New system advice please x

[merlin73]

Hi all.

looking to spend around £1500 + (£200) for a good spec gaming machine.

Need everything so thats why ive allowed myself a bit more just in case lol.

Ive been looking along the lines of the following components:

Antec P180
P5B deluxe mobo or commando
core 2 duo 6600
2 gb 6400
Samsung SM-226BW or NEC MultiSync LCD20WGX2
8800 640 gts
Seasonic 600w power supply
Gaming mouse& keyboard
Headset
sound card



So now its down to you guys for your advice which i would really appreciate. Would love the monitor to work with a 360 if possible. Would i need any leads, fans etc. Thanks in advance.


Cheers

[Clunk]

All good choices, except the commando, which is as much fun as a turd in a swimming pool.

You might also want to check if the S12 revision is compatible with Asus boards.

[amjedm]

I'd get the Corsair 620 over the Seasonic as it's modular - both made by same company so you don't lose quality.

Other thing is make sure you get the newer P182. It makes cable routing a bit easier. Also has other differences - easier to watercool etc.

As advised by Clunk check Corsair compatability with Asus motherboards.

[No.72]

No the commando is good, clunk stop sledging it . He had a bad experience with it so he tries to brain wash everyone else so that asus loses sales just to get them back.

[staffsMike]

dell 2007wfp would fit that budget..has dvi, vga, composite and s-video. Dont know if thats any good for xbox.

The 2407wfp has component which I assume is ideal but costs about £500 ..that would fit your £1700 budget and perhaps your £1500

I prefer the way the commando looks but it has horror stories surrounding it so I would go P5B..

Other than that...build it

Check ebuyer at the moment for the 640mb GTS. The evga is £225 but they are out of stock...

[staffsMike]

no hard drive or cpu cooler?
CPU cooler i'd go for the Arctic cooling freezer 7 pro
and Hard Drive..chose your flavour really.. I like WD some like samsung, seagate..

This is probably what i would build..

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600, Socket 775, 2.4 GHz, 1066MHz FSB, Conroe Core, 4MB Cache, Retail £151.99 £178.59

Abit AW9D-Max WiFi i975X, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £116.69 £137.11

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro - P4 up to 4.4GHz - S775 Dual Core / Core2Duo Ready £13.99 £16.44

2GB (2x1GB) CorsairTwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12, EPP £127.64 £149.98

640MB Leadtek 8800GTS PCI-E (x16), Mem 1600 MHz, GPU 500 MHz, 96 Streams, 2 x Dual Link DVI HDTV £209.00 £245.58

320 Gb Western Digital WD3200AAKS Caviar SE16, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms £50.02 £58.77

NEC AD-7173A-0B Labelflash Black 18x DVD±RW Dual Layer inc 12x RAM Oem £17.29 £20.32

Antec P180 Advanced Super Midi Tower Case, Black (no PSU) £69.89 £82.12 £72.19 £84.82

620W Corsair HX Series Modular SLi PSU, ATX, EPS 12V, whisper quiet, 5 year warranty £84.99 £99.86

24" Dell 2407WFP LCD, Widescreen, 1920x1200, 6 ms, 1000:1, 450 cd/m2, Grey £444.99 £522.86


£1511 with free carriage

[merlin73]

Thankyou for your promptness chaps, what about the ram situation, any recommendations?? Is it worth spending some money on a sound card?? Mainly play fps.

[staffsMike]

I would try onboard sound first..you can always add to it if need be.

As above really..its a rough idea using scan.

Corsair xms2 is favoured from that site.

If you prefer Geil you can get it for around £115 on ocuk but no one on here likes ocuk lol...except me

With a similar setup to that I get stupid frame rates @ 1680x 1050 on most games with settings maxed out. The few fps you would gain from the soundcard wouldnt warrent its purchase i dont think.

[Clunk]

No the commando is good, clunk stop sledging it . He had a bad experience with it so he tries to brain wash everyone else so that asus loses sales just to get them back.

I didnt have a bad experience, I had 3 in a row. You have had a faulty one, supershanks has had a faulty one, and possibly another, theres another one on the scan forum, another 2 in the commando thread, and hundreds of posts all over the tinterweb about the whistling/buzzing noise and also the fact that it kills ram, it doesnt recover well from a bad overclock (if at all), it has a poor heatpipe cooler, hit and miss onboard switches, wobbly ram sockets, it is fussy about power supplies, so if you think that that is a good board, I would hate to see what you consider a bad one

And if I'm out to loose Asus sales, why do I recommend the P5B deluxe wifi?

[shaithis]

When your spending 1.5 grand on a PC, you really do need to get a sound card.

They sound much better then on-board and can give you a few extra frames back.

[staffsMike]

i still think its wise to try onboard sound first..it cant hurt can it?

[shaithis]

It won't hurt but it will almost certainly crackle

[No.72]

I had one crap board because it was the very first batch of them, I bought it on release which is pron to issues.

This second board has been perfect, there is nothing wrong with it. I am currently at 3.641ghz and it is fine, I am only held back by my cooling. The sound card that comes with it, imo is better than on board sound, the RAM slots are solid, there is no sticky stuff on it, it does not buzz whistle or burp, I have had to press the clear cmos button once (that time I set RAM volts too low) I have never had a bsod. You are right the heatpipes are poor but then again so are pretty much all mobos.

It is solid and better than this ds4 I have.

[staffsMike]

3.64..with an e6300...on air cooling?

Is that stable?

[DratUK]

It won't hurt but it will almost certainly crackle

especially on a P5B

I would go for the Creative X-Fi. Just be warned that if you intend to run Vista there are still some issues with Creatives, as ever, brilliant Drivers.

I like staffMikes suggestion, nice balanced system, actually its more or less the same as mine with the exception of the GTS and I have a Raptor drive.
The GTS should handle the Dell although with that +£200 spare I would go for a GTX.

[staffsMike]

i would have to agree with Drat.. if you go for the 24" monitor or anything running 1900 x 1200 you need the GTX to handle full graphics. If you're running 1680 x 1050 (20 - 22") you're fine with a GTS