building pc

[mythic]

ok this is going to be my first pc build, im wanting to build it myself and i have a budget of £1000, now i only want it for gaming, iv been looking at

- AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6000+ 3.00GHz (Socket AM2)
- DFI Lan Party DK 790FX-M2RS AMD 790FX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
- Corsair XMS 4GB (2x2GB) PC6400C5 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit
- Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black)
- 2x ATI Radeon HD 4850 Pro 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) in Crossfire Configuration
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache
- Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case
- Corsair TX 650W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU

that is a custom built pc from a website for £862.43 inc VAT + Delivery

but i dont know if its abit high on the price or if i could build 1 as good for abit cheaper.

i do want to be able to have 2 moniters for multiple gaming so im guessing ill need a SLI motherboard, but if you can help it would be great.

[staffsMike]

You're really better off going for Intel tbh. It will run cooler and probably use less power. They also overclock very well should you feel the need to.

It's a nice build though, should work very well. I'd change a lot of things to my personal preferences along the lines of.

Intel E5200 pentium dual core ~£55 +Scythe Ninja II ~£30
4GB Corsair XMS2 ~£40
DFI Lanparty DK P45-T2RS Plus ~£100
Coolermaster CM-690 ~£58
Corsair 520W HX ~£65 (or xigmatec 650w scan today only ~£52)
Western Digital 640GB AAKS ~£45
Samsung DVD-RW ~£15
ATi HD4870 1GB ~£200

Total ~£608.

You could change the CPU to something like the E8400 or Q6600 for about £65 more or go crazy and get a Q9550 for £150 more which I would consider doing on your budget.

The Case I picked is very similar in cooling but better on drive and cable management, it's also very quiet.

The hard drive is quiet and one of the fastest available.

Graphics wise there are benefits to both, but single GPU ensures consistant performance rather than relying on a game scaling well with dual graphics. Oh and when you are talking about ATi it's crossfire not SLi

[Pob255]

If I'm reading you right you're looking at running two games (or running two accounts on the same MMO ) then having 2 graphics cards and a quad core would probably be a good idea.

Quick note, SLi (nvidia) or Crossfire (ATi) are both ways of haveing two (or more these days) graphics cards feeding a single monitor to improve performance.
SLi breaks the screen in half, with one card rendering the top of the screen and the other rendering the bottom of the screen (not exactly half each, the devideing line move dynamically depending on the load of each card)
Crossfire breaks the screen up into a checkerboard with each card rendering alternate squares (in theroy a better more even load across two cards)
Too use ether SLi or Crossfire you need a motherboard that supports it.

Too run two instances of a game on two screens you need ether, 2 screens pluged into 1 graphics card that can cope with the extra load
or 2 graphics cards with a monitor pulged into each and any motherboard that has 2 pci-e x16 slots.
Must admit I've never tried this personally, I'm guessing it'll take a little fiddleing to set it up but shouldn't be too hard.

For running 2 instances of most MMO's you'd want:
4gb of memory minimum
64bit Vista (to make use of the 4gb+)
Quad core (you can set it so that each instance can run off 2 of the cores)
graphics cards . . .
ether; two, nvidia 9800gt or ati 4850 or less (will depend on the mmo) Or a single higher end card, ati 4870 1gb or nvidia GTX260 or lower (really does depend on the game and resolution)
Power supply will vary depending on what you put in here esp the graphics cards (I think these have now become the single highest power draw in a pc )

Must say apart from the AMD chip you're original specs where pritty good
give us a bit more detail esp which game you plan to run two copies of?

EDIT:One thing you will want is something that all the people I know who run multiple accounts on one pc sware by, a good programmable gameing keyboard.
Logitech G11 (£35) or G15 (£50) seem to be the keyboards of choise

[staffsMike]

I didn't really pick up on that, you want to run two games at the same time.. what's the matter with you?

[Pob255]

You don't play enough MMOs

[mythic]

ty for the replys, i already own a g15 keyboard but its mostly for world of warcraft multiple accounts, probly some other games, now you said 64bit vista im not much of a fan of vista atm, always been with windows xp pro, the 2 screens ill be using is prolite 24inc x2, would also like it on run crysis on full,

[Pob255]

Ok that make's it eaiser and harder

WoW really doesn't need much to play you could get away with 3gb of memory, XP and a single half decent graphics card, two run 2 copies of WoW even at 1920x1200
Crysis is another matter.

If you want to run more than 3gb of memory you're going to have to go over to vista 64bit as xp 64bit is basically rubbish as the drivers are ether non-existant or borked.
You need a 64bit OS to use more than 4gb of memory and XP pro (which is 32bit) cannot access the full 4gb.

[mythic]

well i dont actualy need crysis running perfect but i prefer xp due to freinds saying vista 64bit is bugy, i duno if hes right but iv always been with xp, i do howeva want wow to run smooth with 2 screens, also i play css a random points

[Powderhound]

If you're getting 4GB of RAM, you need a 32bit OS to use it all. I'm a little confused as to whether you are ordering a prebuilt or getting the components and putting it together yourself. Whatever the case, I wouldn't trust the company you're using as they've made basic errors; there is no such thing as a "4850 pro", and the TX650W uses captive rather than modular cables.

[DaveVader]

If you're getting 4GB of RAM, you need a 64bit OS to use it all. I'm a little confused as to whether you are ordering a prebuilt or getting the components and putting it together yourself. Whatever the case, I wouldn't trust the company you're using as they've made basic errors; there is no such thing as a "4850 pro", and the TX650W uses captive rather than modular cables.

corrected

As for the Vista issue, unless you have used it for extensive periods and know you don't like it, don't listen to other people, Vista is great, not buggy, and excellent to install.

As has been said, drop AMD, was one of my worst decisions when building my PC, they don't overclock at all.
Go with an E8400, excellent for gaming, 4870 or GTX260. A DFI board is also a great idea, along with 4GB of memory being a must.

[Powderhound]

Oh yeah. Don't I feel dumb now.