New System Help

[Duff]Chef · 19 Jul 2008 at 13:56

Unfortunately I havn't built a new system for a while now and therefore I am a little out of touch with current motherboards / graphics card specs etc.

Basically I am looking @

Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10000RPM SATA 16MB Cache - OEM (WD740ADFD) £84.99 (£99.86)
Western Digital Caviar Blue 640GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD6400AAKS) £44.99 (£52.86)
XFX GeForce 8800 GTX XXX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (PV-T80F-SHD9) £99.99(£117.49)
Antec Twelve Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case £89.99 (£105.74)
Zalman ZM1000-HP Heatpipe Cooled 1000W Modular PSU £119.99 (£140.99)

What I need to know is, ideally best Motherboard, CPU etc to go with the above, or would you change any of the above. I was also thinking of 4gb of ram, but again not sure what type etc.

Budget is up to 1k, obviously the above only comes to about £500.. I dont want to go silly on components, but also want something to last a while.

Basically I am totally confused over which chip set Mother board to go for. I only use my computer to play games on, nothing else.

Oh and I already have an unopened copy of Vista Home premium 64bit.

Thanks for the help

semi-pro waster · 19 Jul 2008 at 14:21

I'm not a great fan of Raptors personally on a cost/benefit basis but if you've got the cash that is up to you. Your PSU is rather overkill, any decent PSU in the range around 600w is more than sufficient. The below might be suitable for a starting point, you could consider changing the graphics card to an ATI 4850 or 4870 which would give the option of Crossfire in the future if needed.

G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PQ PC2-6400C5 (2x2GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ) £51.99
(£61.09) £51.99
(£61.09)
Abit IX38 QuadGT Intel X38 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £99.99
(£117.49) £99.99
(£117.49)
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - OEM £98.99
(£116.31) £98.99
(£116.31)
Tuniq Tower 120-LFB CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £23.99
(£28.19) £23.99
(£28.19)
Sub Total : £274.96
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.25
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £49.56
Total : £332.77

lynchy6789 · 19 Jul 2008 at 18:13

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11840942&postcount=5
Something i would go fof

Noctua NH-U12P CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/LGA775)
(£42.29)

Zalman ZM600-HP Heatpipe Cooled 600W Modular PSU Zalman ZM600-HP Heatpipe Cooled 600W Modular PSU
(£82.24)

Western Digital Caviar Blue 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD2500AAKS)

(£37.59)
Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103UJ) Samsung
(£90.46)

OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Reaper HPC Edition Dual Channel DDR2 (£88.11)

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail Intel
(£115.14)

Asus Rampage Formula Intel X48 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
(£182.11)

2 X -Asus ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail
(£251.42)

Antec Twelve Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case
(£105.74)

Sub Total : £846.90
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £21.29
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £151.93
Total : £1,020.12

EDIT: if you want to go quad core change E8400(better for gaming and good oc 4Ghz ) and go Q6600 or get cheaper case and the Q9450

PhoenixUK · 19 Jul 2008 at 19:08

that x38 from DFI - 115
e8400 - 115
2x4850 - 260
spinpoint 750gb - 60
PC8500 gskills 4gb - 80
tuniq tower - 35
~650-750 psu - 75
------------------------------
~ 740, not too expensive, yet the top notch gear

.

x48 for 180 is a bit overkill for 4850s...

[Duff]Chef · 19 Jul 2008 at 20:27

is it me or are the majority of Mobos atm geared towards crossfire and not sli?

lynchy6789 · 19 Jul 2008 at 22:26

Yea x48 is a bit over kill just tried to reach his budget but i would go for the x38

. Probably also wait for new ati 4870x2 to come out aswell then he could get a p45 board and save even more money

.

C64 · 19 Jul 2008 at 23:06

[Duff]Chef · 20 Jul 2008 at 15:44

i am now totally confused about what to get..

basically i only play games, would like to spend around 1k...

and really only want to get the best i can afford from a purely gaming point of view

reflux · 20 Jul 2008 at 16:14

For a gaming system the most important part is the graphics card, followed by the CPU/RAM/motherboard. For the graphics card I'd suggest a Radeon 4870. For the CPU, most games don't take advantage of more than one core, let alone two, so the E8400 is a wise choice. 4GB of RAM is important for Vista, and since you've been clever and got the 64-bit version, you'll be able to use it all! A decent P45 or X38 board would do you nicely....X38 giving you the option for a second card for CrossFire.

Gaming rigs tend to be quite minimalist...stick in a small hard disk, say 250gb, and you'll be away.