New build spec

|cJ|

|cJ|

|cJ|

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Joined
18 Oct 2002
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UK
Hey guys I have about 400 quid to spend on a new build. Think I need a MB, CPU, GFX and MEM. The system is for playing quake live so it only really needs to be good enough to get 120 fps constantly.. Really this will most likely be a budget system? Cheaper is better for me really but if it's not going to cost much more for an upto date system maybe that would be better? Silent would be good to.. There seems to be so many prossesor types now? a few years ago it was just athlon or intel but now there is x2 x3 x4 and all that stuff..

Thanks for your help Carl
 
I have an old Epox 8kha+ MB, DDR Ram, Athlon I? I have a decent PSU I think, What watt do newer systems need? Radeon 8500. Does this help?
 
Can you tell us the make and model of the psu, and is the case any good?

Edit..do you have a DVD burner?
 
No I have a CD Rom thats all I need, I have an old Lian Li case which was very good when I brought it so should be ok now I think? The PSU i will have to get back to you about but It's the newest part of the machine. I am at work but will let you know about PSU tommorow. For now assume its ok and I can always spend a bit more if it turns out its not..
 
this as the core

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Club 3D ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £116.99
(£99.57) £116.99
(£99.57)
Patriot Sector 5 Viper II 4GB (2x2GB) PC3-12800 1600MHz Dual Channel + 3D Mark Vantage (PVV34G1600LLKB) £76.99
(£65.52) £76.99
(£65.52)
Asus M4A785TD-M Evo AMD 785G (Socket AM3) DDR3 microATX Motherboard £69.99
(£59.57) £69.99
(£59.57)
Sub Total : £224.66
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £40.98
Total : £275.14

then either

1
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 965 Black Edition 3.40GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £149.99
(£127.65) £149.99

or

2
Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 550 3.10GHz Black Edition (Socket AM3) - Retail £71.99
(£61.27) £71.99
(£61.27)
Corsair VX 550W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-550VXUK) £65.99
(£56.16) £65.99
(£56.16)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £39.99
(£34.03) £39.99
(£34.03)
 
buildu.jpg
 
Cool, how powerful are these setups? will they run current games or just be for QuakeLive? Also what is the cheapest I could go to run quakelive? I don't need an OS I dont think.. I'm going to run linux if I can play quakelive through that? Also have a copy of xp which is fine for quake..
 
the setups will run most new games on moderate settings and would have no problem running quake live, they would also be fully upgradable for future games, i.e themotherboard i said can run crossfire so if you wanted to run x2 5770's later on you could.
 
I know that the HD4000 and HD5000 series graphics cards have better driver support under Linux when compared to previous generations of ATI graphics cards but I would check the following website and its forums though:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=home

http://www.phoronix.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=9

I would probably go for a more conservative graphics card choice based around an Nvidia graphics card IMHO. The ATI graphics cards are better than many of the Nvidia ones at many price points for gaming under Windows but I am uncertain if this is the case under Linux.
 
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My power supply is a Tagan, I think its around 450watts? It was good a few years back, but thats a guess on wattage.. Can get proper info on PSU tommorow
 
|cJ| said:
it will be 32bit I guess do I need 64?
Click to expand...

It means that under XP you want be able to address more than 3.25GB of system RAM with a 512MB graphics card. The XP install on my computer is 32 bit and it is fine for most games(I use Vista and Windows 7 too) so it will be fine. You could always upgrade the OS at a later date and I would concentrate on getting the hardware specification right for your computer first.

Even games like Battlefield Bad Company Two will be fine under XP although DX10 and DX11 will only run under Vista and Windows 7 though. Luckily many games still run under DX9 too.
 
This is what I would look at getting:

Phenom II X2 550BE ~ £72

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-249-AM

Gigabyte GA-MA78LMT-US2H ~ £62

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-245-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1481

G.Skill Ripjaw 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit ~ £85

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-041-GS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

OR

Patriot Sector 5 Viper II 4GB (2x2GB) PC3-12800 1600MHz Dual Channel + 3D Mark Vantage ~ £77

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-026-PA&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

I would run this RAM at 1333MHZ using lower latencies as this is the optimal memory settings for a Phenom II AFAIK.

Gainward GeForce 9800 GT Green Edition ~ £65

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-109-GW&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=

This should work fine under Linux and is also bus powered meaning that your PSU should not be stressed by it.

Samsung F3 1TB ~ £65

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-082-SA

The newer SATA hard disks are much faster than the old ones and with a dual boot system it is useful to have more space on the hard disk.

I would also re-used your old optical drive as the motherboard has an IDE port too.

The total comes to around £341 to £349 excluding postage.

If you need to get a new PSU I would get the following one:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-017-CS

It has a very good review and can supply at least 450W if required:

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/750

The PSU is made by Seasonic.

You could also look at the GTS250 too:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-199-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1402

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-121-OK&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1402

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-110-GW&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1402
 
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Guys will I need a heatsink/fan for cpu? I'm assuming I do.. whats a quiet option?
 
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