If you're not overclocking then I wouldn't reccomend buying high performance RAM, the difference in speed the timings make isn't worth the extra. I wouldn't bother getting a floppy drive - I've done without one for years. You could use a USB stick for transferring files between PC's. I've got an NEC ND-4570A DVD writer drive and it's been great so far, played and burned every disc I've tried. I would personally avoid Samsung optical drives (my experience has not been as good with them as NEC). I would get these speakers instead of the creatives: http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx?&CategorySelectedId=11122&Quicklinx=3TM4&v=3#infoarea I have some Logitech Z-3's (about £50) and I've been very happy with them. I reccomend getting a 74GB raptor (which will still be fast!) and use that for the OS and programs. Then get a 7200rpm drive in whatever size you need for your data storage. You could even get 2 and set them up in RAID 1 in case one failed (though this is expensive if you're getting big drives), but at least your data is more secure. That's all I have to suggest really, it will be a killer machine! Edit: RAID 0 has a higher chance of failure than a single drive, RAID 1 mirros the contents onto the second drive so if one drive fails then the data should still be in tact on the other. Google has loads of info on RAID, google for more info. Most motherboards SATA controllers support RAID 0 or 1 and sometimes 0 + 1.
I've heard plextor burners are the best. (most expensive too) I use Sony and they are awful! Wonder what it'd be like to have 4gigs of RAM!?!
DAMIT!!! Iv just tried to look up some information for the dell monitor i was recommend and come across this old link: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=112678&page=1&pp=20 Turns out it kinda sucks or atleast this old article leads me to believe that. Back to the drawing board it seems for the monitor.... Anyone able to reccomend me a good one for the same budget? id like it if it was BIG and good for demanding games on high resolutions (il have the latest graphics card to go with it) Looking forward to your suggestions! EDIT! I think i found a good choice Viewsonic VX2025wm 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor Good review and a excellence award what you guys think?
I've been looking at the 20.1" Belinea 102035W which you can get for under £300 delivered. I chose that above the Viewsonic after a fair bit of research, so it might be worth looking at too if you are in that ballpark. Personally though, I would say that on a 2000+ budget, a 24" model would probably in keeping. I'd usually spec a 20" for a £1400-£1800 system.
A 6600... in a near £3,000 system... with a budget of £450 for the graphics alone I think not Where are you seeing anyone recommending an Nvida 6800 anyway Without going back over the thread to check... I reckon you must be getting your CPU numbers, mixed up with your GPU numbers FYI... he's actually waiting on DX10 cards being released, before deciding what card(s) to get
^ You do know that the most expensive Intel CPU is the 6800, or to give its full name the X6800. Regardless of how much you are spending, its always good to save a little bit here and there, and the speed difference between the 6600 and the 6800 Core 2 Duo's is hardly huge.
Yeah Haz, I think he was referring to the Conroe CPUs... I would deffo go with a RAID setup. 3x750GB drives in raid 5 would be nice... But if you've never done it before and don't store heaps of stuff like films etc on your PC then its deffo no necessary. I would probably wait for the first of the DX10 cards to come out. Then again, if you bought a X1900XT to keep you going til then, I doubt you'd have a hard time selling it. Also, with such a large budget it seems criminal not to use a good watercooling setup. Mind you, if you're not gonna OC it there's no real need. As for the screen, I have the 2405FPW and I love it. Very good IMO for everything from games to surfing to films. I'm not sure how Dell could have broken it quite so badly for the 2407FPW but IIRC, it was early revisions of that screen that were bad. I think they've fixed some of the issues since then.
The original dell 2407 is the one with problems. Bit-tech did a review of a later revision here: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2006/06/23/Dell_Ultrasharp_2407WFP_monito/1.html if you read the final thoughts page it tells you which revisions to avoid
Personally, I'd go for the next Xfi card up. Go for a Saitek Eclipse keyboard and a Logitech G7 mouse. If you can manage it, bump the speakers up to Logitech's Z5400's.
Well guys its all finalised. Order is being placed tonight on my bros credit card. He has a limit of £1700 on it so il have to pay that off asap to reset it and order the rest. The order going out tonight is from www.Overclockers.co.uk and is as follows: *BFG GeForce 7900 GT OC 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-018-BG) *NEC ND4570 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Silver) - OEM (CD-031-NE) *NEC ND3550 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Silver) - OEM (CD-037-NE) *Western Digital Raptor 150GB WD1500ADFD 10,000RPM SATA 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-069-WD) *Western Digital Secure Connect Serial ATA Cable (CB-000-WD) *Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB 3200KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-070-WD) *Asus P5B Deluxe (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-150-AS) *Intel Core 2 DUO E6700 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.67GHz (1066FSB) - OEM (CP-136-IN) *Logitech G5 Gaming-Grade Laser Mouse (KB-069-LG) *NEC MultiSync® LCD20WGX2 20.1" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black/Silver (MO-009-NE) (The viewsonic was out of stock everywhere and would have taken weeks to get and id need to test all the parts incase any need returning. This came highly recommended and iv made sure its good from reviews.) *Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music - OEM (SC-043-CL) *Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) (MY-108-CS) Thermaltake Big Typhoon 4 in 1 Heatpipe (Socket 939/754/775/478) CPU Cooler (CL-P0114) (HS-007-TT) Total is £1695.35...Phew...£4.65 away from the credit card limit The parts that need ordering are from Dabs.co.uk and Scan.co.uk and are: -Case -Speakers -PowerSupply -Keyboard If this orders placed tonight (godwilling my bro will still be ok with it on his card) were looking at delivary by friday Any final comments/info before i come back from work and order it tonight? I hope this all looks good. (as mentioned i wont be overlocking, or its unlikely i will be) Cant wait -Solidus
I personally would have gone with the dell tft as it is 24" and hs a rez of 1920 x 1200 (1080i HD) the 20" NEC is still a nice monitor with its gloss finish but is only 1680 x 1050. But the NEC is a lot cheaper.
If you're not overclocking why buy XMS RAM? As I said before the difference the timings make isn't worth paying the extra for in your case. The only other thing of possible concern is the reports about lots of 7900GT's failing after not very long. If you're going to buy a DX10 card as soon as they are avaliable you could consider something else instead. A 7600GT would probably get you by OK (or X1800 XT for a bit more).
I don't have much of a clue about high-end parts (outta my budget, I'll wait ) but a suggestion for the most humble part of the system - don't bother with a vanilla floppy drive, get a 7-in-1 so you have a card reader built in too. It's like £10 more but the p180 has gone down in price to compensate
Hey guys! Just a thank you message to everyone for helping me Well iv finished ordering all the parts and just wanted to thank everyone for their help in this post, you guys have helped me a HUGE amount in answering little questions to big nooby questions iv posed and i just wanted to say a big thanks to everyone for being patient and helping me. The final rundown of the pc is this, the parts in blue are the ones i have, the red ones are yet to be delivered (hopefully by wednesday) : *Lian-Li PC V2100 PLUS Silver Aluminium Full-Tower *Intel Core 2 DUO E6700 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.67GHz *BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7600 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI *Asus P5B Deluxe (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard *NEC MultiSync® LCD20WGX2 20.1" Widescreen LCD Monitor *Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) *Western Digital Raptor 150GB WD1500ADFD 10,000RPM SATA 16MB Cache *Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB 3200KS SATA-II 16MB Cache *Western Digital Secure Connect Serial ATA Cable *Logitech G15 Keyboard *Logitech G5 Gaming-Grade Laser Mouse *Icemat - White 2nd Edition *Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music *Speed-Link MEDUSA 5.1 Vibrating ProGamer Headphones *NEC ND4570 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Silver) *NEC ND3550 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Silver) *Thermaltake Big Typhoon 4 in 1 Heatpipe *Akasa Ak Fc-03 Controller *600w Seasonic S12-600 SLi Ready Silent PSU Final cost about £2100ish (give or take £50) Assembling it is going to be a mission, i cant wait Il apologise in advance now for all the questions il most likely ask when im building it Thanks for your help guys, couldnt have done this without you
Mate can you take some pics and a few opions of your own about the 7600Gt card you have bought as that one is top on my list to upgrade to. Thanks.
Sure np. Heres a pic of the stuff you get in the box and a closeup of the card (sorry couldnt take it out, im not grounded properly ) As for performance, iv yet to build the pc and put it to use. The most demanding games il be playing in the near future are most likely WoW and battlefield 2 so i can let you know how they run if you want but it will take atleast another 15days roughly to findout since im waiting for the rest of the parts and time to build it. Hope this helps!
