Proposed PC Build - Opinions

rgiller

Hi all,

First time getting a PC built to spec (from Komplett). It's going to be used for internet, office and gaming, mainly FPS and RTS. Anyway, here's what I've come up with with the help of a fellow boardsie:

PC box
SoftThinks Installation software,
Gigabyte Triton GZ-XX1CA-SNB Black
NorthQ 4001EXT, USB, ATX 400W, 140mm
ABIT IB9, P965, Socket-775, GbLAN,
Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 2GHz Socket
Corsair Value S. PC5300 DDR2 2048MB
XFX GeForce 8600GTS 730M 256MB XXX GDDR3
Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 500GB SATA2
NEC DVD±RW burner AD-5170 IDE Black OEM,
Microsoft Windows XP Home SP2b
Logitech LX3 Optical Mouse
Logitech Ultra Flat Keyboard

Cost is €930 without a monitor. My budget's about €1000. Any opinions / suggestions? Will I eventually need to upgrade to Vista? I'm not fussy about games running at full resolution so will this card suffice?

toco123

rgiller wrote:

Hi all,

First time getting a PC built to spec (from Komplett). It's going to be used for internet, office and gaming, mainly FPS and RTS. Anyway, here's what I've come up with with the help of a fellow boardsie:

PC box
SoftThinks Installation software,
Gigabyte Triton GZ-XX1CA-SNB Black
NorthQ 4001EXT, USB, ATX 400W, 140mm
ABIT IB9, P965, Socket-775, GbLAN,
Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 2GHz Socket
Corsair Value S. PC5300 DDR2 2048MB
XFX GeForce 8600GTS 730M 256MB XXX GDDR3
Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 500GB SATA2
NEC DVD±RW burner AD-5170 IDE Black OEM,
Microsoft Windows XP Home SP2b
Logitech LX3 Optical Mouse
Logitech Ultra Flat Keyboard

Cost is €930 without a monitor. My budget's about €1000. Any opinions / suggestions? Will I eventually need to upgrade to Vista? I'm not fussy about games running at full resolution so will this card suffice?

Would you consider building it yourself?

Will you have to... unfortuanetly yes. To play the latest DirectX10 games you will need vista (unless you are willing to attempt hacking XP?). Also Microsoft insists on this new only for vista 5#17...
I reccomend Xp for the time being due to the conflicts with drivers on vista and loss of framerate due to vistas lust for power etc.

papu

(unless you are willing to attempt hacking XP?)

not possible.

Gloopy

Hi, just a few points;

Firstly, you can indeed stay with XP for the foreseeable future, but if that's the way you want to go, there's no point getting that card as it supports DX10 (which is Vista only).

Also, what size monitor do you have already (or intend getting)?

DemocAnarchis

Orly?

http://www.fallingleafsystems.com/compatibility/

papu

it cant fdo it without emulating half of vista with it , and whats the point of that buy the ****1n thing , its not that bad , its stupid tbh , you might as well go back to windows 2000.....

edit: BS untill proven working tbh

Toolbag

Check out www.hardwareversand.de you'll get a much better system while staying under €1000.

The graphics card - XFX GeForce 8600GTS 730M 256MB XXX - isn't great value for money...you can get a far better 8800 GTS for €20 more on the site above. I'd go with a P35 board too.

TerrorFirmer

papu wrote:

it cant fdo it without emulating half of vista with it , and whats the point of that buy the ****1n thing , its not that bad , its stupid tbh , you might as well go back to windows 2000.....

edit: BS untill proven working tbh

I play Halo 2 on XP. Only problem being I can't play online. But I can still play SP.

nibble

HavoK wrote:

I play Halo 2 on XP. Only problem being I can't play online. But I can still play SP.

Yes, but Halo 2 isn't written in DirectX 10, it only requires Vista for the Live functionality.

rgiller

Thanks for the feedback so far. Lot of conflicting points for and against getting Vista over XP. Like I said, this is my first PC for gaming and I have a big back catalogue of games to go through! Because of that I think XP is the way to go but I will reconsider the graphics card. Any suggestions?

Toolbag

I'll expand on my above post.

It's your choice as to whether you want to go with XP or Vista. At the moment XP is better for games, but it won't have dx10 capabilities for the future.
Drop the XFX 8600GTS XXX and get the cheapest 8800 GTS you can find - they offer much better performance. The CPU should stand up to newer games if overclocked. Get a P35 (or the upcoming 38) intel motherboard to offer better upgradability of your CPU in the future. A sata DVD drive is a good idea too.

Komplet is ok, but there is a lot of money to be saved going with a german site like www.hardwareversand.de

They also build PCs for you if you're worried about building yourself.

TerrorFirmer

Toolbag wrote:

The CPU should stand up to newer games if overclocked.

Even at stock it would be fine running anything out there right now, no need to actually overclock it if you're inclined not to.