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Thread: New pc rig...

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    New pc rig...

    I'm looking to build a new pc this year as my old one has done it's job and now struggles a bit under all the lovely new games available. It's deserved it's retirement

    Anyway, this will only be my second build but I'm looking for something that's going to last me a few years. The worst part for me is not the building but the shopping around for parts as no matter how many reviews you read it's seems no one has a definitive opinion. Then ofc, there is a question of price.

    I wouldn't say I was a hardcore gamer, but I do play a lot on MMO's and I like my pc to be able to run anything I want to throw at it so that's why I'm looking at the higer end of the market. A twist this time around is I would like to use it as a blu-ray/media player too.

    All the parts I'm listing are from scan just so you can see specifications, but it doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to buy them from there. Just to give a ball-park figure I'm willing to spend around £1000, with £1300 probably being my max.

    The main areas I'm struggling with atm are which PSU and GFX card to get. I need the pc to sit on a nice line between being quiet while also having decent power and adequate cooling. Also as a point to note things like the HDD's and optical drive may change, I just put them in to get a rough idea on price.

    I'm hoping you guys could give me some approval or reccomendations on the parts I'm looking into. It's become an expensive list so I need to make sure I'm getting the best parts for my money. I'm hoping to shave some off the price though by shopping around, but need a definitive list first.

    Thanks in advance!

    Motherboard: Asus-P6T-Deluxe-Intel-X58
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    PSU: 620W Corsair HX Series (Modular)
    Memory: 3GB (3X1GB) Corsair Dominator DDR3
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    Optical Drives: LG Lightscribe Blu-ray/HDDVD Reader/Writer and a Lite-on DVD/CD RW

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    Re: New pc rig...

    I would get 6gb of RAM personally and use a 64bit OS. This should be enough for the next few years IMHO.

    If you are getting an HD4870 1gb,OcUK are currently the cheapest at £167 excluding postage:

    http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=GX-188-SP

    If you are spending around £220 an EVGA GTX260 55nm 216 shader will be faster:

    http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/896MB...-DL-DVI-I-HDTV

    However the HD4850X2 is even faster in most games for £250:

    http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152204

    The only issue with the HD4850X2 is in games which do not support Crossfire very well. However in games that do it is faster than a GTX280 and approaches the speed of a GTX285.


    Here is a review:

    http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=16914

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    Re: New pc rig...

    I always hear bad things about 64bit OS's though, like it supports few drivers etc?

    I was originally going to get a gtx260 but after reading a lot of reviews it seemed that Ati were making the better cards atm....maybe I'm wrong?. I've have always prefered ATI over Nvidia, but I am partial to be swayed if enough say they are indeed better, as that was the idea of the thread

    What do you think to the 620w Corsair? Will that be enough to run this system?

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    Re: New pc rig...

    yeah it will, and 64-bit support is fine now.

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    Re: New pc rig...

    Quote Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH View Post
    I would get 6gb of RAM personally and use a 64bit OS. This should be enough for the next few years IMHO.
    The Corsair Dominator 6gb (3x2gb) are nearly double the cost on scan at least as the 3gb....obviously understandable, but would it improve the set up that much more?

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    Re: New pc rig...

    Quote Originally Posted by Brain-ache View Post
    The Corsair Dominator 6gb (3x2gb) are nearly double the cost on scan at least as the 3gb....obviously understandable, but would it improve the set up that much more?
    I suppose it maybe cheaper to get another 3gb(3x1gb) in the future if you need it. I was just thinking it would be better to spec the system up now so you do need to muck around with it later.
    I prefer ATI but the GTX260 216 shader version is still faster than the HD4870 1gb. However whether the 40 quid difference is worth it is up to you!! The OcUK price(under £180 including postage) is excellent and the cheapest I have seen an HD4870 1gb at for a while! I would also consider the HD4850X2 as it is easily the best graphics card for under £250.

    I would also consider the HX620W certainly more than enough for a GTX260,HD4870 and even the HD4850X2.

    I have the HX520W and it is a quiet PSU!!

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    Re: New pc rig...

    Well I guess the £40 saved on the gfx could go towards getting the 6gb memory instead. That sapphire card is indeed great value....I suppose it does depend on how much they charge postage though.

    But now you've put the gtx260/216 in my head...damn you!

    Any recommendation on HDD's? I want at least 2 for this system, one for OS and one for everything else. It's an area I haven't paid much attention to as of yet.

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    Re: New pc rig...

    The 500gb and 1TB Samsung F1 hard drives are supposed to be quite fast as are the 640gb Western Digital ones.

    OcUK charge around £10 for postage IIRC. The HD4850X2 is faster than a GTX280 and for £250 it is great value for money. However it depends if you like multi-GPU cards or single GPU ones!!

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    Re: New pc rig...

    Yer i've read much into gfx cards kicking around atm, and the 4850x2 seemed to kick most out the water....but if im honest, I just didn't like the look of it. It really is 2 cards stuck together, exactly what it says on the tin - it' a beast!

    I mean realistically I don't need that much power and I think that's why I looked the other way from it...that, and I felt as it was 2 cards in one it might be a smidge noiser than a solo card.

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    Re: New pc rig...

    No it's 2 gpu's and sets of memory stuck together on one PCB/card
    It's the nvidia cards where you get two pcb's/card stuck together as one card. (aka 9800gx2 or gtx285)
    But your basically correct, both are simular in they perform very well on games with work well with crossfire or sli, but not so well with games that don't.
    It's all a bit swings and roundabouts.

    One big advantage of the x58 motherboards (and hense the i7 cpu) is that the motherboards do both crossfire and/or sli so you're not restricted to one or the other which gives some possible upgrade scope.

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    Re: New pc rig...

    Seems they have put the price up for that HD4870 on overclockers

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    Re: New pc rig...

    In fact I was just finalising it all getting ready to purchase and it's going to cost £100+ more for the same parts as it did less than 2 weeks ago!

    I thought companies were supposed to be offering savings so we spent our money?

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    Re: New pc rig...

    think the price hikes are due to the fact that the pound is getting weaker compared to the US dollar. means that companies buying new stock have to pay more than they did before leading to the higher prices. I was going to buy a new hdd at the end of last year but didn't have the spare cash, now the same drive i want is about 10 quid more expensive.....

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    Re: New pc rig...

    Just an update on this as the prices seem to have calmed down a bit since my last post and I finally have the funds to get this sorted.

    I've had another look at some of the parts and this is the new list based on comments here too:

    Motherboard: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-...SAS-SATAII-ATX
    CPU: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Intel...che-8MB-Retail
    GFX: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/896MB...-DL-DVI-I-HDTV
    Memory: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/6GB-(...-CAS-8-DHX-EPP
    PSU: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/620W-...y-NEW-VERSION!
    HDD: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/750-G...ache-89-ms-NCQ
    HDD2: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/500-G...ache-89-ms-NCQ
    Soundcard: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Creat...Sound-Card-OEM
    Case: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Coole...r-Case-w-o-PSU
    Blu-ray: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/LG-GG...s-black-Retail
    DVD-RW: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Samsu...SATA-Black-OEM

    Looking at using Vista 64 as OS, and haven't looked at monitors yet, but would like a final input if any changes should be made before I take the plunge?

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    Re: New pc rig...

    You can get a HD4870 1gb from Novatech for £170 and a GTX260 for £193:

    http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...html?POW-48701

    http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s....html?NOV-2665

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    Re: New pc rig...

    The Corsair PSU you have chosen is VERY POOR value for money.
    Its almost £30 more expensive than it was 4 months ago and not a £100+ PSU.

    This if wanting a similar price but an overall better unit: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/625W-...uard-SafeGuard

    or this if on a budget: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/850W-...uad-SLI-80plus

    I can personally vouch for the top one, as i use it and its exceptionally good.

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