New gaming build - £1000 to £1600 budget

[davely]

I have a £1k to £1.6k budget for the PC without a monitor/keyboard/mouse.

I'd rather spend £1000... but can go the extra £600 (60%) but rather not if I only gain 30% performance if you get what I mean. I'd know how to overclock it/build it manually. I primarily play supreme commander at the mo, I currently have a duo 2.6ghz, 8800 GTX 768mb that is now getting a little sluggish, but need a 2nd computer for the girlfriends =P

I did a little research and come up with the following myself

CPU - £209.50
i7 920 2.66ghz, 8mb cache 20x ratio

CPU Cooler - £67.72
Hydro series H50 high performance water cooler

Mobo - £247
Asus Rampage II Extreme (i like for the quality? onboard sound)

Case - £149.37
Silverstone Fortress FT01B-W

HD - £148.21
2TB Western Digital WD20EADS 32mb
(was thinking of getting 2 for RAID 0 if it's worth it?)

GFX - £335.74
1792mb gainward GTX 295 V2, 55nm, 2016Mhz, GDDR3, GPU 576Mhz
(dunno if it's worth atm getting 2 of these beasts)

Memory - £241.73
6GB (3x2GB) Corsair Dominator GT, DDR3, PC3-16000 (2000), 240 pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, DHX+FAN

Case Fan £5.63
2x 120mm Coolermaster silent internal case fan 22db

TOTAL: £1408

Suggestions, critism etc. very much welcome :-) Thanks in advance.

[davely]

Should possibly add a PSU to that list

[ajones]

For that budget, I'd think you'd want a dedicated sound card rather than onboard. I don't notice the difference with my Xtreme Gamer (£65), but then again I can't tell the difference between vinyl and CD!

Plus, don't forget your OS. 70 squid for Win7 Premium or 150 for Win7 Pro.

Finally, I'd wait to the end of the month and see if the ATi 5870 really is better than the GTX 295.

And yes, add a ton for a decent 700W (?) PSU (Corsair HX750 or the like at £115)

Probably not bother with the raid; replace one HDD with a small SSD for your OS. Will have to streamline elsewhere to recoup some dosh though.

But that takes you over your 1.6k mark! ;o) God, it's easy spending someone elses money!

[Terbinator]

Wait for the new Ati cards, also why not stick a Intel SSD in their ?

[davely]

Why a SSD for the OS? I heard from a mate that it's not good for windows due to the page file?

Is their much performance gain?

[Terbinator]

Why a SSD for the OS? I heard from a mate that it's not good for windows due to the page file?

Is their much performance gain?

SSD's perform like charms under Win 7.

Edit: You can turn pagefile of as well.

[davely]

Ok, so

SSD - £99
32GB Corsair CMFSSD-32N1, M32, MLC-Flash, 2.5", 1 x SATA 3Gb/s, Read 170MB/s, Write 100MB/s
Any good, just for the OS of course :-)

Also added windows 7 to the list, is Pro £75 better than premium?

is the mobo/cpu/ram combo in my list any good? Should I go with AMD?

[nightkhaos]

Okay, Asus Rampage II Extreme is okay, but if you only selling point is the sound riser (which by the way doesn't improve sound quality that much, just reduces the noise slightly) then you're better off getting a different board.

As always, I recommend the Gigabyte X58-UD5 but I also recommend the EVGA X58 SLi, mainly because it looks so cool.

If you're gonna do RAID 0 buy two 1TB drives like the Western Digital 1TB Caviar Blacks FALS, it's cheaper per gigabyte.

If you're gonna do SSD, buy a Intel X25 as althrough the Corsiar has faster linear read/write, the X25s have better random read/write, which means better overall performance. Also you can get 80GiBs for a decent amount of money. I personaly would then couple it with 3x Samsung EcoDrive F2s in RAID 5 for storage.

Finally if you intend to overclock, which of course you do with an H50, do not get 2000MHz RAM, all it will do is cause the memory control to produce excess heat with no noticeable performance gain. Get 1600MHz CL7 or CL8 RAM, trust me, I have dealt with 3 i7 920 systems personally and assisted with about 20 remotely, you do not need, nor want, 2000MHz RAM.

Pro is better than Premium as it has XP mode and a few other useful features.

The i7 Bloomfield coupled with a 295 is the best system on the market right now, bar none. You could however spend a little less and get a system that does 99% of the performance for slightly less with a P55 board. However, it will limit you upgrade path in the future. As for AMD, they are doing mid market builds, so unless you intend to half you budget, stick with Intel.

However, this may change with the 5800 series from ATi. But until we have some reviews and they are actually on the market, a 295 is still the best card to get.

[jeffel]

Hi,

The silverstone case is £15 cheaper on ebuyer(free delivery)...Every little helps!

[davely]

I've come up with a new setup based on your feedback, alot on nightkhaos (+ reading his setup)

Is SSD worth bothering with atm?

[davely]

CPU - £209.50
i7 920 2.66ghz, 8mb cache 20x ratio

CPU Cooler - £45
Prolimatech Megahalems Performance CPU Cooler (Socket 775/1366)

Mobo - £191
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5, Intel X58, Sok 1366, PCI-E 2.0, DDR3 1066/1600/2000, SATA II, ATX

Sound - £65.67
Creative SoundBlaster X-FI Xtreme Gamer PCI 7.1Ch Sound Card OEM

Case - £149.37
Coolermaster RC-1100 Cosmos case (great reviews)

4xHD - £267.28 (RAID 5?)
1TB Western Digital WD1001FALS Caviar Black, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm, 32MB Cache

GFX - £399
EVGA GeForce GTX 295 Co-Op FTW 1792MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card (Single PCB)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=GX-114-EA

Memory - £96.59
Patriot Viper 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Triple Channel kit, CAS 8-8-8-24 Timings

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...tml?PAT-6GDDR3

PSU - £113.56
Corsair 750W HX Modular PSU
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164950

Monitor - £210
Samsung 2433BW 24 inch Monitor TFT LCD 1000:1 300cd/m2 1920 x 1200 5ms VGA DVI
http://www.morecomputers.com/extra.asp?pn=ls24cmkkfv

Case Fan £12
2x 120mm Coolermaster silent internal case fan 22db

Windows 7 - £150
Professional

TOTAL: £1906

[nightkhaos]

CPU - £209.50
i7 920 2.66ghz, 8mb cache 20x ratio

CPU Cooler - £45
Prolimatech Megahalems Performance CPU Cooler (Socket 775/1366)

Mobo - £191
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5, Intel X58, Sok 1366, PCI-E 2.0, DDR3 1066/1600/2000, SATA II, ATX

Sound - £65.67
Creative SoundBlaster X-FI Xtreme Gamer PCI 7.1Ch Sound Card OEM

Case - £149.37
Coolermaster RC-1100 Cosmos case (great reviews)

4xHD - £267.28 (RAID 5?)
1TB Western Digital WD1001FALS Caviar Black, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm, 32MB Cache

GFX - £399
EVGA GeForce GTX 295 Co-Op FTW 1792MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card (Single PCB)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=GX-114-EA

Memory - £96.59
Patriot Viper 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Triple Channel kit, CAS 8-8-8-24 Timings

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...tml?PAT-6GDDR3

PSU - £113.56
Corsair 750W HX Modular PSU
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164950

Monitor - £210
Samsung 2433BW 24 inch Monitor TFT LCD 1000:1 300cd/m2 1920 x 1200 5ms VGA DVI
http://www.morecomputers.com/extra.asp?pn=ls24cmkkfv

Case Fan £12
2x 120mm Coolermaster silent internal case fan 22db

Windows 7 - £150
Professional

TOTAL: £1906

No. Note the "My Current Project" in my sig, then note the following: do not get a Megahalems and an RC-1100 Cosmos. I had to mod my case to make it fit. Consider sticking with the H50, you'll get better performance.

But otherwise, pretty much what I was considering so far... except maybe a better moniter, like the HP LP2475W. Anyone know where we can get that cheaper?

[dmuz]

GFX - £399
EVGA GeForce GTX 295 Co-Op FTW 1792MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card (Single PCB)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=GX-114-EA

Weak! Don't you want a 4gb 5870x2 if you're spending that kind of money? Or at least wait until the benchies hit next week.

[nightkhaos]

Weak! Don't you want a 4gb 5870x2 if you're spending that kind of money? Or at least wait until the benchies hit next week.

A 295 is not weak. It is the best card on the market at the moment, bar none. And yes, the 5870x2 might blow it out of the water, but until it does, and until it can be bought, he will spec his machine with a 295.

There is no point waiting for new tech if you have the money, otherwise you will always be waiting. Be bleeding edge now and accept that in a month or twos time you will be out of date. That's what I do.

[davely]

Well I wont be buying anything till the end of the month... so I take it it's best to wait until then anyway to decide the gfx card

[jim]

I personally think you're nuts for spending that much money on a PC and not buying an Intel SSD.