New PC ~£800

[Mick84]

I sold my PC so I will build a new one, but I'd like some suggestions especially concerning which motherboard I will need. At the moment this is what I think I will buy:

512MB Gigabyte HD4870, PCI-E 2.0(x16), 3600MHz GDDR5, GPU 750MHz, 800 Cores, 2x DL DVI-I/ HDTV, HDCP £147.99 £173.89

Zalman CNPS9700-NT NVIDIA Tritium Super Aero Flower Cooler £32.39 £38.06

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450, Yorkfield Core, S775, 2.66GHz, 1333MHz, 12MB Cache, Retail £175.79 £206.55

Antec Three Hundred Case w/o PSU £30.49 £35.83

1000 GB Samsung HD103UJ Spinpoint F1, SATA 300, 7200 rpm, 32MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ £78.49 £92.23

850W Zalman ZM850-HP Dual Heatpipe Cooled Modular PSU + 80% Eff £91.89 £107.97

Edimax EW-7128G 54Mbps Wireless PCI Card £8.85 £10.40

4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX DDR2 PC2-8500 (1066), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-15, EPP, DHX £68.85 £80.90

Logitech 967653-0120 Ultra Flat Wired Keyboard, PS2/USB 1.1/2.0, Black £5.49 £6.45

Total ~£720


I am not sure if I should go for a motherboard with crossfire or not and what chipset (probaly an Intel one). The PC is mainly for gaming if you had not already guessed that, but I also want it to be as quiet as possible and maybe be able to do some overclocking.

If I'm not going the crossfire route I will probaly change the PSU to a less powerful one like a 620W Corsair.

Cheers

[Zhaoman]

Looks good, a P45 based motherboard would be great eg an Asus P5Q-E - £95 or a Gigabyte or Abit equivalent.

The P45 allows Crossfire as well, although it only provides 8x pci-e lanes when in crossfire mode (not that it makes much difference). If you want full 16x pci-e lanes (and if you have the cash) then go for a X48 based motherboard.

You could shave off some money by opting for a different cooler: £38 is a lot of money! Check out this Zerotherm - beats a Thermalright Ultra extreme and Scythe Infinity:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=767365

There are newer, faster drives out now: the new 640Gb WD Caviar AAKS or 640Gb Samsung F1.

[Thorsson]

You could shave off some money by opting for a different cooler: £38 is a lot of money! Check out this Zerotherm - beats a Thermalright Ultra extreme and Scythe Infinity:

I don't know where you got this from, but it's just not TRUE. The Zerotherm is a good cooler, but not as good as the TR. It's definitely better than the Zalman though. Zalman are expensive.

The area to save is the PSU, which is excessive both in terms of power (500W is enough for this) and price. One of the modular Corsairs would do the job well and save £50.

[staffsMike]

Well as as been mentioned, you can get a much better cooler for less money. Still not sure about the zerotherm myself I'm affraid. I don't like the fan either. TRUE allows you to pick your own fan or a scythe ninja/infinity comes with a really nice fan and can have it's fan changed at will This means you can trade off cooling for noise based on your own particular needs.

The PSU is super super.. dooper.. amazing .. overkill.

You need little more than 500W to be comfortable, with power requirements getting lower all the time and efficency rising at the same time. Corsair 520W HX or Enermax 525 Modu82+.

Motherboard- wise I'd be more tempted to go for the older Abit IP-35 PRO as it is an amazing overclocker even when compared to the likes of X38 or X48. P5Q's don't perhaps overclock as well but they do have somewhat of a gauranteed overclock to 400MHz FSB (1600MHz). Crossfire, SLi will no doubt be a waste of your money as that card can handle 1920 x 1200 or less in it's sleep

Are you sure you want the Q9450. Has little advantage over the £85 cheaper Q6600 which overclocks very well and perhaps more safely than the Q9450. It also means you only need PC6400 RAM which is a good £20-£25 cheaper than the PC8500 stuff.

The last thing is the case, as good as the cooling is in that case I'm sure, it is still a budget case. I would go to at least the coolermaster CM-690 at around £60. You get great cooling, disk and cable management and overall just a better case

[Cistron]

Well as as been mentioned, you can get a much better cooler for less money. Still not sure about the zerotherm myself I'm affraid. I don't like the fan either. TRUE allows you to pick your own fan or a scythe ninja/infinity comes with a really nice fan and can have it's fan changed at will This means you can trade off cooling for noise based on your own particular needs

Unfortunately, the Ninja and Infinity-Mugen have 'slightly' underdimensioned mounting systems. Unless, you also order a TR bolt-through set, I wouldn't go for them. The latest addition to the TR palette the HR1-Plus is performing very well, at low fan-speeds even better than the TR Ultra Extreme.

[Mick84]

I was thinking of crossfire more as a good way to upgrade my system at a later point. The 4870 might run every current game at crazy resolutions, but who knows what's around the corner?

Abit IP-35 PRO is just as expensive as the Gigabyte GA-EP45T-DS3R or Asus P5Q-E which to me seems like a better board with a newer chipset which might be compatible with Intels Nehalem. Also it has Crossfire which I'm a bit undecided about - but if it's there for the same price as one without, why not go for that one?

Regarding the CPU cooler you are probaly right. I read a review of the Zerotherm cooler where they only had good things to say about it. I have yet to check out the Scythe Ninja and I'm not sure what you mean by TRUE. Is that a brand?

The PSU is probaly a bit overkill even for a Crossfire system. What do you think about 650W TX Corsair PSU for £65 at Scan?

Q9450 performs better than Q6600 and consumes less electricity. You may be right it's not worth the extra ££. I'm a bit undecided on that.

I have not yet read a review of the Coolermaster 690 case although I don't like the blue LED on the front. Can you turn that off?

Thanks for all the replies

[aidanjt]

I was thinking of crossfire more as a good way to upgrade my system at a later point. The 4870 might run every current game at crazy resolutions, but who knows what's around the corner?

I doubt there'd be another Crysis around the corner anytime soon. That's about as bad as engines get.

Abit IP-35 PRO is just as expensive as the Gigabyte GA-EP45T-DS3R or Asus P5Q-E which to me seems like a better board with a newer chipset which might be compatible with Intels Nehalem. Also it has Crossfire which I'm a bit undecided about - but if it's there for the same price as one without, why not go for that one?

Go with whatever suits your needs/budget best, personally I'm not big on Gigabyte boards, they always seem to have some kind of niggle.

Regarding the CPU cooler you are probaly right. I read a review of the Zerotherm cooler where they only had good things to say about it. I have yet to check out the Scythe Ninja and I'm not sure what you mean by TRUE. Is that a brand?

The Scythe is pretty good, but it is pretty big.

The PSU is probaly a bit overkill even for a Crossfire system. What do you think about 650W TX Corsair PSU for £65 at Scan?

Still a good PSU, but even 650W is OTT for most systems.

Q9450 performs better than Q6600 and consumes less electricity. You may be right it's not worth the extra ££. I'm a bit undecided on that.

The Q9450 definately performs better, and yes, it does use slightly less juice, you'll just have to decide for yourself whether the bit of extra oomph and efficiency is worth the extra cash.

I have not yet read a review of the Coolermaster 690 case although I don't like the blue LED on the front. Can you turn that off?

Leave it unplugged?
It's a good case by the looks of it, big, easy to work with, and inexpensive.

[Zhaoman]

Abit IP-35 PRO is just as expensive as the Gigabyte GA-EP45T-DS3R or Asus P5Q-E which to me seems like a better board with a newer chipset which might be compatible with Intels Nehalem.

Regarding the CPU cooler you are probaly right. I read a review of the Zerotherm cooler where they only had good things to say about it. I have yet to check out the Scythe Ninja and I'm not sure what you mean by TRUE. Is that a brand?

None of the motherboards available now will be compatible with Nehalem, they need a new socket.

TRUE is the Thermalright TRUE Black 120, one of the best performing HSFs out there (great looking too!) I was a bit puzzled about the Zerotherm as well, I have never heard of the brand until I read some reviews a few days ago: all of them praised the cooler for being quiet when turned down and high performing when turned up. It couldn't sustain the highest overclocks but it outperforms a Thermalright Ultra extreme all the way up to 3.9Ghz:

http://www.anandtech.com/casecooling...oc.aspx?i=3202

[staffsMike]

The point of the Abit IP-35 PRO is that it is arguably the best P35 motherboard and overclocks like an absolute freak. I havn't see nthe reviews of many P45 boards but they don't seem to live up.

As for their advantages. PCIe 2.0 doesn't offer anything extra right now or potentially a long time.

Crossfire in 8x will be better the 4x of course but crossfire is a waste a the best of times.

1600MHz FSB means nothing when the IP-35 pro can potentially hit 2000MHz+ FSB.

The TRUE doesn't have to be the Black. There is a standard version which is the same apart from the colour and is generally a lot cheaper.

Corsairs 650W TX is a good PSU yeah, made by seasonic so quality amongst the best. I prefer modular PSU's but for the price the TX does offer a fair bit.

[wzix]

Ive got the CM 690 very good case, and yes the fan led is seperate i think But it does look good

[Mick84]

After your feedback and some researching on the net I've put together this system:

LN15215

620W Corsair HX Series Modular SLi PSU, ATX, EPS 12V, whisper quiet, 5 year warranty £72.69 £85.41
LN23348

512MB Gigabyte HD4870, PCI-E 2.0(x16), 3600MHz GDDR5, GPU 750MHz, 800 Cores, 2x DL DVI-I/ HDTV, HDCP £147.99 £173.89
LN22277

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450, Yorkfield Core, S775, 2.66 GHz, 1333MHz, 12MB L2 Cache, OEM £167.99 £197.39
LN20112

Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme 120mm Heat Sink Fan for AMD/Intel CPU (bare sink no fan) £29.69 £34.89
LN20277

Zalman ZM-MFC1 Plus Black Multi Fan Controller £16.99 £19.96
LN17336

120mm Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F Fan 1600 RPM £9.97 £11.71
LN18867

Antec P182 Advanced PERFORMANCE ONE SERIES Super Midi Tower Case, Gun Metal Black (no PSU) £78.89 £92.70
LN20978

1000 GB Samsung HD103UJ Spinpoint F1, SATA 300, 7200 rpm, 32MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ £78.49 £92.23
LN23639

4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX DDR2 XMS2 Dominator, PC2-8500(1066), 240Pin, NonECC Unbuffered, CAS 5, EPP £69.99 £82.24
LN20839

ASUS 2014L1T 20xDVD±R, 8x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, x14 DVD-RAM, SATA Lightscribe Black/Silv Retail £16.15 £18.98
LN18922

Logitech 967653-0120 Ultra Flat Wired Keyboard, PS2/USB 1.1/2.0, Black £5.49 £6.45
LN23571

Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R, iP45 Express, S775, PCI-E 2.0x16, DDR2 1066/1200/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £73.80 £86.72

Total £916

It's a fair bit over budget but that's okay.

I've changed the case to an Antec P182 because I didn't really like the Coolermaster one, and after reading about the Antec three hundred I've come to the conclusion that it would be a bit cramped inside.

The motherboard has only been on the marked for roughly 2 months, but on various forums people are reporting 500 FSB overclocks so I think I will go with that.

The Zerotherm cooler is a very good buy but it should become a bit noisy at highest fan speeds unlike the Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme. However I am not sure if the 120mm Scythe S-FLEX fan will fit?? Will I need to buy seperate mounting screws and/or thermal paste?

I build my previous system with the Corsair HX 620 PSU and was quite happy with it so I thought I would go with that one again. Hopefully it is powerful enough for Crossfire if I will ever buy an extra graphics card.

I plan on ordering it today cause I'm getting tired of using my old laptop!

Feedback is very much appreciated

[Mick84]

Would it be a good idea to buy an aftermarked cooler for the graphics card?

Eg.:

Thermalright HR-03-GT 6 H-pipe Heat sink for nVidia 8800GT, ATI 3850/70 VGA Cards (fan not Inc) 92mm £27.99 £32.89

92mm Zalman ZM-F2 Quiet Case Fan Speed Adjustable £3.39 £3.98


The 4870 should be quite noisy and get pretty hot. Would that be the right fan for it?

[joz12345]

You should get a tube of MX 2 thermal paste, as it outperforms all other paste, and only costs around £3 for at least 10 applications (i dont know, i havent used a full tube yet) And, the fan will just screw on to the TRUE. ITs designed for aftermarket 120mm fans, so they arent going to make things that difficult for you

ive ran your system through a power calculator for you, with all the things you might get in the future: 2 x hd4870 an overclock to 3.6 ghz (if your lucky) and extra pci cards etc, and you came out 550w, so that psu will handle it.

However, i do advise you take the q6600 route, because you will get a similar overclock for £80 less. The q9450 has a multi of 8 so you need to reach 450 fsb to get to 3.6, which puts the strain on the motherboard.

And noone has mentioned the Xigmatek hdt s1283 cooler. Its basically a TRUE with one less fan (the TRUE can have 2) and les than half the price, and gets better results. Its also been around for a few months now and it has proven itself. If you dont mind spending all of your money then go ahead and buy the TRUE, its more reputable, but it costs more than double the price


The new HD48x0 cards do get very hot, but they are designed to operate in temps of around 90c in very poor cases, so you should only buy a new cooler if you want to overclock it like mad, or you want to keep the rest of your case super cool. I wouldnt wory about it, but some people would say you definitely need one. I make do with a 120mm fan blowing on my hd4850 and that keeps my temps below 85c in atitool and 70c in most games. (its overclocked to 700mhz gpu and 1100mhz mem)
If you do decide to get aftermarket cooling then that solution will fit, they are the same shape as the 3800 series however, im not experienced in that field. Someone else will be able to tell you which coolers perform the best.

edit: remeber to register your hexus account with scan for free shipping if you havent already

[joz12345]

also, if you decide to get crossfire, you might find that some coolers dont fit. Many take up 3 slots, but it looks like that one takes up room below the card, so you should be able to get one for on top of the vga and that one and have no problems.

[Mick84]

MX 2 thermal paste and Xigmatek hdt s1283 cooler has been added to my build and the Thermalright 120 has been removed. That coolers seems to be pretty amazing!

Thanks for calculating the power requirements - I'm glad the 620 watts is enough.

I will however stick to the Q9450 CPU. I had a Q6600 in my previous computer and was very happy with it, but I guess I would like to try something new

Although the 4870 reference cooler probaly would be able to handle the pressure I think I will actually buy the aftermarked Thermalright one. I guess I can get an almost noiseless graphics solution with that. Will I need to buy seperate mounting screws for the fan??

[Zhaoman]

You shouldn't need to, everything should come in the package; searching around for a few reviews should answer most of your questions about the cooler. Be careful about cooling the VRMs and memory too, some coolers don't come with heatsinks or proper contact with them so make sure they're cooled before you buy.