£1,000 upgrade - advice, please?

[DaKid]

Hiya guys,

Looking for some help please. It barely seems almost three years ago since I was here to build my current PC, but the time has definitely come to splash the cash and upgrade.


Items not needing upgrade:
Dell 24" Ultrasharp Widescreen
Logitech G15 Keyboard
Logitech MX Revolution Mouse
Creative T7700 7.1 Speakers

Items hoping not to upgrade:
Couple of SATA 2 hard drives
DVD-RW
DVD-ROM
Floppy
Multicard-Reader
Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS (although if budget permits I wouldn't mind upgrading)

Items definitely upgrading:
Asus A8V Deluxe (Mobo)
RAM (1Gb PC3200)
Asus X800XT PE (GFX)
Athlon 64 3500+ (CPU - not overclocked)

Requirements:
I'm looking to buy another PC to last me two/three years as this one has (hence the £1k budget), so I'm hoping to get a fairly beefy system. I'm wanting to run Windows Vista and DX10, so am after the latest generation of cards, and I realise that I'll probably be well advised to wait until ATI come out with their offering, but I'd like to get back into the market as it were, and find out what else I should be looking at as things stand currently.
I am wanting a gaming rig, even though most of my current gaming is only World of Warcraft, but I also do music editing (MIDI), a lot of Photoshop and also some video editing on occasions (Adobe Premiere). I was thinking Intel instead of AMD, but that's because my current knowledge of the market means I believe that their processors are better for photo/video and that they also still run cooler than AMDs, hence quieter. Maybe someone could enlighten me on this?
My only other requirement I can think of at the moment is that I'm quite hoping to be able to afford 4Gb of RAM, as I can see it making a difference to me for the photo/video stuff.


I apologise for this being such a long post, but I figured I'd give as much information as I can to allow people to help me better! Thank you in advance for anyone kind enough to even read this far, and thank you even more for anyone who replies offering advice

DaKid

[sTrAnGeFrUiT!]

Hi,

I am in a very simular position to you
This is a spec i put toghether for myself on scan
By the looks of it it pretty much matches your requirments



Thanks

[EtheAv8r]

I am in the process of replacing my 3 1/2 year old Athlon 3200+ (yes socket A), abit NF7-s v2, 1Gb PC3200 Corsair, 9800 Pro, plus other bits n pieces in an Antec Sonata case (passing on to a daughter - it still works fine).

I am building with ASUS Commando motherboard, E6700 CPU, Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro, Corsair Dominator 8500 RAM, 8800GTX GPU, Seasonic S12-650 Energy+ PSU plus bits, in an Antec P180 case.

I have been building fast machines for other people for the past 18 months - now it is my turn. LOL

[CrazyMonkey]

If you are upgrading now, then get a DX 10 GPU. The 8800 Series obviously. Or you could wait a month or 2 too see what ATI has to offer.

Obviously get a C2D cpu and 2 gigs of hgh performance ram. Also wanna get a good overclocking mobo.

Ill post some specs later.

[lVloo]

Hi,

Some good advice already!

I'd also go for C2D & a DX10 card. I'd hold out for a while until more choice is available on the graphics card front, ATI will be going full steam to try to beat NVIDIA with their first release. This will also affect your mobo selection.

When trying to fill the 24" of real estate you've got, It might also be worth looking at SLi'ing two good cards rather than the best single card. That's a lot of resolution you're playing with there & two cards will make a big difference.

Vista is going to need more than 2Gb of ram if your playing games. C2D's don't care too much about amazing latency figures, so a fast frequency is all you need to look at.

You don't mention your psu, but if you do go for a dual graphics card or intend to in the future, then 600W or more should be on your shopping list.

I'd also recommend water cooling. It's fairly cheap now (if you build it yourself from components) and you'll not want to go back once you've got it. Silence is bliss

[directhex]

vista! 8D

[azrael]

If you can sell your old bits on you may be able to stretch to

x6800 Conroe
ASUS Striker Mobo
8800GTX
2Gb Corsair RAM

Thats what I would buy if I was in your position.

[DaKid]

Moo ... how much for water-cooling these days? Would one hundred pounds get all the necessary kit, or is it closer to two hundred or even three hundred?

Also, when you say SLI-ing two good cards, I presume you still mean DX10 ... i.e. something like an 8800 GTS as opposed to a GTX? How would that compare, performance wise, to a GTX on both a standard (1280x1024) and my normal (1920x1200) resolution?

Frequency is the "6400" in the memory type, yeah?

[lVloo]

Moo ... how much for water-cooling these days? Would one hundred pounds get all the necessary kit, or is it closer to two hundred or even three hundred?

Also, when you say SLI-ing two good cards, I presume you still mean DX10 ... i.e. something like an 8800 GTS as opposed to a GTX? How would that compare, performance wise, to a GTX on both a standard (1280x1024) and my normal (1920x1200) resolution?

Frequency is the "6400" in the memory type, yeah?

£150 will get you a complete setup (inc. gpu block). Buying your own bits will give you more flexibility than getting a kit, should you consider expanding in the future.

Again, I'd wait to see what ATI brings to the table. but yes, once there's more competition and prices have dropped as a result, then two £250 card could well suit your resolution needs better than a £500 card. High res is where SLi come into it's own.

Yup, 800Mhz(6400) or 1066Mhz(8500). For example, the £340 G.skill f2-8500PHu2 ram is over £100 more than A-data's vitesta1000+ due to it's much lower latency ratings, but will make a tiny difference to an Intel powered machine so it's just not worth the extra cash. However, in an AMD (pre AM2) machine, then g.skill will fly. Just make sure your mobo has a fast enough fsb to match your ram if your going for the 1066Mhz

[CrazyMonkey]

If you can sell your old bits on you may be able to stretch to

x6800 Conroe
ASUS Striker Mobo
8800GTX
2Gb Corsair RAM

Thats what I would buy if I was in your position.

x6800 Isnt worth it, my friend (well a person i know) has one and at stock speeds my overclocked E6300 (Stock Volts) Out performed it.

I agree with all other Item's could consider different ram, but for compatability issues i suppose Corsair would be ok.

REMEMBER- Not all games fully support, or support Crossfire or SLI. Games like Quake4 showed a drop in performance with some ATI cards in crossfire as to a single one. Also some games wouldnt support 2 card s atall and refused to work.

[EtheAv8r]

I agree X6800 is not worth the money, nor is ASUS Striker.

Stick with ASUS Commando - or if you want proven board ASUS P5B Deluxe - MUCH better value for money. The 650i boards look good value for money as well - only about £70 - £80.

SLI is problematic - a single 8800GTX will be fast enough IMHO

[Marcvs]

get a regular 680i board - EVGA or ASUS ones are good get an e6600 and OC it to 3Ghz (easy) get a tuniq tower or zalman 9700 and you should be all set

[lVloo]

This certainly can be the case & I admit I was put off for a while myself.

Check out (grr can't post URL yet) slizone for a list of supported/optimised games. It is getting quite comprehensive & contains WoW which you mention and some future titles (UT2K7 etc). I'm not so sure about Crossfire I'm afraid.

You could always get a second 8800GTX a year down the line if your put off doubling up now. See if you can dig out any published frame rates for a similar setup at your required res.

[DratUK]

I have the Dell monitor 24 inch Ultra and a 6600 and 8800GTX check My System to see the rest of the components.
I ran the F.E.A.R stress test at full spec 16QX etc at the Dells Native resolution.
Results
Minimum Frame rate 77 Average FR 122 Max 255.
Crunch time is on resolutions on a 30 inch screen at 2560 x cant remember. Frame rates do drop but not to an unplayable level.

A single 8800GTX is more than adequate for todays games and for a while longer even with the 24" Dell. The only thing we cannot forecast is the effect of DX10 but on the Crysis previews they were running on 6600, single GTX and Dell 24" on an un-optimised game and it was running smooth.

Previous to this system I was running a 7900GTX SLi system the only game that it go into a sweat about was Oblivion and even with that I was being picky. The rest of the time was overkill. IMHO SLi Crossfire is good marketing hype.
Within your budget and if you need 4Gb Ram 8800 SLi is not affordable anyway.
Gilgamesh at Abit Hexus care forum is testing the new I932 MAX Abits take on the 680i. This have suffered from bad press with dodgy SATA controllers, Abit may have resolved those issues. If so its a damn good board.

http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=96684
Have a look, its not complete but he has given his review of the layout. OC results should be with us tomorrow.
There are so many cahnges occuring with hardware it is difficult to make a choice. I wish you luck

[Guy]

Id recomend:

Core2Duo E6600
Abit AB9 Pro
2x1GB Ram (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=402849)
Seasonic M-12
And an arctic cooling freezer 7 Pro-Its under £20, and IMHO much better/less to go wrong than trying to set up a watercooling system.

[DratUK]

Not related to your build and you may already have this site in your favourites
http://www.widescreengamingforum.com...itle=Main_Page
Found it very useful for WS gaming.