Really really sick of looking at parts and need some help.

Hey, im desperate to upgrade given atm im using a 4200 card after my old one died...

I have roughly £1000 to spend, can go more, less would be nice.

Also want a new monitor 22 or 24.(seperate budget of 250 ish)

Heres what ive decided so far:

Lian Li PC-A71 case.(Dont like akasa any other recommendations? want a door.)
E8500(what custom cooler?)
4gig or 8gig DDR2(is 8 gig worth it? what make is best?)
Seagate 1TB sata
Rampage Formula Mobo, x48.
Suitable PSU

The real problem i have is what graphics card??

Ive researched loads ATI are most popular, but what do i get..

4870
48701gig
4870X2

Im not a high res freak or anything ,i want value for money, BUT i dont upgrade regulary i keep my PCs for 2 to 3 years, and i will build myself and probably overclock. But i consider for example an x48 worth is given its only £30 or so more than a older chipset.

Im just really stuck on what route to go...crossfire mobo 4870 now and add another later when cheaper... or get a 4870X2 now, tho i do NOT like the low warranties..

Give help please :( miss games.

If you want value for money a single 4870 will do you fine. That does leave you open to add another in crossfire later, though you may be better off just replacing it with a better card a couple of years down the line.

What OS will you be using (are you factoring this into the budget)? It will need a 64 bit OS for your system to use more than about 3.5GB of your RAM. Again, if you want value for money 4GB will easily be enough, and you can always upgrade later if you get a 2x2GB set.

Xigmatek coolers are very good value for money, and are often on Scan's Today Only for around £17. Slightly more expensive there's a lot of Scythe and Thermalright ones to choose from, SilentPC does a good job of rounding them up.

I'm not big on cases so no doubt someone else can advise you on that front.

yeah i know about the 64bit thing, my laptop has 4gig of ram so i need 64bit for that normal vista only supports about 3.5....im trying to be economical without screwing my performance..the reason i was going to go for 8gig of ram is, ddr2 is pretty cheap and i always find that later on in my pcs life ram becomes more important and its nice to have 4 matching sticks..

Hi mate,

you want value for money? not a high res freak? i would get a 8800gt under 100 now or look on ebay for a 7900gtx i have seen them go for 30 quid. get the rampage extreme, it has some amazing overclocking potential, including the facility to emulate other more expensive chips... nice yes.

4 gig is ample for vista or xp. have a look at this monitor i picked one up last week. full HD. very sweet http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=MO-025-OK
i got it last week on a special offer for 230.

are you watercooling? if you plan on OC then you should consider water check this out. Thermaltake

Oh and get a 10,000 rpm drive for your OS. dont blow your budget on a graphics card that will never see its potential!

the rampage extreme is ddr3 tho?

how expensive/reliable is water cooling nowadays?

If getting a 24"+ monitor, get a 4870.

Up to 1680x1050 res a 4850 would be just as good and cost a fraction over a ton. Forget about the 8800GT, it's old tech and AA performance is nowhere near as good as the new ATI 4800 Radeons and will definitely NOT last you 2-3 years.

yeah i hear 4870 is the way to go for the value... and probably will be a 24monitor...how much difference does a 10000 disk make?

Any advice on cases? i want soemthing with a door, dust filters, plenty of space and looks sleek and neat, no wierd bits that hold dust, been looking at lian lis and the cosmos 1000....among a few others...

Also E8500 or Q6600 i know dual core is a little faster generally for gaming, but quad is better for the games that use it, but is quad thefuture?

I recommend the following set-up:

Motherboard (x48 Rampage Formula) http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=752994 £170.14
RAM (4Gb) http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=782925 £89.30
Case (Antec P182) http://www.ebuyer.com/product/126946 £90.35
Graphics Card (Force3D 4870 512Mb) http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148210 £164.95
Processor (Intel Quad core 9450) http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=795731 £196.91
Hard Drive (Samsung T1 Spinpoint F1) http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=723884 £87.53
Power Supply (Corsair VX 550W)http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=664337 £55.21
DVD Drive (Samsung DVD Drive OEM) http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=819459 £15.15
Card Reader (Scan 70+ in 1 card reader) http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=70360 £5.86
CPU Cooler (Scythe Ninja Limited Edition) http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=800509 £43.35


This would be whsiper quiet, allow overclocking of the processor to 4.2Ghz before even overclocking the RAM, and look stylish and sleek.

It's a top value PC with little corners cut in terms of performance. Total cost is £748.61 + delivery from Scan (assuming free delivery from Ebuyer)

Points to consider:

Wait for Intel's new chip range? (Don't think I'd bother). Note The Q9450 is actually newer and faster than the Q6600. It has a faster default clock (2.66Ghz, compared to 2.4Ghz, and runs on the new 1333FSB speed, as compared to the Q6600's 1066FSB speed). It is also manufactured on a smaller process 55nm, so in theory should run quieter/cooler/overclock better.
Opt for a 1Gb 4870? If you plan non keeping the card for 3 years it might be worth it, but given how easy a graphics card is to replace I wouldn't bother). Stock of the 1Gb 4870 and 4870X2 in none existant at the moment anyway.
Get a cheaper CPU cooler, always an option if you want to look into it. Could probably save about £20 here if you can be arsed.
I always recommend Samsung drives - they're always quiet and reliable from my experience.
Power supply - The Corsair 550W will be ample for the system I've specced. If you want more wattage try the HX 620W Modular, a good £30 more, but you'd never need more than that.
The Antec P182 is probably the best case I've ever used - my dream case. Sleek, spacious, quiet, dust filters, top fan, minimalist design, front door as you requested.

any reason why paying £170 for Rampage mobo

I been looking at this mobo Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS4

To be honest I'm not really up on the motherboard side of things. So just went with his preference. Personally I wouldn't pay that much for a M/B. My limit would be about £100 and you can get a perfectly adequate board for that amount. My personal choice of motherboard would probably be the Asus P5K Premium http://www.ebuyer.com/product/142854 (this would save about £70 from the price I listed above). Do a Google search for reviews and you'll see it's widely considered one of the best reviews

Looks nice case that Antec P182, very tempted I been looking at the Antec Sonata III 500 but comes with psu

Found antec p182 a little cheaper at Novatech

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s....html?ANT-P182 £87.54 inc vat but only better if you buy something else as Ebuyer as free postage

I only really use Scan and Ebuyer as I know there customer support is excellent. The case is £2.50 cheaper, Best to stick to buying your stuff from as few sources as possible if you ask me. It won't even be cheaper once delivery is added as you point out. You'd have to save about another £7.50 to break even with Ebuyer's prices and I doubt you'd manage it to be honest Ebuyer seem to be the cheapest for most things. Plus as I said I reckon Ebuyer are a better company to deal with anyway ;)

The P182 is great but a good compromise is the antec sonata PLUS. That is an Antec solo case with a 550W modular PSU which does very well in review :)

Another good case is the coolermaster CM690. Very similar in features to the antec P182, not quite as quiet but better cooling and the same cable management.

Personally I would drop the E8500 and go for a Q9450 / Q6600. If your keeping it 2-3 years I would go for the X2 and use this with a P5Q Delux (P45). The P5Q will allow you to max out your Quad.

I use a P5Q with a Q9450 and I can push 3.8 although I currently run it at 3.0 with 1.1 volts.

well reason i was going for the max formula was. its full 16xcrossfire, so if i go for a 4870 i can add another 4870 later when there cheapish.

Either i need to plan for crossfire or not...crossfire means more money on mobo and psu...no crossfire means saving money on those, but my graphics performance wont last as well:)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Falcor

well reason i was going for the max formula was. its full 16xcrossfire, so if i go for a 4870 i can add another 4870 later when there cheapish.

Either i need to plan for crossfire or not...crossfire means more money on mobo and psu...no crossfire means saving money on those, but my graphics performance wont last as well:)

---

Yes but the X2 is better than 4870 Xfired. Some results show that the 512MB 4870 is slightly better with current games but this will change once developers start using the additional ram.

With regard to P45. You won't noticed any difference in games between the 2 chipsets. X48 is up to 0-10% faster in some games. Going P45 will allow you to push your E8XXX/Q9450 series faster than X48 due to higher overclocking potential. X48 is limited to 450-475 ish on Quads. With P45 you can push 500+ with decent cooling on quads depending on the chip. E8XXXX upto 600 FSB.