and a couple of builds, if you need more specific advice after no problem, post your total budget so people have an idea where to aim their advice, along with your intended use of the PC

MCH · 30 Nov 2009 at 15:24

post your overall budget and the parts that you need then we can help you more efficiently.

trixx_SG · 30 Nov 2009 at 15:37

Okay, i have removed the link sorry about that.
So the PC will be intended for some gaming, and i will also be using the pc for my 3D work (i take games design at college).
And my overall budget is about £390. So i want to really max this system out for my money.

So that quad core processor is essentially useless? Would it not be safe to say that it will still possess more power than the AMD athlon X2 in your £400 build guide? Seeing as i wont be upgrading this system for a long time, and most probably would purchase a whole new build when i do would it be okay to use the q8300?

95thrifles · 30 Nov 2009 at 15:43

If you look here, which compares the athlon 250 vs the Q8200 you'll see that theres only really one game where the 8200 excels, farcry2, in others theyre very similar. If you are intending to re-use HDDs/optical drives that would free up some cash, but what are their specs?
Also youre getting 4 gig of DDR3 in that build vs 2 gig DDR2 and a better gfx card too

MCH · 30 Nov 2009 at 15:54

trixx_SG said:
Okay, i have removed the link sorry about that.
So the PC will be intended for some gaming, and i will also be using the pc for my 3D work (i take games design at college).
And my overall budget is about £390. So i want to really max this system out for my money.

So that quad core processor is essentially useless? Would it not be safe to say that it will still possess more power than the AMD athlon X2 in your £400 build guide? Seeing as i wont be upgrading this system for a long time, and most probably would purchase a whole new build when i do would it be okay to use the q8300?

for 400 quid it would be better to go with the parts in his build and then upgrade the cpu/gpu over time along with any other parts that you want to, although the q8300 is a better cpu ur gona end up spending a larger chunk of money over time.

If you can spend 450-500 you could get a tri-core or quad core amd

Bozebo · 30 Nov 2009 at 15:55

hey im doing games design too

Abertay, Dundee.

Don't go with the quad core, imho the only worthwhile c2q processors are the q6600 G0, the q6700 and the q9400, and the other q9xxx ones but they are pricey. The price difference between quads and duals can be misleading, an increase of say £30 for a quad may seem tempting but it could perform worse in games.
c2d wise the e8600 is wonderful, but hard to get ahold of new and probably more expensive than a q6600. so keep your eyes on the dual core AMD ones. If you are running XP then 2GB of ram will be fine, but if you intend on vista or win7 look at 4GB, my advice on 4GB is to go for 4x 1GB dimms if it is cheaper, but then you can't overclock as well (not important in this situation I suppose).

The most important thing is to google for reviews on every component you buy, and make sure it is an actual written review and not an automated one

I'll check back on this thread to help a bit more, what I have said doesn't really help

But a budget of £390 will be difficult to go with. Don't worry about the specs of your optical drive. It doesn't matter at all except when installing games. As far as HDD goes it can make a collossal difference, especially with 2GB of RAM as windows will regularly be throwing data into page files - making it take a long time to minimise/maximise games and open large projects etc. What happens is windows puts things like file browsers and some not-so-commenly (as in, not every second) used things into the HDD, so if you click on start->my computer you have to wait a while, etc.

Using a 9800GT for a while would be ok, it's also the most appropriate thing to upgrade at a later date. I have a 9800GT at the moment and it is ok, I just got a new monitor (came from 1280x1024 to 1920x1200) and it is struggling to run games now.

Devrij · 30 Nov 2009 at 18:14

You could always rock an e8400 and overclock the poo out of it if you just want the most bang for buck right now. That's why I got mine anyway. I built my rig from scratch with HDD, case, mobo (should've spent an extra tenner here), cpu cooler, RAM, and PSU for £370 so you could probably do the same and stick a gfx card in the mix somewhere.