So who wants to help me make my gaming rig? ;B

kev_like

Basically got a limit of about 1.8~ can go a little over but not too much.
Just want a high end rig that's capable of playing whatever I want in ultra settings :B

Since i'm a first time builder i'm looking for suggestions of what builds to go for? (mobo suggestions/gfx ect).
Basically i wana build it myself for the experience and also to get more for my money. Don't want any tacky Blu ray players ect, just a rig capable of playing w/e with very high quality.

I'll do a template of what i'm looking at going for soon, just wondering if anyone knows any good sites also that are cheap ect.
Thanks guys.


Forgot to add, this includes a monitor, new keyboard, headset and mouse.

Chaos Marine

http://komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_01COM/07_OPTICAL/04_DVD/productdetails/13704039/LG_DVD_RW_burner_GH22NP20_Black_bulk/GH22NP20_AUAU50B/default.aspx

One or two of these. A Blu Ray drive is still too expensive at the moment but give it a year or two and they'll be cheap enough.

http://komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_01COM/02_PCCASE/03_BIGTOW/productdetails/10017315/Cooler_Master_Cosmos_1000_Full_tower_extended/RC_1000_KSN1_GP/default.aspx

Fantastically quite case that's also huge with a good amount of space behind the motherboard plate for cables.

http://komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_01COM/29_PSU/01_PSU/productdetails/15494639/Corsair_TX950W_Power_supply_%28_internal_%29_/CMPSU_950TXEU/default.aspx

For the asking price, this is an absolute bargin and if you want, you can SLi 470s or 480s easily. Even the 580 if you want down the line.

http://komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_01COM/22_SOFTWAR/02_OS/productdetails/10021899/Microsoft_Windows_7_Ultimate_Licence_and_media_/GLC_00736/default.aspx

If you're building a new machine, might as well go for a 64Bit OS and the Ultimate version of W7 comes with a legit copy of WinXP for a virtual machine. Always handy. And if you want to have an SSD for the OS, W7 has far superior controllers for SSDs instead of XP.

http://komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_01COM/21_CPU/productdetails/10020935/Intel_Core_i7_950__3_06_GHz_/BX80601950/default.aspx

http://komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_01COM/13_COOLERS/03_CPU/productdetails/15512803/Noctua_NH_D14_CPU_Cooler/NH_D14/default.aspx

Decent price for an above price CPU. Can be made to hyper thread and remain cool with the above cooler too.

http://komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_01COM/11_HDD/07_INTHD35/productdetails/20005061/Samsung_SpinPoint_F3_Desktop_Class_HD502HJ_Hard/HD502HJ/default.aspx

http://komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_01COM/11_HDD/07_INTHD35/productdetails/10018452/1_TB_Samsung_Spinpoint_F3_7200rpm/HD103UJ/default.aspx

A cheap HDD for the OS and a TB HDD for saving everything else. I have two of these in my current machine. If you want however, pick yourself up an SSD for the OS.

http://komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_01COM/15_MOBO/02_INTEL/productdetails/15427377/ASUS_P6T_Deluxe_V2_Socket_1366_ATX/90_MIB7U0_G0EAY00Z/default.aspx

If you want to save a few bob, buy the older one but the newer one has more connections and as most refined hardware goes, tends to be better than the originals.

http://komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_01COM/10_GRPCARD/04_PCI-E/productdetails/80001152/EVGA_GeForce_GTX580_1536MB_PCI_E_DVI_HDMI/015_P3_1580_ER/default.aspx

http://komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_01COM/10_GRPCARD/04_PCI-E/productdetails/10022796/ASUS_ENGTX470_2DI_1280MD5_Graphics_adapter_GF/90_C3CHA1_X0UAY0KZ/default.aspx

Either a single 580 or SLi 470s will see you right and easily tear through any game you may throw at it. The 470s will outperform the 580 by itself but if you want, down the line you could always get a second 580 and SLi it.

http://komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_01COM/08_MEMINT/productdetails/20053316/Corsair_XMS3_6GB_1333MHz_PC3_10666/CMX6GX3M3A1333C8/default.aspx

Six should be more than enough for a start and you can always upgrade later.

kev_like

Liking the look of where that's going, but i'm going to have to change a few things on it to fit it into my budget considering I also have to get my HD monitor, headset, keyboard and mouse with that. Basically I've a limit of about 1,7 for the rig itself, i'll up my budget to 2k for the build i'd say (It'll kick my social life in the ass for a while longer but it'll be worth it :P)

indough

most things should be cheaper on hwvs. only problem is theyre not as convenient with the payment methods, unless you dont mind doing bank transfers

kev_like

Bank transfer would be ok, but is that the only method they do it by? There no CC option on the site for Ireland?

Chaos Marine

Look through Adverts.ie for some good screens for cheap prices. For my own machine, I have a BenQ24" monitor and I have my old, AOC 19" monitor as a side screen. The BenQ is at 1920x1200 and the AOC is at 1280x1024 and the machine I outlined you would be far more powerful than my own and almost every game I have, I can play them with every setting maxed and at 1920x1200. The above rig will most likely be what I'll be making myself come January or February. A hint as well, if you don't mind waiting, wait till January or February as the prices will take a drop, particularly the processors and maybe even the GPUs since AMD will be releasing their 6000 series of cards and nVidia do have a tendancy to drop their prices. A 470, even for 220 euros, is a damned good deal for the performance it gives.

When Doom3 came out, I specifically got a Geforce 6800GT to play it maxed out and that card was something like... 550-600 euros I think. Say what you will about splashing money on powerful rigs, the prices for building them yourself is dropping excellently.

Solitaire

Nope, only bank transfer and PayPal, and the latter can become very expensive with big sums of money, plus I don't think you can do CC via Paypal either unless you can now pre-load your PayPal account with a CC as well as a linked bank account

Must do a build up, torn between an Eyefinity build or a 3D build though!

Chaos Marine

The Eye-Finity looks nice but to be honest, not many people would ever need anything more than two screens to begin with. Having four or five or even six as I've heard would be excessive.

3D... Anything with those glasses are right out because they'll be going pretty soon enough. There's this crowd in China developing flat screen LCDs with the same 3D tech that you have with the Nintendo 3DS and Toshiba are making their own models. If the 3D comes out, I'd wait for those rather than the ones with the glasses.

kev_like

Chaos Marine wrote: »

Look through Adverts.ie for some good screens for cheap prices. For my own machine, I have a BenQ24" monitor and I have my old, AOC 19" monitor as a side screen. The BenQ is at 1920x1200 and the AOC is at 1280x1024 and the machine I outlined you would be far more powerful than my own and almost every game I have, I can play them with every setting maxed and at 1920x1200. The above rig will most likely be what I'll be making myself come January or February. A hint as well, if you don't mind waiting, wait till January or February as the prices will take a drop, particularly the processors and maybe even the GPUs since AMD will be releasing their 6000 series of cards and nVidia do have a tendancy to drop their prices. A 470, even for 220 euros, is a damned good deal for the performance it gives.

When Doom3 came out, I specifically got a Geforce 6800GT to play it maxed out and that card was something like... 550-600 euros I think. Say what you will about splashing money on powerful rigs, the prices for building them yourself is dropping excellently.

Well basically i've been "saving up" for this rig for years, but that "saving" was spotting a few quid into the bank now and then, so after a few years I've the cash now to get a decent rig and I think i'd prefer not to wait :P But I gotta downgrade something from the above you've outlined, hate to see how much extra komplett costs complaired to hwvs, but i'd prefer to not have the hastle with bank transfers ect..

I think I'll probably go for the above alright, but gotta make a few changes due to me only having about 300 left over from that for me monitor, headset, keyboard and mouse :P
The GTX580 is sold out on komplett so I might go for a different card, or two, maybe limiting it to about 390~ for the card so i've a bit more left for the rest:)

indough

what you can do over here now is bank transfer into your paypal account (apparently). this may sound like adding another unecessary step but it would mean that payment should be recieved by hwvs almost instantly from paypal. otherwise i think it can take ages for them to recieve a direct transfer to hwvs and what you ordered could possibly go out of stock. not sure whether thats possible but it was a concern of mine.

was gonna do a build with an evga p55 classified 200 but hwvs dont sell it apparently. also are people just using screen grabs to post those hwvs baskets or how do you do it?

Chaos Marine

Print Screen key > Right-click > New > New Bitmap Image > Right-click the white square > Paste > File > Save as > <Insert-file-name-here as .jpg format > Upload to www.imageshack.us/www.pictpaste.com

kev_like

yeah you can make bank transfers to your paypal now too, but still that's another load of hastle. But would probably save me about 100 quid, although I feel saver using a site I actually know 100% of what is said on it :P hwvs's english translation is too shaddy for me tbh ;s

indough

i dunno man, i think theyre fairly reliable provided that what youre ordering is in stock. personally wouldnt have too much faith in komplett of late. there prices can be shockingly all over the place too

Chaos Marine

If you do take off some of the stuff, I'd recommend you at least leave in both HDDs or cannibalise some from an old machine. Whenever I build myself or someone else a machine, I always make certain there are two HDDs so if something goes tits up with the OS, you have everything saved on the second one and you don't need to worry about losing the data.

You could easily just use one 470 or perhaps try for a 460 though there's only like 20-25 euros between them. And keep in mind, a single 470 is still a pretty powerful card.

kev_like

yeah i've been looking through the site there now and if i was using hwvs i'd be saving bucket loads.. I'll have to look into that paypal bank transfer there now and see what I can do, looking to get this all sorted and be awaiting delievery in a day or two.

indough

remember to factor in that hwvs charge 30 quid delivery too. but thats pretty good imo for a whole system

kev_like

Basically, you can do bank transfers to paypal and then use your paypal to get w/e.
So now comes the part of using hwvs to put an order together, i'll say a limit of 1,600 on the rig itself, i'll use my remaining cash on getting my 'accessorys'
so basically i need
OS,
Mobo,
CPU+cooler
gfx card(s)
6g~ ddr3
tower,
power supply,
SSD(for what games ect im going to be using) and HDD for everything else,
disc drive,
case.

So am I missing anything from the above(if so lemme know please) and if anyone wants to lend me a hand picking out what to choose from hwvs it'd be well appreciated (finding the site aweful to get around on).

kev_like

indough wrote: »

remember to factor in that hwvs charge 30 quid delivery too. but thats pretty good imo for a whole system

Yeah i've already taken that into account

indough

and the fact that they charge like 3% (i think) of the total basket again for using paypal

will you be running an i5 system?

Icyseanfitz

id hang on for the hd 6900 series GPU's before buying anything if i where you they will be out in a couple of weeks

EL_Loco

just on the payments, it's fairly straight forward if you have online banking, I've aib and was able to do a transfer using the I-Ban number and reference hardwareversand.de give you when you purchase.

If you don't have online banking you can still do it in the bank itself. dunno why you'd give 3% to paypal tbh.

I use komplett too as I'm close to the pickup point, last few things I've ordered have been grand (I know that hasn't been everyone's experience since they moved warehouse). I suppose it all comes down to the price difference even with the 30 euro delivery from Germany.

indough

EL_Loco wrote: »

If you don't have online banking you can still do it in the bank itself. dunno why you'd give 3% to paypal tbh.

because otherwise if an item goes out of stock in the time it takes for the transfer to complete youll be waiting forever and a day for your delivery

kev_like

indough wrote: »

and the fact that they charge like 3% (i think) of the total basket again for using paypal

will you be running an i5 system?

Not sure if im going to go for an i5 or i7, looking for recommendations tbh.

kev_like

EL_Loco wrote: »

just on the payments, it's fairly straight forward if you have online banking, I've aib and was able to do a transfer using the I-Ban number and reference hardwareversand.de give you when you purchase.

If you don't have online banking you can still do it in the bank itself. dunno why you'd give 3% to paypal tbh.

I use komplett too as I'm close to the pickup point, last few things I've ordered have been grand (I know that hasn't been everyone's experience since they moved warehouse). I suppose it all comes down to the price difference even with the 30 euro delivery from Germany.

I'm with aib but i've no online banking so i'll have to work through paypal, not unless you can start using online banking with any account, or can you just set up an online banking account for youself using your account number ect?

kev_like

Icyseanfitz wrote: »

id hang on for the hd 6900 series GPU's before buying anything if i where you they will be out in a couple of weeks

Tbh I don't really wana hang around, I know it'd be the best thing to do but I just wana get this done asap since i've been waiting forever to get this rig built.

indough

kev_like wrote: »

I'm with aib but i've no online banking so i'll have to work through paypal, not unless you can start using online banking with any account, or can you just set up an online banking account for youself using your account number ect?

you should be able to set it up but im not sure how great aib's service is

actually it would probably be worth your while to skip the paypal step and just pay a fee to get the transfer to go through straight away

i just like using paypal as ive always gotten my money back through them whenever ive had any hassle with transactions

i did an i7 build for you but im just waiting to be able to up it

kev_like

indough wrote: »

you should be able to set it up but im not sure how great aib's service is

actually it would probably be worth your while to skip the paypal step and just pay a fee to get the transfer to go through straight away

i just like using paypal as ive always gotten my money back through them whenever ive had any hassle with transactions

i did an i7 build for you but im just waiting to be able to up it

Well i'll check out AIB's website ina bit and see what they can tell me online about the whole online banking now without having to wait till monday.

Well i'll probably be going with i7 tbh, considering then I won't have to upgrade it for the foreseeable future

indough

i dont know for sure but i think the likes of an i5-760 will outperform them in games though. could be wrong on that. i went for i7 but i play arma 2 a lot and i think it better for that plus i use music programs

kev_like

indough wrote: »

i dont know for sure but i think the likes of an i5-760 will outperform them in games though. could be wrong on that. i went for i7 but i play arma 2 a lot and i think it better for that plus i use music programs

well basically i'm going to be playing a lot of FPS's and various MMORPG's so i'll be looking to run all them in ultra and have a grand time doing it, if you think i7 would be best for it then i'll go i7, tbh don't know too much about i5/i7 and the differences between the two ect.

Icyseanfitz

kev_like wrote: »

Tbh I don't really wana hang around, I know it'd be the best thing to do but I just wana get this done asap since i've been waiting forever to get this rig built.

i said id just throw it out there anyway as the 6970 will more than likely outperform the 580 at a lower cost but i can understand the impatience was in the same boat myself in september

kev_like

Icyseanfitz wrote: »

i said id just throw it out there anyway as the 6970 will more than likely outperform the 580 at a lower cost but i can understand the impatience was in the same boat myself in september

Yeah basically i've been saying I was going to get around to building my own rig for years, and now i'm finally after saying NOW is the time cause I'm sick to **** of going to net café's just to play cs:s ect well so I just wana get it over and done with now