Spec me a new machine!

crazymofo16321

crazymofo16321

crazymofo16321

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Joined
23 Jul 2007
Posts
175
Hi guys,

its that time again, I feel the itch to get a new machine as my old one is starting to struggle with new games and I want Windows 7.

So here are my current specs:

Core 2 E8200 @ 3.3GHz using a Tuniq Tower.
4GB DDR800
1GB ATI HD4890
Windows XP 32bit

I've had a brief look and here is what I'm thinking:

OcUK ATI Radeon 6970 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £259.99

AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1090T Black Edition 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £147.98

Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 AMD 870 (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £81.98

Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit
£68.40

Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache WD10EALX - OEM £47.99

2x OCZ Intel Extreme XMP 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 10666C7 1333MHz Low Voltage Dual-Channel Kit (OCZ3X1333LV4GK)
£75.98

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939 / AM2 / AM3 / 775 / 1155/ 1156 / 1366) £17.99

Total with shipping: £712.92

Will I notice a big difference with this machine? I like playing Arma 2 which is one of the games I really want to see a big difference in...

As long as its at a reasonable price mark (under a grand) then I'm interested in peoples suggestions!

Cheers all :)
 
I would go for the sandybridge 2500k if I were you, 6 cores sounds good but hardly any games benefit from the extra cores. Sandybridge is much faster for gaming and they OC like a champ. Also save some money and get a reference 6950 2048mb card and unlock and overclock it to 6970 levels.
 
One of they main things with the phenom is that its pretty cheap and apparently will overclock nicely. Ideally I would want a sandybridge but its £100 more expensive and as I play games @ 1900 x 1200 most things will probably be graphics card limited anyway. I will consider it and look at some benchies though!

Edit: Ignore that, the 2500k is an i5 and thus much cheaper than I thought!

Double Edit:

So I now have a 2500k and 1155 mobo in me basket.
What cooler would you recommend to send the clock speeds sky high?
 
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The Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus is a good choice but its out of stock. Truth is, because SB runs so cool you don't need the best of the best to get good OC's from it. Titan Fenrir Evo CPU Cooler is a good one also but its more expensive. Personally I would to with the hyper.
 
Hmmm... One thing I would say is I'd prefer to get a cooler that isn't a complete pain to fit, as my Tuniq was... My case has enough room but I remember it being very fiddly.

The 212 looks like a good one. I may have to live with the stock cooler for a while and just pick one up when they're in stock.
 
Right,

updated my basket this is what I'm sitting at:

OcUK Motherboard Bundle - Intel Core i5 2500K & Asus P8P67 Intel P67 Mainboard **B3 Revision**
£263.99

XFX ATI Radeon 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £199.99 (will flash bios)

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £79.99

G.Skill RipJawsX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM)
£77.99

Samsung SpinPoint F4 EcoGreen 2TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD204UI) £62.99

Sticking with stock cooling and will pick up a 212 when they are back in stock.

Hovering dangerously close to the buy button :p. Anyone with any experience in these components, can you let me know if I will notice a substantial difference when compared to my previous build?

Cheers,
 
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Looking good mate, can't think of any criticisms.

I personally wouldn't fork out for the 8gb ram, but that's me.

:)
 
looks good, what power supply do you have? is it a high quality one? FYI there is a difference between flashing the bios on the 6950 and unlocking its shaders + overclocking it, the latter being safer. Some bios flashes have resulted in artifacting which isn't fixed when the bios is flashed back because the vram had been damaged by the higher volts of the 6970 bios. here is a link telling you how to unlock shader and OC http://www.overclock.net/ati/923129-hd-6950-810-1250-mhz-shader.html
 
I have a OCZ stealthXstream 600/650w I can't quite remember. It was a mid-range psu when I bought it a few years ago but looking at the requirements I reckon it will manage just about. Unless someone really recommends a better psu I'll see how it goes. Awesome thanks for the recommendation for unlocking the shaders.

Brief update:

swapped the 2tb for a cheaper 7200rpm 1tb...

looking at this cooler: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-001-CS (Corsair A50) when I hear reports of 4.8ghz I mean for christs sake thats insane in my books... :P

@Rexton - 8 gigs of ram for future proofing really, may as well its so cheap. more memory never hurts.

What do we think then?
 
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Yet another one grand build.

YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK Motherboard Bundle - Intel Core i5 2500K & Asus P8P67 Intel P67 Mainboard **B3 Revision** £263.99
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 480 "Special Edition" 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £219.98
1 x Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1) £99.98
1 x XFX 750W Black Edition Modular Power Supply £92.99
1 x Lancool Dragon-Lord PC-K62 Mid Tower Case with Window - Black £87.82
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £79.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £43.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £39.98
1 x Scythe Ninja 3 High Performance CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM3/AM2/AM2+/939/940) £39.98
1 x Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
1 x Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) £6.73
Total : £1,004.44 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
A bit more expensive than what I have in the basket...

Would be good if I could justify 300 extra quid.

Thanks for the basket extension :P

YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK Motherboard Bundle - Intel Core i5 2500K & Asus P8P67 Intel P67 Mainboard **B3 Revision** £263.99
1 x XFX ATI Radeon 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £199.99
1 x G.Skill RipJawsX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM) £77.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache WD10EALX - OEM £47.99
1 x Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £29.99
1 x IC Diamond 7-Carat Thermal Compound (1.5g) £6.12
Total : £707.06 (includes shipping : £10.50).
 
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I did have a case, PSU optical drive and SSD in there :)

It depends what case and PSU you have with your Q6600 and if it can take on the load. The 2500K will be a nice improvement over it.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/53?vs=288

Just a quick comparison between the GTX 480 and the 6950.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/293?vs=309

Nothing wrong with going with the 6950 mind you. It runs cooler, quieter and uses less power. It's just.... not as quick. For price / performance, the 480 is where it's at. the 6950 however has 2GB memory, although overkill atm, but maybe not later.

The good thing is power-wise, it will be less than your Q6600 + 4890 (afaik) so if the PSU is adequate, you won't need to upgrade it.

The HD 6950 is quite big, might be a problem fitting in the case.

8GB is nice if you can spare the cash. 4 GB is perfectly fine. also note that the A50 is quite big, and could require low profile RAMs, or could get away with it. Need to do some research on that :) THa A50 is also reviewed as quite noisy.

A SSD is nice as a system upgrade. makes using applications and OS smoother. Again if you can afford it.

All in all, your components are good to go imo. Do check if the RAMs are a problem with the A50 and that board, and if your case can accommodate the 6950.

EDIT : errr ignore comments about the A50. OcUK uses the A50 on the P8P67 builds (but with Corsair low profile rams). Should be able to fit the sticks on the blue channels anyway.
 
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