Spec me please :)

yantorsen · 28 Jul 2007 at 00:56

Hi everyone, I'm new to these forums and am not really all that experienced when it comes to computers, I only know what I read.

I'm looking for a new PC which I will build at the end of the summer holidays. It will be used mainly for gaming.

I'm not sure weather or not it is better to say buy a full system now for around £1000, and then spend say £500 upgrading it in say a years time, or weather to just buy a £1500 (ish) system now.

I would like to be able to play games at full settings (not sure what res as I need a monitor as well) and would like to be able to play crysis. Having said this I mainly play RTS games.

I would also like a decent sound card and speakers as I like listening to music and to a bit of music recorded. (or would onboard sound suffice?)

Basically I need everything cpu, mobo, ram, gfx card, psu, hdds, dvd drive, monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers etc...

Thanks guys

forgot to mention I'm not really wanting to overclock unless u can convince me because I;m told it reduces the life of the system and as a student I can't afford anything to go rong and i will need to basic components to last atleast 5years on this new build.

yantorsen · 28 Jul 2007 at 01:06

How's this? (slightly too much really) but thts just an idea on the table.

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00788) Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00788) £54.99
(£64.61) £54.99
(£64.61)
Logitech MX Revolution Advanced Cordless Mouse - Retail Logitech MX Revolution Advanced Cordless Mouse - Retail £44.99
(£52.86) £44.99
(£52.86)
Logitech G11 Gaming-Grade Illuminated Keyboard - Retail (967929-0120) Logitech G11 Gaming-Grade Illuminated Keyboard - Retail (967929-0120) £33.99
(£39.94) £33.99
(£39.94)
Logitech Z-2300 THX® Certified 2.1 200 Watts Speakers - Retail Logitech Z-2300 THX® Certified 2.1 200 Watts Speakers - Retail £79.99
(£93.99) £79.99
(£93.99)
BenQ FP241W 24" Widescreen HDMI/HDCP LCD HD Monitor - Silver/Black BenQ FP241W 24" Widescreen HDMI/HDCP LCD HD Monitor - Silver/Black £339.99
(£399.49) £339.99
(£399.49)
OCZ GameXStream 600w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply OCZ GameXStream 600w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply £49.99
(£58.74) £49.99
(£58.74)
Gigabyte GZ-X2 Black Midi Case No PSU Gigabyte GZ-X2 Black Midi Case No PSU £28.99
(£34.06) £28.99
(£34.06)
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music 7.1 Soundcard - OEM Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music 7.1 Soundcard - OEM £42.99
(£50.51) £42.99
(£50.51)
Samsung SH-183LBEBN 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM Samsung SH-183LBEBN 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
(£19.96) £16.99
(£19.96)
Samsung SpinPoint T HD501LJ 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM Samsung SpinPoint T HD501LJ 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £53.99
(£63.44) £53.99
(£63.44)
OcUK GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - OEM OcUK GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - OEM £274.99
(£323.11) £274.99
(£323.11)
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-8500 1066MHz Reaper HPC Edition Dual Channel DDR2 (OCZ2RPR10662GK) OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-8500 1066MHz Reaper HPC Edition Dual Channel DDR2 (OCZ2RPR10662GK) £114.99
(£135.11) £229.98
(£270.22)
Gigabyte GA_P35C_DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 & DDR3 Motherboard Gigabyte GA_P35C_DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 & DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
(£93.99) £79.99
(£93.99)
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail

Total : £1,817.49 (inc. VAT)

Fraggr · 28 Jul 2007 at 01:36

Systems will probably be able to last decades, by which time you'll have probably got a new one. Overclocking will reduce how long it lasts for, but you'll probably get a whole new system by the time things start dying; you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

yantorsen · 28 Jul 2007 at 01:42

Fraggr said:
Systems will probably be able to last decades, by which time you'll have probably got a new one. Overclocking will reduce how long it lasts for, but you'll probably get a whole new system by the time things start dying; you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

ths wht i fort as i've got a PC which is like 10years old, but my dad said the chip would be burnt out in 18 months so it put me off.

truebluecfc · 28 Jul 2007 at 02:07

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "LGA775 Kentsfield" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
£149.99
£176.24 inc VAT

Abit IP35 Pro (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
£104.99
£123.36 inc VAT

OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB) PC2-5400C5 Dual Channel Vista Upgrade Gold Series DDR2 (OCZ2VU6674GK)
£79.99
£93.99 inc VAT

EVGA GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (768-P2-E831-AR)
£314.99
£370.11 inc VAT

Samsung SpinPoint T HD501LJ 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
£53.99
£63.44 inc VAT

Samsung SH-183LBEBN 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM
£16.99
£19.96 inc VAT

Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775)
£26.99
£31.71 inc VAT

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music 7.1 Soundcard - OEM
£42.99
£50.51 inc VAT

Antec P182 Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Gun Metal Black)
£69.99
£82.24 inc VAT

Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK)
£54.99
£64.61 inc VAT

Samsung SM-206BW 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Glossy Black
£149.99
£176.24 inc VAT

£1,065.89
£1,252.42 inc VAT

I've left £200 or so of your total budget as Keyboard, Speakers, OS etc are all personal choice.

A few options, i chose the EVGA 8800 GTX instead of the cheaper Leadtek & OCuK as you want it to last and they both come with only 1 & 2 year warranties where the EVGA comes with a 10 year warranty, if warranty isnt an issue you could get the OCuK 8800 GTX and save £50.

I also chose a really nice 20" monitor as apose to a 22" or even a 24" as because the 22" monitors are the same res as the Samsung 20" and 24" for me personally is too big, its up to you.

Another thing is if you want it to last a long time you might decide to get the 620W Corsair PSU, the 520W is perfectly capable of running what I've suggested no probs, but for only £25 or so more you could get the 620W more for a piece of mind considering you want it to last without any problems.

I've also included one of the best Aftermarket CPU coolers as Quad Cores can run a bit hot, it also gives you the option to overclock if you decide, if you know you wont be overclocking theirs no need and will save you a bit of money.

I also included 4GB RAM, 2GB is perfectly fine for todays and upcoming games but DDR2 RAM is so cheap you might aswell take advantage of it and 4GB certainly aint overkill especially as you want it to last as long as possible and its so cheap too.

yantorsen · 28 Jul 2007 at 02:19

thanks for the suggestions

few questions...

does the ram speed make much difference?

and would you see a bigger performance increase in say dropping down to 2gb ram and running to lower end gpus in sli/crossfire (hd2900 for example I heard xfire scales up well compared to sli)

truebluecfc · 28 Jul 2007 at 02:33

RAM speeds do make a difference in performance however its better having more for example I'd rather have 4GB RAM of PC2-5300 [667MHz] than 2GB RAM of PC2-8500+ [1066MHZ+].

For todays games your probably get better performance with 2x2900xt's with only 2GB RAM than having 4GB and only 1 2900xt although personally i wouldnt go SLI/Crossfire just yet, maybe as a future upgrade when the prices droped, much better of getting a 8800 GTX and 4GB RAM than 2GB RAM and CF'd 2900xt's.

yantorsen · 28 Jul 2007 at 02:38

truebluecfc said:
RAM speeds do make a difference in performance however its better having more for example I'd rather have 4GB RAM of PC2-5300 [667MHz] than 2GB RAM of PC2-8500+ [1066MHZ+].

For todays games your probably get better performance with 2x2900xt's with only 2GB RAM than having 4GB and only 1 2900xt although personally i wouldnt go SLI/Crossfire just yet, maybe as a future upgrade when the prices droped, much better of getting a 8800 GTX and 4GB RAM than 2GB RAM and CF'd 2900xt's.

ive read somewhere it's harder to oc 4gb ram... so if i were to oc how much would that effect it?

truebluecfc · 28 Jul 2007 at 02:44

Well 2GB sticks are newer and probably dont OC as much as 1GB sticks do although saying that if you go 1x4 GB sticks then your more likely that 1 stick dont OC much. If you want to be sure of a good overclock (3.2GHz) then get some 6400 stuff and you could run it as Sync and it will still be the default speed of 800MHz meaning you dont actually overclock your RAM and therefore if your CPU can hit 3.2GHz your RAM wont hold you back even if you cant overclock them by 1Mhz.

yantorsen · 28 Jul 2007 at 02:46

truebluecfc said:
Well 2GB sticks are newer and probably dont OC as much as 1GB sticks do although saying that if you go 1x4 GB sticks then your more likely that 1 stick dont OC much.

oh ok cheers, i though it was to do with something more complicated lol

would the spec you specked earlier be any different if you were ocing?

thanks for all you're help it is appreciated

truebluecfc · 28 Jul 2007 at 02:49

I did spec it with overclocking in mind, i wouldnt change anything apart from maybe getting 4GB of the cheapest 6400 [800MHz] RAM although they are about £50 more.

Maybe this stuff as its the cheapest thats in stock but still double the price.

Also i specced the Tuniq Tower as its very good "bang for buck" if your really interested in Overclocking you might want to spend a bit extra and get this along with a 120mm fan, the S-FLEX's I've heard are very good.

yantorsen · 28 Jul 2007 at 02:52

truebluecfc said:
I did spec it with overclocking in mind, i wouldnt change anything apart from maybe getting 4GB of the cheapest 6400 [800MHz] RAM although they are about £50 more.

Maybe this stuff as its the cheapest thats in stock but still double the price.

right cheers thanks for all your help

I'm gonna go away and have a think about it

ahh one more question, are the coolers on the pre oc'ed 8800gtx's the same as the ocuk and non oc'ed ones?

truebluecfc · 28 Jul 2007 at 02:56

I'm not quite sure, they may slightly differ with each company although i do know all of them are sufficent enough to cool them, if your thinking about buying a pre OC'd GTX then dont, you can just clock it up to those speeds straight out of the box its exactly what i did with my BFG 8800 GTS 640MB, i bought the cheapest one and OC'd straight to the £20 more OC'd one.

Anyway let us kno what you decide with and how you get on.

yantorsen · 28 Jul 2007 at 03:12

truebluecfc said:
I'm not quite sure, they may slightly differ with each company although i do know all of them are sufficent enough to cool them, if your thinking about buying a pre OC'd GTX then dont, you can just clock it up to those speeds straight out of the box its exactly what i did with my BFG 8800 GTS 640MB, i bought the cheapest one and OC'd straight to the £20 more OC'd one.

Anyway let us kno what you decide with and how you get on.

will do cnt thank u enough for your help

i'll hopefully be able to put some pics up to when its done

ooh sorry i just fort of anuva question lol, how much difference does a 2000dpi mouse really make?

truebluecfc · 28 Jul 2007 at 03:19

A mouse can make a world of a difference when it comes to gaming, It would seem that the advantages of laser technology would make a laser mouse the obvious choice for any gamer concerned with accuracy. However, the 2000dpi resolution available from some optical mice is more than enough for many gamers.

I personally still use a Logitech MX510 @ only a 100dpi.

yantorsen · 28 Jul 2007 at 03:34

truebluecfc said:
A mouse can make a world of a difference when it comes to gaming, It would seem that the advantages of laser technology would make a laser mouse the obvious choice for any gamer concerned with accuracy. However, the 2000dpi resolution available from some optical mice is more than enough for many gamers.

I personally still use a Logitech MX510 @ only a 100dpi.

thanks

it's just I want a cordless mouse and the 2000dpi mice are like £50.. bit steep just for a mouse really lol

truebluecfc · 28 Jul 2007 at 03:42

I wouldnt recommend a cordless mouse for gaming, too much hassle for what its worth although its up to you, afterall you have just spent a lot of money on a monster rig why scrimp on a mouse you want the best feeling possible to fully enjoy your new computer, personally I'd spent less on a keyboard to buy the best most comfortable mouse, personal opinion though. Here's a few i would recommend with a cheaper one, a middle priced one and a high end priced one.

Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 - Retail

Microsoft HABU 2000dpi High Precision Gaming Mouse - Retail

A lot of peoples fav
Razer Deathadder Blue 2000dpi High Precision gaming Mouse

yantorsen · 28 Jul 2007 at 03:50

truebluecfc said:
I wouldnt recommend a cordless mouse for gaming, too much hassle for what its worth although its up to you but i wouldnt buy a cheap mouse for gaming especially after you've just built a monster rig, personally for gaming i would pick some of these...

Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 - Retail

Microsoft HABU 2000dpi High Precision Gaming Mouse - Retail

A lot of peoples fav
Razer Deathadder Blue 2000dpi High Precision gaming Mouse

hmmm well i would prefer a cordless mouse as i sit on a arm chair about a metre away from the tower so not sure a wire would reach? what are good cordless mice? apart from the mx revolution?

truebluecfc · 28 Jul 2007 at 03:53

Thats a good reason to go cordless i suppose although i cant really recommend any as i dont know a lot apart from the MX revolution, its probably best reading other peoples opinions/views on them who actually own them or maybe find some reviews.

yantorsen · 28 Jul 2007 at 03:55

truebluecfc said:
Thats a good reason to go cordless i suppose although i cant really recommend any as i dont know a lot apart from the MX revolution, its probably best reading other peoples opinions/views on them who actually own them or maybe find some reviews.

okie dokie thanks for all your hlep

im going to bed now im shattered

night