New system - planning

[PK|ReUsed]

change of heart guys, i've decided to not go for the allout new PC as It really is good enough for most of the games i run, with just a few kinks in the performance of CSS (fps drops in smoke, lower FPS on some maps)

All I really want to do is get a better Graphics card that I know will still run on my PC - which is where you guys come in- and a small upgrade atleast another 512MB of RAM.

my known specs:

AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3500+
NVIDIA GeForce 6200 TurboCache
512MB RAM

-

I don't know how to find out what the Motherboard or Power supply is, a bit of help?... It says PCI a lot in Device manager if that helps :B. I really am a complete r'tard when it comes to PC gubbinz ;D

[PK|Lemming]

Headset --> Medusa 5.1 (£30ish)

1-2 GB quality RAM (try for CAS 2.5ish)

Western or Seagate HDD (as big as u can afford)

CPU Intel or AMD .. either are good, dualcore is a waste unless you make heavy use of multithreaded applications (98.99% of mainstream consumer software CANNOT use a 2nd cpu core)

Motherboard - depends on cpu tbh, Abit/Gigabyte are allright in either flavour

Sound - Creative. there is NO other choice

Graphics - Gforce pcie (as good as you can afford) 256mb ram is a minimum, try for a 512mb card

Graphics Cont. Physics Accelrator - dont waste your money on 1 yet, little supports them

Network - realtek make nice cards/routers

[PK|Elite]

thats creative x-fi btw :)

[PK|Colonel Ames]

Mobo = Asus or abit (always found gigabytes to be hit and miss on reliability)

CPU = Intel are ahead of AMD at the moment, but like lemsip said, dual core doesn't make a huge difference if you just want it for gaming, so i'd say a good quality AMD 64bit will more than suffice, cheaper than the intels and slightly better performers in-game than the single core intels. However, just had a look at prices for single core 64bit cpus and they are more expensive than the dual cores. so go intel dual core, whatevery you can afford.

GFX = Nvidia is where it's at, at the moment. you want to be looking at some of the cheaper 8800s opr the 8600s as they are the most future proof, what with dx10 out.

Sound = Creative X-fi Extreme Gamer (better software than the extreme music) there is no need for anything higher unless you want to fork out £250 on the elite pro version.

Mouse = Razor Copperhead or deathadder. much more versetile than the logitecs. more responsive and more comfortable in my opinion, but that is entirely your pref.

headset = Speedlink Medusas. they are better than a lot of the high end surround sound headsets and cost half the price. exteremly comfortable and crystal clear.

PSU = i think enermax are probably making the best PSUs atm but they are quite expensive. as long as you dont pickup a Q-Tek, you'll be fine but you'll want at least 660W to run the system comfortably.

HDD = either Seagate or WD. either are extremely fast and very reliable. Seagates are much faster but i've never had a WD fail on me.

for a good site to compare prices at good rates - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/index.php

[PK|ReUsed]

Cheers for the help guys, but as i'm shopping, i'm really lost when it comes to motherboards. a wee bit of info, and maybe some advice as to the reliablity/pricerange?

[PK|Argaf]

Try using Kompletts system builder to design the spec, then buy the components individually!
http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/cl.aspx?bn=10627

Definitly try for an nvidia 8800 card.

Tomshardware.co.uk good for comparing cpu's and gfx cards on running games at the resolution your monitor supports.
Stick with 2gb ram.

[PK|ReUsed]

Yeah, I was going for an Nvidia 8800, 2GB ram. As for the processor, I'm lost

People are saying Intel Duo is the best bet, but when i look at the price comparison, I can get something like:

Intel Core 2 Duo E2160 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-152-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=) £53 (inc VAT)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+ 2.20GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-168-AM&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=) £50 (inc VAT)

I don't know, but other than GHz, the rest of the numbers are lost on me :<

And for some reason ocUK is working out as more expensive |:

[PK|Colonel Ames]

They are both pretty low end CPUs and i dont think you'll see much of a difference between the 2 but if you went with the Intel, it would prob be a wiser descision in terms of future upgrades.

[PK|ReUsed]

in which perspective, upgrading other components, or upgrading the processor itself?

[PK|Colonel Ames]

upgrading the processor..... but having said that, the market is changing constantly and quite unpredictably.
Your best bet is to by the highest end equipment your well earned cash can buy, and hope the market doesn't progress again too quickly.

[BoNes]

Using Argaf's suggestion of using Komplett (irish site version) system and then buy individually the system I would buy (€1409 using Komplett's configuration tool ).... I then got the price of the items individually (from Komplett) and it comes out as €1376.93 .....€30 odd quid difference ...... now I know that is not what you were suggesting (pricing on the site that the system is on) but I was bored and decided what they added on for building the system for a customer .. not a lot really I thought it would be more being a "build your own PC" novice like rU....

What are good sites to buy from ? - Irish ones or at least UK ones that deliver electronic components across the river without ripping u a new one....

I want a Shit hot system without paying for it kind of attitude make it happen TechnoNerds !

[PK|Elite]

apparently amd are in dept, and have 4-7 years to get sorted out... theve recently put in barcelona processors on the menu... If this is true amd goes down it means intel will go "yay! time for price rises" which is somthing we dont need atm...

[PK|Argaf]

Yeah, the komplett builder is a very good deal.

I've also specced a good model via the dell EPP website and guess what it turned out - about the same price!

I'm split between buying a "quad core" 2.4ghz or a "core 2 duo" 3ghz
2gb ram
nvidia 8800gtx card with 768mb ram
250gb hard drive

Generally working out at €1350

[PK|Argaf]

This doesn't help, current cpu (the slowest) and the 2 mentioned above...

[BoNes]

I used PC world article (which I now cannot find) to determine the pros and cons of the various components used in building a PC. With regard to processors, unless you are doing some series parallel processing (applications, games which use it) which not many applications/user will use, the Duo 3 Ghz seems to be the way to go. Upgrades are always an option and the Duo is somewhat future proof for the time being ......

Processors

Quad core 3 GHz Intel Core 2 Extream QX6850 (if u can afford it)
Dual core 2.93 Core 2 Extream X6800
Intel Core 2 Duo 6850 3GHz (€259.96)

Motherboards either SLI or CrossFire .....
Asus P5N-E SLI (€112)
MSI P965 Platinum (firewire) €120

Hard Disks Western Digital Raptor Xwith 10,000 RPM (but capacity limited due to speed)

Case

ATX compatable

Graphics

Asus EN7900GS
GeForce 8800GTX
Radeon X1950 XTX (€300)

all Komplett pricing ....

Then power supplies ...what else .... apart from peripherals

[PK|Cerro]

What are good sites to buy from ? - Irish ones or at least UK ones that deliver electronic components across the river without ripping u a new one....

I want a Shit hot system without paying for it kind of attitude make it happen TechnoNerds !

Scan.co.uk - dunno if they do ireland (their delivery prices are always a tad high so probably no difference if they do)

Bones if you give me a rough price I can give you a spec.

RU - £600 isn't much to play with, you're looking at a budget sort of PC. Key parts to spend on are the gfx card and the memory, followed by processor and mobo.

At the moment i'd go with Intel Core 2 Duo, P35 motherboard, 2Gb DDR2 Ram (CAS 4/5) and a Geforce 8600 of some kind (on a budget).

[BoNes]

For me about €1000 - €1200

I've been a bit obsessed with this all week now and reseaching primarily motherboards (seems the NB item to get right) and now probably have the false impression that I think I know what I am talking about :dorky:

Asus seems to be leader in this area... followed by Abit (sp?). I looked into the Asus Commando Republic of Gamers board. Looks like the biz but I am not much of an overclocker,etc,etc so this board seems to be focused on that and is priced accordingly... also complaints in some reviews about the PCI-E x16 and x4 limitation.

They had gaming performance graph with the Intel Desktop Board D975XBX2 coming on top in nearly all cases .. but you dont see this being touted as a good board
See link : http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2007/03/06/asus_commando/9

I would presume Intel would be a good choice rather than another company working off their technology basically ... again this may be my ignorance in this area.

I find the thought of building my PC exciting (dull existance I know) how else would one be able to get the best components certaintly not thru the main PC dealers....

[PK|Cerro]

The reason the Intel BadAxe board isn't touted is because its a 975X board - which is an old chipset, very old now and is on the verge of being replaced. X38 will/should appear this month and replace the 975X chipset.

975X doesn't perform as well as the P965 boards and they don't match the P35s, which in turn probably won't be as good as the X38s (X38 will have PCI Express 2.0 and DDR3 support)

Motherboards are of course important but I think ram is more important when it comes to branding and performance impact. When it comes to motherboards Asus are good, although I have been less than impressed with their Bios releases for the Asus Striker (the flag Asus mobo). You want a P35 chipset board, anything less has a limited upgrade path and won't perform as well.

Gigabyte have produced some good motherboards for Intel lately and they are always loaded with features and extras (some rather pointless like, 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports) and for gaming they usually do well. Abit are good for reliability and are usually very steady, stable boards - not always the best for performance but never far from the top. But you are right Intel have excellent motherboards, usually because they know what is coming next and can design something others can't (without the kind of information they have) or add something extra in that others won't have.

[PK|ReUsed]

Cheers Cerro, I think perhaps i'll leave it longer, and just save my pennies then. With enough luck i'll be getting a job in a very short amount of time. had a few interviews and i'm feeling fan-fucking-tastic.

a few months should be more than enough. Concidering most of the jobs that i've been interviewed for are offering near £200 a week, £50 a week can go to my PC, I'll work out bills with my dad, probably under £50 a week though (maybe about 100 a month,/£25 a week), £50 a week for getting pissed on mondays, and £75 savings per week...

I'm going to be rich :0... -drools-

[PK|Cerro]

I think you missed out on the "tax" part... NI and income tax (if you go above the lower threshold) - sucks losing 22% to the government.

Anyway, i'd save up over the weeks and buy the parts all at once, otherwise you might buy a part that comes out near the end that is not compatible with the other stuff you bought earlier (and it can also lead you to change your mind and cost you more).

[BoNes]

Have you seen the x38 board ... it is like a mini city.....

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2825&Itemid=37

So would you wait for this or buy the other chipset you mentioned ?

[PK|Cerro]

Hmmm, hadn't managed to find any info on that board (DX38BT Bonetrail) till you gave me that picture - looks nice. Well it won't be widely available until early October I suspect (if not later) and it will probably be in the region of £150-£200. All X38 boards will start from £100. P35 boards can be found cheaper, its hard to say now without any real stat comparisions.

The advatages of the X38 board are pretty big though, it will support the next line of Intel Processors (Penryn - which use a 1333Mhz FSB, matching the DDR3 1333Mhz support) and it supports EPP for DDR3 because it supports up to 1333Mhz - meaning faster memory and bigger overclocks. It also has PCI Express 2 and space for 3 "full x16" PCI Express lanes. Mind you DDR3 also adds to the cost, right now its very expensive and its latencies are quiet high (but even at CAS7 it performs the same as CAS4 DDR2 stuff).

MSI's X38 sounds exciting, it has 4 PCIe x16 slots, 1 PCIe x1 slot and 2 PCI slots. However 1 gfx card and a phyiscs card would do me personally - unless you want like 8 monitors. What I really want is 8 internal SATA Ports with the X38 chipset. I believe Gigabyte have this in their mobo designs. Pics of some X38 boards here (http://www.tomshardware.com/picturegalleries/gallery-200706053-1.html).

I'm waiting for the reviews to appear and for all the features to become known - I've still got my Strikers, but the longer I have it, the less impressed I am with it, Nvidia/Asus just didn't come up with a good enough board there. P35 for now, X38 for the future.

[PK|ReUsed]

Ill save for longer. Im just happy i'm going to be getting paid soon =p

[BoNes]

Here you go, the 1-2-3 steps on how to build a PC for nothing at all ....

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ashen1/ashen/menu/build/intro.htm

[PK|Colonel Ames]

LMAO, thats awesome dude. i'm gonna go buy myself one of those tempature warnings as soon as i get home................ always wanted a rabbit.

LOL

[PK|ReUsed]

the "Audio Guide" Was class.

Cheers for that Bones, I'll have my new PC in No time now ;D

[PK|ReUsed]

reread first post lads plx0r <333

[PK|Cerro]

you need to find out if your gfx card is agp or pci-express... CPU-Z will give you a fair bit of system info. Make screenshots and post here if you don't understand it.

If its AGP you are stuck with the dilemma of upgrading (in which case its pretty much a new pc) or just getting a newer graphics card and maybe not getting the most out of it, due to the limited lifespan of agp now.

[PK|ReUsed]

pretty sure it's PCI-express

[PK|ReUsed]

The NVIDIA® GeForce™ 6500 and 6200 graphics processing units (GPUs) featuring NVIDIA® TurboCache™ technology take full advantage of the PCI Express bus to deliver the turbocharged system performance you need to play all the hottest games and applications.

[PK|Cerro]

get an 8800GTS 640Mb card to replace it then!

CPU-Z will tell you what ram you have installed and its current timings.

[PK|ReUsed]

I think you missed the point, I'm doing this for budget, an 8800 640MB would be in the region of £240?

Im thinking more if I could get something under £100 that'll be a significant boost.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-127-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=912 how's this? :0

[PK|Cerro]

for under £100 you're not going to get much over what you've got... an 8500 is not a very powerful card and probably not much of an improvement, even an 8600 isn't much over a 7900 - the only advantage of the 8500/8600 is they are DX10 cards and so run newer games a little better.

This might be a decent improvement: http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.aspx?sku=334579

[PK|ReUsed]

it's not a 7900 I have though, im on a 6200. can you not read? :>

[PK|Cerro]

I KNOW its not a 7900 you got, but im saying a 7900 is the same as an 8600, they get the same frame rates except on a DX10 game.

I have a 7900GS and while it runs everything pretty decent on max settings the newest games bog it down a little and I have to turn down the detail. An 8600 wouldn't be a whole lot better.

Get an 8800GTS, even if its only the 320Mb version (which will be fine if you play with res settings of 1028x1024 or less - higher means you want a 640Mb). If you can't afford it, save up for it - the graphics card is perhaps the single most important part of a PC these days.

[PK|Elite]

HD 2900XT FTW :D £240 though

[PK|ReUsed]

well if a 7900 runs everything pretty well on max, that'll be the improvement i need, and i'll just get a 7900.

Like i said, i'm not interested in playing new games ;D