Components for a system build - Advice please

[Hermann]

Hi

I'm wanting to buy the components for a system build. The System is for gaming such as WoW + CoD4.
Budget is .... as little as possible! .... but around £450 for the box, no monitor or keyboard/mouse needed.

Looking for the best performance whilst allowing for a bit of future upgrading. Not currently into overclocking but I guess I could be tempted if the hardware allows it simply, so mainly looking at performance as out the box for now.

Scan site is not allowing me to create a basket at the moment so posting a list of bits I'm thinking of.


LN24160 Gigabyte EP45-DS3L £76.14

LN24160 Gigabyte EP45-DS3L £76.14

LN21080 Core2Duo E8400 £109.62

LN19302 Corsair TwinX PC2-6400 4GB £50.10

LN23880 512MB ScanFX 9800GTX+, PCI-E 2.0 £117.48

LN20818 750GB Samsung HD753LJ Spinpoint £58.59

LN24455 Pioneer DVR-216BK £17.08


Which Totals £429.01

Then need to add a case/power supply hopefully around the £30 mark. (liked the Galaxy 111 cases with neons etc )

Its a few years since I built a box so found myself completely confused over Motherboards and graphics cards but ended up at the above list.

Would appreciate any comments regarding compatibility, unnecessary features or different components that would give more performance for the same money (or even same performance for LESS money of course ).

[staffsMike]

I would get,

Antec NSK3480 + 380W Earthwatts ~£53 (ebuyer)
or Full ATX Antec 300 ~£35 or Coolermaster CM-690 ~£65 with the corsair 450W VX ~£45

Asus G33 Motherboard ~£60 (DFI P45 uATX +£45)
Full ATX Motherboard will require a case chage as above.

Intel E5200 Petium Dual Core ~£55 +(Xigmatec 2183 cooler +£15)
2GB PC6400 Corsair XMS2 but any will do ~£30 (4GB +£20)
640GB Western Digital Caviar Blue ~£45
Samsung DVD-RW ~ £15
Sapphire HD4850 Dual Slot ~£120

Total ~£380 (bold prices)

Super quiet, cool running (add a couple of 92mm fans to the front of the case) and quiet (if you pick good fans). Performance will be better than your pick and there is tonnes of overclocking potential in the E5200 given its 800MHz FSB.

The hard drive is one of the fastest out there and the graphics cards are very much the same performance wise, probably in the HD4850's favour tbh.

[shaithis]

I'd consider the WD 640GB AAKS hard drive (LN22387) for its higher-density platters and only slightly less capacity (and price).

The 4850 is worth considering instead of the 9800+, they are virtually the same performance but the 4850 is cheaper (albeit not by a huge amount).

Although for WoW and COD4, I doubt you would see any differences, the ATI may look slightly crisper but framerates will probably be near-identical.

[Hermann]

I would get,
Asus G33 Motherboard ~£60 (DFI P45 uATX +£45)
Full ATX Motherboard will require a case chage as above.

Intel E5200 Petium Dual Core ~£55 +(Xigmatec 2183 cooler +£15)

Thanks for the reply.

Do you mean that the E5200 would be a better bet stock or only if its overclocked?

Any simple explanation as to why the 2.4 Ghz Dual core is better than a 3Ghz Core2Duo? It's not that I don't believe you!! just tying to understand why!

Also struggling to find G33 Motherboard in stock.Any Suggestions where to get one from?
Also the g33 seem to be Pci-e whilst the graphics cards seem to be PCI-e 2. wouldn't this be a problem?

[Webby]

E5200 will only be better when overclocked, but this is not hard to do, but even at stock speeds is fast enough for your needs.

G33 boards as you say do not support PCIe 2 but PCIe2 cards are backwards compatible with PCIe 1 (and 1.1) slots so it will work fine (I am running a 3870 (PCIE2 card) in a G33 at this very moment

[staffsMike]

I meant overall performance covering all aspects of the PC. The E5200 will make no difference to games, not a visible one anyway and it will overclock to 3.5Ghz with little or no fuss.

[Hermann]

G33 boards as you say do not support PCIe 2 but PCIe2 cards are backwards compatible with PCIe 1 (and 1.1) slots so it will work fine (I am running a 3870 (PCIE2 card) in a G33 at this very moment

Is there a loss of performance in using a PCIe2 card in PCIe1 Slot?

[Hermann]

I meant overall performance covering all aspects of the PC. The E5200 will make no difference to games, not a visible one anyway and it will overclock to 3.5Ghz with little or no fuss.

I have a further read up and looks like the E5200 will do the job so thanks for the info.

[Webby]

Is there a loss of performance in using a PCIe2 card in PCIe1 Slot?

At this moment in time, no the current cards do not require the additional bandwidth that PCIe2 provides over PCIe1. I'm sure this will change in the future but not in the lifetime of the motherboard I would think.

[Hermann]

Ok. looks like the 4850 for the graphics then.

But I'm struggling with a mobo!

Its going to be a big case so ATX is ok, don't really need a smaller board.

Liked the idea of esata connector and PCIe2 but somehow doubt I really need them, was just thinking of a bit of 'futureproofing'.

More important really is reliable,stable and easy overclocking for the E5200.
Also wanted built in Raid.

Trouble is I don't know what board is what and there seem to be very similar ones that only vary by one or two letters but have very different features.

[SiM]

I would get,

Antec NSK3480 + 380W Earthwatts ~£53 (ebuyer)
or Full ATX Antec 300 ~£35 or Coolermaster CM-690 ~£65 with the corsair 450W VX ~£45

Asus G33 Motherboard ~£60 (DFI P45 uATX +£45)
Full ATX Motherboard will require a case chage as above.

Intel E5200 Petium Dual Core ~£55 +(Xigmatec 2183 cooler +£15)
2GB PC6400 Corsair XMS2 but any will do ~£30 (4GB +£20)
640GB Western Digital Caviar Blue ~£45
Samsung DVD-RW ~ £15
Sapphire HD4850 Dual Slot ~£120

Total ~£380 (bold prices)

~Ctrl+c, Ctrl+v

[Hermann]

Not seeing a G33 in stock anywhere though.

[Webby]

G33 boards in stock at Scan,

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=792509

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=754629

If your going with a ATX case then you could also look at the P35, P43 and P45 motherboards.

P43 - http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=825209

P45 - http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=866077

P35 - http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=847364

The above are just the first board from a decent manufacturer in each price point, they just all happen to be Gigabyte

[Hermann]

Thanks for those.

I guess what I meant to say was I was struggling to find a £60 Asus G33 as recomended by staffsMike!

I don't mind which make I buy so long as it works!

I'd prefer an ATX board and your list of Gigabytes brings me back to my original thought of the EP45-DS3L. I suspect its a lot more board than I really need but I'm struggling to spot a cheaper board that I like.

The main thing is that my list of bits is compatible and it will allow the overclocking of the E5200, which I think is the case for the EP45-DS3L.

[Madafwo]

My quick effort...

LN17514  Coolermaster RC-330 V2 Elite Black Midi Tower Case w/o PSU (New Improved Version) Scan Exclusive £29.99   
    
LN19302  4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-18 £50.10   
    
LN19492  450W Corsair VX Series PSU, ATX, PS/2, UK Version, 80 PLUS® certified  £46.94   
    
LN22387  640 GB Western Digital WD6400AAKS Caviar Blue, SATA 300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms £48.30   
    
LN23991  Intel Pentium Dual-Core, E5200, Socket 775, Wolfdale Core, 2x2.5 GHz, 2MB Cache, Retail £55.70

LN24124  Asus P5QL-E, iP43, S 775, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR2 1066/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £68.96   
    
LN24455  Pioneer DVR-216BK 20x DVD±R, 12x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6 RAM x12 SATA Black Oem £17.08   

LN24578  512MB Palit HD4850, PCI-E 2.0(x16), 1986MHz GDDR3, GPU 625MHz, 800 Cores, 2x DL DVI-I/ HDTV, HDCP £102.80

Totals £419.87 without the delivery, gives you enough to get a better case and Freezer 7 Pro if so desired.

[Hermann]

Great that helps .... don't why I couldn't find that Asus P5QL-E myself!

Mobo wise it looks like either the Gigabyte EP45-DS3L or the Asus P5QL-E then. Both look good to me.

Would there be much difference in the overclocking abilities these two boards?

Other wise the main differences I'm seeing is the ddr3 support (not bothered by that) of the Gigabyte and it's p45 and the Asus is p43.

To be honest I have no ides of the difference between p43 and p45 boards so is there anything major I should be aware of?