New system £800 budget!

jac705

jac705

jac705

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I posted about a week ago with the following system:
Budget was £1000 exVAT and uses are music, internet, work, HD movies on 24inch monitor, some gaming.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.66GHz 12MB-cache (1333FSB)
Graphics: EVGA GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 Intel X48 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR3
Hard drive: Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache
Optical Drive: LG GGW-H20L Blu-Ray Rewriter & HD-DVD ROM Serial ATA Drive
Power: Corsair TX 750W ATX2.2 SLI Compliant PSU
Memory: 2 X Corsair 2GB DDR3 DHX 1333C9DHX Twin3X (2x1GB)
Case: Antec Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case

Total £985.91 exVAT

Having now reconsidered my budget to be nearer £800 I have downgraded to the following:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.50GHz 6MB-cache (1333FSB)
Graphics: EVGA GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X48-DS4 Intel X48 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2
Hard drive: Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache
Optical Drive: LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray Reader & HD-DVD ROM Serial ATA
Power: Corsair TX 750W ATX2.2 SLI Compliant PSU
Memory: Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 Dominator PC2-8500C5 TwinX (2x2GB) Supplied with Airflow Fan (TWIN2X4096-8500C5DF)
Case: Antec Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case

Total £816.92 exVAT

Will this system still live up to my needs and perform well?
Not sure whether to wait until I have more money or go for the lesser one.
Thanks in advance
 
You could save more money by probably getting a 620W PSU (maybe even a 520w) PSU

9800 GTX = just buy a 8800 GTS 512MB

CPU = get a Q6600 G0.

Will save you quite a bit of cash.

Though you probably know this, the new GPU range is coming out next month sometime from both ATI and NV. More details are in the graphics card forum if you want to look.
 
Don't buy a Q9300, either spend less and get a chip which is around the same (Q6600) or spend more and get a Q9450, which is better.

As for the GFX, if you're running a 24" I'd get an 8800GTX.
 
Thanks for the advice.
Do you reckon the new GPUs are worth waiting for?
Also will the Q6600 Go run as well as the Q9300? I have heard good things about the 45nm technology and want this computer to last for a few years.
 
Is the BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) a worthy substitute or should I opt for a more expensive GTX?
I dont really know the difference between GTS and GTX im afraid!
 
The Q6600 is older tech because it's a 65 nm processor. So it will run hotter. But it has more cache than a Q9300 (as these have half of their cache disabled compared to Q9450 etc)

The Q9300 does start off faster, and has good overclocking potentials, but the fragility of these chips with regards to putting more than 1.4V through them is always a worry. The Q6600 is, however, a tried and tested fantastic overclocker, you'd be very unfortunate to see less than 3.4 out of it if you know what you're doing.

If, as you say, you want the PC to last a few years, then I would spend the extra pennies, if you have them, on a Q9450. If you don't have them then the Q6600 is still a very good chip, and is very good value.

here's what I said about 9450 vs 6600 in a previous thread:
a Q9450 is £90 more than a Q6600, but for that you get:
4mb more cache
faster chip
more overclocking potential
cooler-running chip
newer tech
assasins creed game


The 8800GTS is a very good card yes, but at higher resolutions, the 8800GTX is the daddy. This is because it has a greater memory bandwidth. The GTX also will be far superior to the GTS once the AA and AF are turned up.
 
This will be my first performance desktop system (I currently use a sony sz4xwn laptop...very nice but cant handle the films and games very well), and as a result I probably wont be doing much overclocking until I know my way around it well enough...therefore a good base spec is important and I think I'll go for the Q9450 :-) .
The cheapest 9800 GTX cards seem to cost less than the cheapest 8800 GTX cards which is confusing me somewhat. Should I be wary of 9800 cards? People seem to always recommend just going for an 8800.
If going for an 8800 GTX will a Leadtek GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI be suitable?
Thanks again
 
jac705 said:
This will be my first performance desktop system (I currently use a sony sz4xwn laptop...very nice but cant handle the films and games very well), and as a result I probably wont be doing much overclocking until I know my way around it well enough...therefore a good base spec is important and I think I'll go for the Q9450 :-) .
The cheapest 9800 GTX cards seem to cost less than the cheapest 8800 GTX cards which is confusing me somewhat. Should I be wary of 9800 cards? People seem to always recommend just going for an 8800.
If going for an 8800 GTX will a Leadtek GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI be suitable?
Thanks again
Click to expand...

As I understand it:

All of the current 9 series are rebadged 8 series cards.
A 9800GTX is similar (aka is basically the same as) an overclocked 8800GTS.
A 9800GTX can out perform an 8800GTX by a small margin in certain settings- low res and low AA and AF. When you are at higher res (as you are) and start to turn up the AA and AF, that's when the 8800GTX outperforms the 9800GTX (by a fair margin). It's worth looking at benchmarks that compare the two to see for yourself what the state-of-play is.

I don't know about whether it's HDTV etc suitable, it may say in the product description. It's probably worth posting in the graphics card forum.
 
Ben M said:
As I understand it:

All of the current 9 series are rebadged 8 series cards.
A 9800GTX is similar (aka is basically the same as) an overclocked 8800GTS.
A 9800GTX can out perform an 8800GTX by a small margin in certain settings- low res and low AA and AF. When you are at higher res (as you are) and start to turn up the AA and AF, that's when the 8800GTX outperforms the 9800GTX (by a fair margin). It's worth looking at benchmarks that compare the two to see for yourself what the state-of-play is.

I don't know about whether it's HDTV etc suitable, it may say in the product description. It's probably worth posting in the graphics card forum.
Click to expand...

Superb advice!
Have just posted in the graphics card forum :-)
Thanks
 
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