New PC £800 budget

[dkmech]

Good day, esteemed forumites.

The payday is drawing ever nearer and it's time to start putting together the spec for my new pc. Before anyone asks - it will be used for playing games. I will want it to be fast, overclocked but fairly quiet (although I am not going to go mental with money just to keep noise down).

The budget is around £800 plus or minus a bit (it's not going to be minus, lets be realistic). I am keeping the same monitor. I will be getting windows vista - at the moment I am thinking 64 bit home premium - is 64 bit version reliable/compatible enough for gaming these days? I am choosing this over XP because of direct x 10.

I have pretty much decided on buying a Q6600 and overclocking it a bit (people keep mentioning 3ghz which seems like a nice enough target).

Memory-wise will probably get 4 gb of this:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=766626
or this
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=632574

Coolermaster 690 seems like a nice enough case.

Need advise on PSU and also on the CPU cooler. In fact if anyone has the CM 690 case please let me know if there are any coolers that don't work too well with it because of the placement of case fans.

Graphics-wise if I bought now it would be 9800gtx, but I'll be waiting a bit to see what happens when the new cards are out.

Which leaves me with the biggest conundrum - motherboard and hard drive layout.

I will probably transfer a 320gb sata II drive from my old PC to use for storage and backing up, but I need advice on raids, which hdds to put in them (thinking samsungs at the moment) and which motherboard will have the right raid controller and be easy enough to overclock with.

I'll try to keep a summary of components which are already set (although this may change if someone comes up with a stonking idea) to see how much is left to play with.

Currently:

Q6600 - ~130
Ram ~65
Case ~50
Graphics ~200
DVD ~20
Subtotal 465

Remaining 335

Needed
Mobo
Hdds
Cooler
PSU


Sorry for the long post and multiple demands. Thanks in advance for advice and comments.

[Saracen]

For PSU, I'd strongly advise going for one with a good reputation for quality, and getting one of adequate power capability, not not over-doing it. Somewhere around 500w should do fairly comfortably for that spec.

So you could look at the highly popular Corsair HX series, like HX520. Similarly, the S-Series or modular M-series from Seasonic, seeing as Seasonic make the actual psu for Corsair's HX series (but not necessarily other Corsairs).

Or, more recently, personally I'm inclined towards Enermax's Pro-82, like Scan's LN21952.

Cheap PSUs might look like a bargain, but usually aren't, and don't have the component quality, the smoothness of supply or perhaps even the degree of protection that a good brand has. And a PSU failure can wreck large parts of the rest of your PC. It's not, IMHO, an area worth economising on for a few quid.

But, by the same token, don't go for a PSU with too high a rating unless there's a good reason .... like you're planning on an upgrade to something with MUCH higher power requirements, like multiple high-end graphics cards.

[LegacyOne]

Asus P5Q PRO (the Asus P5K-E with the 9800gtx would cover some of the SATA ports)
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=818514
520W Corsair HX (maybe go higher for the 620W)
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=446788

[Eddd]

CPU: Q6600 is fine. It can easily overclock to 3.0GHz without changing the voltages and in my opinion a more future proof choice than dual core CPUs.
CPU cooler: I have the Q6600 and cool it with the Scythe Ninja. It was a bit fiddly to get in but it cools a dream. My Q6600 is overclocked to 3.0GHz and reaches a maximum temperature of 41degrees on full load. (I admit, I have the Antec 900 to thank for this temperature as well - amazing cooling)
Case: Antec 900/1200. I'm a big fan of Antec cases and their customer support is the best I've ever experienced.
Graphics card: 9800GTX or wait for new ones to arrive
PSU: Corsair HX520W will probably be enough, but you might want to consider the Corsair HX620W if you're going for one of the new nVidia cards.
HDD: I'd always go with Western Digital. They're more reliable and quieter than the Samsungs.
Mobo: P35 board
RAM: 4GB Corsair PC6400, unless you plan to heavily overclock the Q6600, then go with PC8500
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit is pretty much fine. Most of the driver problems were fixed with service pack 1 (released in March) and nVidia got their act together and fixed their drivers. If you're worried about driver issues, I'd stay away from Creative

[staffsMike]

I'd second Eddd's choices though I would stick with that coolermaster CM690.

The only other cases I'd consider are the antec solo or antec P182, the latter being a bit expensive but you get great cooling and great for noise.

Scythe ninja is a great silent cooler and at a fair price.

Otherwise looks good. The HD4850 from ATi looks to be a great card for a lot less than the 9800 which hopefully means the HD4870 will be a really great card on a near 9800 budget

[jamiesalter]

Just some advice on the CM690...have it with the Scythe ninja on a Q6600. The ninja is slightly too big when using a 120mm side fan directly above the CPU. Using a thin fan may overcome the problem (haven't tried). I use an 80mm fan on the side for this reason and works fairly well, but still a very tight squeeze when shutting the case. (Without a side fan above the CPU, there is no space problem)

[Noxvayl]

CPU: Q6600 is fine. It can easily overclock to 3.0GHz without changing the voltages and in my opinion a more future proof choice than dual core CPUs.
CPU cooler: I have the Q6600 and cool it with the Scythe Ninja. It was a bit fiddly to get in but it cools a dream. My Q6600 is overclocked to 3.0GHz and reaches a maximum temperature of 41degrees on full load. (I admit, I have the Antec 900 to thank for this temperature as well - amazing cooling)
Case: Antec 900/1200. I'm a big fan of Antec cases and their customer support is the best I've ever experienced.
Graphics card: 9800GTX or wait for new ones to arrive
PSU: Corsair HX520W will probably be enough, but you might want to consider the Corsair HX620W if you're going for one of the new nVidia cards.
HDD: I'd always go with Western Digital. They're more reliable and quieter than the Samsungs.
Mobo: P35 board
RAM: 4GB Corsair PC6400, unless you plan to heavily overclock the Q6600, then go with PC8500
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit is pretty much fine. Most of the driver problems were fixed with service pack 1 (released in March) and nVidia got their act together and fixed their drivers. If you're worried about driver issues, I'd stay away from Creative

Good choices like mike said Antec 900 was my case of choice but due to an ever climbing budget I needed to cut back somewhere and got the Coolermaster CM-690 instead. TBH I regard the CM-690 case very highly. I absolutely love it and it provides excellent cooling as long as you situate the fans correctly.

Just some advice on the CM690...have it with the Scythe ninja on a Q6600. The ninja is slightly too big when using a 120mm side fan directly above the CPU. Using a thin fan may overcome the problem (haven't tried). I use an 80mm fan on the side for this reason and works fairly well, but still a very tight squeeze when shutting the case. (Without a side fan above the CPU, there is no space problem)

As I said above with the correct fan locations you can get excellent cooling from the CM-690. From moving fans around the case for the past 5 months I've found that putting fans on the side of the case is not only noisy but ineffective as it seems to disrupt the airflow more than contribute to it. I have the side fan removed(both slots for fans open) and have placed that fan at the bottom of the case. Its a jumble getting the cables around but it works far better over there because it helps the flow from the front fan and provides a very good draught going up the case. Then I have 3 fans at the top, two in ceiling so to speak and the other left in its original place on the back of the case. This makes for a well balanced intake and exhaust of air flowing through the case and you'll find if you hold a strip of paper next to the side fan slots air gets pulled in from these holes due to the good flow of air through the case.

It is the best configuration I have been able to come up with and since moving the fans into this position I have had between 5-10C difference in temp on my CPU and GFX.

[Eddd]

I'd second Eddd's choices though I would stick with that coolermaster CM690.

Yes! Approval from the great staffsMike. I'm definitely learning. lol

[Noxvayl]

Yes! Approval from the great staffsMike. I'm definitely learning. lol

Yeah staffsMike is certainly the go to guy here at hexus in terms of tech. Was intimidating starting to give tech advise when staffsMike was always so good and also so quick to respond to the threads. I always seemed to get to threads to late

[staffsMike]

It's certainly good to have a difference of and a variety of opinions. Obviously ExHail is a big fan of Gigabyte products so it's good to have his opinion as many will buy asus or abit (I will accept some blame for this ). Obviously our own preferences has a certain amount of bias but when everyones opinions are looked at, the bias tends to be negated

Regardless of whether people listen to me or not everyone should have a stab. I mean, I wish I had read up a bit more before building the rig in "my system" as I built it having had a few years off from PC's and although I didn't waste too much compared to what I should have bought at the time, it still left me with a bitter taste in my mouth which is why I like to help people here

I only tend to recommend products which I've either have, used or have a pretty decent knowledge of, which means I might not be recommending the "best" product, but the one I feel is most reliable/ quietest etc..

[dkmech]

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124735...specifications

So would getting 3 of those for Raid 5 (can someone point me to a guide on raid 5 with 3 hdds by the way) be a good compromise between speed, reliability, noise and price?

[Noxvayl]

It's certainly good to have a difference of and a variety of opinions. Obviously ExHail is a big fan of Gigabyte products so it's good to have his opinion as many will buy asus or abit (I will accept some blame for this ). Obviously our own preferences has a certain amount of bias but when everyones opinions are looked at, the bias tends to be negated

Ah so your the reason everyone here sticks to Asus or Abit and never seems willing to try the others...

Regardless of whether people listen to me or not everyone should have a stab. I mean, I wish I had read up a bit more before building the rig in "my system" as I built it having had a few years off from PC's and although I didn't waste too much compared to what I should have bought at the time, it still left me with a bitter taste in my mouth which is why I like to help people here

This is the same reason I like to give advice because if I had the opportunity to ask for advice and someone such as you or myself gave me advice the first time I would of been far better off right now

I only tend to recommend products which I've either have, used or have a pretty decent knowledge of, which means I might not be recommending the "best" product, but the one I feel is most reliable/ quietest etc..

Yeah well everyone to there own I say. I won't dispute people wanting to use companies I wouldn't touch with a barge pole, like XFX or Asus, because I understand my views and high standards of expected service are often not shared by everyone. Also the fact that often experience is due to circumstance and while one person never has problems with a certain motherboard other people might never find a period without problems with the same board can often obscure peoples views of certain companies Which is why you recommend Asus while I crawl through dirt to recommend Gigabyte .

[staffsMike]

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124735...specifications

So would getting 3 of those for Raid 5 (can someone point me to a guide on raid 5 with 3 hdds by the way) be a good compromise between speed, reliability, noise and price?

That would be an awesome setup if they were single platters. Normal one's will be good too of course but the single platters are very fast drives

[Noxvayl]

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124735...specifications

So would getting 3 of those for Raid 5 (can someone point me to a guide on raid 5 with 3 hdds by the way) be a good compromise between speed, reliability, noise and price?

Unfortunately this is out of my depth in terms of PC knowledge. I just shove drives in and put stuff on them not bothering about RAID...

A quick search in google came up with these:

http://www.storagereview.com/guide20...gleLevel5.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...appen,925.html

Hope those links help

[staffsMike]

Ah so your the reason everyone here sticks to Asus or Abit and never seems willing to try the others...

Haha well there actually a lot of gigabyte boards I would love to try but can't bring myself to buy having had too many problems in the past.

Next time someone who I don't mind annoying (most people tbh ) asks me to build them a PC i'll get a gigabyte board and see how it goes

[Noxvayl]

Haha well there actually a lot of gigabyte boards I would love to try but can't bring myself to buy having had too many problems in the past.

Next time someone who I don't mind annoying (most people tbh ) asks me to build them a PC i'll get a gigabyte board and see how it goes

lol that's an idea

I'll eventually get some people to try them and hopefully after some people report back with good results it could help turn peoples attention towards Gigabyte with positivity I haven't had any problems with mine and the same goes for some friends who have other types of Gigabyte.