New Build Thoughts and Recomendations

[Minimos]

Hi,

I am planning on building a new rig sometime within the next month, and have been doing my research for the past 2 weeks and have come up with the following list of components

MSI P35 Platinum Motherboard
A Quad Core Intel CPU?
Arctic Freezer 7 Pro
Antec P182 Case
Hiper 580W or OCZ 600W Stealth?
Samsung Spinpoint 500GB
4 X1 GB XMS 6400 Ram
Samsung SH-S203 SATA DVD Writer
9600 GT Graphics Card?
Windows Vista Home (32 or 64)?
Office Home and Student 2007
Samsung SM226BW Monitor

The rig will be mainly used for encoding DVD's for use on portable devices and the odd spot of gaming.

I would appreciate people thought on my selections and indeed any recommendations which would be a better choice for some components. My main dilemma's are around the choice of CPU, do I get a Q6600 or wait for the Q9300 (over clocking is not my main concern), the make of 9600 card and whether I should go with a 64 bit version of Windows or not.

Any thoughts/comments/suggestion would be greatly appreciated

Thanks in advance

Minimos

[SiM]

OCZ 600W Stealth out of the two you mentioned... or alternatively corsair or seasonic equivalent ones...
I would suggest 2x2gb or ram as its not that much more expensive now... only a couple of quid more...
I would go for 64bit vista to be future-proof...
If you are a student look at theultimatesteal.co.uk for office

Regarding the quad, I would wait for the new ones (due soon!) and see what people say then...

[matty-hodgson]

i'd also wait for the 9800GTX and GTS to come out before going for the 9600GT..
the 9800GTX is supposed to be twice the speed of the 8800GTX going on trends through the 5, 6, 7 and 8 series.. they've always been nearly twice as fast..

[Minimos]

Thanks for the quick reply Sim.

Unfortunately I am not a student so can't get the student version for £38.95 :-(

What model of Corsair or Seasonic would you recommend?

Also I have heard that Vista 64 can be problematic with driver installations if they have not been signed by the WHQL team, which could be a concern as I have just purchased a new scanner which has Vista drivers but I don't think there signed and I don't really want to purchase another one (even though it wasn't that expensive), in addition to the Xifi Music I have and plan to transplant to the new rig also seems to have a number of issues under Vista 64

[Minimos]

Hi matty-hodgson,

I am not one for splashing tons of cash on a graphics card, and the 9600 seems to give reasonable performance for the amount of times I intend to play a game and the resolutions I will play them at.

I also think a 9800 will be considerably more in terms of cash. Should have stated in my first post that I need to keep sub £1000 for the lot, which I can just about do with my list (give or take a few pounds)

Minimos

[matty-hodgson]

i see..
if you're not really 1 for gaming, then the 9600 is a very good card, and it'll run the resolutions you want on that monitor..

nVidia GeForce 9600GT 512MB Overclocked PCI-E - Aria Technology

you might wanna look at that..

or the 8800GT, £138 delivered..

GeForce 8800GT 512MB PCI-E - Aria Technology

[SiM]

Thanks for the quick reply Sim.

Unfortunately I am not a student so can't get the student version for £38.95 :-(

What model of Corsair or Seasonic would you recommend?

Also I have heard that Vista 64 can be problematic with driver installations if they have not been signed by the WHQL team, which could be a concern as I have just purchased a new scanner which has Vista drivers but I don't think there signed and I don't really want to purchase another one (even though it wasn't that expensive), in addition to the Xifi Music I have and plan to transplant to the new rig also seems to have a number of issues under Vista 64

64 has its problems, but I am going for it when I do my new build... and it looks like you know more about it than me

I would suggest:
Corsair hx 520w (or hx 620w if you plan to add anything significant in the future) if you want modular
seasonic 500w s12 or corsair vx 550w, if you don't mind non-modular...

[Minimos]

Thanks Chaps for your useful comments.

Is the general consensus that the 8800GT will out perform the 9600 for only a few pounds difference?

Is anyone else able to comment on Vista 64 and the potential pitfalls it presents in terms of application and driver support

[matty-hodgson]

Thanks Chaps for your useful comments.

Is the general consensus that the 8800GT will out perform the 9600 for only a few pounds difference?

Is anyone else able to comment on Vista 64 and the potential pitfalls it presents in terms of application and driver support

yeah, the 8800GT outperforms the 9600GT on pretty much everything..
and doesn't really cost that much more.

i had Vista 64.. and my webcam and printer both wouldn't work with it.. they just WOULD NOT work.
with Vista 32 they work fine, but now i can't get another 2GB of RAM.. which i'd like to, but dunno if it'd be worth it.

[Minimos]

I might reconsider the 8800 GT option then if thats the case.

The Vista 64bit really troubles me as I think it is the way to go for performance and RAM in the near future, but I am concerned about the compatibility now. Grrrr Microsoft

[matty-hodgson]

yes, 8800GT
only good thing about the 9600GT is that you can say you have a 9 series card and stuff..

and 64bit Vista is fine.. if my webcam wasn't 7 years old i'm sure it'd work.. and my printer is about 5 years old aswell..

[Blitzen]

yeah, the 8800GT outperforms the 9600GT on pretty much everything..
and doesn't really cost that much more.

i had Vista 64.. and my webcam and printer both wouldn't work with it.. they just WOULD NOT work.
with Vista 32 they work fine, but now i can't get another 2GB of RAM.. which i'd like to, but dunno if it'd be worth it.

Didnt you bother to check if the drivers are out for your hardware?

It was just the age of the hardare as you stated.

99.9% of Vista problems are user inflicted rather than OS inflicted.
I have been running Vista Ultimate 64Bit since its MSDN release (getting on for 18 months now) and the only problem i had were waiting for drivers in the first 3 months).
It runs so well.

Dont go for 32Bit OS if you are going dual/quad core........its such a step back in time.


Also....leave the 9600GT alone. 8800GT or GTS are better and the price differences are minimal.

[Minimos]

I have done some more Digging and it appears Creative have 64bit Xifi drivers now (albeit with some functionality missing, but I don't use optical outs )

Also my printer and Webcam have a driver, although the Webcam is in Beta at the moment

64bit sounds tempting and is the future.

Whats it like for games, I have things like BF2, Wolfenstein ET, Civ 4, Homeworld 2, Roller Coaster Tycoon etc. All a few years old now, do they run on Vista 64 without a hitch?

[Blitzen]

I play:
BF2
RTCW
ET
ET Quakewars
Doom3

And a few more that all run flawlessly.

I just benched CS:S and average FPS was 271.6

[Minimos]

Looking good then, I am swaying more and more.

Any other thoughts on V64?

[Minimos]

Ok guys been doing some more research.

I like the look of the Antec Sonata III case, as it comes with a PSU and looks quite nice, using this instead of a P182 and separate PSU will help me drive down the cost. What are people thoughts on this case. Please remember that I am not a fan of overclocking, but may do a modest MHZ increase in the future if the CPU starts to look tired.

Also, I can not decide on a new keyboard and mouse. I would like them both to be wired, as I have no use for a wireless model as my pc is in the office.

Thanks

Minimos