HELP! Desperate need for build advice!

[dbh]

Hi all,

I'm here again looking for build advice as my current 5 year old system is giving me grief (pressing the power button and nothing happening, pull out power plug put it back in and pressing power button then thing turns on 3 minutes later is an example).

I've got a budget of about £600-800 depending on what I need. My main uses of the pc is going to be doing After Effects / 3D Studio MAX work but play the odd game or two (hopefully beefy enough to play crysis nicely) but not so much (got the 360 for that). I know things have moved on in past few months so I was wondering what's the deal now in terms of graphics cards, ram, mobo etc...

The system is to be replacing my current fossil Athlon XP 2500 which is in an antec overture case (what a bad decision that was) so hopefully if you could help me spec a desktop atx / htpc style case that would be great (as it'll sit over my 360 in my shelf).

Can you guys please give me some advice as I'd like to make a hassle free build! I got Vista Retail already so no need to cost that, and I got a 19" monitor already but may look to get a 24" down the line (would make my 360 happy it would!) so if you could spec that in as well as a bonus I'd appreciate that!

Main points are for the pc to run cool and quiet but still have alot of ooomph and hopefully be able to overclock it while still keeping it cool and quiet!

Q6600 or Q9450 ??
4GB or 8GB RAM ??
HD 4870 X2 ??
GTX 260 blah blah ??

Your is greatly appreciated!

Thanks

[staffsMike]

Q6600 + scythe ninja ~£160
4GB DDR2 PC400 ~£60
Abit IP-35pro ~£85
640GB Western digital AAKS ~£60
Samsung Optical~£20
Corsair 520W HX ~£65
Coolermaster CM-690, Antec 1200, Antec P182, Antec solo.. plenty out there, the last two are better for noise the first two are better for cooling Avg. £80

HD4870 sounds good for 1920 x 1200 < &#163;200 I hope

With the CM-690 and assuming the HD4870 is less than &#163;200 then it could be less that &#163;700 altogether which will help towards that 24" screen

[Eddd]

Q6600 + scythe ninja ~£160
4GB DDR2 PC400 ~£60
Abit IP-35pro ~£85
640GB Western digital AAKS ~£60
Samsung Optical~£20
Corsair 520W HX ~£65
Coolermaster CM-690, Antec 1200, Antec P182, Antec solo.. plenty out there, the last two are better for noise the first two are better for cooling Avg. £80

HD4870 sounds good for 1920 x 1200 < £200 I hope

With the CM-690 and assuming the HD4870 is less than £200 then it could be less that £700 altogether which will help towards that 24" screen

Couldn't have said it better myself... Except I wouldn't go with the 4GB DDR2 PC400 lol

Also things to consider:
- HD4870 would be fine for 24" monitors. But don't rule-out the 8800GTS as prices may now start to drop due to the new graphics cards being out so that is a very good card and will also be fine running a 24" (and cheaper than the HD4870)
- 4GB is plenty. You will probably find that you won't even be using all of the 4GB and you can always upgrade to 8GB if needed (but I doubt it will be needed). PC8500 is getting to be around £20 cheaper than PC6400, so if it was my money I'd get 4GB of PC8500.
- Cases are a personal preference, if you want something to show off with then have a look at the Antec 900; if not, and you want something more classy have a look at the Antec P180 (more expensive though). The Antec 900 has excellent cooling but compared to others on the market (Antec P180 for example), isn't the quietest of cases.
- For the mobo, go with the P35 series - Abit IP-35 as Mike suggested or the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L
- If you're looking to overclock then get the Q6600 and save the £100ish from the Q9450. The Q6600 can easily overclock to 3.0GHz without changing any voltages. Trust me. The Scythe Ninja is a good choice but if you're looking for something cheaper then go for the Scythe Mine - you'll stick get excellent temperatures

[staffsMike]

Actually the thermalright Ultra 120 extreme is &#163;27 on scan or something silly at the moment..buy buy buy (but remember to get a fan to )

The mine is good to but I'd go with the ninja or the TRUE on your budget.

The GTS is a great card but it's obselete now and the price's for the last few won't go down enough to be viable I don't think. They will be chewed up and spat out by the HD4850

[Ben Rogers]

ive got the ninja, it was hard to fit with the motherboard out the case as the computer doesnt have a case, I cant imagine how difficult it'd be with mobo still inside case though, had to fit it with the fan not attached, then fit fan, then notice the 12v connector wouldnt fit with the fan on, so fan was taken off then fitted. Good cooler though, at cooling lol, just be aware its not the easiest to fit but it keeps PC in sig with 1.392v @ 18c idle running few things and for 6 hr when first setup with it next to cold wall 9c core0 / 10c core1, according to coretemp which was impressive.

good luck with the build

[staffsMike]

It is best to fit it with the mobo out yeah, you either find out before you attempt to build it or after you've tried to do it while the mobo is in the case lol

Very good cooler though, can be run passive in my situations

[dbh]

Coolio thanks for the speedy replies guys much appreciated!

I had a quick look on scan and noticed an IP-35 Pro XE which is a few squid less than the IP-35 Pro but apparently is a newer version??

Also what's the deal with the Samsung F1 drives and those single platter ones? I did have RAID before but after the amount of times I've had to reinstall windows on this current pc I'm going to stay away from it now and just get a speedy single drive I reckon!

EDIT: What's the best place to look for RAM? Scan are doing Corsair 4Gb for &#163;85 but isn't that a bit steep?

[Eddd]

It is best to fit it with the mobo out yeah, you either find out before you attempt to build it or after you've tried to do it while the mobo is in the case lol

Very good cooler though, can be run passive in my situations

Agreed. I found getting the fan on hard enough, but putting on the mobo was pretty fiddly too. I got a reading of 17degrees in the bios with the Q6600 at stock when I first installed it. But bear in mind, I have got it in the Antec 900.

[staffsMike]

Well the 640GB above is a 2 platter design (using 2 320gb single platters obviously) and is super fast

Samsung, western digital and seagate I think have 320's and 640's done in this way now.

I always got WD as they are suprebly reliable for me

If the XE is cheaper then go for it.. shouldnt be though it is the superior board. Usually on scans today only (there isnt one today as its a new site still teething) they have the PRO for about &#163;80 - &#163;85

[dbh]

Can someone suggest some decent PC8500 ram that'll help me get the Q6600 to 3Ghz - 3.6Ghz? I'm looking at the dominators on the scan page but my friend said there should be some stuff that's cheaper / better!

Thanks

[staffsMike]

You only need PC6400 to run up to 3.6GHz. Any will do, corsair xms2, geil ultra/black dragon, g-skill, ocz platinum.. all good.

[dbh]

Ah if that's the case then PC8500 would be good for upto 4Ghz I guess? Would you reckon getting 8GB of PC6400 or 4GB of PC8500 be a better choice? Basically like 30 quids difference between 8GB and 4GB ... I do have both retail 32bit and 64bit vista so hmm choices?

[staffsMike]

Well I would probably go with 4GB of PC6400 but I don't need that sort of RAM in my machine. But if I had to choose from those two I'd get the 8GB of PC6400.

4GHz is a probably a bit too far to push a Q6600 on air, PC8500 is very useful for overclocking the more expensive 45nm quads though.

[dbh]

Anyone have any insight with the iP45 mobos such as the Asus P5Q Pro / Deluxe (because Scan have cheekily upped the price of the iP35-Pro XE by a tenner since last night and these iP45 boards seem to support upto 16GB of RAM!) ??

[staffsMike]

I don't know a whole hell of a lot about them but they are pretty much gauranteed to be good boards given the sucess of the P35 and Asus P35's particularly.

I'd still take an Abit IP-35pro if you can get it at a good price but the P45 should be very good to and you pretty much get any overclocks you might do to a Q6600 for free due to it's huge 1600MHz native FSB.

[ikix]

On looking about not that long ago the Asus P5Q Deluxe is apparantly a very nice board but lots of people seem to be getting tones of compatibility issues with hardware, although if u can find something you know that works then great, but it might limit you to something you dont actually want or less prefered.

The 8GB would be more usefull considering the usage of the computer but its not really necessary at the moment, just stick to 4GB and get the extra 4GB in the future if you ever need it, potentially save yourself some cash yet have the option to later.