Sensible First Time Purchasing

dom9inic

dom9inic

dom9inic

Associate
Joined
4 Jan 2007
Posts
25
Location
London
Hi all,

as my post count can attest, I'm very new here. I've been stalking the threads as I'd like to get into building my own gaming rig.

I'm of the frugal variety and I'm hoping some of you wise veterans of system building can confirm that perhaps the first system is always the most expensive. The rationelle being that after that, you can do upgrades on single components for a few years before your motherboard just has to be upgraded for that juicy new CPU. Does that ring true?

I'm in the process of saving roughly £1,000 for said Conroe system, to buy all components at once. Seems to me, picking the right motherboard is the key to being able to upgrade to Quad Core and SLI in the future.

Any advice would be gratefully received. And I have to say, the depth of knowledge here is wondefully staggering. I'm a sys admin and the level of detail displayed here is reassuringly brilliant.

Cheers.

Oh, and I've just purchased a Dell 2407WFP for my old PowerBook G4 ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 128MB. Can't wait.
 
My 2c:
It can sometimes be helpful to go with just what you need. For example, 680i mobos are £200 and upwards. If you're not upgrading to quad-core/sli for another 6-9 months, you'll pick up a significant discount on the same board then. Plus the discount on your cards/cpu at the same time.
You also avoid locking yourself into current technology by overspending now.
Good luck with your build :)
 
Hi,

I have the keyboard and mouse, speakers I thought could come later, when my funds have had a chance to crawl back out of the gutter.
 
mk17 said:
My 2c:
It can sometimes be helpful to go with just what you need. For example, 680i mobos are £200 and upwards. If you're not upgrading to quad-core/sli for another 6-9 months, you'll pick up a significant discount on the same board then. Plus the discount on your cards/cpu at the same time.
You also avoid locking yourself into current technology by overspending now.
Good luck with your build :)
Click to expand...

That's good logic that I hadn't really considered. I suppose I've been very immersed in the ins and outs of single components to really take a step back and remind myself that buying tech invariably bites you on the behind if you're not careful.

Thanks.
 
Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM £42.99
(£50.51) £42.99
(£50.51)
Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £105.99
(£124.54) £105.99
(£124.54)
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) £141.99
(£166.84) £141.99
(£166.84)
BFG GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail BFG GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £331.99
(£390.09) £331.99
(£390.09)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 775) Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 775) £13.99
(£16.44) £13.99
(£16.44)
Samsung SH-W183 18x18 DVD±RW Serial ATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM Samsung SH-W183 18x18 DVD±RW Serial ATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
(£23.49) £19.99
(£23.49)
Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Aluminium Midi-Tower Case - Black Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Aluminium Midi-Tower Case - Black £48.99
(£57.56) £48.99
(£57.56)
Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £84.99
(£99.86) £84.99
(£99.86)
OCZ GameXStream 700w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply OCZ GameXStream 700w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply £84.99
(£99.86) £84.99
(£99.86)
Sub Total : £875.91
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.95
Vat : £155.20
Total : £1,042.06

That is what I would most likely spend my money on, possibly the corsair 620w PSU in place of the OCZ though.
 
what you using the rig for? If its games what sort as this can make a big dent in the funds as above £300+ for a gfx card is 1/3 of your funds.
 
CPU (Processor) - Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 £124.54 inc VAT http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-126-IN

CPU Cooler + Heatisnk - Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro £16.44 inc VAT http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-017-AR

Motherboard - Gigabyte GA_965P_DQ6 £143.34 inc VAT http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-058-GI

Memory (RAM) - Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2 Dominator PC2-6400C4 £202.09 inc VAT http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-124-CS

Graphics Card - Sapphire ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB £125.71 inc VAT http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-134-SP

Hard Drive - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB £66.96 inc VAT http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-078-SE

Case - Thermaltake VA3000SWA Tsunami Dream £77.54 inc VAT http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-011-TT

Power Supply - Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular £99.86 inc VAT http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-004-CS

Total : £871.70

In case you will be doing some overclocking, all the parts i have chosen are very overclockable and even if you wont they are all very reliable and stable products.
 
Thanks for all the various input.

This is my first foray into sys building myself, and my motives are somewhat murky.

Here's a list (not in order of priority):

Gaming.
Linux Experimentation.
Windows Server Experimentation.
Learn the black art of Overclocking.

I understand that this likely puts my price up as gaming always kills the wallet on GPU(s) and multiple OS installs I like to run on separate HDs. And overclocking requires cooling and components that are prone to overclock.

As I said upthread, I'm saving at present, so I imagine summer to be a good time to buy. It's hot, and perhaps those 680i boards will be stable and cheaper.

But as I said, all input appreciated, I'm learning.
 
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