Spec needed, £1000 budget for basics

[hp7909]

{snip}Q-Tec 650W Triple Fan Gold PSU (CA-003-QT) £19.95 £19.95 {Snip}

Do people see the Q-Tecs and go 'Wow what a bargain, don't see why these other PSU are so expensive and this one's even more powerful' Q-Tec's are cheap and cheap for a reason! Do a search for Q-Tec & see what it brings up Besides, I doubt it will even be able to power that system.

I'm no crossfire expert, but your m8 seems to have choosen a Master Card - needed when buying along with a normal (in this case X1900) card for a Crossfire setup. That means you buy it with another card or later on when you want to go down that route.

I'm also lead to believe that he's currently got a 17-inch screen which he plans to use ? Because any of the graphic cards mentioned above would be a real big shame on a screen that size. With his budget he can build a sweet rig along with a good 19-inch (going by the prices now) TFT

 

[SiriusB]

Do people see the Q-Tecs and go 'Wow what a bargain, don't see why these other PSU are so expensive and this one's even more powerful' Q-Tec's are cheap and cheap for a reason! Do a search for Q-Tec & see what it brings up Besides, I doubt it will even be able to power that system.

I'm no crossfire expert, but your m8 seems to have choosen a Master Card - needed when buying along with a normal (in this case X1900) card for a Crossfire setup. That means you buy it with another card or later on when you want to go down that route.

I'm also lead to believe that he's currently got a 17-inch screen which he plans to use ? Because any of the graphic cards mentioned above would be a real big shame on a screen that size. With his budget he can build a sweet rig along with a good 19-inch (going by the prices now) TFT

Crossfire/SLi would be wasted on a 19" too in my opinion. 21" at least before you go down that road.

SiriusB

 

[BigDom]

crap PSU and um well, you will need a proper gfx the xfire will not work by itself and dont waste all that money on a high end xfire mobo that is probably not going to get used.
BFG RNF4U nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-000-BG) Price: £59.95 (£70.44 Including VAT at 17.5%)
this mobo will be fine for you i think

WRONG!!! the Master cards DO work on their own just fine.

There have been some issues with the MVP Deluxe hence me speccing the non-deluxe as I'm not sure if the issues ahve been fixed.

 

[BigDom]

I'm sure you'll have something to say about the PSU but any other improvements? I appreciate there are better cases for cooling but they are largely a visual thing.

WRONG!!!

Actually cases are largely a functional thing...

Cooling
Ease of assembly/maintence.
Weight

all are of higher priority than looks ( not to mention that the PC7 looks a lot nicer in the flesh than in pictures ).

 

[Monstermunch]

Crossfire/SLi would be wasted on a 19" too in my opinion. 21" at least before you go down that road.

SiriusB

Agreed........but SLI/Crossfire always a waste of time & money IMO

Plus.....like you told me the only person you know who has SLI, has managed to shoot himself in the head with an air rifle!

 

[Monstermunch]

WRONG!!!

Actually cases are largely a functional thing...

Cooling
Ease of assembly/maintence.
Weight

all are of higher priority than looks ( not to mention that the PC7 looks a lot nicer in the flesh than in pictures ).

Agreed.....what you tend to find with other cases that are not highly thought of by people who have owned them are things like slashing your wrists on the unfinished edges, poor cooling, general bad quality etc etc. The PC7 is the best for the money.....It's not just my opinion...it is the best.....

Next up after the PC7 would be the Akasa Eclipse 62 at about £80ish

 

[gr1mey]

buying a good case is one of the most important things when building a PC, it can be a real nightmare otherwise.

and as has been said you want a case with good cooling potential.

 

[hp7909]

Personally, I think aesthetics matter very much. Seriously for something that you will see more than any other components (bar the monitor) wouldn't you want it to look good or maybe just 'fit in'

 

[lucifersam]

Personally, I think aesthetics matter very much. Seriously for something that you will see more than any other components (bar the monitor) wouldn't you want it to look good or maybe just 'fit in'

I agree which is why i recommend the thermaltake tsunami dream case, it has good quiet cooling and looks very good

 

[BigDom]

Personally, I think aesthetics matter very much. Seriously for something that you will see more than any other components (bar the monitor) wouldn't you want it to look good or maybe just 'fit in'

hehe I'm not sure about that, I think most people have their cases stored away under their desks. That said the PC7 is actually very pleasing to the eye. Simple yes but very pleasing.

Don't get me wrong the Tsumani looks nice but I'm not convinced it's as good a case.

 

[SiriusB]

Agreed........but SLI/Crossfire always a waste of time & money IMO

Plus.....like you told me the only person you know who has SLI, has managed to shoot himself in the head with an air rifle!

So it is agreed. SLi/Crossfire is for numpties

SiriusB

 

[lucifersam]

i can understand people who use xfire or SLI on system with huge resolution but until you get a screen with res 1600.1200 at least there is no point. people do it so they can get big numbers on 3dmark

 

[SiriusB]

i can understand people who use xfire or SLI on system with huge resolution but until you get a screen with res 1600.1200 at least there is no point. people do it so they can get big numbers on 3dmark

Yeah I agree. Big numbers on 3DMark is a good thing... not sure I would want to spend another 300 notes on getting it slightly bigger lol.

SiriusB

 

[Monstermunch]

I also agree but a lot of people forget that the main thing required for larger resolutions is memory....So using 2 x 7800gt (256mb) for example will be no better than 1 7800gtx 512mb.

Things will all change over the next year or so, I think you'll find that Gfx card ram will continually increase and technically do away with the need for SLI/Crossfiring.

The new DX10 cards are coming soon and 1gb ram is already being talked about, by this time next year there could be 2gb cards!

 

[lucifersam]

I also agree but a lot of people forget that the main thing required for larger resolutions is memory....So using 2 x 7800gt (256mb) for example will be no better than 1 7800gtx 512mb.

Things will all change over the next year or so, I think you'll find that Gfx card ram will continually increase and technically do away with the need for SLI/Crossfiring.

The new DX10 cards are coming soon and 1gb ram is already being talked about, by this time next year there could be 2gb cards!

Actually the single card would be better, remember memory does not stack in SLI, so effectively you would still have 256MB so basically i agree

 

[Jet]

WRONG!!!

Actually cases are largely a functional thing...

Cooling
Ease of assembly/maintence.
Weight

all are of higher priority than looks ( not to mention that the PC7 looks a lot nicer in the flesh than in pictures ).

Listen! The case is final, now drop it

 

[Bahney]

YEY ocuk have validated my account

i am the "friend" he he he

firstly thank you so much for the input so far i am starting to get my head around it all now, and after several new shopping carts and a few asprin i have come up with this setup...opinions ?

ohh yeah and i have a 19" CRT monitor not 17" and i run in res 1600X1200 for desktop but for games i just stick with 1024X768...but thats due to the restrictions of my current system, lol but running games etc at 1600X1200 is not something i have on the agenda

Shopping Cart (Prices in British Pounds)


Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 NCQ 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (0A31636) (HD-002-HI) X2
£52.95 £105.90

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA4400CDBOX) (CP-127-AM)
£264.95 £264.95

BFG RNF4U nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-000-BG)
£59.95 £59.95

Mushkin 2GB DDR EM3200 Enhanced Performance Dual Channel Kit (2x1GB) CAS3 (991461) (MY-006-MK)
£109.95 £109.95

Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (3056) (GX-047-CO)
£239.95 £239.95

NZXT Lexa Classic Series Ultra light Aluminum Midtower (CA-000-NX)
£74.95 £74.95

Hiper HPU-4M580 Type R 580W ATX2.2 PSU - Black (CA-009-HP)
£39.95 £39.95

Subtotal £895.60
VAT £156.73
Total £1,052.33

ok so i suppose i better explain the case, lol well i do like the soprano case a lot, and if i have a grand pc i want it to look nice so the plain boring li lian pc cases are not an option, they might be ok for not slitting your wrists but i dont intend to be in the case every five minutes so it doesent bother me as much, however people saying the space is cramped is a bit worrying...

i have the option of a thermaltake bigwater SE which i am considering, good idea or bad idea? considering i have never used water cooling before! so the space issue is maybe a bit more of an issue then i first thought. the lexa case i have above looks a bit bigger and is quite funky.

i have tried to encorporate everyones suggestions and ideas, so hopefully this is the last shopping cart before the old visa takes a battering, but i can stretch it another hundred quid, so is it worth getting another 2gb of ram ? or using it on something else?

thanks once again for all the help

 

[BigDom]

If you still have room in your budget then look at the Akaska Eclipse, Lian-Li V1000 or Antec Super Lanboy. Aside the PC7 those are the favourites in the case forum.

Truthfully not slitting your wrists is only one above the looks. Easy of setting them up tidily and a design with good airflow are highest on the list.

Hyper generally isn't well thought of around here due to reports of them getting noisy. Enermax and Tagan (and others ) are better options.

Not sure what the BFG boards like, Asus or DFI would be a more reliable bet.

 

[Bahney]

ok so if i scrap the mobo and go for a

DFI LanParty UT NF3 Ultra (Socket 939) Motherboard (MB-016-DF)

? would that be a better idea?

looking at the antec cases the titan 550 looks nice and comes with a power supply! could be onto a winner? the lan boy looks really bad sorry but it just screams tacky (no offence ot those that have it) and the pc7 is a bit plain and boring, i fancy something with a cover on the front to hide the drives a bit like the CoolerMaster Praetorian 732 which is another i would consider, looks very cool !

what are your thoughts on the water cooling big water setup ? good idea or bad idea? and is there enough space in these cases for it ?

 

[BigDom]

On the case side I'd suggest you post a thread in the Case section. Lot more knowledge there than here.