New Gaming PC

Valky · 17 Apr 2008 at 18:26

Hi all,

I want to build a new PC atm and i am thinking of buying the following parts, please could someone look through this and see if there is anything i should change etc etc.

I would say my budget is about £1500, so any opinions will be great as i know there are more experienced people out there than me and i might be able to go away with better system or cheaper system

Thanks in Advance!

Case: Thermaltake VA3000BWA Tsunami Dream SuperMidi Aluminium Tower - Black (£74.01)

PSU: Corsair TX 650W ATX2.2 SLi Compliant PSU (£76.36)

Memory: OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Reaper HPC Edition Dual Channel DDR2 (£111.61)

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (£137.46)

Mobo: Abit IP35 Pro (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (£109.26)

GFX: HIS ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 1024MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail (£258.49)

HD1: Western Digital Raptor 150GB 10000RPM SATA 16MB Cache - OEM + Battlefield 2 Complete Collection (WD1500ADFD) (£121.01)

HD2: Western Digital Caviar RE2-GP 1TB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD1000FYPS) (£124.54)

Cooling: Tuniq Tower 120-LFB CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) (£35.24)

Drive: Asus DRW-2014L1T 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter (Black/Silver) - Retail (£23.49)

Monitor: Asus MK241H 24" Widescreen HDMI/HDCP LCD HD Monitor - Black (£352.49)

manic111 · 17 Apr 2008 at 18:31

I've heard some pretty good things about the BenQ 24" monitor which would knock about £100 off for you. Maybe an X38 board for Crossfire? Other wise it looks pretty spot on to me! (as long as you like noice-raptors are loud! maybe consider RAID?)

Valky · 17 Apr 2008 at 18:41

Ah cheers, didnt notice that monitor before, if it is about £100 cheaper then its good in my eyes!

And regarding the Raptor drives are they really that loud? I havent considered RAID tbh as i not dealt with it much in the past. Is it easy to setup on PC? And would it be just as fast or what?

For the x38 like i said i maybe might miss better deals and things to go for so thats why posted here, looked since you asked and yeah might consider it seeing found a cheaper monitor now

Thanks for the reply!

steve258 · 17 Apr 2008 at 18:42

The Raptor is fast but new HDDs now especially those high density platter 500/750Gb ones have a lot closer transfer speed to raptor for a lot cheaper. It's just that the raptor runs very hot and noisy as well. If in doubt consult the HDD forum I'm sure the experts there will clarify it for you.

UltraDad · 17 Apr 2008 at 20:34

Hello there

Your system gonna rock when its built, very nice spec

I would change your hard drives, the Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103UJ) been getting realy good reviews, cheaper than a raptor, almost as quick and hudge space, just partion 50-150 gig for windows and you still got 850 gig+ plus the other 1000gig drive for storage

Good luck with the build

Ps i would change your ram to this GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz Black Dragon DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GB24GB6400C5DC) as it will take your quad to 3.6 i think and will save you some cash

costs £70.49

Valky · 18 Apr 2008 at 17:21

Thanks for the replies,

Yeah just noticed the hard drive you mentioned so i changed it to that one and ditched the raptor. Would it be wise to buy 2 of them and run them on raid0? I aint to famililar with raid as never used it before so would i be ok with just 1TB or go for the 2x1TB? As tbh it just works out the same price as qith the raptor?

And what would a stable overclock of the CPU be with the Tuniq Cooler? About 3.3Ghz?

Sorry for late reply but been working my roe off to try and afford this bugger for next few weeks haha!

steve258 · 18 Apr 2008 at 17:44

I'd probably be tempted to run raid 1 tbh a 1Tb drive is large enough and fast enough without raid 0. Besides there is a lot of data at risk should 1 of the raid 0 drives fail.

I'd be tempted to raid 0 2 smaller drives (say 500Gb) and have another standalone drive to back up files...etc.

Ben M · 18 Apr 2008 at 17:53

I'd personally get two drives in RAID 0 instead of a raptor, they'll offer much better performance due to the higher bandwidth.

EdGey · 18 Apr 2008 at 20:17

i have a raptor.. I agree it is very noisy, but never had any problems with heat, usually around 23 degrees. but then i have nothing to compare that too so i dont know if that is hot for a hard drive.

great specs there, although i never did see the point in such an expensive case, mabye get a cheaper one and put some more fans in by hand? mabye some led'd fans if you want it to look fancy.