Spec me a new gaming system please - £700 max

Jed Shields

Jed Shields

Jed Shields

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23 Apr 2007
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Cardiff-ish, Wales
Hello chaps,

I've got the green light from the mrs to upgrade my PC. I'm not after a completely new system, just the following:

CPU & Fan
Mobo
RAM
Graphics Card
PSU

I've got a budget of no more than £700. I'd like to go for Intel, but not sure if I should be looking at Quad or Dual Core. I'm running Vista 32 bit, but will probably upgrade to 64bit, so I'm guessing 2x2Gb RAM.

I'll be using it mainly for gaming at 1900*1200 and would like to be able to get the bells and whistles. I'll also be doing some digital imaging work (photos) etc. I'm not looking at getting a 98xx series card, I'd rather wait until the proper next gen, so just looking for a card to tide me over in the meantime, while still being able to play COD4, Bioshock, Gears of War, Crysis etc.

Where do I start?
 
£700 for just those items is enough for pretty much anything.

Q6600/E8400 + Tuniq Tower
ASUS P5K/Gigabyte P35-DS3/Abit IP35 variants
G.Skill or OCZ PC6400/8000 2x2Gb
Point of View 8800GTS 512mb or the 3870X2 if you want some serious power at high res.
Corsair HX620
 
Would you recommend Quad or Duo? Bearing in mind that this system would need to last at least 3 years ...

And obviously, if I can get a decent setup for less than £700 then all the better :)
 
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Just trying to understand the differences in the RAM - are lower timings better? I can generally see:

5-5-5-15
and
4-4-4-15

Which would be better?
 
How does this look?

2349714937_ba6fb7e6f7_o.jpg
 
Hello Jed Shields, the specification that you have done looks to be good. Though you could change a couple of bits to save a bit of money without sacrificing performance. For example, you could change the Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU to the Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU which would still provide adequate power to your system.

You could also think about changing the Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX (2x2GB) kit to the OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel Vista Gold Series DDR2. They are exactly the same performance wise but with the OCZ memory kit being slightly cheaper. :)
 
I was thinking of the 620W as I'd probably upgrade to the next gen NV cards (not the 98xx) next year and wanted to be sure that I'd have enough juice.

RAM - if the performance is the same then I'll go for that.

What about the Mobo? Is there a better / cheaper alternative that you'd recommend?

CPU - still not sure whether to go Quad or Duo - any thoughts?
 
If it needs to last for 3+ years then I'd probably go for the quad, they overclock very well too so will make up the performance lost against the newer generation chips IMO. Quad core support in games will only get better in the next three years even though at the moment a faster clocked dual core is still better for most games.

And yes lower timings are better. 5-5-5-15 isn't too slow but I'd try and get the 4-4-4-12 kits. You might want to consider going for 4x1Gb as they are quite a bit cheaper and have lower timings, but it can be potentially troublesome since all 4 sockets are populated and the results are less predictable.

A decent 520W will handle it just fine or you may want to add in extra £20 for the 620W model which will last a long time and cover all your future upgrades.

With regards to motherboard - do you need the extra features? i.e. firewire ports, raid functionality, sli or crossfire? If no to all of those then a P35-DS3L or even the P31 version will do.
 
Jed Shields said:
I was thinking of the 620W as I'd probably upgrade to the next gen NV cards (not the 98xx) next year and wanted to be sure that I'd have enough juice.

RAM - if the performance is the same then I'll go for that.

What about the Mobo? Is there a better / cheaper alternative that you'd recommend?

CPU - still not sure whether to go Quad or Duo - any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Do NOT buy the 8800GTX. Its only slightly faster than the 8800GT and yet costs much more than it.

Id advise the eVGA 8800GT as a much wiser choice...
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-038-EA&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1008


Though if youre after a good interim card you should look at the 3850; which offers good performance (less than the 8800GT but at a lower price too) ...
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-081-PC&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=416


Quad core will probably future proof the system a little more and is also better for video encoding and such, whereas for a similar price a dual core would be better for gaming.
 
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Also if you plan to keep it for 3 years it's probably wise not to get OCUK value or other brands that offer only 1 year warranty. Something like BFG or Evga that offers lifetime warranty.

I still think for 1900*1200 you'll need something a bit more powerful like the GTS 512Mb which performs identical to GTX in most games.
 
Some good advice guys ...

CPU - I'm considering the Quad route as it'll get more support in the next year or so. Do you recommend any in particular?

Mobo -

I need RAID for my 2x 74Gb Raptors

I've got a Gigabit network card, but onboard might be more useful

SLI / Crossfire - I've got an SLI setup at the mo, but I'm more inclined to stick to one decent card rather than a couple of okay cards. I'll try a GTS for the time being and maybe upgrade to the proper next generation next year.

Any mobo's that fit the bill?

PSU - I think the extra £20 is probably worth it to give me a bit more future proofing wrt the next big graphics card requirements.
 
Hello Jed Shields, unless you are looking at running two graphics cards in the future, then the Corsair HX 520W version should be absolutely fine for now and in the future. Unless of course graphics cards start to require much more power than they currently do. In any case though, the Corsair HX 620W is only around £20 more so you can't really go wrong with that particular unit.

The Corsair and the OCZ memory kit are effectively the same and you wouldn't notice any kind of performance difference between each of them. The OCZ memory kit will be absolutely fine and it will save you a bit of money too.

The Abit IP35 Pro is probably one of the best motherboards that you can currently purchase. If you are looking at overclocking then it is a fine choice. Now, if you are looking for something slightly cheaper, then how about the Abit IP35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard. It is slightly cheaper but it is still a very solid motherboard. If you are not interested in overclocking at all, then a motherboard such as the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard would be sufficient.

If you are interested in overclocking your system, then I would be much more inclined to go for the Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600. Most of the Q6600 will hit 3GHz and above quite comfortably. If you are looking at keeping your system at stock, then the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz is a great choice.

In regards to the graphics card - ACESHIGH has made a very good point that the Nvidia 8800GT isn't that far behind the Nvidia 8800GTX and would actually be sufficient a resolution of 1920x1200 but also costs around £70 cheaper. There is also the Nvidia 8800GTS 512 which closes the gap even more on the Nvidia 8800GTX and is once again, much cheaper. Have a look at a few benchmarks - Nvidia 8800GT vs Nvidia 8800GTS 512 and the Nvidia 8800GT vs Nvidia 8800GTX.

If I had to personally choose, I would go for the Point of View GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express). :)
 
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It has to be the IP35 and not the -E version if you want to run RAID with the onboard ICH9R southbridge.

When it comes to quad there really is only 1 choice atm Q6600 until the Q9450 comes down in price.
 
Jed Shields said:
Graphics: is the PoV GTS worth the extra £20 over the eVGA GT?
Click to expand...

Jes read peoples posts, the POV only has a 2 year warranty,, and if you're planning on keeping everything a minimum of 3 years (that's a veyr long time ,not sure why you would do that without at least upgrading the graphipcs card) then you want a graphics card make with a long warranty like BFG.

As for which quad people reccommend, someone also posted "Q6600", which if you check the OCUk shop is an Intel quad that is hugely popular. :)
 
Richdog said:
Jes read peoples posts, the POV only has a 2 year warranty,, and if you're planning on keeping everything a minimum of 3 years (that's a veyr long time ,not sure why you would do that without at least upgrading the graphipcs card) then you want a graphics card make with a long warranty like BFG.
Click to expand...

I'll be using it mainly for gaming at 1900*1200 and would like to be able to get the bells and whistles. I'll also be doing some digital imaging work (photos) etc. I'm not looking at getting a 98xx series card, I'd rather wait until the proper next gen, so just looking for a card to tide me over in the meantime, while still being able to play COD4, Bioshock, Gears of War, Crysis etc.
Click to expand...

Re reading peoples quotes ;) The graphics card is the one thing that I will be looking at upgrading, maybe next year :)

I've got a 3 year limit as my first born is due in the Summer and I guess my gadget budget will be cut from there on. I'm sure I'll be able to double RAM etc, maybe even a CPU upgrade as well, but I'm talking about no major overhaul for 3 years. I got stung a bit with my last purchase. I bought an Athlon 4400X2 939 series with the intention of being able to upgrade the CPU, but Athlon went and changed it to the AM2 series shortly afterwards. So rather than being able to just upgrade the CPU I now have to go the whole hog :/
 
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Thanks Steve, I'll bear that in mind.

Q6600 - there are 3 different versions available. The OEM is only £5 cheaper than the standard, so the standard is the better buy as it has a better warranty. However, there also a more expensive version thatps guaranteed to clock to 3GHz for an additional £10. Is this worth it, or should I be able to get 3GHz on the standard fairly easily? Also they're all classed as SLACR edition. Are these the latest GO version that I've read about?

Also, CPU cooling - particularly if I'm trying to get it to 3GHZ - what do you recommend?
 
Yes they are the G0 revision. SL9UM B3 is not available anymore I think.

Don't get the guaranteed oc version it's a waste of £10. It's just a cheeky way of milking more money out of those who are less informed. You'll be able to do 3Ghz with easy there's a big chance it'll hit that speed at stock volt as well.
 
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