Please help spec my new build

Oliy

Oliy

Oliy

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13 Sep 2006
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15
Please help spec my new build for £750

Hi all,

My current computer (Barton 2500 @ 3000, 1gb PC3200, Radeon 9600) is now over 4 years old and I have some money for an upgrade!

I'm a bit out of date on what is good and not. My budget is up to £750 and does not include a monitor. I'm happy to do a mild amount of overclocking.

CPU
I know that the Core2 is meant to be better than the AMD X2. I think for the moment that it's better to get faster clocked dual core than a slower clocked quad. With that in mind, I was looking at the X2 6000 (3GHz) or the Core2 E6750, both for around £100. Any thoughts? What are the overclocking prospects?

Motherboard
I have no idea what motherboards are good. I'd like sound built in, but not too fussed about anything else, including SLI (too expensive?).

Graphics
I think nVidia is ahead of the curve at the moment, and was looking at the Gainward Bliss GF8600 GTS / 512mb / 675MHz. Any good? Overclockable?

Memory
4gb would be nice, at whatever speed is required for the CPU, with a little in hand for a bit of overclocking.

HDDs
Planning to get 2x500GB drives, hopefully with a 32mb cache (does this make a big difference?) and possibly stripe them if it's worth it, with my current 320gb as a place where all my backups will live.

Optical
1x DVD/RW drive and 1x normal DVD drive

Case / PSU
I have an Antec at the moment and quite like it. I don't want anything too flashy, something like the Antec Sonata III is nice. Is the PSU powerful enough?

CPU cooler
No idea!

If you're bored and would like to help me spend my money I would appreciate it. Also, if anyone knows of a good 24" monitor I would be grateful of some advice on that too. I have 2x19" LCDs at the moment and am thinking of getting a 24" to put between them. HDMI would be nice. I have seen the Benq 2400W for less than £270, is it any good? The Dell is over £400.

Many thanks!
 
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Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-171-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=

£49.99
£58.74 inc VAT

(A chip that has over clocking potential 3Ghz+)


Abit IP35 Pro (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-135-AB

(excellent mother board for over clocking)

£104.99
£123.36 inc VAT


EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS "Crysis Edition" 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (512-P3-E841-AE-CrysisUK)

650MHz Core, 512MB 1940MHz GDDR3 Memory, 128 Stream Processors, SLi Ready, Supplied with Crysis full PC-Game, 10yr Warranty with EVGA.

£199.99
£234.99 inc VAT

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-058-GL&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=813

This Week Only Offer
was £31.99 ex vat
£24.99
£29.36 inc VAT (x2)

Samsung SH-S203NBEBN 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-092-SA&groupid=701&catid=10&subcat=951

£16.99
£19.96 inc VAT


Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKS)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-120-WD&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=

£55.99
£65.79 inc VAT (x2)


Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-005-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=

£57.99
£68.14 inc VAT


Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-017-AR&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=821

£14.99
£17.61 inc VAT


TOTAL inc VAT EXC Delivery

£713.10

Unsure about the monitor, although i am sure other members will post spec suggestions. You should be fine with 16mb cache HDDs' vs 32mb.
 
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Thanks for that. I'm not a particularly hardcore gamer (I can live with a few effects turned off or a slightly lower resolution) so is there a cheaper option for the video card? Are the 8600s reasonable or is a low end 8800 better?

My only other query is the memory, wouldn't it be better to get faster memory and run it at a better ratio to the FSB?

Cheers.
 
GeIL memory for the price is excellent have no problem running it @ 4-4-4-12 on any of my clocks up to 3.9Ghz @ 1:1 ratio to the FSB

Graphics card wise you might consider an 8800 GT or 3870 XT
 
Personally i wouldn't go any lower than the GT series cards.

The Gt card i would recommend would be the

BFG GeForce 8800 GT OC2 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

Lifetime Warranty with BFG Direct.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-053-BG&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1008

This Week Only Offer
was £169.99 ex vat
£159.99
£187.99 inc VAT

As you can see there is not much of a price difference between the two cards. The GT has 112 stream proccessors vs GTS 128 stream processors. The GTS is the new G92 chip and also benefits due to a Lower Power Consumption against the GT.

on the subject of buying the cheapest oem and clocking it yourself...ask your self this question .....does the warranty matter to you at all?

The lower end GT/ GTS cards only offer a 1-3 year Warranty vs EVGA 10 year Warranty and BFG life time warranty. If you were to consider the lower end 8600 you would be throwing your money away as the new games entering the market are heavily GPU dependent and aimed at these new cards technology to be taken advantage off. The 8600 will not cut it at all, and is not a sound financial purchase.

The Gt would be ideal unless you're playing games above a 1600x1200 resolution.

Further reading http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3175&p=1

(If you are considering a GT card then nothing less than 512mb will do;))
 
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Great, thanks for your advice - if I'm going to spend that much, I might as well get the GTS; I've never spent so much on one component before though!

Thanks for the advice on the RAM as well Pneumonic, it's certainly a lot cheaper than the PC8500 stuff I was looking at!

Any recommendations on a case?

Also as I'll hopefully be running three monitors, any recommendations for a secondary video card? (2D only is fine, and I don't want to spend a lot of money on it).
 
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Oliy said:
Great, thanks for your advice - if I'm going to spend that much, I might as well get the GTS; I've never spent so much on one component before though!

Thanks for the advice on the RAM as well Pneumonic, it's certainly a lot cheaper than the PC8500 stuff I was looking at!

Any recommendations on a case?

Also as I'll hopefully be running three monitors, any recommendations for a secondary video card? (2D only is fine, and I don't want to spend a lot of money on it).
Click to expand...

The Sonata III is a very nice case, and is an absolute bargain considering it has a 500W PSU included. The PSU of a high quality too, with very strong 12v rails, and is more than capable of powering a decent system. With my 8800GT fan on low, CPU fan on auto, I can barely hear my rig.
 
I'm thinking of going with the following:


ocuk.png



All I need on top of that is a cheap secondary video card - I presume there exist some PCI-Express video cards that don't require 16 lanes?

Thanks for your help guys.
 
The Abit pro:The primary PCIe x16 slot runs at full x16 timings, whereas the secondary slot runs at x4 speeds.

You can also use the secondary PCI Express x16 sized slot for other high-end peripherals like PCIe RAID / LAN cards, or another dedicated graphics card for multi-monitor purposes.

As your primary x16 slot will be occupied with your BFG GT. The choice is open to which secondary card for example the 7300 card would be fine.

If you search you can pick these cards up cheaply
 
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I would change the Geil ULL to the Geil Black Dragon as it's £2 more per 2GB which is excellent and it's seemingly better for overclocking. I'd also consider a DVD writer instead of the DVD-ROM which is only £5 more. I would also consider the Samsung F1 750GB drive in place of your 2x 500gb's. Unless you want raid, then this drive is much faster than the WD caviar, but you will loose 250GB space but save £20. Personally I'd rather not RAID as other than epeen factor of large transfer rates there isn't much point.
 
Flibby, I intend to get a DVD-RW as well as a DVD-ROM so no worries there. I have also looked at the Black Dragon, and it does seem better suited (it has the same latencies, although it has a narrower voltage range).

I have also looked at the Samsung F1 750GB, I presume it will be faster due to higher platter density. I've always wanted a striped RAID array though, I know that in almost all cases it is no faster and sometimes slower than a single drive, and that it is less reliable. I just want one for the concept I think! I'll give it some thought.

I'm looking at the OCUK Value 24" monitor - it doesn't have HDMI input. I'm trying to work out if this will be a problem for me.
 
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