New build topic again

[Solouko]

HD-025-SA Samsung SpinPoint P HD040GJ 40GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-025-SA)
£24.50 £98.00
HD-023-SA Samsung SpinPoint P HD080HJ 80GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-023-SA)
£26.95 £26.95
BU-000-AK Akasa Eclipse 62 Aluminium Case & Window (BU-000-AK)
CA-006-AK Akasa Eclipse 62 Window Side Panel (CA-006-AK) 1
CA-005-AK Akasa Eclipse 62 Aluminum Case (CA-005-AK) 1
£82.70 £82.70
MB-013-DF DFI LanParty UT NF4 SLI-D (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-013-DF)
£91.95 £91.95
CP-174-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-174-AM)
£239.95 £239.95
GX-038-OK OcUK GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-038-OK)
£269.95 £269.95
MY-058-OC OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC4000 Dual Channel Platinum Series EB-DDR CAS3 (OCZ5002048EBPE-K) (MY-058-OC)
£199.95 £199.95
WC-014-SW Swiftech H20-220 Apex "Ultra" Watercooling Kit (Socket 462/478/LGA775/754/939/940) (WC-014-SW)
£137.95 £137.95
WC-019-SW Swiftech MCW60 VGA Waterblock (WC-019-SW)
£23.95 £23.95
CA-024-EN Enermax Liberty 620W ELT620AWT ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CA-024-EN)
£84.95 £84.95
AC-000-AC Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) (AC-000-AC)
£5.95 £5.95
MO-045-HY Hyundai ImageQuest B91D 19" LCD Monitor - Black (MO-045-HY)
£179.95 £179.95
KB-011-LG Logitech Internet Pro Keyboard (Black) - OEM (KB-011-LG)
£8.95 £8.95
KB-046-LG Logitech S96 PS/2 Optical Wheel Mouse Black - OEM (KB-046-LG)
£5.50 £5.50
CD-020-SO Sony DDU-1615 DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM (CD-020-SO)
£10.50 £10.50
CD-049-SO Sony DWG120A 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-049-SO)
£21.95 £21.95

ok, there's my prototype spec, notice that it's not AM2, this is to save cost and also because DFI do not yet make an AM2 Mobo (not that i can find anyway). note there are 4 identical SATA drives, these are for a RAID array... probably RAID 0 cause i like living on the edge. also going for the cheepest nvidia 7900 because it's only going to be used for playing halflife 2 (btw i know HL2 was designed for ATi but i have a deep hatred for them). i've gone for that watercooling kit after a lot of though and decided it's the nicest.

Note the enermax PSU, is 620W going to be enough, i really hope to, or is it going to be too much (i am planing to OC it).
is that monitor a good choice, i like hyundai monitors and i cant fand much better unless it's for alor more money.

Can anyone see anything that's not going to work there or something that could save me money?

and finaly, should i wait for the new intel chips to come out? that whole systels only gonna cost me £1800 at the moment, but i'm saving up for a new car too and every little helps.

Thanks

 

[Rokusho]

First of all, your gonna get excellent frames and AA/AF on HL2 and any source mods. Im sure any modern game will play at full on that system. If you are just playing HL2, let me say this.

I have a 6600GT, 3200+ AMD, this delivers great frames at the highest quality settings on my 19" moniter. TBH your going OTT with this, especially if your aim is to save your money.

You may want to budget yourself just £1000, save the rest for your car. £1000 will still give you plenty of cash to build a system that will run HL2 easily.

Next, the PSU is PLENTY. Unless you were going SLi would I suggest that much power.

I suggest you scrap the idea you have for the drives and get a WD Raptor 74Gb for the operating system and a decent sized singlw hard drive like 250Gb for games and general stoage of MP3 etc. You trying to be too complicated, think simply.

If you do this, you can use a less powerful PSU and save some more money.

Next where is your operating system

Overclocking should be interesting, but may be unecessary. You may also want to scrap the watercooling stuff, save your money and stick to air. You can still get pretty good overclocking results with air if you get the Zalaman

This system is just becoming a waste of money for playing HL2, spend just a grand or even less, £800 will be able to do it. This is a rig i just ordered for a mate of mine:

MO-041-VS Viewsonic VX724 17" LCD Monitor (MO-041-VS)
£149.95 £149.95
OS-001-MS Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk (N09-01528) (OS-001-MS)
£51.95 £51.95
SW-000-NR Ahead Nero Express v6.6 - OEM (SW-000-NR)
£2.95 £5.90
CD-049-SO Sony DWG120A 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-049-SO)
£21.95 £21.95
CP-164-AM AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail (CP-164-AM)
£69.95 £69.95
MY-083-CS Corsair 1GB DDR2 Value Select PC5300 Dual Channel Kit (2x512MB) (VS1GBKIT667D2) (MY-083-CS)
£59.95 £59.95
MB-071-MS MSI K9N Neo-F nForce 550 (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-071-MS)
£49.95 £49.95
HD-047-WD Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 160GB 1600JS SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-047-WD)
£41.95 £41.95
CA-026-EN Enermax Liberty 400W ELT400AWT ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CA-026-EN)
£40.95 £40.95
KB-058-LG Logitech Cordless Optical Desktop Rechargeable Black/Silver - OEM (KB-058-LG)
£29.95 £29.95
CA-089-CM CoolerMaster Ammo 533 Aluminum (No PSU) - Silver (CA-089-CM)
£41.95 £41.95
GX-025-BG BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7600 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-025-BG)
£99.95 £99.95
Subtotal £664.35
VAT £116.27
Total £780.62

and this is AM2 as well!!!

 

[Solouko]

well when i said HL2 i ment that was the only game, i would like to play doom 3 as well but i'm mostly getting the X2 becuase i do a lot of other stuff such as video encoding and i really want to future proof myself for at least 4 years! btw.. the OS is going to come off this comp as is all the rest of my software.

the monitor has got to be 19inch or biger! i'm not seteling for anything smaller than that because this is the first time i can aford a computer like this and i'm going to enjoy it!

having spent a lot of time on these forums too i know that the best memory configuration is 2 dual chanel sticks 1GB each because then you can get rid of your paging file compleatly which speeds everything up.

i may go with RAID 5 yet, those 4 40GB frives are only a little more expencive then a raptor, and in a RAID configuration can have a transfer rate a lot faster then a raptor, the raptor still uses the SATA transfer rate and it's only the access time that is faster so i just dont think that it's worth it.

also the raid array is going to be for the windows install and the program files, i dont want a drive biger then 80GB for my my documents because i need to get into the habit of backing up more

in addition, i want something that looks good and i'm willing to spend some money haveing something awsome sitting on my desk, hence choosing the Lanparty board and the eclips 62, forgot to add the UV cold cathodes onto that list

and another thing... no cordless anything! mise or keybords x_X

but thank s for the input, at least i know i'm on the right track and i'll review my choice of PSU too