i have 2 spec that are very close to what you are looking for. but a few thig must be said
8800 ultra = slightly over clocked gtx
nforce 680 = buggy and picky about ram
killer nic = waste of money.
a winning combo is :
- core duo or quad. they all over clock very well.
- intel p35 based board
- 8800 gts or gtx
i'll upload the specs tomorrow as flikr seams to be on the blink
EDIT: beaten to it by drat
Beginners guide to raid Beginners guide to raid post edition Hexus.Social - FAQOriginally Posted by Jay
i'd second alseniors suggestion, with a P35, a Q6600 and an 8800GTS/X
There seems some confusion over budget here. To the OP (original poster), is your budget for the entire system, excluding OS & monitor, 400 to 600 US dollars? If so, surely most of the suggestions given are impossible to achieve?
Do you intend ever upgrading parts of your new system?
I ask as if you don't there's less/no reason to attempt any degree of future proofing - for example a P695 mobo might be more than adequate & save about 20ukp.
How long do you expect to be using it for gaming & will this always be with cutting edge games?
Again, if you want something for gaming now, aiui a quad core is not the best choice as you can either spend less for an equally effective dual core (which will also run cooler), or get a faster dual core for the same cash. OTOH if you're anticipating using the same machine for gaming in 12 to 24 months time without replacing the CPU, then a quad might be a good choice.
Re the gfx card, if money's not a problem & you'll be upgrading in six to twelve months, the current choice is probably good for now, however if this rig is meant to last without any further changes, I've read that the current first gen dx10 cards aren't exactly future proof (in that their implementation of dx10 features isn't great) or particularly good value. If that's the case it might be more prudent to get a dx9 card now & upgrade it when the 2nd gen dx10 cards are out.
However it's impossible to be specific without knowing budget, how the machine will be used & what its lifespan and upgrade plans are.
It's clear from some of the OP's initial comments that s/he doesn't know much about PCs. There's nothing wrong with that, but it does alter the level of advice which would be helpful to the OP. Just an observation.
Edit: If you're in the UK you'd be well advised not to order from US suppliers without /very/ good reason. Firstly, if there are problems, returns & support will be a nightmare; secondly, when calculating cost you need to allow for import duty & vat, which can make seemingly attractive prices distinctly dissappointing.
Last edited by mroz; 05-08-2007 at 12:57 AM.
given that he's in the UK so that is £2-300 which will barely get him an 8800GTX on it's own.
A P35 motherboard would be my choice if you can't wait for the X38 due soon. They main three - Abit, Asus and Gigabyte are fairly even. Personally I'd get the P5K Premium, its a refinement of the Deluxe and OC's very well. There a few good air coolers, Ive just replaced a Tuniq Tower 120, with a Thermalright Ultra-120 EXTREME + Arctic Cooling MX2 Thermal Compound + Scythe S-FLEX 120mm Fan 1600 RPM, its the HSF to get with a quad core, 5C better at by all accounts.
http://www.anandtech.com/casecooling...spx?i=2981&p=1
Quite, but I was trying to be polite to the posters suggesting the 8800GTX
Also, no harm covering my back in case I've misunderstood the OP's mention of $400-$600.
Ok I see the price confusion, I'm sorry I didn't make it too clear, what I meant was $400-600/£200-300 ON TOP of my set up so far, so that does not include you suggesting to replace a piece of hardware only to add - e.g. "Instead of one hard drive, buy two."
Also can anyone quote a site for pc hardware which definatly ships to UK, newegg (I just found out) doesn't ship to Uk... Cheap #@!%s.
Btw the 19" Monitor I'm not 100% sure of yet, chances are I might choose a 22" that's why I'm sticking with ultra atm.
Oh and this is what I'm currently on:
PC BUILD
PC Case/Chassis: NZXT LEXA BLACKLINE Classic Series £65.00 (http://www.xcase.co.uk/p/356644/nzxt...---no-psu.html)
OR
PC Case/Chassis: Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming case £89.00 (http://creativesupplies.co.uk/index....roducts_id=246)
Motherboard: NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI LT Motherboard £97.26
(http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...prodlist=yahoo)
CPU/Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 £142.46 (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...69#detailspecs)
Video/Graphics Card: XFX GeForce 8800 Ultra / 768MB DDR3 / SLI Ready / PCI Express / Dual Link Dual DVI / HDTV / Video Card £329.13
(http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...&sku=P450-8800)
CPU Cooler/Heat Sink: Arctic-Cooling Freezer 7 Pro (SKT 775/T) £22.91(http://www.thecoolingshop.com/produc...oducts_id/1353)
Hard Drive: 500GB Western Digital Caviar RE 2 £107.91 (http://www.povonline.co.uk/product.p...=6686&xSec=545) or I will replace with raptor as soon as I find one which isn't from NEWEGG >.<
RAM: eXtreme Performance 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM £56.00(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820220144)
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster 7.0 PCI X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Sound card £51.99
(http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/4619...blaster-7.html)
PSU/Power Supply Unit: OCZ Technology 700W Active PFC GameXStream SLI Ready £60.32(http://www.dabs4work.com/productview...finement=11003)
DVD Writer: LiteOn Internal IDE black 20x DVD Writer, brown boxed with Nero oem Suite 3 CD Burning Software £26.98 (http://www.bizrate.co.uk/cd_dvddrive...__nwylf--.html)
DVD Drive: The Dell™ 8X DVD-ROM £29.00 (http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna...&sku=429-12521)
Monitor: The Dell™ SE197FP 19-inch LCD Flat Panel £166.85 (http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna...dhs1&sku=88215)
ABSOLUTE MAX £1374.82
FOR CASE OPT.1 £1285.82
FOR CASE OPT.2 £1309.82
FOR CASE OPT.1 W/O Game Card £1155.82
FOR CASE OPT.2 W/O Game Card £1179.82
Although RAM will be changed down to damn newegg and possibly many other websites when I find they are US shipping only >.<
Last edited by tailtiu; 05-08-2007 at 02:18 AM.
The Q6600 can easily get to 200W with an overclock, you may want to rethink your choice of HSF.
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro approx 0.17 C/W
Thermalright Ultra-120 EXTREME approx 0.10 C/W
Last edited by Fornowagain; 05-08-2007 at 04:11 AM.
forget about buying from zzf & tigerdirect - as already mentioned carriage, possible VAT & customs & warranty issues mean that it just isn't worth it.
Try to buy as many items from 1 place as possible to minimise carr. costs (& after 25 posts you'll get free carr. from SCAN).
All below from SCAN incl. VAT.
Antec 900 - Nine Hundred Ultimate Gamer Case w/o PSU £68.02
XFX MB-N680-ILT NF680i LT SLI MCP, S 775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £117.49 - wouldn't really be my choice of mobo unless you are bent on going SLI
Intel Core 2 Quad-Core Q6600, S775, 2.40 GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 8MB Cache, Retail £169.78
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro - P4 up to 4.4GHz - S775 Dual Core / Core2Duo Ready £15.85
500 Gb Western Digital WD5000ABYS Caviar RE, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms, £80.95
768Mb ScanFX 8800GTX PCI-E (x16), Mem 1800MHz, GPU 575MHz, Dual-Link DVI-I OEM £318.41
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Sound Card UK Retail £52.75
LiteOn DH-20A3P-12C 20x DVD±R, 8x DVD±DL, DVD + RW x8/-RW x6, DVD-RAM x12, IDE, Black, OEM £17.00 - you might want to think about going SATA
LiteOn x16 DVD x48 CD SATA black DVD-ROM Oem Bare Drive. £11.74
You could have an E207WFP monitor instead for only an extra £20
20.1" Dell E207WFP ,Black , Widescreen ,5 ms , DVI/VGA ,1680x1050 ,800:1 £187.87
Last edited by BUFF; 05-08-2007 at 04:44 AM.
Hey BUFF, you got a link to that?
Mucho grathiarse indeedy doo!
I personally would go for two smaller HDDs instead of one half-terabyte one - just a kind of 'all the eggs in one basket' thing.
I thought you were going to go for a p35 mobo? Then you switched back to 680i...
If you're getting such a nice system all together, why not go the whole hog and watercool it? Gonna be really noisy otherwise. And if the idea scares you as a first time builder, don't worry - it's easy! Just an idea.
Oh, and 2gb RAM? I reckon 2x 2gb sticks would be the way to go, then you can always get another matched bair and have 8gb later on
Ok, as previously said you do not want to import any parts from america and instead should order from a UK site.
Its very annoying that the prices in the UK are higher than in the US but unless you live in the US then in the end you will not save any money because there are import taxes and delivery charges - assuming you can find a site who will deliver to the UK -
Good sites to order from:
1) Scan.co.uk - especially as you get free courier delivery if you have over 30 posts (as Buff said)
And thats all you need XD - Scan have great CS and have all the best parts and great prices (no i don't work for scan lol)
So, in £, what is your overall buget including monitor and os - im assuming you will be going with Vista?
You mentioned that your planing to get a 19" monitor - i would highly recomend that you get at least a 22" widescreen and ideally a 24" (only 2" more but a higher resolution so you can fit more on the screen) - If you take my recomendation for a 24" then i would go for the dell 2007, direct from Dell, which can often be had for about £400 (price fluctuates - its £520 atm)
There are 2 types of Vista which you should consider, the cheaper, which i would recomend as its all you need, is home premium - ultimate, which has some more features which are normally a waste of money, is the more expensive. - you can either go for OEM which is for new builds only, its cheap but has no support from microsoft and will be tied to your motherboard, upgrade if you already have a license of XP and is slightly more than OEM but i think has support and is not tied to your motherboard, or retail which is the most expensive but has support, not tied to your motherboard and you dont need an xp license. I would just get OEM or retail if have an XP license depending on current pricing.
So after you have chosen what monitor you want and what vista you want then deduct that from your overall buget (and a keyboard/mouse/speakers come to think of it) which will then give you and us a buget for just the actual PC so we can help you choose the components!
Thats it haha!!
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