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Thread: Need some recommendations or References for New Year Build

  1. #1
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    Need some recommendations or References for New Year Build

    Currently have an AMD 64 3500, 1Gb Ram, 6600GT rig, and finding its now getting a bit slow for many of the newer releases out these days. Off on holiday next month, but looking forward to the New year I'll be upgrading my current system. I haven't looked at specs for a while though, so would appreciate any thoughts on the following:

    AMD AM2 Athlon 64 5200 + Windsor Core, Dual Core 2.6GHz, 2x 1MB Cache, Retail £74.25
    MSI K9AG Neo2-Digital AMD 690G, SAM2, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, ATX, VGA £44.64
    2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12 £54.80
    512MB XFX 8800GT Alpha Dog Extreme, PCI-E (x16), 1900MHz, GDDR3, GPU 640MHz, 2x Dual Link DVI-I, Fan £199.61
    500 GB Seagate ST3500630NS Barracuda® ES, SATA II, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.5 ms, NCQ £82.12
    A PC Case £50.00
    Tagan 530W PSU £64.50
    LG 18x GSA-H66NBAL DVD±R, 10x DVD±DL, DVD + RW x8/-RW x6, DVD-RAM x12, SATA, Black, OEM £19.50
    TOTAL £589.42

    Also wondering what sort of price I may get for my current machine. I would imagine maybe £200-300? AMD 64 3500, 350GB Sata HDD, 70GB IDE Drive, XFX 6600GT, Tagan PSU.

    Also thinking of changing the screen (currently have a 19" Samsung 913N TFT) but depends on finances and iddeally would like to upgrade to around 22". Looking to play the likes of Crysis, ET:QW, TF2, Bioshock, etc..

    All thoughts appreciated. Thanks.

  2. #2
    finding nemo staffsMike's Avatar
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    Re: Need some recommendations or References for New Year Build

    First thought is.. you won't get anywhere near £300 for that PC.. £200 would be pushing it probably.

    Intel Core 2 Duo is pretty much the way to go at the moment for gaming rigs.

    Something like an E4500 and Abit IP35 would be good but cost a little more than your AMD cpu and motherboard.

    If you do go for the AMD, i've just got an X2 5000+ black edition. Very nice chip, much cooler than normals X2's as it's 65nm not 90nm and it has an unlocked multiplier.

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    Re: Need some recommendations or References for New Year Build

    Hi piggeh

    That looks pretty good for the price/performance AM2 system. I would make a few changes.

    AMD PC

    AMD AM2 Athlon 64 5200 + Windsor Core, Dual Core 2.6GHz, 2x 1MB Cache, Retail £74.25
    MSI K9AG Neo2-Digital AMD 690G, SAM2, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, ATX, VGA £44.64
    2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12 £54.80
    512MB XFX 8800GT Alpha Dog Extreme, PCI-E (x16), 1900MHz, GDDR3, GPU 640MHz, 2x Dual Link DVI-I, Fan £199.61
    500 GB Western Digital WD5000AAKS Caviar SE16, SATA II, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms £63.44
    Antec P182 Advanced PERFORMANCE ONE SERIES Super Midi Tower Case, Gun Metal Black (no PSU) £82.12
    520W Corsair HX Series Modular PSU, ATX, EPS12V, whisper quiet, 5 year warranty £63.32
    LG 18x GSA-H66NBAL DVD±R, 10x DVD±DL, DVD + RW x8/-RW x6, DVD-RAM x12, SATA, Black, OEM £19.50
    TOTAL £601.68

    22" Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 226BW £209.73

    INTEL PC

    Intel Quad Q6600 £166
    Abit IP35 Express £61.10
    2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12 £54.80
    512MB XFX 8800GT Alpha Dog Extreme, PCI-E (x16), 1900MHz, GDDR3, GPU 640MHz, 2x Dual Link DVI-I, Fan £199.61
    500 GB Western Digital WD5000AAKS Caviar SE16, SATA II, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms £63.44
    Antec P182 Advanced PERFORMANCE ONE SERIES Super Midi Tower Case, Gun Metal Black (no PSU) £82.12
    520W Corsair HX Series Modular PSU, ATX, EPS12V, whisper quiet, 5 year warranty £63.32
    LG 18x GSA-H66NBAL DVD±R, 10x DVD±DL, DVD + RW x8/-RW x6, DVD-RAM x12, SATA, Black, OEM £19.50
    TOTAL £709.89

    22" Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 226BW £209.73

    Changes:
    HDD: I'd go for a Western Digital AAKS quick and quiet too
    Case, the Antec P182 has very good reviews and is quiet too will set you back around £80 though.
    PSU: I'd go for a different PSU, the Tagan states that it supports SLI, but reviews of it say it only supports up to 33A on the 12V rail. If you want to add another 8800GT later on (i.e if Crysis runs at very high with SLI, one can hope ), or get a more powerful graphics card in the future you may have to change your psu. See this review of the Tagan Tagan TG530-U15 | PSUs | PSUs | Labs Tests | Custom PC. A good alterative is the Corsair 520W Modular which has enough power for 2x8800GT or a single high end graphics card.
    Monitors: Samsung SyncMaster 226BW comes top of the roundup in Sept 07 at Pc Pro, review and other 20-22" TFT's at 20-22 Inch TFTs
    Last edited by edp33; 05-11-2007 at 11:19 PM.

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    piggeh (06-11-2007)

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    Re: Need some recommendations or References for New Year Build

    Wow - if a 22" is only £210 then I may as well sell my existing 19" with my current machine.

    I don't have a set budget as such, although will save up before I purchase so in effect it's a time restriction.

    I'm not really interested in SLI - I bought my 6600GT on an SLI motherboard in the hope that once pricing comes down, I'd just add a 6600GT on top, but the way it's worked out it wouldnt really add much and more beneficial just to get a better single card really. Tagan I like as before my current PSU (Tagan) I had cheapo PSUs. Really taken aback by the quality of these medium PSus so looking for sometihng similar and my current one has been extremely stable so far (will have a look at the Corsair as best not to burn your bridges with relation to SLI I guess)

    I looked at the X2 5000s - they seem to offer little extra performance over a stock 5200 hence why I put 5200 (only a tenner or so between em though, so open to persuasion). Are Intels the way to go despite the price difference between the two?

    Would rather not overclock as my ATX case is in a tight space and lets out an impressive amount of heat! It's almost like a heating convestor sometimes. So only looking at stock speeds (I guess this is the other reason why I steered clear of the black edition 5000+).

    Will consider other bits - maybe between an E4500 or Q6600 if they're both good value. Not too fussed if it spreads the budget, a couple of lucky roullette spins in vegas next month and it's paid for.

    Thanks for advice so far - I know above reply sounds a bit negative but thought I'd state my reasoning, although it was pretty quick research (I spent a month or so generally researching on my last set up so expecting to spend similar this time).

  7. #5
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    Re: Need some recommendations or References for New Year Build

    Wow - if a 22" is only £210 then I may as well sell my existing 19" with my current machine.
    They are everywhere for less than £200. I dunno why that one was stated.

    Also, as Staffs said (jezzz...agreed with him 2 days on the trot ), Intel is certainly the way to go.

    The Intel PC edp33 specced is overpriced imho and you could do just aswell for about £150.
    All the parts in their were higher end stuff like the case, CPU.
    The only things i would agree on there are the GPU and the notherboard. Everything else you can get as good for less.

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    Re: Need some recommendations or References for New Year Build

    If you are waiting until the new year you might wanna consider the new 45nm intels that come out around then, the new quads will be cooler and so OC better than say existing q6600s.

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    Re: Need some recommendations or References for New Year Build

    Quote Originally Posted by master811 View Post
    If you are waiting until the new year you might wanna consider the new 45nm intels that come out around then, the new quads will be cooler and so OC better than say existing q6600s.
    i have seen good things of the QX9550.

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