Out of Touch and Stuck for Choice - New system specs on £3,500?

HCRTrooper said:
[EDIT]

Widescreen? The way forward or not? Not 100% on this one, I've never experienced widescreen before. Comments? Opinions? What about one widescreen, the other standard? Or does that make no sense?
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I'm not sure about the widescreens but all the new ones coming out are widescreen.

Personally I have a 19" Viewsonic VP930 (1280 by 1024), I prefer the normal screens.
 
This will get slated for being overpriced but you have the money, and here is what you could get :)

http://img245.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ocpr0.png

my.php
 
Also consider putting in a dedicated high spec hardware raid card. The Areca brand are very good (regularly pwning Adaptec etc in benchmarks). Then add 4 750GB drives for 1.5TB of raid 10 goodness. Maybe even a flash drive for the OS ?
 
Hodders said:
Also consider putting in a dedicated high spec hardware raid card. The Areca brand are very good (regularly pwning Adaptec etc in benchmarks). Then add 4 750GB drives for 1.5TB of raid 10 goodness. Maybe even a flash drive for the OS ?
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To be honest, thats really not needed. Depending what he will be using hes system for that is.

Just becuase he has £3500 to spend on a pc, its a waste just to add bits to simply fill up the budget.
 
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Sinque said:
Too bad it's way too small to even see :p
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Would you care to borrow my magnifying glass :P

Anyway I can see it fine...ish!

Here we go I'll take the easy way out:


Creative GigaWorks 5.1 G550W THX® Wireless Speakers - Retail £177.99
(£209.14)

2x OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-8500 1066MHz SLI-Ready Edition Dual Channel DDR2 (OCZ2N1066SR2GK) £104.99
(£246.72)

Steelsound 5H Gaming Headset £39.95
(£46.94)

5x Noctua NF-S12 1200RPM 120mm Silent Case Fan - 3 Pin £11.99
(£70.45)

2x Samsung SH-S203BEBN 20x20 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
(£39.92)

CoolerMaster Stacker 832 - Black Trim (No PSU) £139.99
(£164.49)

Enermax Galaxy 1000W EGX1000EWL ATX2.2 Modular PSU £184.99
(£217.36)

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6700 "LGA775 Kentsfield" 2.66GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £299.99
(£352.49)

Icemat - Black 2nd Edition £16.70
(£19.62)

Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 - Retail £19.99
(£23.49)

Saitek Eclipse 2 Illuminated Keyboard - Blue/Red/Purple £26.99
(£31.71)

Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66R-00838) £97.99
(£115.14)

Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Professional 7.1 Soundcard - Retail £75.99
(£89.29)

2x Dell E228WFP 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £179.99
(£422.98)

Thermaltake BigTyp 120 VX CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/LGA755) £26.99
(£31.71)

3x Western Digital Caviar RE2 500GB 5000YS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £76.99
(£271.38)

Abit IN9 32X-MAX WiFi nForce 680 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £154.99
(£182.11)

2x Leadtek GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £349.99
(£822.48)

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) £5.99
(£7.04)

Sub Total : £2,863.38
Shipping : £54.95
VAT : £510.71
Total : £3,429.04
 
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Hey HCRTrooper, two quick questions.

What will you be mainly using this system for?

Also will you be needing a Keyboard, Mouse and Speakers?

This is what i would recomend, this does not include a Keyboard, Mouse and Speakers since im not to sure if you will be needing those. If you do just say.

Anyway hows this:

Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP-HC 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB)
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g)
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme CPU Cooler
Noctua NF-S12 1200RPM 120mm Silent Case Fan - 3 Pin
Abit IP35 Pro (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PQ PC2-6400C5 (2x2GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit
BFG GeForce 8800 GTX OC 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 5000AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache X2
Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Professional 7.1 Soundcard
Asus DRW-1814BLT 18x18 DVD±RW Serial ATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter
Akasa Eclipse 62 Aluminium Case - No PSU
Seasonic M12 Modular 600W Silent ATX2.0 Power Supply

Total : £1,943.22

The Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP-HC 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor is the newer version of the very popular Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP which is an amazing screen anyway. The HC stands for High Colour which offers up to 92% high-colour gamut. So in other words just a much clearer image. It truely is an amazing screen.

Now you said your after Dual Screens, may i ask why? You can easily fit Dual Screens into that budget but if your not doing any kind of professinal work, will you really get any extra enjoyment, reality performance out of Dual Screens?

Or is it becuase you want two massive screens to show of to your mates, which isnt the best way of looking at it. :p

Also someone mentioned you could quite easily fit a 30inch screen into that budget. 30inch screens have a resolution of 2560x2048, that is a very demanding res and will most likely require a Dual Card configuration to run the latest games on top settings. Sure you can fit two 800 cards in your budget now and play most of the games that are currently out at that res and with all the bells and whistles on but think about the future.

If you wanted to play a game thats out in 6 months time or so, the 8800 series will be totally old hat and most certainly you will need the latest card that is out then. Remember though your gaming at a res of 2560x2048 so its pretty certain that you wont only need one of the newest Graphics Cards that are out out but two and that will equate to quite a hefty price which you may not have at that particular point in time. Just something to take in.

Anyway moving on.

You should be able to overclock the Q6600 to 3.2GHZ+ pretty easily and with good temps since i have put one of the best air coolers in their for you, the Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme CPU Cooler, brilliant CPU Cooler and will keep that chip of yours nice and cool. Since it dosent come with a fan i have just added the Noctua NF-S12 1200RPM 120mm Silent Case Fan which will do the job just fine.

The Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound is great thermal paste and should help with temps.

The Abit IP35 Pro is one of the best P35 Chipset boards out in my eyes, very reliable, fantastic overclocking potinal, just a great board all around. Highly recomend it.

The G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PQ PC2-6400C5 is great memory, very fast and reliable.

The 8800GTX is a monster of a card and paired along with the Dell Screen, gaming will be amazing. Now your intrested in SLI, from what i said earlier their is another reason for not going for the 30inch screen which will require a SLI setup.

SLI at this point in time is a complete waste of money. Not enough games take advantage of a SLI configuration. The money that you spend on that second card does not justify the performance you get out of that second card. Maybe in the future games will take advantage of SLI but that could be a while and by then, your current cards will be old. Single card solotuion is the best way to go.

The Western Digital Hard drives are fast, quiet and very reliable.

Soundcard, you just have to have a soundcard in that spec. The Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Professional 7.1 Soundcard is a fantastic card and will be a million times better than the onboard sound. You will hear things that you never thought were their. If you have some kind of surround sound system it will be even better.

The DVD Drive connects to your motherboard via SATA connetion, this means yu can cancel the onboard IDE controller which will equate to slightly quicker boot times. Most of all though you can get rid of them fat, ugly IDE cables.

The Akasa case is great. Build quality is second to none and cooling is of a very high standard.

Seasonic make the best Power Supplys in the world. The Seasonic M12 Modular 600W Silent ATX2.0 Power Supply is very reliable and very quite. Fantastic PSU.

Finally Vista, you may not want to move to Vista just yet but if you have XP i would highly recomend dual booting XP and Vista together. Its a great way to experince Vista fully but if you do come across any problems you can still user XP.

Highly recomend trying Vista though, its a great oprating system.

Like i said earlier though, if your not thinking to buying till December, it really isnt worth ordering anything untill you are ready to buy the system. Not even something like the case becuase for one, their is a slight chance something could come out and may catch your eye even more and two, it just feels so good having a load of boxes delivered to your house knowing this will be your BRAND NEW system. :D:cool:

Welome to the Forums by the way. ;)
 
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Guys, some excellent suggestions there, and lots of great advice that I'll take on board.

A few points straight off the bat then, is that widescreen is the way forward apparently?
The reason I want dual display, is I do a lot of video editing, and photo editing, so dual display is a massive benefit, just for the amount of programs running that I need to be able to see at the same time.
Also, handy for some fav games of mine as well.

SLi, not worth it? As I say, I'm out of touch, so I have no idea. So the recommendation is to buy one uber card now, and wait for the future to make it beneficial to get two cards?

XP or Vista, or both, well, I'm happy with XP for what I'm doing, but dual-boot sounds like an idea.
So would it be possible to have two small boot drives just for Vista and XP? Or does it not work quite like that?

The purpose of having this budget, is two-fold.
Primary objective is to create a machine that, as far as the basic essentials go, soundcard, hd, monitors, etcetc, has the best for the money, and as such, should never need to be touched again. Obviously, hd's depend on how much space I chew through, but a tb should be sufficient, if not more. Again, it needs to be enough to last.
So to this end, the case will need to have the space for any future upgrades, the psu will need to be able to handle future upgrades, and the cooling will need to be able to adjust to any future pressures applied.
As such, the basics that I buy now, should be the very best on the market, to ensure stability and lifespan.

Secondary objective is to have a machine that is easily upgradeable, for future options. So for example, an SLi mobo, that although I may not run two gfx cards, at a later date, I can chuck a new one in, or rip the old one out and replace with two new ones. RAM that is maxed to what can currently be efficiently harnessed by the machine, with the best on the market, so that at a future time, I can rip it out and replace it with the latest, and greatest.

As I see it, essentially, the only thing I will need to change in the future, is the gfx, everything else, should be more than sufficient. I'm not a man that needs to keep up to speed, I'm simply future-proofing the basics and ensuring that future additions shouldn't require serious overhaul of the foundations of the system.

On a side note, is there anything I can do with my Dell to harness the resources on it, asides from ripping them out and stuffing them into this new system? I'm not very wise on what you can do by linking two machines together, so some help here is appreciated. :P

Thanks again guys, I've got my little list that's steadily growing. :D
 
HCRTrooper said:
The reason I want dual display, is I do a lot of video editing, and photo editing, so dual display is a massive benefit, just for the amount of programs running that I need to be able to see at the same time.
Also, handy for some fav games of mine as well.
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Dual Screens will help then if your doing that kind of work. I questioned it becuase it seems most people juts go for Dual Screens becuase, well its cool which isnt a very good reason.

For you though i can fully understand that Dual Screens will be a benefit. :cool:

HCRTrooper said:
SLi, not worth it? As I say, I'm out of touch, so I have no idea. So the recommendation is to buy one uber card now, and wait for the future to make it beneficial to get two cards?
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SLI at the moment is not the way to go, it really isnt. In the future it may be beneficial but that could be a while. By the time SLI is optimized for most games out their the SLI capable motherboards that are out now will be very old tech.

HCRTrooper said:
XP or Vista, or both, well, I'm happy with XP for what I'm doing, but dual-boot sounds like an idea.
So would it be possible to have two small boot drives just for Vista and XP? Or does it not work quite like that?
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Yep you can have 2 small hard drives, one for XP and one for Vista. Thats not a problem. Though it would be best to get 2 bigger hard drives (500GB) and put XP on one and then Vista on the other. The advantages of just having a small boot hard drive are very little.


HCRTrooper said:
Secondary objective is to have a machine that is easily upgradeable, for future options. So for example, an SLi mobo, that although I may not run two gfx cards, at a later date, I can chuck a new one in, or rip the old one out and replace with two new ones.
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I can understand that but like i said if you buy a motherboard now that is SLI ready, by the time its actually worth going SLI that motherboar will be old and something newer will be out.

HCRTrooper said:
RAM that is maxed to what can currently be efficiently harnessed by the machine, with the best on the market, so that at a future time, I can rip it out and replace it with the latest, and greatest.
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4GB is plenty of Memory for the time being.

HCRTrooper said:
As I see it, essentially, the only thing I will need to change in the future, is the gfx, everything else, should be more than sufficient. I'm not a man that needs to keep up to speed, I'm simply future-proofing the basics and ensuring that future additions shouldn't require serious overhaul of the foundations of the system.
Click to expand...

You can only do a certain amount of future profing and that is buying the latest tech that is out NOW. The computer world advances so fast its unbelivable. Some people think DDR2 + DDR3 motherboards are future, their really not. By the time DDR3 becomes mainstream, most users on here will have 4GB of DDR2 Memory. So are you really going to swap in 2GB of DDR3 for 4GB of DDR2?

HCRTrooper said:
On a side note, is there anything I can do with my Dell to harness the resources on it, asides from ripping them out and stuffing them into this new system? I'm not very wise on what you can do by linking two machines together, so some help here is appreciated. :P
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What are the specs of your Dell Machine?
 
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HCRTrooper dont bother specing now. By december there will be new cpu's, graphics cards and motherboards. You cant possibly spec now because with that budget youd be a fool not to buy them all but we dont know their spec or the prices, we just hope they gota kick ass :P


Barceloner should be out for the AMD's true quads i beleive? The new Intel chips i beleive also. Along with the new intel motherbaords and the G98 graphics cards.

How ever, nvida and intel appear to have fallen out. It is unlikely they will be SLI i would still suggest against it as the new cards should be beasty enough to not need them. Dont spend the money that you dont need to spend, most games dont use sli or need it and new cards are always coming out so its just not worth it.
 
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