Another PC Project

[matt_hobson]

Hi all,

Back in April 2004 i had a huge thread whilst I was creating my first PC

After weeks of playing with a "relatively" large budget I made a monster gaming PC that has lasted ever since...

It is now however getting a little... slow. So I have decided to do a nice upgrade project, and here it is:

Budget: Currently estimating around £800 Not too strict though... but dont really want to spend £1500 again!

Current Rig:

Case
Coolermaster WaveMaster TAC-T01 Aluminum Case (w/o PSU)
This case is still fine, as long as motherboard sizes have not changed?

PSU
450W CWT + SATA Quiet Dual Fan AMD/P4 App Active Fan Control Active PFC
Will need more power! Thinking about £90?.. Can get 650W for that..

CPU
3.2GHz (PG-800FSB) HT *Retail* Intel Pentium® 4 CPU 512k Cache
IS this CPU OK Still.. what about futurewise?.. Can i take this out and put it in a new Motherboard??

Motherboard
Abit IC7 Max3 i875P Canterwood 800fsb DDDR400 Gbit Lan 4+2xSATA/133 USB2x8 6Ch Audio Spdif
Will need a new one! Probably about £90

Memory
Corsair TwinX 1024Mb C2 3200 Low LatencyProSeries (2x512MB PC3200 MATCHED PAIR DDR LL)
Hoping to go for at least 2GB... Estimating about £200 for this.. Maybe 4GB??

Graphics Card
Abit 256M ATI A9800XT-VTD Tv/DVI
Need advice here.. the new nVidia 1Gb 7950GX2, PCI-E (x16), Standard, Mem 1200 MHz, GPU 500 MHz, 48 Pipes, S-Video/2xDVI loks nice for £350

SoundCard
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy ZS 71 THX Retail
Is this OK?

Hard Drive
160Gb Seagate Barracuda Serial ATA (ATA-150) (7200rpm, 8MB Cache)
Need more space! Can get lots of Gig for about £100


Optical Drive 1
Sony 52x32x52 IDE BLACK Drive
Keeping - No need to change

Optical Drive 2
Sony DWU18ABK 8X DVD +/-R/RW Black
Keeping - No need to change

Floppy Drive
1.44Mb Sony Black Floppy Disk Drive
Keeping - No need to change

Monitor
19" Samsung SM930BF TFT
Keeping - No need to change

Speakers
Creative Labs i-Trigue 2.1 3300 Speakers
Keeping - No need to change

Keyboard
Logitech Internet Navigator Keyboard
Keeping - No need to change

Mouse
Logitech MX500 Optical mouse
Keeping - No need to change

EDIT: Usage: I not aiming for this to be a 2 year gaming rig.. but would be nice to have somthing that can handle anything that is out at the moment with no problems, hopefully be able to play new Flashpoint (Armed Assault) on high spec when that comes out too

Any comments welcome, if people can reccommend anything to do with the above, is my Sound Card going to last? Is now a good time to upgrade etc etc.

Thanks!

[chrisg22]

For about £800 you could probably spec something close to what I have.

e.g.
Case
Coolermaster WaveMaster TAC-T01 Aluminum Case (w/o PSU)
This case is still fine.

PSU
A nice Tagan 530W should do you, they a quiet a really stable.

CPU
P4's are a little bit old now. Your best bet would to get a new Core 2 Duo. Either a E6600 or a E6400 if you want to save some money.

Motherboard
I have the Abit AW9D-Max, for my new Conroe machine and I have to say I love it, its great. Fantastic for overclocking and a really stable board.

Memory
I have heard great things about the Geil stuff. Maybe the GeIL 2GB PC6400 800MHz Ultra Low Latency stuff will suit you. RAM has recently gone up in price so I may be a wrong suggesting this.

Graphics Card
Abit 256M ATI A9800XT-VTD Tv/DVI
The nVidia 1Gb 7950GX2, PCI-E (x16), Standard, Mem 1200 MHz, GPU 500 MHz, 48 Pipes, S-Video/2xDVI, is a nice card and if you have the money for it go for it? If you don't want to spend that much buy a 7950GT, they are rather nice, also the 7900GTO is an amazing bargin at £160 can reach GTX speeds easily.

SoundCard
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy ZS 71 THX Retail
Not too sure about this... I just use on-board as its all I need at the moment.

Hard Drive
160Gb Seagate Barracuda Serial ATA (ATA-150) (7200rpm, 8MB Cache)
Why don't you get 2 x 250GB Samsung Spinpoints. They are nice drives fast and rather quiet.

I'll try and spec you up a machine on some sites now. Will be back later.

**edit**
OK been looking around and this is what I have found, enjoy:

Abit AW9D-Max i975X, S775, £139.59 @ Microdirect
512MB ASUS 7950GT, PCI-E (x16), £201.69 @ Scan
2Gb (2X1Gb) CorsairTwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC6400 £182.88 @ Scan
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 775, 2.4 GHz, Conroe Core, 4MB Cache, Retail £211.32 @ Scan
250 Gb Samsung SP2504C SpinPoint P120, SATA300 £48.16 @ Microdirect
530w Tagan EasyCon - TG530-U15 - 2Force Silent Modular PSU £72.84 @ Scan
Total: £856.48

A little bit over I know but its only a quick spec. You could probably find some bits cheaper if you had a look around, or if someone else knows of anywhere?

[matt_hobson]

Hey.

Thanks for the response! Got a few questions..

I know that the Core Duo processors are really good.. but is the dual core worth the drop in processor speed? I am on 3.2GHZ at the moment and as in your spec will probably have to drop to about 2.4GHZ..

Also are these better than the X2 Processors from AMD? (not sure who is winning this battle at the moment!)

Are the bundles here any good?: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...5_Bundles.html

I have been looking at the 3rd one down.. Not too bad for £488

With the graphics card: would the step to 1GB Mem make a difference, or is the speed such that it is not really worth it?

I looked here: http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html..for graphics reviews.. and the ATI X19150 seemed to do a lot better than the nVidia for just £100 more, what are your thoughts on this?

http://www.pixmania-pro.co.uk/uk/uk/...467/fiche.html

EDIT: I am having difficulty getting my head around what is important with the graphics... E.g. Memory size, speed, GPU Speed, GDDR3 or GDDR4? etc etc Does anyone have any advice that would help here?

Cheers.

[mosherben]

Here's my pick if I was you, all figures from scan


Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 775, 2.4 GHz, 1066MHz FSB, Conroe Core, 4MB Cache, Retail - £211

MSI Bundle - 945P Platinum (LN11389) + Arctic Cooling F7 Pro Cooler (LN13080) *Scan Exclusive* - £93

2Gb (2X1Gb) Corsair TwinX XMS2 Pro, DDR2 PC5400 (667), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12 - £222

250 Gb Samsung SP2504C SpinPoint P120, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, 9.0 ms, NCQ - £50

Geforce ( nVidia ) - 7600 - PCI-E 256MB ASUS 7600GT PCI-E(x16) Mem 1400MHz GPU 560MHz 12Pipes DVI-I/HDMI/HDTV/SPDIF SLi Fan Cooling -£149

600W CoolerMaster iGreen Power SLi Silent 85% Eff' ATC 12V V2.2 EPS12V V2.91 - £87

Total: £827

That's about right I'd say. You should be able to sqeeze abit more juice out of the cpu and ram, just a quickie through but looks good on paper

[chrisg22]

Hey.

Thanks for the response! Got a few questions..

I know that the Core Duo processors are really good.. but is the dual core worth the drop in processor speed? I am on 3.2GHZ at the moment and as in your spec will probably have to drop to about 2.4GHZ..

Also are these better than the X2 Processors from AMD? (not sure who is winning this battle at the moment!)

Are the bundles here any good?: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...5_Bundles.html

I have been looking at the 3rd one down.. Not too bad for £488

With the graphics card: would the step to 1GB Mem make a difference, or is the speed such that it is not really worth it?

I looked here: http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html..for graphics reviews.. and the ATI X19150 seemed to do a lot better than the nVidia for just £100 more, what are your thoughts on this?

http://www.pixmania-pro.co.uk/uk/uk/...467/fiche.html

EDIT: I am having difficulty getting my head around what is important with the graphics... E.g. Memory size, speed, GPU Speed, GDDR3 or GDDR4? etc etc Does anyone have any advice that would help here?

Cheers.

Well at the moment the 1GB memory of the graphics card are not used, even the 512mb are not used to its full potential as of yet, if you want to future proof most people are getting 512mb cards at the moment. The 1GB is pretty much the "best of the best" and "my graphic card is longer than yours" kinda thing.

You would definately notice better performance if you went with a E6600, even with the clock speed drop it will be faster than your P4.

Now'a days it isnt the clock speed that matters, its usually what the chip can do per cycle. (Well thats how I see it anyway, anyone wish to correct me?)

[matt_hobson]

Excellent thanks..

Im beginning to understand a little bit about what is good now

For those who understand the components a bit better:

would I really see a £100 performance difference between the 3rd one down and the bottom one here, as they are the same general spec, or is this really for if i want to do a lot of overclocking?:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...5_Bundles.html

This price of £488 seems cheaper than buying the components separately??

For this project I am not a big overclocker, so really want components that will perform well at their supplied spec.

I noticed with the graphics card reccommended above (512MB ASUS 7950GT, PCI-E (x16), Mem 1400MHz, GPU 550MHz, 24 Pipes, Dual DVI/HDTV) that it only has 24 pipes, and I have heard that it is quite important to go for more pipes to improve future performance.. Would it be worth the extra £100 to go for:

512MB Connect 3D Radeon X1950 XTX PCI-E (x16) 1000MHz GDDR4 GPU 650MHz,48 Pipes VIVO.. It is a drop in memory speed though??

As i said above I am still trying to sort out what is more important out of the following:

Memory Size
Memory Speed
Memory Type
Pipelines
GPU Speed
Mem Bit Rate
etc.

[Agent]

Please post in the correct forum !!!

[Clunk]

I would urge you not to buy from overclockers.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=434330 94.63

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=430633 211.32

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=291364 149.85

[gOdman]

Excellent thanks..

Im beginning to understand a little bit about what is good now

For those who understand the components a bit better:

would I really see a £100 performance difference between the 3rd one down and the bottom one here, as they are the same general spec, or is this really for if i want to do a lot of overclocking?:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...5_Bundles.html

This price of £488 seems cheaper than buying the components separately??

For this project I am not a big overclocker, so really want components that will perform well at their supplied spec.

I noticed with the graphics card reccommended above (512MB ASUS 7950GT, PCI-E (x16), Mem 1400MHz, GPU 550MHz, 24 Pipes, Dual DVI/HDTV) that it only has 24 pipes, and I have heard that it is quite important to go for more pipes to improve future performance.. Would it be worth the extra £100 to go for:

512MB Connect 3D Radeon X1950 XTX PCI-E (x16) 1000MHz GDDR4 GPU 650MHz,48 Pipes VIVO.. It is a drop in memory speed though??

As i said above I am still trying to sort out what is more important out of the following:

Memory Size
Memory Speed
Memory Type
Pipelines
GPU Speed
Mem Bit Rate
etc.

more pipelines does matter yes but what you see is not really the number of pipelines it has it actaullly has 48/3 = 16 pipelines, however as long as you get above around 12pipes you should be okay.



memory speed and gpu speed is probably what you need to look for. Just go to THG and look at their charts they give you a good example of how good they are in com,parison to others. The 1950 pro seems good until dx10, if not the best card(s) at the moment is (or are) :

a) 1950xtx
b)7950gx2

as for cpus, go with what the benchies say and what others in the forums say, that is if they are a reliable person to ask.. Again THG has interactive charts on CPUS as well, and most of the time the e6600 is on track with the AMD fx62, AMD's fastest cpu as of now.


However even the e6300 , i think, beats the intel extreme eidition 965, the fastest netburst cpu (pentium 4 uarch). That will do you fine, even below 2ghz, they also overclock great

motherboard:
gigabyte ds4 or ds3.