New PC Specs - Comments / Suggestions

[sqw]

Ah, go on then .

You lot must keep on recommending the top-end memory for a reason. I suppose I will spend £150 on top-end Corsair 4400 RAM then, and a 3500+, just to see what they can do. I hope the extra £90 for memory plus £65 for 3500+ rather than 3000+ makes more of difference than I think it will .

Since my budget is substantially higher than I first thought (thanks to my employer ) I am also going to get a WD Raptor and a digital TV card .

[StormPC]

So if you reckon that my CPU is not good enough to run that card (x850) properly StormPC, what CPU do you reckon I should get as a minimum?

Only a FX-55 runs at 2.6Ghz (stock), and even though I have now discovered my budget is substantially more than what I said up there ^, I am not spending the obscene money required for one of those like you seem to have . Do I really have to spend £500+ (or whatever it is) for a processor to run a £200 gfx card properly? If not, what processor as a bare minimum?

Or is it other parts which bring it down other than the CPU?

An FX-55 is not £500 and an X850 XT PE is not £200, not even in Britain. If you want to talk about this stuff seriously you should be honest about it.

Yes, if you are not overclocking you must use the fastest CPU available to make it worth spending the money on the videocard.

Here is a general idea of what I'm on about:

4000+ to FX-55 CPU = X800 XL to X800XT PE
3500+ to 3800+ CPU = 6600GT to 6800GT
2800+ to 3200+ CPU = X300 to X600XT

The above is just an example of what makes sense in terms of price and performance. All of the CPUs are A64s at stock clocks. So if you are overclocking it could make sense to put an X850 XT PE on a Winchester 3000+, but you need to run it at 2600+ MHz in order for that to be the case. Even at that you will still have a CPU bottleneck, but at least you'll be realizing some of the card's potential. With a 3000+ @ stock there is no benefit to running an expensive videocard.

Also you should note that "to" includes everything in between, and that the X800 XL and 6800GT are so close (they both win their fair share of benches) that you could really interchange them depending on what games you prefer.

It's kinda like mixing old tech and new. You can do it but the results are usually not very good. If you want a good example of why you should try to match components just ask all the Athlon XP owners how happy they are with their X800 XT PE purchases. The honest ones will tell you that they didn't realize much of an increase over their 9800 Pros and XTs.

[sqw]

Short answer: I totally agree with your general point StormPC

PS - I am being honest about the prices!! Look:

http://www.dabs.com/uk/Search2/resul...chPhrase=fx-55
http://www.dabs.com/uk/Search2/resul...rchPhrase=x850