This is the best system for the money?

AJP

AJP

AJP

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11 May 2004
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Fed up of going to my mates house to play Crysis :p so it's time to replace an ageing P4 rig, and with approx £1300 to spend this is what i've come up with... (I already have the screen, mouse, kb, speakers and DVDRW)

Case: £111.61 - Antec 1200 Gamer Case
PSU: £95.18 - Thermaltake Toughpower 850W Modular PSU
Motherboard: £146.86 - Asus Maximus Extreme Intel X38 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR3
CPU: £200.32 - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 2.66GHz 12M Cache S775 1333MHZ
CPU cooler: £35.24 - Thermalright IFX-14 CPU Cooler
HDD: £90.35 - 1TB Samsung HD103UJ Spinpoint F1
Graphics: £287.86 - Zotac GeForce 280 GTX 1GB AMP! Edition
Memory: £138.54 - OCZ 4GB DDR3 PC3-10666C7 1333MHz Intel Extreme XMP (2x2GB) Dual Channel DDR3
Headset: £45.81 - SpeedLink Medusa SL-8793 5.1 ProGamer Edition (this will be my 3rd. The other two I managed to break coz of the flimsy plastic headstrap, but tbh i can't see a better 5.1 ss headset for the money)
OS: £107.75 - Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit OEM

Total = £1259.52

Opinions? Can anyone better the above (performance-wise) - sticking within the budget?
 
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Would you really want to spend all £1300? You could trim some money off by getting a 4870, and DDR2 ram, and still retain decent performance!
 
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That's what I would do and it will be totally silent apart from the gFx cards, but you can always get some after market Heat sinks when they are released.

As for hdd a samsung F1

Not sure how much room is in that case, but is designed to be very quite.

Opps menat to put this ram in, rather than *** 4x1 GB

GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Black Dragon DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GB24GB8500C5DC)
same price though
 
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AcidHell2 said:
That's what I would do and it will be totally silent apart from the gFx cards, but you can always get some after market Heat sinks when they are released.

As for hdd a samsung F1

Not sure how much room is in that case, but is designed to be very quite.

Opps menat to put this ram in, rather than *** 4x1 GB

GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Black Dragon DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GB24GB8500C5DC)
same price though
Click to expand...

The case is huge, so I don't think the CPU cooler will give it much hassle.
As for it being quiet, I really don't care how much noise it makes (even though it should be fairly silent like you say due to the case design)

Bearing in mind my priority is performance over cost (within the budget) and acoustics... Do you think the system you've suggested would out-perform the one I spec'ed up? (it won't according to my calculations)
And remember with the addition of HDD and sound card to yours - it would be more expensive too.
 
from you're spec i'd stick with x38, go with ddr2, 4870 instead of the 280 and swap the sound card for the Xonar D2.
 
How big is the display you are playing on?

Anyway, don't bother with DDR3 boards or memory, Vista Ultimate, GTX280s, or X-Fi sound cards. If you really want to save money, go for a Q6600 over the Q9450.

I would personally stick with the 1200, and go for a Corsair TX750. A good combo.

Change the cooler to a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme, the graphics card to a 4870, the memory to some GeIL Black Dragon, the X-Fi to an Asus Xonar D2, and Home Ultimate to Premium.
 
AJP said:
Fed up of going to my mates house to play Crysis :p so it's time to replace an ageing P4 rig, and with approx £1300 to spend this is what i've come up with... (I already have the screen, mouse, kb, speakers and DVDRW)

Case: £111.61 - Antec 1200 Gamer Case
PSU: £95.18 - Thermaltake Toughpower 850W Modular PSU
Motherboard: £148.16 - Intel S775 Intel X38 ATX A L
CPU: £200.32 - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 2.66GHz 12M Cache S775 1333MHZ
CPU cooler: £35.24 - Thermalright IFX-14 CPU Cooler
HDD: £90.35 - 1TB Samsung HD103UJ Spinpoint F1
Graphics: £287.86 - Zotac GeForce 280 GTX 1GB AMP! Edition
Memory: £128.22 - 4GB (2x2GB) CorsairTwinX XMS3, DDR3 PC3-10600 (1333MHz), 240 Pin, Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, DHX
Sound: £66.98 - Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Pro
Headset: £45.81 - SpeedLink Medusa SL-8793 5.1 ProGamer Edition (this will be my 3rd. The other two I managed to break coz of the flimsy plastic headstrap, but tbh i can't see a better 5.1 ss headset for the money)
OS: £107.75 - Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit OEM

Total = £1317.48

Opinions? Can anyone better the above (performance-wise) - sticking within the budget?
Click to expand...

dont get DDR3
Get 2 4870's (or just 1)
X-FI will give you supreme problems in Vista
 
AJP said:
Bearing in mind my priority is performance over cost (within the budget) and acoustics... Do you think the system you've suggested would out-perform the one I spec'ed up? (it won't according to my calculations)
And remember with the addition of HDD and sound card to yours - it would be more expensive too.
Click to expand...

No need for soundcard the asus has a very good sound card as it's a Republic of gamers board.

DDR3 is not worth it you'll gain hardly any speed from it.

The system I have speced has the same cpu but 2x4870 which will be faster than your spec
If you want to save costs and not worried about noise, drop the three noctua fans, stick withthe two case fans then get a aska 120mm fan for the cpu cooler.
 
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