Hi All, Been out of the hardware loop for quite a while now and contemplating building myself a new rig. Looking for recommendations on Motherboard, Memory, Hard Drive setup, CPU and Case. I already have a Radeon 4870, a decent 600W PSU, Blu-Ray Burner (black fascia), and Audigy 4 Soundcard and will happily transfer these to the new system. Cost isn't a particular issue as long as the spec isn't over the top. This is what I have I have come up with so far: Bit over the top I guess, but what the hell Cheers, A
You could buy a Q6600 for a considerable amount less, and then use the extra money to buy a better case/after market cooler.. Then overclock it. Performance is the same (more or less) on both CPUs at equal clocks, so you might as well save the money there. Unless you want the higher multiplier (Q6700 is 10x + Q6600 is 9x) for easier overclocking anyway. Other than that it sounds good, but 1333MHz DDR3 might be slight overkill with that FSB, the same OCZ 2x2GB kit in DDR2 is nearly £100 less.
Yeh was wondering whether the ddr3 was worth it or not. At least if I go with that motherboard I will have the option of upgrading to ddr3 in the future.
Yeah, if you are gonna overclock, 800MHz DDR2 will give you plenty of room, DDR3 would likely be bottlenecked by such a slow FSB, I believe.
The 9300 is only about £40 more than the q6600 but it does perform better and is 45nm. But I would echo the ddr3 comments. Its just not really worth the massive price difference. Just to throw in another suggestion. The amd phenom 9950 or 9850 black editions are much better than the older phenoms and comparable to the q9300. They also have the benefit of an unlocked multiplier so overclocking is much easier. They can be had for between £130 to £150. And then combine that with the MSI K9A2 Platinum which is under £100 you can save enough money to think about getting a second 4870 and crossfire them!
I've heard that the 9950 and 9850 consume quite a bit of power and therefore get very hot. The mobo also doesnt support DDR3 so less future upgrades there. Besides which i dont really need the graphical power of 2 4870s, as I am only really going to be playing WoW and a couple of other games at 1680x1050. Thanks for the comment about the 9300, it is actually 60 quid more expensive on ebuyer though >_<
The 9950 does but the 9850 is reasonable and probably the better option. Don't go AMD unless you think the Denebs will be any good though.
Latest build: and from my system: OCZ StealthXtreme 600W PSU Radeon HD 4870 512mb LG Blu-Ray Rewriter SataII 250gb WDC SataII Hard Disk SB Audigy 4 Soundcard Happauge DVB-T Card Any thoughts?
A 98** ATI series GPU? Where did you get that? Also, I'd conisder getting a Corsair HX620 or at the very least a Coolermaster as opposed to the OCZ 600W.
Thats true. I'm just glad the am3 processors will work in AM2+ mobos, and I hope the Denebs are clock for clock better than the current Phenoms. Last hope for those of us who jumped on the Phenom bandwagon and found it to be disappointing! Cheapest q9300 I could find is: http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/966910/art/intel/core-2-quad-q9300-2-5-ghz.html?srcid=867. £166 inc VAT. Come to think of it. Why not look into the E8400. Its pretty awesome for everything, and only costs around £120