Spec me a base unit

Perywinkle

Perywinkle

Perywinkle

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Joined
23 Nov 2002
Posts
2,184
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Faygate, West Sussex
My old rig is getting a bit long in the tooth now. 3800 venice, 9800pro, 2 gigs of something or other.
So I need to upgrade for some of the latest games.
Got about £500, what's gonna be my best bang for buck?

Ta
Pez
 
Assuming you do not need an operating system, then below are 2 PC setups you can choose from:

PC1 has a very good 45nm CPU @ 3Ghz, which is excellent for gaming and arguably better than the Quad core of PC2 due to most games not taking advantage of 4 cores. Crysis and Lost Planet are different and they use Quad core's and in those situations the Quad core would be better. PC1 doesn't have a modular PSU but it has more wattage, whereas PC2 has a modular PSU and a very good one at that. You'll have no trouble running the system on that 520w PSU - but you would probably need to upgrade if you wanted to go Crossfire, however won't need to with the non-modular 650w of PC1. PC1 also has a P43 board which has a PCI-E 2.0 16x slot, where as the board in PC2 doesn't and only has PCI-E 1.1 port. This won't really make a massive difference, I run my 4850 on a PCI-E 1.1 slot and it's great.

PC #1
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PC #2
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Apparently the 8000 stuff is a waste unless your overclocking a LOT. Cheaper with just decent 6400
 
Duroxis said:
Apparently the 8000 stuff is a waste unless your overclocking a LOT. Cheaper with just decent 6400
Click to expand...

I'm one of the people who will tell you that usually. :) But with a 1333mhz FSB it becomes more useful since you need PC5300 (667mhz) Ram to run at stock speeds, PC6400 is merely the next step up and if overclocking I'd prefer to have the potential of going even further.

PC #2 also wasn't present when I started writing my comment.
 
Aye sorry, was editing my post to include a second spec when I realised I could get a quad spec out of the budget :)
 
Cheers chaps, given me something to think about.
Is the quad core cpu going to be more future proof then than the duel core?
 
Perywinkle said:
Cheers chaps, given me something to think about.
Is the quad core cpu going to be more future proof then than the duel core?
Click to expand...
Barely, unless a flood of quad core games appear on the horizon then no (and there are very few in development that use quads) - with the graphical capabilities of a 4850 anyway, I don't think you'd have much to worry about it you went with a Duo. Quad's have their benefits though, but it's more outside of games - things like movie conversions / video editing are far superior when using a quad. In a nutshell, you'll be safe getting either for the considerable future.
 
shaffaaf27 said:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11840938&postcount=3

Capture-1.jpg
Click to expand...

That's the spec you want, maybe I will swap the ram for C4 GeiL for extra 2 quid.

Perywinkle said:
Cheers chaps, given me something to think about.
Is the quad core cpu going to be more future proof then than the duel core?
Click to expand...

Nothing is future proof nowadays, by the time they will optimize everything for quads, there will be so much new stuff that the current quads will be heavily outdated ;).

Especially CPUs, to be honest if you OC this 7200 or add few quid and get 8200, should last you easily for next 1,5yr with no probs since most games are very far away after CPUs.

What you want now for gaming is a good GPU, you hardly will need anything more than 3.0ghz dual to run anything at max settings sooner than 1yr.


The thing about quads is not about if games support it, but do they need it ?
Games support quad crossfire, you can slap in 4x GTX280OC for 1400quid total but will you see any difference while playing over just one GTX? I dont think so..
 
It's a nice spec, but the difference from that to PC1 that I spec'd above is that it's trading off CPU power, motherboard technology and PSU power for more hard drive space and a low end CPU cooler... which is nothing something I'd personally do.
 
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Pioneer DVR-215DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM Pioneer DVR-215DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
(£17.61) £14.99
(£17.61)
Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 2.53GHz (1066FSB) - Retail Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 2.53GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £75.99
(£89.29) £75.99
(£89.29)
Corsair VX 450W ATX PSU (CMPSU-450VXUK) Corsair VX 450W ATX PSU (CMPSU-450VXUK) £39.99
(£46.99) £39.99
(£46.99)
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £49.99
(£58.74) £49.99
(£58.74)
Samsung SpinPoint S 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD250HJ) Samsung SpinPoint S 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD250HJ) £27.99
(£32.89) £27.99
(£32.89)
GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz Black Dragon DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GB24GB6400C5DC) GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz Black Dragon DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GB24GB6400C5DC) £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £149.99
(£176.24) £149.99
(£176.24)
Tuniq Tower 120-LFB CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) Tuniq Tower 120-LFB CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £24.99
(£29.36) £24.99
(£29.36)
Sub Total : £443.92
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £79.43
Total : £533.30



I guess if you don't game at very high res you could go with 4850 instead and save some money there. But assuming you don't pick x38 mobo and won't upgrade for a while 4870 might be good idea.

On the other hand you can always sell your 4850 and upgrade later when needed and when prices go down later on this year when RV770 Pro comes out.


E7200 + 4850 + Tuniq tower + 4gb GeiL will be plenty for current games and for some time in my opinion so no point wasting more money than that, unless you got extra 400quid to spend, then we can pick E8400 + X48 + 4870 + 750w PSU.
 
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flibby said:
It's a nice spec, but the difference from that to PC1 that I spec'd above is that it's trading off CPU power, motherboard technology and PSU power for more hard drive space and a low end CPU cooler... which is nothing something I'd personally do.
Click to expand...

IMO it double the memory (and its nto a value RAM either), a fast HDD with more space, a brilliant CPU cooler for the price, the PSU that is still over kill, and CPU that will clock to about 3.6 if not more, a PROVEN OCing mobo
 
shaffaaf27 said:
IMO it double the memory (and its nto a value RAM either)
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It's the RAM I use, and the same type of graphics card. Running under even Vista with that RAM and that card I get 0 problems with intense games. 4GB is nice, but it's not required for what he's wanting to do with the system. If he has the extra cash then he could get the extra RAM, but otherwise I wouldn't bother.

afast HDD with more space, a brilliant CPU cooler for the price, the PSU that is still over kill, and CPU that will clock to about 3.6 if not more, a PROVEN OCing mobo
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He might not even be overclocking therefore the cooler would just be a bonus, even if he was overclocking midly the stock cooler would be sufficient. 450W isn't an overkill, it's borderline, it's more of a PSU that you should be using for a lower end system not a mid-high end system. 650w Corsair would last him through this PC and his next PC.

Those are my opinions anyway.

Thinking about this, or would I be better with just two gigs of RAM, a smaller hdd, and a slightly better GFX card?
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I would switch the hard drive for a Samsung F1 500gb as it's only about £2 more. It really depends how much hard drive space you want, if 250GB isn't enough then I would stick with the 500GB model, otherwise I'd just go back to the 250GB Deskstar if that's enough for you :) Also depending on what resolution you game at, I would stick with the 4850 you have in your spec you put in the picture. If you are gaming at resolution around 1080p or higher then I would suggest looking at the 4870 for the extra power. The 4GB RAM is not really necessary, but if you can stretch a little bit extra it's worth it as RAM isn't that costly.
 
your right, i hadnt considered if he was going to O, but seeing as it is so easy, and that you can get the performance of more costly CPUs for free, IMO it'd be pointless not to. have you seent he penryn cooelrs, they are patheric to say the least LOL.

if he wasnt OCing, id drop the mobo you and i choose to the £45 P31 chipset (even then, that board is a good OCer). nowadays with 64bit vista, IMO 4GB ram si the way to go.

and that system would also run with a 380W antec earthwatts PSU just fine, the 450W is MORE than enough, not just boarderline.

sorry if i eevr sounded imposing, that was not my intentions, and i didnt mean to sound rude either :)
 
shaffaaf27 said:
if he wasnt OCing, id drop the mobo you and i choose to the £45 P31 chipset (even then, that board is a good OCer). nowadays with 64bit vista, IMO 4GB ram si the way to go.
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The only "problem" with the P31/P35 is the PCI-E 1.1 port over P45/X38/X48's v2.0 port, since the cards are 2.0 you'd throttle the card without a 2.0 port. Although this isn't really a major problem, it's just something to note.

and that system would also run with a 380W antec earthwatts PSU just fine, the 450W is MORE than enough, not just boarderline.
Click to expand...
I guess that's where we differ, I wouldn't feel comfortable with a 450w PSU on that system even if it is a Corsair, and would feel uneasy about adding anything to the system as I'd feel the PSU wouldn't give me much play :)

sorry if i eevr sounded imposing, that was not my intentions, and i didnt mean to sound rude either :)
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Me either :) Just stating my point of view like yourself.
 
tbh i havent seen a review of pcie-1.1 vs pcie 2 to see if it makes much of a difference, so i guess i need to read up on that.


i see. fair enough m8. for me, i normally upgrade my PSU every 2 years, with a build, so i just get the one at the time that i need, not one that i would need to keep for about 3 years.
 
Thanks for the advice chaps. Not kept up with hardware for the last 5 or 6 years, so it's appreciated.
Went for this lot in the end

order.jpg


Hopefully be here tomorrow :)
 
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