New Rig Time

copeyhagen

Hi all,

getting a few grand from work in a few weeks, gonna build myself a new rig.

current rig was built about 4 years ago, and although ram and other parts have been updated, I just want something fresh.

I have been browsing on overclockers and the following has caught my eye!

Case: Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case

Mobo + processor + 2gb ram bundle : ** Overclocked Bundle ** Abit IP35 Pro Motherboard / Intel Q6600 Quad Core @ 3.3Ghz / 2GB (2x1GB) OCZ PC-8500 RAM / Tuniq Tower CPU Cooler

Additional ram : OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz SLI-Ready Edition Dual Channel DDR2 (sam ram as the 2gb in the bundle. **I KNOW I SHOULDNT OVERCLOCK THE CPU TO 3.3 IF USING 4GB RAM**)

Psu : Coolermaster Real Power 700w Modular Power Supply

Hdd : Samsung SpinPoint T 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD501LJ)

Optical drive : Asus DRW-2014L1T 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter (Black/Silver) - Retail

Soundcard : Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer 7.1 Sound Card

Gfx card : ** need advice here, thinking of going for 2 8600 gt's in Sli. not too sure though, so any advice is extremely welcome. havent used pci-e before, always been agp**)

rig cost without the gfx cards is £700.

all items on my list have been given 5 stars on their reviews aswell.

any advice on my choices there? cheers

Spear

copeyhagen wrote: »

Mobo + processor + 2gb ram bundle : ** Overclocked Bundle ** Abit IP35 Pro Motherboard / Intel Q6600 Quad Core @ 3.3Ghz / 2GB (2x1GB) OCZ PC-8500 RAM / Tuniq Tower CPU Cooler

Gfx card : ** need advice here, thinking of going for 2 8600 gt's in Sli. not too sure though, so any advice is extremely welcome. havent used pci-e before, always been agp**)

Why skimp on the graphics cards? Or is this not meant for gaming? That board doesn't support SLI anyway.

RoyalMarine

you would be better off getting 2 x 2 gb sticks of ram rather than 4 sticks of 1gb.

also, dont get 2 8600gt's.

get 1 8800gt for 150 euro off komplett.ie

copeyhagen

i only really play wow and its not the most demanding game!

didnt cop the board wasnt sli compatible!!

whats the 8800 gt like then?

Spear

copeyhagen wrote: »

i only really play wow and its not the most demanding game!

didnt cop the board wasnt sli compatible!!

whats the 8800 gt like then?

The newer 9800GTX GX2 and 9600's are out now, so you may want to look at them. The 9600 has been getting good reviews and it's more than WoW needs.

Sqaull20

copeyhagen wrote: »

i only really play wow and its not the most demanding game!

didnt cop the board wasnt sli compatible!!

whats the 8800 gt like then?

Overclockers are pretty expensive, overclocking is simple and fun, no point paying them to do it, chances are with any overclocking it will be set back to original speed anyway if your system crashes or something...

Below site is the best around for performance/price, they build if for you for €19.99 and you could get a decent system for €750 delivered with 8800gt, Sli board, good overclocker,Quad etc...

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/3/pcconfigurator.jsp?pcConfigurator.gpOnly=0

copeyhagen

yeh i know overclockers are expensive(i have never bought anything from them) but they do have the best selection. ill have a look at that link now, never seen that site before, cheers

copeyhagen

would two XFX GeForce 9600GT 650M ,512MB DDR3, PCI-Express be a good choice?

also is the HIS HD 3870 IceQ 3 Turbo, GDDR4 512MB HDMI, ATI Radeon HD3870, PCIe
any use?

Spear

copeyhagen wrote: »

would two XFX GeForce 9600GT 650M ,512MB DDR3, PCI-Express be a good choice?

also is the HIS HD 3870 IceQ 3 Turbo, GDDR4 512MB HDMI, ATI Radeon HD3870, PCIe
any use?

HardOCP have a roundup here, including comparison against AMD HD3870
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQ3NywxMiwsaGVudGh1c2lhc3Q=

copeyhagen

cheers for the link, the 9600 gt looks good, so two of them running in sli would be sweet for what i need it for. i do play a bit of cod 4 aswell.

Sqaull20

copeyhagen wrote: »

cheers for the link, the 9600 gt looks good, so two of them running in sli would be sweet for what i need it for. i do play a bit of cod 4 aswell.

More than enough



http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/geforce_9600_gt_sli_performance/page8.asp

copeyhagen

quality,

heres the config for my system off hardwareversand

Antec Nine Hundred, ATX,

OCZ GameXStream 700 Watt SLI Ready

4096MB-Kit OCZ PC2-6400 ReaperX HPC Enhanced Bandwidth, CL4 (2 x 2048)

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 boxed, 8192Kb, LGA775, 64bit, Kentsfield

XFX GeForce 9600GT 650M ,512MB DDR3, PCI-Express x2

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB 16MB SATA II ST3250410AS x2

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L ,Intel P35, ATX, PCI-Express

what a price... that site rocks, even incl delivery and a 19" widescreen monitor its only 1100...

that a better system?

Sqaull20

copeyhagen wrote: »

quality,

heres the config for my system off hardwareversand

Antec Nine Hundred, ATX,

OCZ GameXStream 700 Watt SLI Ready

4096MB-Kit OCZ PC2-6400 ReaperX HPC Enhanced Bandwidth, CL4 (2 x 2048)

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 boxed, 8192Kb, LGA775, 64bit, Kentsfield

XFX GeForce 9600GT 650M ,512MB DDR3, PCI-Express x2

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB 16MB SATA II ST3250410AS x2

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L ,Intel P35, ATX, PCI-Express

what a price... that site rocks, even incl delivery and a 19" widescreen monitor its only 1100...

that a better system?

That motherboard doesnt support sli...

This does

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/3/articledetail.jsp?aid=18310&agid=659

Corsair are a better psu imo and chepear

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/3/articledetail.jsp?aid=19286&agid=240

Corsair ram is €20 chepear, while better

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/3/articledetail.jsp?aid=20385&agid=599

Savings should get you a nice 20" or 22" monitor, dont bother getting 2 x 9600gt if your going to get a 19" monitor...

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/3/articledetail.jsp?aid=8844&agid=353

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/3/articledetail.jsp?aid=8845&agid=603

copeyhagen

that ahrware versand said "all items shown are compatible with your current choices"..

ill check out the links now, and i see what you mean with the 19" inch monitor.

thanks

Anti

Dont waste yoru cash on a quadcore, WoW barely uses 30% of 2 of my cores. 4gb is a must though, as the game loves ram. As for a graphics card pick up a 9600gt. A faster clocked dual core will do you much better then a slower clocked quad core. An E8400 would do you fine.

The hdd you picked is way to small. 500gb should be the smallest you should get. The t166 samsung spinpoints ( 500gb ) is a much better choice, its faster then the raptors and whisper silent. And very reliable. Also a 700W psu is overkill. A 500w would do you fine, as long as its something like a corsair hx520 or from a similar good brand.

Sqaull20

Anti wrote: »

Dont waste yoru cash on a quadcore, WoW barely uses 30% of 2 of my cores. 4gb is a must though, as the game loves ram. As for a graphics card pick up a 9600gt. A faster clocked dual core will do you much better then a slower clocked quad core. An E8400 would do you fine.

The hdd you picked is way to small. 500gb should be the smallest you should get. The t166 samsung spinpoints ( 500gb ) is a much better choice, its faster then the raptors and whisper silent. And very reliable. Also a 700W psu is overkill. A 500w would do you fine, as long as its something like a corsair hx520 or from a similar good brand.

Personally I'd never buy a dual core desktop at this point,


You just can't fault someone for choosing a Q6600 for gaming, especially given high e8400 markups. It's excellent now for games and may just prove to be far better than the e8400 someday.

Neither will be great then I agree, but, the FX-55 beat the X2 4800+ at release in most games, but who would rather have the X2 4800+ or even 4200+ now verses a killer single core?

Within a year games will be out that will fully utilize Quad, Valve for example are making all there new games quad core....

Hard drive I agree on, but for an extra €15 you might as well get a 600watt plus psu that will give you the choice of Sli...

Anti

The devs dont know how to code to multithread properly. Its gonna be a good while untill 4 cores are activly used. Especially for gaming.

As for the psu, i still wouldnt bother, i have tri sli running on a 620w psu and its grand.

copeyhagen

i was buying two of the hdd, instead of buyin one 500gb in case one fails mechanically ect.

going for the quad would be more future proof for the next couple years wouldnt it?

Anti

not really, as what ever you buy now will be obsolete by the time quad core can be taken advantage of.

Sqaull20

Anti wrote: »

not really, as what ever you buy now will be obsolete by the time quad core can be taken advantage of.

Like I said didnt take long for Dual Core to get taken advantage of and the guys that went for the ultra fast single core cpu's like fx55 etc made a huge mistake as you can still game perfectly with a x2 4800 today....

Anti

dual cores have been out for what 6 years now. And only now are games starting to take advantage of 2 cores.

awhir

Go for this drive:http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=343054

its the best out there atm .

RoyalMarine

good choice changing to 4gb 2x2 sticks.

wow will eat ram like i drink beer. the more the merrier.

personally, for the price of the xfx 8800gt 512 on komplett, 150 euro is a steal for a card of that quality. beats the 9600gt in more or less everything.

copeyhagen

yeh that hard drive is nice, especially the price : )

with regards to the 8800 gt, ill have a look at prices etc

cheers lads