£1000 gaming PC - your thoughts/advice?

[luckyfives]

Hi from a new member, my first post!

My friend bought one of these from overclockers so I thought i'd have a go at building one myself from scratch.

- Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.40GHz Dual Core CPU
- Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Intel approved cooler
- Abit IP35 Pro XE Intel P35 (Socket LGA775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
- Corsair Dominator 4GB PC2-8500 CAS5 (2x2GB) Dual Channel Kit
- 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 32MB Cache SATA-2 Hard Drive
- ATi Radeon HD 4870 X2 2048MB GDDR5 HDTV/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express)
- Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black)
- Corsair TX 650W Next Generation Power Supply
- Coolermaster Cosmos RC-1000 case
- Arctic silver compound

Using best prices between Ebuyer and Scan as of today, the above can be bought for 948.60

Can anyone offer their advice on;

1) Any components which could be improved at relatively low cost
2) reliability of these brand products
3) how future proof would it be?
4) the case - i chose that as it's known to be well sound proofed unlike the comos S, alternatives?
5) anything to watch out for when building for the novice

Planning on loading vista 32b home prem sp1 which I already own. I would like to overclock the CPU and maybe the ram too but would need your advice on how and what to.

Many, many thanks in advance as it's a heap of cash to invest and want the experts opinion before I splash out

[format]

Go for the Abit IP45, IIRC it's not much more than the IP35.
Get 640gig variant of either Samsung Spinpoint or WDAAKS instead of the Seagate.
Unless your monitor is going to be around 30"+ I'd go for a GTX280

[Hicks12]

Hi from a new member, my first post!

My friend bought one of these from overclockers so I thought i'd have a go at building one myself from scratch.

- Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.40GHz Dual Core CPU- Good CPU, planning on overclocking? if so its great for gaming to .

- Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Intel approved cooler- Ok cooler but better off with the xigmatek s963 if on a budget(great small cooler) but for quad id recommend the xigmatek s1283.

- Abit IP35 Pro XE Intel P35 (Socket LGA775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard- Old mobo, better off with the 45 version now really, i believe this one is good DFI P45-T2RS Plus
Wait for others to say though as mobos are not my field.

- Corsair Dominator 4GB PC2-8500 CAS5 (2x2GB) Dual Channel Kit- Not worth it when having a quad, get corsair pc6400 cas 4 or cas 5(cheaper) as its better value, 3.6ghz would be the max from the cpu with the pc6400 which is a good oc anyway.

- 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 32MB Cache SATA-2 Hard Drive- Change this to a 640gb hard drive id say, western digital 640gb AAKS drives are really good along with Samsung 640gb ones, faster and better value than 500gb.

- ATi Radeon HD 4870 X2 2048MB GDDR5 HDTV/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express)- What resolution do you game at? 4870x2 is overkill for any res less than 2500x1600, if a big screen then go for it but if not then grab a 1gb 4870.

- Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black)- Majority dvd rw are fine, all use mature tech so wont advise here(should be good).

- Corsair TX 650W Next Generation Power Supply- Corsair psu are good, 650w is good future proofing but you might want modular as its easier to keep cooling in the case to the max, 620w corsair is another recommendation but its your choice(either are good).

- Coolermaster Cosmos RC-1000 case- No idea as ive worked with semi budget builds, coolermaster 690/antec 900/300 are the recommendations from me, never had a high end one so wait for other posts .

- Arctic silver compound-Arctic silver 5 yeh? good choice.

Can anyone offer their advice on;

1) Any components which could be improved at relatively low cost
2) reliability of these brand products
3) how future proof would it be?
4) the case - i chose that as it's known to be well sound proofed unlike the comos S, alternatives?

Planning on loading vista 32b home prem sp1 which I already own.

1) Already done(see above)
2) All of them will give you great reliability, board is good along with psu hard drive and the rest.
3) No PC is good for the future so with this in mind its ok for the future, it will play loads of the next games and will be able to process alot of cpu intensive stuff for a good few years. The gfx cards are what show age in gaming so spend less now and have a bigger budget later to upgrade to the next best(best way really).
4) Silence, cant help you there .

32bit is fine, 64bit would give you some added benefits but nothing worth changing over for a cost.

Hope this helped a bit.

[luckyfives]

Wow 2 responses already, thanks very much! Looks like I'm on the right lines then but appreciate anyone elses feedback. Good points on the mobo and hdd.

Should have mentioned my monitor, its a dell 2408fwp so i'll be running at 1900x1200 which i believe is right for that size?

Arctic silver 5 yep, can't go wrong.

I'll probably look to overclock the 6600 to 3.0 or 3.2 just to maintain stability/reliability. Can anyone give me a link to a suitable ram product for that? (4GB)

Thanks again this is great advice.

[Hicks12]

here u go http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?W...c+CAS+5-5-5-18

1gb 4870 is my recommendation for the card

[Powderhound]

Bear in mind that you won't be able to use the full 4GB RAM with a 32bit OS.

[Webby]

If you are planning on getting a 4870X2 then you really do need to get a 64bit OS, the limitation on 32bit OSs is that they can only address 4GB of stuff, RAM, Video RAM, NB, SB any other controllers so on the whole when you have a 512MB graphics card and 4GB of memory you end up with ~3.25GB of addressed memory in you 32bit OS, now if you have a 4870X2 you have 2GB of video memory so you end up with ~1.75GB of system memory which is far from ideal especially if you have paid for 4GB!

Right onto stage 2, recommendations.

Most of it has been said already, I second the DFI board but if £100 is a bit much for you then any of the Asus or Gigabyte P45 boards would be reasonable choices.

If you didn't find it the Q6600 is on Scan's Shop offers page for £120 which is a pretty good bargain since they are selling it for £140 normally

I would go with the 4870 1GB or GTX260 216 cores and save yourself some money, you can then decide if to buy a copy of a 64bit OS or not.

Case wise do you like the styling of the Cosmos or did you just pick it because that is what your mate got? If your looking for a quiet case then the Antec P182 is a good place to start, or the Antec Solo (which is half the price of the Cosmos ) The only real advantage to the Cosmos is that it is big so its really easy to work in but any of the cases I suggested will be easy to work in.

Right finally CPU cooler, If quiet is a consideration which I guess it is then you are going to need a bit more metal So look at the Thermalright Ultima 90 £24 and you will need a nice quiet fan to go with it (Akasa Amber 92mm or a Scythe S-Flex 120mm (or the new Thermalright fans which are S-Flex clones ) alternatively you could get the Scythe Ninja 2 cooler £30 comes with a quiet fan but is a monster!

Thats it any questions ask away!

[moogle]

1) Any components which could be improved at relatively low cost
2) reliability of these brand products
3) how future proof would it be?
4) the case - i chose that as it's known to be well sound proofed unlike the comos S, alternatives?
5) anything to watch out for when building for the novice

1) Can't see anything there overpriced, but I don't know what you're using the PC for. What screen size or resolution will you be using to game on (assuming that X2 is for gaming). Try and get the OCZ Freeze from eBuyer it's been reviewed and performs better than AS5 and MX-2 (which is better than AS5) and iirc it doesn't need a 'cure time'.

2) Those brands you've chosen are reliable, nothing dodgy there. That doesn't mean they're top performers though except for the PSU

3) Nothing is future proof but yours will be at the top for a good while. I would buy the 4870 1GB and use the extra money to spend on upgrading the card later on. Thats the only way to keep it future proof is by upgrading with the saved money from your budget. ie Sell your card then add some savings money to it and buy the better one etc.

4) Mmmmmm, it was worth it when the case was £100, but now the case is like £150 (unless I'm looking at the wrong case), at that price I'd be looking at Silverstone or Lian Li cases. Cosmos 1000 is a watercoolers case unless you replace the fans with a bit more CFM ones. Those cases are top quality ones with all sorts of features you wouldn't have on the Coolermaster, but thats why they cost alot. Take a look at them before you go buying the case.

5) Some motherboards don't boot with 8500 ram so you may need lower speed ones to get it booted then set the settings in bios then put your original 8500's in for it to work. The 4GB of ram can't be used in 32 bit OS's remember that.

[shbris]

- Arctic silver compound

most cpu coolers come with compound pre applied, arctic coolers certainly do but worth checking

and ditto on getting slightly slower RAM, u'll save money with almost no effect on performance

[NightshadowUK]

Seconding what's already been said:

- A better / quieter CPU cooler (Xigmatek) would definitely be worth while.

- Go for 4GB PC2-6400 memory as you'll not clock the Q6600 past 3.6GHz (400 x 9 = 3600).

- A 64-bit OS will let you use all 4GB of memory.

- Look at the Samsung and WD AAKS 640GB drives, they utilize larger platters = faster!

- A 4870X2 is turbo overkill for 1920x1200, go with a nice 1GB HD4870.

- I think Samsung DVDRW drives are still considered to be the best but I could be wrong...

[Salazaar]

If you're after future proofing and have a good budget consider a Core i7. It'll cost you more up front (different mobo, CPU and memory) but it's cost less to upgrade later on.

[CK_1985]

Hi luckyfives, here's a few of my thoughts. I don't claim to be any kind of expert though!

CPU Cooler - Yes you could get a better cooler than this, but it's such good value that unless you're planning opn a fairly beefy overclock I'd stick with this one and save the pennies.

Motherboard - I would definitely go for a P45 chipset if I were you. There are lots of good boards around though, many of which have already been suggested by other people on this thread!

Memory - got to agree with the consensus that the best bang-for-buck is pc6400 at the mo. If you want to stick with your 32-bit OS then 2Gb RAM is the most you'll be able to effectively use.

Hard drive - my personal vote would go to the 750Gb Samsung Spinpoint - not much more money and a lot quicker.

GPU - again, I think the consensus have got it right here - 4870 1GB would give you basically the same performance at native resolution as the 4870X2, for a lot less money and with none of the potential crossfire driver issues.

PSU - the tX650 is a perfectly capable model, but more recent models have better efficiency. Maybe you could put some of the cash you save on the GPU towards upgrading this to a Be Quiet! DarkPower Pro 650 Modular - not only would it make it easier to build a neat PC but it's rated as 87% efficient so you'd save money on your bills too!

Case - If you particularly like the styling of the Cosmos or you're planning to switch to water-cooling in the future then you could do a lot worse. However, if you don't mind having something a little more 'functional' looking and sticking to air cooling, the Antec Twelve Hundred is an awesome case for quite a lot less money - and has much better cooling out-of-the-box too.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. Feel free to ignore any or all of them - if you did stick to your original list you'd still end up with an awesome PC for a very resonable price!

[Webby]

If you're after future proofing and have a good budget consider a Core i7. It'll cost you more up front (different mobo, CPU and memory) but it's cost less to upgrade later on.

Maybe as we do not know if the socket is going to change, and we would be talking £600+ for motherboard, CPU and RAM compared to £260 for a Q6600, decent P45 board and 4GB of DDR2 quite a saving to be had there I think you must agree even if it means you need to change CPU, MB and RAM when the next upgrade comes around I bet you will be able to get a decent set of those 3 components for the £350 you saved today plus what you would have spent on the upgrade anyway.

[Webby]

Hi luckyfives, here's a few of my thoughts. I don't claim to be any kind of expert though!

CPU Cooler - Yes you could get a better cooler than this, but it's such good value that unless you're planning opn a fairly beefy overclock I'd stick with this one and save the pennies. Its not all about cooling its cool and quiet together that makes this worth the upgrade

Motherboard - I would definitely go for a P45 chipset if I were you. There are lots of good boards around though, many of which have already been suggested by other people on this thread! Yep

Memory - got to agree with the consensus that the best bang-for-buck is pc6400 at the mo. If you want to stick with your 32-bit OS then 2Gb RAM is the most you'll be able to effectively use. Really does depend on your graphics card but since its so cheap seems rude not to get 4GB

Hard drive - my personal vote would go to the 750Gb Samsung Spinpoint - not much more money and a lot quicker. 640GB is faster than the 750GB, less platers but with higher density

GPU - again, I think the consensus have got it right here - 4870 1GB would give you basically the same performance at native resolution as the 4870X2, for a lot less money and with none of the potential crossfire driver issues. I agree with the 4870 1GB (as posted above) but if you had crossfire issues with a 4870X2 you would still fall back to a 4870 1GB if you turned off crossfire for that game, so not really that much of an issue is it

PSU - the tX650 is a perfectly capable model, but more recent models have better efficiency. Maybe you could put some of the cash you save on the GPU towards upgrading this to a Be Quiet! DarkPower Pro 650 Modular - not only would it make it easier to build a neat PC but it's rated as 87% efficient so you'd save money on your bills too! That is a lot more money 33% but modular is a nice bonus the Corsair HX620W is nice for a bit cheaper

Case - If you particularly like the styling of the Cosmos or you're planning to switch to water-cooling in the future then you could do a lot worse. However, if you don't mind having something a little more 'functional' looking and sticking to air cooling, the Antec Twelve Hundred is an awesome case for quite a lot less money - and has much better cooling out-of-the-box too.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. Feel free to ignore any or all of them - if you did stick to your original list you'd still end up with an awesome PC for a very resonable price!

Made a few comments on your comments

[Zsev]

wont repeat what's already been mentioned but few things.

1. MX-2 is a better paste than AS 5 and can be had for the same price in ebuyer.

2. Abit has been rumoured to leave the motherboard business by year end (read hardocp) so I would avoid buying although I'm a huge fan of their boards.

3. Do you really need a cosmos case? I'll take a p182 anytime over the cosmos and save lotsa money there.

[Webby]

wont repeat what's already been mentioned but few things.

1. MX-2 is a better paste than AS 5 and can be had for the same price in ebuyer.

2. Abit has been rumoured to leave the motherboard business by year end (read hardocp) so I would avoid buying although I'm a huge fan of their boards.

3. Do you really need a cosmos case? I'll take a p182 anytime over the cosmos and save lotsa money there.

1. And OCZ freeze is better than MX-2 apparently, buying any one of the three will give you a good thermal interface, you are likely to see fractions of degrees difference rather than 5. Infact how you apply the paste and the amount you use are probably more important factors!

2. Not rumours it is the truth, so I'm with you for an enthusiast board I would go with somebody else.

3. No Comment or rather I have already suggested the same thing earlier