Help with new gaming build

[ga41]

Hi to all, a friend asked for my help in building his new desktop.

His budget is around 900-1000 pounds. The pc will be used for mostly gaming and general computing. He's not looking to overclock or anything, just a fast and stable pc.

These are the components im thinking of so far.

Core 2 Duo E6400
EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS SuperClocked 320MB
Gigabyte GA_965P_S3 motherboard
G.Skill 2GB DDR2 NQ PC2-6400 (2x1GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit
Antec TruePower Trio 550W PSU
Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache
Arctic Cooling T2 Pro Case
Dell E207WFP 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor
NEC AD7170S Serial ATA 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter

All of these i selected from overclockers.co.uk. Do you have any other recommendations for this budget? Any other online store i should go with?

My housemate just built a 3500+ quid monster rig with all parts from ocuk and he had a good experience with them so that's why i looked there.

Thanks for all your help.

[Dreaming]

Consider going with two hard drives and raid 0 for a performance boost? Just thinking, the HDD is the usual throttleneck. How much does your current plan come to? what's the leeway? A raptor wouldn't go amiss in a gaming platform, if you could afford it.

[ga41]

I think a raptor would be a bit of an overkill and im trying to keep the cost down as much as possible.

RAID though? hmm it would offer a boost but i really would prefer something simple and stable for him since he has no experience with pc's himself.

Now concerning storage he can always buy another HDD when he runs out of space and i'll install it for him or talk him through it since that's fairly simple.

Thanks for the feedback anyway mate

Sorry forgot to add that all of these come out at around 950 pounnds. That's including VAT and shipping.

[Dreaming]

Alright. Well personally based on a lot of people telling me that if anything goes wrong they're not terribly helpful, I've avoided OCUK. I like scan, but it's up to you really, I don't want to look like I'm plugging anyone in particular.

I'd say, if you like, drop the e6400 to an e6300 as they both overclock very nicely and will get e6700 clocks, the e6400 is just a bit more expensive and might go a tiny bit further. In real world performance the difference isn't massive though.

As for the 8800, well it's a fantastic card, but with r600 coming out in few months, along with the 8600 I think, (which are all dx10 compatible) you may be paying too much of a premium right now since it's the only dx10 compatible card on the market. But then again, you don't want to get a card and upgrade in a few months I guess. (I mean, that's what I'm doing, waiting for the 'proper' dx10 cards, this is getting me by nicely on everything I've thrown at it )

Erm, can't think of much more. Get him two monitors.

[doddsy]

Looks like a decent build tbh. Try pricing it up other places, I'd be pretty wary about spending that much at ocuk, just heard too many horror stories from when something goes wrong. I'd be definitely looking at scan, big fan of specialtech as well, as customer service are great for both.

You could drop to the 6300 if you wanted but I'd personally spend the extra to get the higher multi.

Only extra thing Id suggest is a decent set of 5.1s, logitech x540s are great (I love mine) and are only £50

[ga41]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'll try looking at scan then. Oh and as i said already he's not looking to overclock so do you think the E6400 is enough? If it was me i'd get a E6600 for the 4mb L2 some decent PC2 6400 RAM and a tuniq tower and OC like mad but that's me.. not him.

He's been computer-less since christmas so he wants to build a desktop as soon as possible, which is probably next week when he gets the money so waiting for R600 is out of the question seeing as its delayed for yet another time. So i think at the moment the 8800GTS 320 is the best performance per price for dx10.

I was also wondering about the monitor. Any other recommendations? I haven't checked with him if he wants a widescreen or a regular but i would like to hear anything you guys have to recommend anyway. Nothing too expensive and at a resolution the GTS 320 will handle for a while.

Thanks!

[staffsMike]

I left a thread in here about a 640mb leadtek GTS on www.lowestontheweb.com

its only £226 so thats best bang for buck in my opinion.

[doddsy]

The 6400 will be plenty fast and the 8800gts 320 seems like a fantastic card.

As for the monitor, I've heard good things about it.

[ga41]

Allright thanks to all your help. I think im on the right track here.

[DecomposingStar]

I've heard (even from a friend who has one) that 8800's have alot of driver issues.... Just make sure you're able to sort this out for him... It can be a real pisser having the best card on the market and having it run fairly new games like crap.

Silly nVidia...

[ga41]

Well i dont have one myself but the only thing i've heard is that they have crappy Vista drivers. Maybe that's what your friend meant. I recently saw in TG daily an article that said that a group of nvidia users were considering a class action lawsuit against nvidia because of the poor vista drivers. I'd post the link but i have to have 5 posts or more to be able to post links.... I'll try editing it after i post.

Ok hows this? http://tomshardware.co.uk/2007/02/02...vista_drivers/

I for one wont be advising my friend to go Vista anytime soon as i really dont see any benefit from it. I think xp still has one or two years left minimum in them (concerning games in particular) and he'd be fine with them for a while. I'll advise him in an OS upgrade when the time comes.

Any other thoughts guys? And by the way thanks for all your help.

[Dreaming]

the next windows release (apparently) is scheduled for two years time :|. Vista, although having nice features, is a cash cow at the end of the day. (I run it as my main OS and can admit that).

Haven't seen that case before actually - I would say it's not one of the common ones that pop up (Antec 900 / p180 or Akasa 62 thing whatever everyone loves ). But it should definately stand out. I want a nexus case

[Robbie G]

Urgh, OcUK = bunch of cowboys in the true sense of the phrase. Avoid

[ga41]

the next windows release (apparently) is scheduled for two years time :|. Vista, although having nice features, is a cash cow at the end of the day. (I run it as my main OS and can admit that).

Haven't seen that case before actually - I would say it's not one of the common ones that pop up (Antec 900 / p180 or Akasa 62 thing whatever everyone loves ). But it should definately stand out. I want a nexus case

I agree with what you're saying about Vista. Even though i can get them for free from my university i haven't and probably wont upgrade to them for quite some time.

The case to be honest i just chose in random. I wasn't sure if he prefers something flashy or something more simple so i just made a random choice. But that's about the amount of money i'd like to spend on a case. The Antec 900 is really nice but probably too flashy. The P180 is a great choice too as i've read very good things about them.

What do you guys think about the Coolermaster Mystique 632? In sliver?

[tigerboyce]

thats expensive though isnt it? like £70-£80?

[DecomposingStar]

Well i dont have one myself but the only thing i've heard is that they have crappy Vista drivers. Maybe that's what your friend meant. I recently saw in TG daily an article that said that a group of nvidia users were considering a class action lawsuit against nvidia because of the poor vista drivers. I'd post the link but i have to have 5 posts or more to be able to post links.... I'll try editing it after i post.

Ok hows this? http://tomshardware.co.uk/2007/02/02...vista_drivers/

I for one wont be advising my friend to go Vista anytime soon as i really dont see any benefit from it. I think xp still has one or two years left minimum in them (concerning games in particular) and he'd be fine with them for a while. I'll advise him in an OS upgrade when the time comes.

Any other thoughts guys? And by the way thanks for all your help.

Yeah... But think about it, it's a directx10 card. DX10 is Vista ONLY... There's no Vista drivers for it.... Go figure.
If i bought one i'd file a class action law suit aswell! And it's the very reason i'll wait and wait and wait until the ATI R600 comes out.

Urgh, OcUK = bunch of cowboys in the true sense of the phrase. Avoid

Care to fill us in on why?

I agree with what you're saying about Vista. Even though i can get them for free from my university i haven't and probably wont upgrade to them for quite some time.

The case to be honest i just chose in random. I wasn't sure if he prefers something flashy or something more simple so i just made a random choice. But that's about the amount of money i'd like to spend on a case. The Antec 900 is really nice but probably too flashy. The P180 is a great choice too as i've read very good things about them.

What do you guys think about the Coolermaster Mystique 632? In sliver?

Dual boot vista. I use it as my main OS now.

As for the case, you can buy my NZXT off me if you like
But seriously, Any good named brand should do alright if he isn't going to be overclocking or modding bits out, just make sure when you build the system you get it as tidy as possible.