New PC help

[robcrowley]

Hi all,

I am looking to buy a new pc in the coming weeks and I am looking for some advice. I have a budget of about 850 for the pc itself (I am getting a monitor separately) and its use will be predominately for games. A PC capable of the latest games such as crysis would be a bonus. If anyone could recommend a pc or a particular vendor that make good spec gaming systems, I would be very grateful.

I have perused around the sites of various PC vendors and there is obviously a whole host of systems around at present. I have been looking at some of the ultima systems from OCUK, but I am unsure about a number of things. First the particular computer is pre-overclocked, I am not sure if people think this is worth looking for in a system. In addition the graphics card it comes with is an 8800 gts (640mb ram) and I have heard that the GT is cheaper and as good in terms of performance, with a subsequent card due out soon. Would I be best of waiting until the new cards come out and waiting for the cost of a GTX et al to drop?

[staffsMike]

It's always better to wait in this game.. thats the nature of the business.

General rule to them with pc's (and anything really) is buy the best you can with the budget you have, at the time you need it.

The GT is actually significantly better than the current GTS (due to be refreshed in a week or so)

There's plenty of compaines of there,

MESH Computers - Award Winning PCs Since 1987
: : : CyberPower PC UK : : : (nice one here Gamer Infinity 990 you can change the case )
3xs Systems
Gladiator Computers - PC Systems, Components and Software, Manchester, UK.

Are you sure you don't want to build it yourself?

For less than £750 you could get:

Intell Q6600 + decent cooler (scythe ninja is my favourite)
Abit IP-35 (or the pro version)
4gb Geil Ultra PC6400 Ram (ocuk)
520w corsair HX PSU
Antec 900 or P182
500gb Hard drive (samsung spinpoint, western digital AAKS)
Dvd Writer
8800GT (there are deals on the GTX floating around for around £270 which would then be inside your £850 budget)

oh so tempting isn't it

[robcrowley]

Thanks for the reply, I will take a look around at those vendors. Building a PC would certainly be an option (haven't done one for a few years now), but will also take a look at the components you suggested.

[shadowmaster]

I have bought from both mesh, and cyberpower systems uk, and never had any major problems with both. Customer service of both companies is also quite good and they both have forums where you can complain if something is wrong.

Building a pc is not too hard, just get good quality parts and set aside a couple of undisturbed hours, and you should be fine. And if anything goes wrong you can always post your problem here and no doubt someone will help you out

[robcrowley]

Thanks for the help. I know this is now off topic but I have done a quick search for the parts listed in the second post (I made a few changes - please advise if inappropriate).

Corsair Memory TWIN2X2048-8500C5D 2x1GB 240-Pin DIMM XMS2-8500
£88.37 - dabs

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600
£138.58 - dabs

Asustek S775 GeForce 680i ATX GLAN
£98.10 - dabs

XFX GeForce 8800GTX 768MB DDR3 PCIE Dual DVI TVo
£285 - dabs

Western Digital Caviar 500GB S300 16mb 7200rpm
£58.00 - dabs

Pioneer 18x DVD±RW/RAM internal SATA Black
£16.64 - dabs

Corsair Memory 520 Watt, ATX, EPS12V, PS/2, Modular Power Supply
£53.91 - dabs

Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case
£57.86 - dabs

QuietPC SCYTHE Ninja-Plus Heatpipe
£23.55 - dabs

Total

£820.01

The ram suggested in the second post seemed really cheap, so I opted for some more expensive corsair stuff (2gb 8500 instead of 4gb 6400 ). In addition dabs didn't have the abit motherboard so I opted for the one above which seemed pretty decent. Do these ammendments seem reasonable, or should I be looking for a different type of ram / mobo.

Many thanks

[staffsMike]

First change i'd make is dabs

Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK I thoroughly recommend scan. You will also qualify for free delivery if you get up to 25 constructive posts here on hexus.

I'm assuming those prices are ex VAT.

I've got 2 sets of teh Geil RAM and both overclock to pc8000/8500 speeds anyway.
The corsair stuff is overpriced and you won't feel any benefit of the pc8500 unless you are on a serious overclocking mission.

The geil stuff is I agree off-putingly cheap but it's actually very good and used to be a lot more expensive lol

PC6400 RAM runs the Q6600 at 3.6GHz at it's stock speed. More in depth meanings of all this here http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...beginners.html

The motherboard is similar to what I use. Unless you are planning on an SLi setup for the grpahics I would stick with the Abit IP-35 from scan

You may want to repost or request the thread is moved in the hardware section for others opinions

[robcrowley]

Ahh I was comparing prices for dabs against ocuk and they all seemed to be cheaper. I hadn't noticed that dabs was displaying prices without vat. I'll go through the process again, with your suggestions and see what it comes out at.

Cheers

[2Cold Scorpio]

Until a couple of days ago when I decided to build my new PC myself, I was going to use Cyberpower (their U.S. branch, anyways, as I live in the States). I haven't actually used them, but their selection / prices are hard to beat.

[robcrowley]

Here is my second attempt with all parts from scan.

Intel Core 2 Quad-Core Q6600 G0 SLACR, 95W, S775, 2.40 GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 8MB Cache, OEM
£158.61 - scan

Abit Fatal1ty FP-IN9 SLI NF650i SLi, S 775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX
£70.49 - scan

768MB Gainward 8800GTX, Bliss, PCI-E (x16), Mem 1800 MHz, GDDR3, GPU 575 MHz, 2 x Dual Link DVI-I
£348.83 - scan

500 GB Samsung HD501LJ Spinpoint T166, SATA II, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ
£63.39 - scan

Antec 900 - Nine Hundred Ultimate Gamer Case with 200m Top Fan w/o PSU
£70.14 - scan

550w Corsair VX Series PSU, ATX, PS/2, 5 year Warranty
£52.21 - scan

2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12
£54.80 - scan

Scythe Mini Ninja Heatpipe CPU Cooler S478/LAG775, AMD S754/939/940/AM2
£27.01 - scan

Samsung SH-S203B/BEBN 20x DVD±R, 16x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, SATA, Black, OEM inc. Nero
£16.61 - scan

Total
£861

I selected that ram based on price and the fact I know corsair is pretty good, the gali memory isn#t available from scan. I was unsure which mobo to choose (I would like to have the option of sli) and selected one that I believe is applicable. Anyone have any thoughts?

[staffsMike]

SLi is available on that board but only in 8x rather than 16x.

However, apparently that counts for almost nothing so knock yourself out.

Good thing about that board is unlinked overclocking which means you can just tell the memory to run at a certain speed and the cpu at a certain speed..makes things very easy