Quick system spec

Paul_Canning · 26 Sep 2007 at 10:56

Wasting some time at work whilst waiting for a render to finish.

Just wanting to know how you lot would spend £400 on a base unit (no monitor keyboard mouse or optical drives) plus an OS.

Primary need will be gaming, so i need the best bang for buck on gfx, possibly a good card to OC. Same for the CPU

Now go crazy

Teaf · 26 Sep 2007 at 11:17

I'd probably get the following being on the budget that you are on. Case comes with a power supply in case you wonder where it is. The power supply is quite reasonable too, and not a cheapy thing, although obviously not as good as a Corsair but you're budget doesn't allow that without hampering other components. CPU is excellent bang for buck and overclocks well, but note that you'd be on the stock cooler and if you wished to overclock a lot on it then you'd want a 3rd party cooler. The stock cooler should give you some room to overclock though. The graphics card is superb for the price and is a really excellent card.

Just to note however, the RAM in the spec is on "This Week Only" and will return to it's full price tomorrow lunchtime (ish) and is normally about £55, so I'd take that into consideration.

Paul_Canning · 26 Sep 2007 at 11:26

Thanks for the spec.

Few things, how good is the gfx card, and surely wouldn't it be worth getting the 512mb version?

As for the OS, what stuff does Home Premium have that Basic doesnt? Would it be wise to stick with XP? (i have a student license for it)

Lastly, can you spec a decent cooler to allow the most overclocking with the E2160.

Thanks!!

Teaf · 26 Sep 2007 at 11:30

Paul_Canning said:
Few things, how good is the gfx card, and surely wouldn't it be worth getting the 512mb version?

If you can afford to go over budget, then yes I would recommend getting the 512MB model. I originally had this in my spec when I forgot the operating system as it's a better card for only £10 extra, but took me overbudget when specing you.

Lastly, can you spec a decent cooler to allow the most overclocking with the E2160.

Any of the £30~ ones are great, in particluar the Tuniq Tower 120, Scythe Ninja Rev. B and the Thermalright BigTyp 120 VX. All will get you a great overclock (providing good air flow and a room that isn't boiling hot all the time). If I had to personally pick out of all three of those coolers, I would recommend getting the Tuniq Tower 120 although I would double check that it fits okay onto the motherboard - someone else might be able to advise there that has that cooler on the 650i Ultra. Also you'll probably want to pick up some Thermal Paste if you haven't got any, such as some MX-2 or AS5.

As for the OS, what stuff does Home Premium have that Basic doesnt? Would it be wise to stick with XP? (i have a student license for it)

I'd stick with XP if you have a Professional version and on a student license (not sure if it's XP home?). Here's a screenshot of what is different in Home Basic to Home Premium for Vista:

Windows-Vista-Home-Basic-vs-Home-Premium-vs-Business-vs-Ultimate-3.png

Paul_Canning · 26 Sep 2007 at 11:41

Cool, thanks for all the info!

Seems like i will stick with trusty XP (never thought i'd say that!)

<rant>Really dont like Vista. Everything has been moved and renamed, and it takes ages to find even simple stuff like command prompt!</rant>

Quick q, will this spec run HL2/TF2/HG:L on high quality with good fps? and for older games like WoW/Q3/WC3, what kind of fps/quality can i expect?

Teaf · 26 Sep 2007 at 11:48

Paul_Canning said:
Quick q, will this spec run HL2/TF2/HG:L on high quality with good fps?

Don't know what HG:L is, but HL2 and TF2 will run no problem on high quality with good fps.

and for older games like WoW/Q3/WC3, what kind of fps/quality can i expect?

This card will eat Quake 3 and WC3. In respects of WoW I had that game on a 7600 GT running at high settings with 1440x900 resolution and I was dandy for the most part, and the x1950 pro is more powerful so yeah I'd suspect you'll be golden :-)

Paul_Canning · 26 Sep 2007 at 11:54

HG:L = Hellgate London

The currently stated specs for the graphics are as follows

"Video: DirectX 9.0c/10 compatible device w/ 128MB RAM or better and Pixel Shader 2.0 support; requires NVIDIA GeForce 6200/ATI Radeon 9000 chipset or greater"

Teaf · 26 Sep 2007 at 11:57

Paul_Canning said:
HG:L = Hellgate London

The currently stated specs for the graphics are as follows

"Video: DirectX 9.0c/10 compatible device w/ 128MB RAM or better and Pixel Shader 2.0 support; requires NVIDIA GeForce 6200/ATI Radeon 9000 chipset or greater"

You'll be fine then, this card is DX9.0c and has 512MB RAM (if you went for the higher version for the extra tenner), and is WAY better than a GeForce 6200.

Paul_Canning · 26 Sep 2007 at 12:06

Excellent.

Luckily the beta for HG:L currently has issues with DX10, making the graphics lag something rotten! (think 5fps

)

Seeing as I've dropped Vista, but upped the gfx a bit, can you spec a larger HDD? I have quite a few games I play on LAN nights with my mates, plus quite a few apps, and I also need storage for raw film footage.

My current rig has 280gig (IDE, not SATA), so i could do with similar (although i can always sue that box for storage!!)

Annnd lastly, about the tuniq tower cooler, can anyone confirm this will fit on the specc'd mobo AND fit in the case?

Ta