Shiny new rig time up to £700

After trying to sort out a system last year, I just decided to re-install windows on the Hard Drive but it looks as if this is now trying to give up the Ghost so it's time to revisit buying a new PC, and as usual I would really appreciate peoples help!

I do a lot of gaming and some Photoshop work along with all the usual MS Office applications. I'll be running XP initially but looking to upgrade to Windows 7 as soon as it comes out. My Budget is around £600 ishhhhhhhh (maybe £700!) depending on how much my wife spends this weekend :)

The parts I have decided on so far are as follows

8GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX DDR2 XMS2, PC2-8500 (1066) (I am wondering if 8GB is Overkill) £90 (or £45)

Coolermaster Elite 335 £35

1GB Gigabyte HD4870, £124.17

Hard Drives - Looking at an WD Raptor WD740DFD 74GB SATA 10KRPM £112.04 as Primary for my OS then a secondary drive which I am not really fussed about what it is for data storage. Would you say that the 10K's offer any real differernce over the 7.2's?

CD/DVDwriter - Not fussed again but have chosen Samsung SH-S223B/BEBE 22x DVD±R, 12x DVD±R, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, SATA, Black, OEM £16.66

PSU 550W Akasa AK-P550FH Quiet ATX12V/EPS12V v2.01 aPFC PSU with Sanyo Denki Fan SLi/Crossfire Ready 51.74

Which comes to a total of £428

What I haven't decided on is which PSU and Mobo combination to go for, whether to go for an AMD Phenom II X4 or for the Intel Quad core and I have no idea when it comes to Motherboards so again any advice gratefully received!

Yeah the RAM is overkill stick to 4 or 3/6GB depending one whether it'd dual channel (4GB) or Tri channel (3/6GB)

Forget that raptor it's seriously old news. If you want a super fast OS drive then SSD would be my suggestion or a newer velociraptor but quite honestly a 640GB western digital black will do a damn fine job so much so you wont notice the difference 9 times out of 10.

I wouldn't get an akasa PSU personally. Corsair, enermax and be quiet rule the roost for the moment imo. Having said that I'm a big supporter of OCZ psu's, the modextreme's being the flavour of choice at the moment.

Graphics card is nice but they can be had cheaper now. Having said that you can get the HD4890 for a little more which gives a reasonable performance boost for a little bit more.

Motherboad wise I actually perfer the 780G (smaller uATX form factor) but these AM3 boards are proving quite useful
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Gigab...-SATA-RAID-ATX

and I would pair that to either an X3 720 black edition or one of the new AM3 quads
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-P...he-125W-Retail

My samsung dvd writers are showing premature signs of age, LG are proving far more reliable and are even quieter these days imo.

I second the use of a WD cavair black drive, and the main thing to take into consideration with your budget is do you want an AMD/Intel system either one will get you a lot of horsepower.

Look at the updated build spec I have posted in this thread for around £600:

http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...500-600-a.html

You can fit in a Phenom II X4 955,4gb of DDR3, an AM3 770 or 790GX based motherboard and an HD4890 for around £600!

If yu can afford go for this 790X based motherboard as you can go crossfire at a later date if required:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Gigab...-SATA-RAID-ATX

You may have to go for a slightly more powerful PSU(not sure about this though) but you will be well under budget.

Chaps, really appreciate all the replies. I'm wodering initially how much of a diff I will see to my current rig with this one.

I note what you say on the HD's Mike, I'll may stick to bog standard WD's at the moment as the solid states are just a little pricey for what they offer. Out of curiosity though as I know next to nothing about them, do you have any reccomendations for a SSD that would work with the Mobo and Chip you suggested? If I have any spare dosh I may go that route!

Cat, I read that other thread with interest and based most of my initial purchases on that ;) With the DDR 3, is it really worth the upgrade from DDR2?

Having never used Vista either, I am tempted to get a copy with the option of the upgrade to Windows 7 at a later stage. Is there a particular version folks would reccomend, I am wondering if I should go for 64bit, and which out of home or Ultimate should I go for?

So far I think my initial purchase will look as follows;

Mobo - Gigabyte-GA-MA790XTs - £98.43

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Gigab...-SATA-RAID-ATX

CPU - Phenom II 3.2Ghz - £147.14

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-P...he-125W-Retail

RAM - 6GB CorsairXMS3-DDR3-PC3-10666 £76.02

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/6GB-(...d-CAS-9-9-9-24

PSU - 525W Enermax-PRO82plus - £69.78

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/525W-...uard-SafeGuard

HD1 - 1 x 640 GB Western Digital Caviar Black - £53.16

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/640GB...rpm-32MB-Cache

GFX - 1GB XFX HD 4890 XXX, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), Mem 3900MHz, GDDR5, GPU 900MHz, - £148.90

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-X...-DL-DVI-I-HDTV

Case - Antec 300 - 45.97

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Antec...r-Case-w-o-PSU

DVD / CD - LG H22NS40 22x DVD±R, 16xDVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RWx6 ,12xRAM SATA, Black, OEM £561.36

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/LG-GH...SATA-Black-OEM

Your build is almost the same as mine... http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...ml#post1733735

I have gone with DDR3 ram and AM3 motherboard and the total is £579

So for an extra £18 or so you could also go DDR3 if you want. My reasoning was that the cpu could then be upgraded in a few years (due to the am3 socket)

That's looking nice.

If the 500GB drive is a sinlge platter it will be a peach, if it is two platters it will be reasonable but a 640GB will add extra speed for a little bit extra money. At that price i doubt it is a single platter tbh.

I would probably pay an extra £10 for the sapphire vapour x or atomic which have brilliant coolers for both temps and noise.

The 550W VX isn't a seasonic unit and as such I wouldn't buy it but i'm sure they are fine. For a few quid extra this would be very nice
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/525W-...uard-SafeGuard

If you want modular cabling (detach what you dont need)
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/450W-...-year-Warranty a bit less power but it would cope

or
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...23&subcat=1098

personally I really like these PSU's, they do a good job at a great price.

As for the performance compared to what you have now.. dont bother trying to compare is all I will say :)

Cheers again chaps, I missed your thread too Mark but it is almost the same, the collective wisdom of Hexus prevails :) I will swap my RAM and Mobo as a result of yours and Cat's advice.

Mike, on a side note, I've seen how much you post on here and how gladly you give of your knowledge to tech newbies such as myself. It's frankly impressive how many you reply to and a darn decent thing you do. By the time I have finished here you will have saved me wasting my money and helped me get a top spec rig so I just wanted to say a big thanks for all your advice.

I've swapped my PSU's and GFX to the ones you reccomended and have popped this HD down instead http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/640GB...rpm-32MB-Cache I've updated my original list above now in the post above.

Now just got to persuade my boss that this is a work PC...... ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ah forget it

Having never used Vista either, I am tempted to get a copy with the option of the upgrade to Windows 7 at a later stage. Is there a particular version folks would reccomend, I am wondering if I should go for 64bit, and which out of home or Ultimate should I go for?

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Use Windows 7 RC1 until ealy next year for free and then install a retail copy of Windows 7. Also when you do buy a copy buy the cheapest version which will do the job too.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ah forget it

I've swapped my PSU's and GFX to the ones you reccomended and have popped this HD down instead http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/640GB...rpm-32MB-Cache

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The Vapor X does have a nicer cooler but the XFX HD 4890 Black is actually the best value version to go for and is pre-overclocked to 1ghz(from 850mhz):

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-X...-DVI-HDMI-HDCP

Here is a review:

http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/14433/1/

Not all HD4890 cards can actually reach 1ghz and this leads to quite a large performance increase(at least 10% over a normal HD4890). However peak power consumption does go up so I would check whether the HX450 does have enough amps on the 12v rail to run overclocked HD4890 cards comfortably(most 1ghz HD4890 require 6+8 PCI-E power connectors and not 6+6 ones).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ah forget it

Chaps, really appreciate all the replies. I'm wodering initially how much of a diff I will see to my current rig with this one.

I note what you say on the HD's Mike, I'll may stick to bog standard WD's at the moment as the solid states are just a little pricey for what they offer. Out of curiosity though as I know next to nothing about them, do you have any reccomendations for a SSD that would work with the Mobo and Chip you suggested? If I have any spare dosh I may go that route!

Cat, I read that other thread with interest and based most of my initial purchases on that ;) With the DDR 3, is it really worth the upgrade from DDR2?

Having never used Vista either, I am tempted to get a copy with the option of the upgrade to Windows 7 at a later stage. Is there a particular version folks would reccomend, I am wondering if I should go for 64bit, and which out of home or Ultimate should I go for?

So far I think my initial purchase will look as follows;

Mobo - Gigabyte-GA-MA790XTs - £98.43

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Gigab...-SATA-RAID-ATX

CPU - Phenom II 3.2Ghz - £147.14

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-P...he-125W-Retail

RAM - 6GB CorsairXMS3-DDR3-PC3-10666 £76.02

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/6GB-(...d-CAS-9-9-9-24

PSU - 525W Enermax-PRO82plus - £69.78

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/525W-...uard-SafeGuard

HD1 - 1 x 640 GB Western Digital Caviar Black - £53.16

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/640GB...rpm-32MB-Cache

GFX - 1GB XFX HD 4890 XXX, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), Mem 3900MHz, GDDR5, GPU 900MHz, - £148.90

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-X...-DL-DVI-I-HDTV

Case - Antec 300 - 45.97

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Antec...r-Case-w-o-PSU

DVD / CD - LG H22NS40 22x DVD±R, 16xDVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RWx6 ,12xRAM SATA, Black, OEM £561.36

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/LG-GH...SATA-Black-OEM

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The Phenom II runs DDR3 RAM in dual channel and can only run DDR3 RAM at 1333mhz when you use only two sticks of RAM otherwise it will bump the speed down to 1066mhz.I would go with 4gb as it should be fine - remember many people still run 32 bit operating systems so many games will still have to run within this limit for a while.

Also make sure you check the Scan Today Only webpage as it has many items on offer as well as the frontpage and Shop offers webpage. Remember with 20+ posts on Hexus you get free postage.

i fully recommend the Antec Mini p180 as your case!
Just re-built into one of these and performance wise is fantastic. :)

Good spot Cat - cheers fella and thanks for your recommendation on the 4890

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dudds23

i fully recommend the Antec Mini p180 as your case!

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That's a great idea! He can just cut the extra motherboard off at the end to make his ATX board fit in a mATX case!! After all, he doesn't need those extra PCI / PCIe slots...</sarcasm>

Quote:

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Originally Posted by scaryjim

That's a great idea! He can just cut the extra motherboard off at the end to make his ATX board fit in a mATX case!! After all, he doesn't need those extra PCI / PCIe slots...</sarcasm>

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I also noted his error :P

Quote:

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Originally Posted by scaryjim

That's a great idea! He can just cut the extra motherboard off at the end to make his ATX board fit in a mATX case!! After all, he doesn't need those extra PCI / PCIe slots...</sarcasm>

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Tuche! I didnt look into the board.
Although why get a full sized board, like you say what would you want all the PCI slots for? I use 1 for a sound card and have 2 spare.