Building a New PC/Console System - Advice Please!

[Squiddy]

Ok, so my plan is to basically have a PC and Xbox 360 linked up to one screen. I don't mind whether this is a PC Monitor or a HDTV (Would prefer HDTV).

I have a fairly large budget for this but I'm not mega rich, or, well even semi-rich at that!

I placed an order previously with E-Buyer for an Antec Sonata 3 Case with a 500w Earthwatts PSU and a Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P iP45 Socket 775 7.1 channel audio ATX Motherboard.

For some reason they decided to cancel my order - this might have been a good thing because I found out that for what I need, I'll probably be needing something a little more.. hefty, than a 500w PSU.

If anyone could help that would be great!

[Nelsaidi]

Squid you didnt tell me they cancelled it! - A Corsair PSU, and a nice antec case like the antec 900 or 1200, which will provide cooling. You want a FULL HD tv, with atleast a hd4870 graphics card to allow smoother gameplay, the better the card, the better gaming will be on your pc

Motherboard, asus P5Q-e or P5Q pro will be good, but all depends on whether u like asus or not, the'yve been good here and overclock great, along side the e8400 you said, and 4gb ram will suffice at that res

Dont get the components one by one imo, get them all at once, it will be better, and means you find out early enough if a component is faulty. Scan 3XS (3xs.scan.co.uk) have pretty good pre-built systems if you dont want to build one yourself.

Remember what i said, you'd want either 2 hdmi, or atleast 1 hdmi and 1 dvi, but full hd (1080p/i) it MUST be, otherwise you could possibly regret it

[staffsMike]

What's the PC for?

[Squiddy]

The PC will be used for basic things like document processing, web browsing - all that usual stuff, but I want to to run the latest games too, specifically Empire Total War and also to support proper TV speakers, (if I'm to use a HDTV), such as Dolby 5.1 surround sound speakers.

I'm very much a split PC and console gamer though, which is why I'm hoping to build one system to cater for both needs

As far as costs go, I'm aiming for the best bang for buck as it were, I do not want hardware that is overly pricey for a slight increase in performance, intel core 2 duo E8400, as opposed to an intel core 2 Extreme, for example.

[smargh]

Why would a 500-watt PSU not be good enough?

I have an Aldi "kill-a-watt" style wattmeter, and I have all this plugged into a UPS, and the UPS draws a *maximum* of 240 watts when playing Crysis with all settings at "High":

Procurve 1700-24 switch
Alix 2C3 firewall
24" BenQ G2400WD LCD
APC 750I UPS
GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard (same as you)
E8400 Core 2 Duo
2x 2GB Crucial 1066MHz
Gigabyte HD4850
1x 300GB Velociraptor
1x 1TB 3.5" drive (WD Green)

All the stuff inside the PC is powered by a Corsair HX520, and it's perfectly fine.

It uses 143 watts when idle writing this message, about 136 watts if I turn on the Gigabyte energy-saving utility thingy to the max, and then 122 watts if I turn off my 24" LCD.

When I had a 17" monitor and an ATI HD3450, it only took about 100 watts in total when idle with everything turned on, about 85 watts with the monitor off.

A quality branded 500-watt PSU is fine for most people.

[staffsMike]

Don't bother with the E8400 it's a waste of money. E5200 pentium dual core is the way to go £60 of cpu perfection

Seriously though thats £80 saving and no real performance loss.

I would build this (and there are two versions)

Version 1.
Antec Fusion remote Veris ~£100
Enermax mod82+ 425W ~£50

Version 2.
Antec NSK2480 + 380W Earthwatts ~£67

Version 1 is pretty.
Version 2 is ..not.

BUT it is the same case underneath.

Intel E5200 ~£60
4GB PC6400 ~£35
Intel G33/G43 ish.. ~£50 - £70.. ish.
Scythe Ninja mini ~£25
640GB WD AAKS ~£47
LG Blu Ray ~£60
Nvidia GTX260 MAXCORE ~£200 ?

Should be less than £650 for version 1.

[Squiddy]

Thank you for the responses

I noticed that neither of you recommended using a HDTV. Is this just out of the question? Ideally I'd like to have like a 32" HDTV - It would be awesome for the Xbox 360, but then probably a bit awkward for the PC, whereas a normal sized PC Monitor would be great for the PC but awkward for the Xbox 360.

I was really hoping to be able to just have one single screen for both the console and the PC but the more I think about it, the less of a reality it seems. It's just not.. plausible to have it really, is it?

One last question, is there a way I can have proper speakers, (as opposed to speakers you plug into your PC) and use them with my PC and Monitor (Another reason I'd like to combine them so I don't require 2 sets of screens and 2 sets of speakers).

[staffsMike]

I'm sure there are ways around the speaker issue but I have never been in a position to try it.

HDTV's are fine. I have at times used my is it 26 or 32".. hmmm TV to use my PC. It works as well as you can expect it BUT, if it's something like 1376 x 800 resolution everything is going to look bloomin massive. If you are intending to sit close.. don't.

A smaller 32" TV running 1080p is certain a more viable prospect if it's running 1920 x 1080. That's fine.

Now gaming on HDTV's is slightly different when on a PC. They aren't strickly designed for high end PC gaming and for myself is relatively untested territory. Of course it does work but as for quality etc.. I really cannot say.

You PC monitor alternatives are the prohibitively expensive 30" monitors running 2560 x 1600. Or something like the 27" Dell 2709WfP, a very nice 27" monitor with an array of inputs such as, HDMI, DVI, display port etc.. I don't believe there are any signicant losses in Xbox gaming other than the size of the screen.

So you pays your money you makes your choices really.

[Squiddy]

Thanks for the advice. I've considered it and I think I'm going to go for a 28 - 30" PC Monitor

[Nelsaidi]

Thanks for the advice. I've considered it and I think I'm going to go for a 28 - 30" PC Monitor

Remember the resolutions on them is even higher - Still, make sure they have HDMI input to connect your xbox, there are other ways i think, but im not an xbox guy to know

But, it'd still be cool to have a big desktop.

Reasons 500W wont be enough, is a 32" supporting 1080p is the best option, 720p will be an extremely bad idea. The HD4850 (the maximum he can probably support with a 500w is a HD4850), cannot run full hd with good performance on the latest games.