£2,500 Gaming Rig

BaDDaSS · Sep 10, 2007

Okay it's been a couple of years since I last built a PC, and I'm wanting to build another, that will hopefully last a little longer.

My budget is around £2.5k, I don't mind going a little over, if there's good reason.
I want this PC to last me 2 - 3 years if possible.

Any advice on the specs is well appreciated.
Here's what I was thinking;

CoolerMaster Stacker 830 Evolution - Nvidia Special Edition (No PSU)
(£193.86)

NEC AD7170A 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black)
(£15.26)

2x Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 NCQ 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache
(£136.28)

2x Corsair 2GB DDR3 DHX 1333C9DHX TwinX (2x1GB)
(£587.48)

Gigabyte GA_P35T_DQ6 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
(£140.99)

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB)
(£178.59)

2x BFG GeForce 8800 Ultra OC 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
(£892.98)

Coolermaster Real Power 1000w Modular Power Supply
(£176.24)

Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Professional 7.1 Soundcard
(£89.29)

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD
(£64.61)

That comes to a total of £2478.19
All the prices are based on Overclockers.co.uk.

I was going to go with water cooling, but I'm still very concious of it, as I go to a lot of LAN Parties, I don't like the thought of shifting my PC around with a water cooling system.
I know... I'm old fasioned.

But I still need the PC to be well cooled and quiet.

engiNURD · Sep 10, 2007

Ditch the DDR3. There is no performance benefit with DDR3 over DDR2. For a Q6600, all you need is some DDR2-800.

What size monitor do you have?

You do know that the P35 Express chipset doesnt officially support SLI, right? For SLI, your best choice would be the eVGA 680i SLI A1 revision board.

hstuehmeyer2000 · Sep 10, 2007

the 8800ultras really are not worth the extra money over the gtx's

engiNURD · Sep 11, 2007

hstuehmeyer2000 said:
this is what i would get if i had that much money

Abit IN9 32X-MAX
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-119-AB&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=205
Auzentech X-Fi Prelude 7.1
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-000-AZ&groupid=701&catid=11&subcat=
2xOcUK GeForce 8800 GTX
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-051-OK&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=877
Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme Edition QX6850
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-154-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=
GeIL 4GB (4x1GB) PC8500C5 1066MHz
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-068-GL&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=
Plextor PX800A 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-046-PL&groupid=701&catid=10&subcat=
4xSeagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-084-SE&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=940
PC Power & Cooling Turbo Cool 1KW-SR
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-000-PP&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-039-TR
CoolerMaster Stacker 830 Evolution - Nvidia Special Edition
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-141-CM
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64-Bit Edition DVD
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SW-041-MS&groupid=33&catid=20&subcat=
Corsair Memory Cooler
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-123-CS&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=399
and i think that should pretty much cover it
the 8800ultras really are not worth the extra money over the gtx's

I'd actually take BaDDaSS' build (with 680i SLI) over yours. An Extreme edition chip is an extreme waste of money, as well as Plextor drives.

Regarding the Ultra's... in the states, the Ultra's are only about $50 more than a GTX. The fact that they have the improved core that runs cooler and overclocks better is actually worth the ~$50 extra dollars to most people who are willing to spend as much for a GTX in the first place.

BaDDaSS · Sep 11, 2007

Thanks guys, your advice is much appreciated

I'm now looking at going with the eVGA 680i SLI A1 and some GeIL 4GB PC8500C5 1066MHz 5-5-5-15

And the reason I chose two Ultras is because for that extra bit of money I would like to overkill the gfx department for a few months.
Be able to play the latest games (Gears of War and the new Crysis) on full graphics at my monitor's highest resolution.

By the way it's a 22inch wide screen.

And the only brand I would get is BFG, as I know I can trust them for support.
Last time I cheaped-out with Inno3D, and they have the crappiest support ... it's non existent.

MzL · Sep 11, 2007

try getting a crucial ballistic tracer pc8500 over the corsiar .

corsiar overpriced ,

save some moeny getting the crucial.

well thats my opion but corsiar is still a good brand

and your mobo u could get the 680i or a good asus board

but gigabyte is still good with there ' 2 series'

but if your rich u can get anything that will kick some big bumb ~~~~

AY786 · Sep 11, 2007

crucials good, i have the ballistix and have had it for 2 years but last week my ram died on me but they offer life time warranty so im getting some new ones on the way - would recommend

Markyip1 · Sep 11, 2007

2 Ultra cards is an ultra waste of money for a 22 inch widescreen. For SLI to prove beneficial, you'll need to game at a resolution of at least 1920x1200. Ditch the second Ultra card and save the quid.

Mark.

BaDDaSS · Sep 11, 2007

Okay, point noted.

Do you think a 8800 Ultra will run the new DX10 games on High settings?

Don't forget I need this to be future proof =]

silent-circuit · Sep 11, 2007

You can always add a second card later on if you determine the single card isn't cutting it, or sell your Ultra and buy something faster. Keep SLI as an option for that reason -- the eVGA 122-CK-NF68-A1 really is a good board. You will probably be just fine with a single Ultra at that res, though, certainly at least for now.

There is no such thing as future proof. Better off saving the money and putting it in later when the machine seems to be slowing down if you're that concerned about keeping on the high end.

engiNURD · Sep 11, 2007

Markyip1 said:
2 Ultra cards is an ultra waste of money for a 22 inch widescreen. For SLI to prove beneficial, you'll need to game at a resolution of at least 1920x1200. Ditch the second Ultra card and save the quid.

silent-circuit said:
You can always add a second card later on if you determine the single card isn't cutting it, or sell your Ultra and buy something faster. Keep SLI as an option for that reason -- the eVGA 122-CK-NF68-A1 really is a good board. You will probably be just fine with a single Ultra at that res, though, certainly at least for now.

There is no such thing as future proof. Better off saving the money and putting it in later when the machine seems to be slowing down if you're that concerned about keeping on the high end.

I agree with Mark and Silent-Circuit.

As far as future proofing goes, the vidcard is the fastest depreciating component in a gaming PC, because the GPU refresh rate is FAST. Therefore, you're better off going with a high end card now, then upgrading that card every couple of years, and selling off your old one to help offset the cost (as s-c mentioned).

BaDDaSS said:
I'm now looking at going with the eVGA 680i SLI A1 and some GeIL 4GB PC8500C5 1066MHz 5-5-5-15

The eVGA A1 is the best board for SLI. Don't bother with the Asus boards, support is worse and they're more problematic.

You don't need DDR2-1066 with a Q6600:

(CPU Multiplier) x [Base FSB speed] = CPU Clock speed
2 x [Base FSB speed] = RAM speed
4 x [Base FSB speed] = Effective FSB speed

On Intel platforms, running the RAM higher than a 1:1 ratio with the CPU is useless. Keep it linked at 1:1:

Q6600: 9 * 266 = 2.4Ghz, DDR2-533 << STOCK speeds
Q6600: 9 * 333 = 3.0Ghz, DDR2-667 << Nice OC
Q6600: 9 * 378 = 3.4Ghz, DDR2-756 << Good OC, near max on good air for B3 stepping
Q6600: 9 * 400 = 3.6Ghz, DDR2-800 << Great OC, near max on good air for G0 stepping

Theres no point in lowering the CPU mulitplier and pushing a higher FSB (above 400) because the quadcores don't like high fsb speeds.

Also, there isn't much difference between CL4 and CL5, so don't pay a huge price premium for tighter timings.

BaDDaSS · Sep 11, 2007

Wow thanks, helped me a lot.

Looks like I'm going with 800MHz
I like the Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX (2x2GB)

I don't really understand the timings of RAM (5-5-5-18) but I do understand that 2 sticks is better than 4

.

engiNURD · Sep 11, 2007

The first number in that series is the CL, the most important. So, if timings are stated to be 4-3-5-12, the CL is 4. Here are some links from google:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAS_latency
http://www.memorysuppliers.com/caslatwhatis1.html
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ComputingSolutions/0,,30_288_13265_13295^13335,00.html

However, there isn't much difference between CL4 and CL5 @ DDR2-800 because the sheer speed of the ram outweighs the CAS latencies. Therefore, lower latency RAM isn't worth a huge price premium.

£2,500 Gaming Rig

BaDDaSS

n00b

engiNURD

Fully [H]

hstuehmeyer2000

[H]ard|Gawd

engiNURD

Fully [H]

BaDDaSS

n00b

MzL

Limp Gawd

AY786

Limp Gawd

Markyip1

[H]ard|Gawd

BaDDaSS

n00b

silent-circuit

[H]F Junkie

engiNURD

Fully [H]

BaDDaSS

n00b

engiNURD

Fully [H]