FuNsTeR

as my avitar suggest i am Scottish (UK) i am looking for options on a new system ie mobo, processor, memory, psu, graphics, hard drive/drives, dvd rom/blu ray drive and a new lcd ... i have about £1,000 for a budget right after the new year ... i have a armour pro tower or i might just buy a pc off the shelf any suggestion would be helpful

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"They say when you play a Microsoft CD backwards you can hear satanic messages ..... but that's nothing, if you play it forward it will install Windows"

Judas

fight the urge for the system off the shelf...


Intel Q6600 (or better
4gb DDR2 Kit (or more)
Asus P5Q-SE (if you want cheap that still good)
ATI Radeon HD4670 or better
Seagate 7200.11 (raid the buggers up for some serious sweet speed, but requires a board better then the one mentioned above)
Samsung 24" 2443BW ... beautiful monitor for the price.....


That's a start...

I mean i'd recommend a i7 cpu and board and memory.. but the price of which would just about consume your entire budget just for the 3 parts may seem a little overkill lol

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blibbax

It depends on a lot of factors, such as how you want to spread that budget (do you want a gr8 LCD with a PC that can't game on it?) and what you use it for.

Personally I think a 4670 will struggle to run many games on a 24" monitor, and that you'll need a 9600GT as a bare minimum, but it all depends on what, whether and how you play.

As Judas mentioned I7 is good and within your budget, but it'll force you down on other compnents. LGA775 is still fast and cheap right now.

Regardless of any of this, I would reccomend that you do not buy an off the shelf PC, and that you do not skimp on PSU or cooling.

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swimtech

What are your primary uses going to be for the new machine - as best you know now? And, do you have any ideas about what you think you might want to do with the machine in two years or so?

Answering those questions will not only give us a good idea about what to recommend to you now, but also help us to consider for you, as best we can, any open (or restrictions to...) upgrade paths for the future according to your wants and needs.

The i7/LGA 1366 versus Core2/LGA 775 consideration has already been implied to you, as a for instance...

Also, have you taken any time to look at Kris23's recommendations in the list of Sticky threads at the top of this forum's thread listings - the thread is a few months old, but can still give you many insights about performance choices versus price.

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It's not so much getting your way that matters or not - what matters is how you go about getting it.

FuNsTeR

the primary use will be multi media with some gaming thrown in ... i am thinking of a blu ray reader drive but i might just use my old LG dvd rom and liteon dvd burner instead and just buy a stand alone Blu ray drive for my pano TV ... processor wise it doesn't bother me as long as it does the job and reliable/stable

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"They say when you play a Microsoft CD backwards you can hear satanic messages ..... but that's nothing, if you play it forward it will install Windows"

kris23

i forgot to mention that i have completely overhauled the list and that its updated...

its all up to date with Core i7 systems.

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blibbax

In that case a high end quad core might be excessive - a lower end CPU such as a q9450 or even an e8400 would do the job nicely and leave money spare to go to town elsewhere.

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FuNsTeR

i've been kinda browsing the overclockersuk site for ideas

i am thinking about

Windows XP MC edition .... i hate vista
Asus P5Q Intel P45
Q6600 2.40 ghz
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB)
as a bundle from ocuk but i could change my mind for a more expensive bundle

Sapphire 4830 512MB (Amazon uk)
Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB (ocuk)
Akasa AK-HD-03 Hard Drive Dampener (ocuk)
Akasa AK-975CU CPU Cooler (ocuk)
LiteON sata dvd rom (ocuk)
Asus sata Dvd - RW (ocuk)
Samsung SM-2032BW Pebble 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor (ocuk)
sound card either my audigy or my xfi music
psu either enermax 535 watt or a hipper 570 watt from (ocuk)

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"They say when you play a Microsoft CD backwards you can hear satanic messages ..... but that's nothing, if you play it forward it will install Windows"

blibbax

A few things to think about there, starting from the top and heading down.
-The Q6600 is an aging processor now, and has been overtaken by only slightly more expenisve 45nm parts, espescially if you plan on overclocking.
-4Gb will soon become the standard for ram - this is a cheap upgrade you won't regret. You will however need a 64 bit OS - perhaps XP pro?
-Why do you need dual DVD drives? DW if you do, just seems a bit unusual.
-You need a case - is this part of the bundle?

Also, does that bundle work out cheaper or dearer than individual prices? Often you pay extra for it being assembled for you.

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Judas

just a fyi.... xp is a dead horse...... while you may hate vista... it may be a wise idea to further investigate it ..... perhaps a microsoft oem copy vs the prebuilt rapeage that has occured due to dell/hp/compaq and others who have heavily screwed with vista.

From my own experience, using a quad core cpu with windows xp 32bit today would be like installing windows 3.1 on a intel P4 with Hyper Threading capabilities..... it's utterly fruitless, pointless and counter productive.

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FuNsTeR

- i already have a thermaltake armour case

- i don't overclock anything i prefer to keep things at stock speeds

- no you assemble it yourself

- i like seperate drives

- 2gb is fine for XP ... i just hate vista ... it is just so obstructive how it blocks access to some folders .... it is my computer i should be able to do whatever the f*ck i want

- i am not willing to pay more than £200 for a processor ... so intel can whistle dixie if they think i am going to pay loony prices for one of their i7 chips

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"They say when you play a Microsoft CD backwards you can hear satanic messages ..... but that's nothing, if you play it forward it will install Windows"

FuNsTeR

i already have a oem version of windows vista .... it is honking i turned off the defender cack and the popups and i still can't get access into some folders, half of my software does not work with vista like wallpaper pro ... where my wallpaper changes everytime i log on to windows and powerquest's drive image 7 (norton ghost is sh**e) .. xp will do till windows 7 comes out and proves itself

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"They say when you play a Microsoft CD backwards you can hear satanic messages ..... but that's nothing, if you play it forward it will install Windows"

Freulein

maybe


or check out [FAQ] Der ideale Gaming-PC - ForumBase

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blibbax

All cool, but:
-Do consider buying individual compnents.
-4gb of ram isn't wasted on any OS, espesically the way some games are going.
-XP Pro 64 is the best version of XP.
-You can improve substantially on a Q6600 without breaking £200. Look at e8 series porcessors or even some q9 series.

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Judas

blocks access to what folders?

i'd had no problems thus far...

As for capability issues that's not vista's fault..

windows 7 has zero differences worth mentioning in terms of support/capabilities....... it's an improvement yes...

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OldBuzzard

Here ya go FuNsTeR, the cure to your "access into some folders" woes

Add "Take Ownership" to Explorer Right-Click Menu in Vista :: the How-To Geek


As for some other applications from XP not working in Vista, it really isn't all that much different than what happened with the switch from Win98 to XP. The same thing happened then. There were a lot of 98/ME/2000 applictions that wouldn't run under XP. We just had to find new applications to replace them.

"xp will do till windows 7 comes out and proves itself" ???

The problem with that statement is that, from all accounts, 7 is a lot like Vista. If something from XP won't run in Vista, you can danged well bet that it won't work in 7 either.

Vista does so many other things so much better than XP that, for me at least, the few negatives are worth accepting.

I'm running Vista Ultimate 64 bit, with 8GB RAM, and it's the fastest, most stable version of Windows that I've ever run. The only other one that was this stable would have been Windows for Workgroups 3.11, but it was no where near as user friendly nor as feature rich as Vista.

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When looking for a reason as to why things go wrong, never rule out sheer STUPIDITY

Judas

that's almost identical to my statement that i had made over a year ago.


Windows Vista x64 is the fastest, most reliable, stable, of windows to date

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FuNsTeR

i have taken onboard the advice you have given me

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.83GHz
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
Asus P5N-T Deluxe nForce 780i
OCZ 4GB DDR3 PC3-10666C7 1333MHz Platinum (2x2GB) Dual Channel DDR3
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4830
Hiper 580W HPU-4M580
Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II
Asus DRW-20B1ST 20x DVD±RW SATA
Akasa AK-HD-03 Hard Drive Dampener
Samsung SM-2032BW Pebble 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor

and it still comes below budget at ocuk ... i will place my order just after the new year as i am on holiday right after the new year ..... and i will try vista 64

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"They say when you play a Microsoft CD backwards you can hear satanic messages ..... but that's nothing, if you play it forward it will install Windows"

blibbax

I don't think that motherboard supports DDR3 from the top of my head, but I might be wrong. Also, do you really need an SLI motherboard? Wouldn't a X38 or P45 provide for you better?

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Bolletje

Indeed, that motherboard doesn't support DDR3. It's also a foolish step to pick a nForce chipset and a ATI graphics card.

I should go for:
P5Q Pro (P45 chipset)
HD4850
4GB Cheap-ass Kingston Value RAM
Coolermaster M520
AC 7 Pro
Samsung Spinpoint 640GB (2 x 320 GB platters)
E8400 or Q6600 (Q9550 is overpriced now the mid-range i7's are coming up).

If you get this system you can get another HD4850 later on so that you have more graphics power

Well the P45 chipset only has 2 x 8x PCI-e when it's in CF-mode, but it's 8x PCI-e 2.0. This newer version of PCI-e doubles the bandwidth: PCI-e 2.0 8x has the same bandwidth as PCI-e 1.x 16x.

HD4850 is a good card for the money. Or you can get a 9800GTX+, but then you should have a nForce chipset (7x0i) for SLI function.

Kingston is a good brand with cheap 4GB kits

Coolermaster has a great PSU with their M520. (and it's modular too)

AC 7 Pro is a fine cooler.

Well, if you don't need a lot of storage space you can also go for the 640GB version of the F1, it's a little bit cheaper.

swimtech

Hey y'all, me too! I remember mentioning WFWG 3.11 too somewhere. FuNsTeR - you'll really like 64bit Vista on the new hardware you get.

BTW, at least here in the US, the Core i7 920 is less expensive than the Q9550! Keeping the DDR3 memory - but moving to a tri-channel 6G memory kit, getting the i7 920 processor, getting the Asus P6T X-58 or Gigabyte X58-DS4 mainboard, and deleting the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 cooler (using the stock cooler...) would only cost about $110.00 (US) more - and be extremely well worth it I think. If I were you that's what I would do - really...

Edit: Actually, looks like the i7 920 might be 50 pounds (in UK currency) less than the 9550. Maybe even Yoyotech could put together a package deal with a discount since it's Christmastime - worth a shot considering you're a member here.

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It's not so much getting your way that matters or not - what matters is how you go about getting it.

kris23

considering how close the price of the Q9550 is to a Core i7 920, i HIGHLY recommend getting a system with an intel Core i7 920, just get a cheap X58 board and only use 4Gb of cheapo DDR3 RAM vs 6GB its still better than any Core 2 and its going to last you a long time.

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Judas

the 920 is considerably more then the 9550 for me here ...... so much so it still hurts

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kris23

dang... that sucks...

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Bolletje

But with 4GB of RAM you loose the Tri-channel effect. Or do you recommend to go for 2 x 1GB and 1 x 2GB :s?

kris23

yea you DO lose the triple channels on i7 but an old core 2 only has dual channels.

with an i7 system, if you dont have the budget, just run it in dual channel mode and add another stick later....

and with memory, quantity is far more important than quality if you have 4 gigs of budget RAM or 2 gigs of some OCing RAM youll probably find better performance with the budget sticks

yea i mean to go with 2x2GB sticks, having unbalanced channels isnt very good for performance as asymmetric dual/tri channel is horrible compared to a symmetric set.

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Judas

2x2gb with an i7 is still considerably fastest then 2x2gb in a q9550 setup....

Right now do to one of my triple channel modules failing, i'm running one system with dual channel mode right now ...and it's still blazing fast

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blibbax

Skulltrail shows that even the most powerful can still pwn with relativley slow memory ATM. Unlucky with that failure though. What brand was it?

A friend of mine bought 2 DDR2 4gb kits from OCZ earlier this year, and in both kits one of the sticks was faulty.

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Judas

Ocz

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nicnik

I'm in UK too, I've ordered parts to build an i7 system. Like you, I also have a case spare. Uk prices are slightly more expensive than US prices, especially if you want a better GPU.

Anyway, I wanted a GTX 260 and the Viewsonic VX2260 monitor, both of which can be replaced by lower cost items. fyi the total cost for me was around £1150 (postage included).

I also picked a more expensive PSU than I required and 6GB ddr3 (on offer at dabs.com).

I reckon if you can settle for a not so expensive monitor, say a 22 or 19 inch at £110-130, 3GB RAM, a 650W PSU, and perhaps a GPU in the range of £140-200, you can def make the i7 within £1000. coz swapping those items out in comparison to what I've ordered then that's like minus £130-180 from my total.

For you information, I've ordered from the following.

Ebuyer.com
Misco.co.uk
Dabs.com
AWD-IT.com

Some of the items I've brought have since gone out of stock and the prices fluctuate heavily on a daily basis, especially on dabs and ebuyer, so who knows maybe you can get it even cheaper.

nic

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