A challenge: Compile the best PC for doom 3 and halflife 2 for under £1700!

Is it **** as in it will ruin performance somehow, or **** as in looks ****? I'm not too bothered about what's on the outside.

 

if youre nto worried how it looks then dont worry...the only way it could change the performance potentially is that some cases are more aerodynamic then others allowing more overclocking potential!

after that its down to personal choice and budget!

 

Here's the spec....

That's not the spec from PC world but from another site, it is the same card i think though and PC world are one of BFG's official european suppliers.

 

ok, i'll just stay with the one i've got listed then.

 

graphics card update....

BFG are listed on the nvidia site, so they must be kosher. I'll be getting that then.

Everything is finalised except the monitor now

 

to decide on monitor in a couple of easy steps:
1. walk down to the nearest office building
2. tell security that you are here to patch a mainframe on the 2nd floor for xy company (check names on the door)
3. walk into random office, and find first desk with tft screen on it
4. talk to person sitting here about tft, you are doing *cough* survey on tft screens to see whether people like them!
5. now see for yourself if you like them
6. now for a comparison to a *real monitor find a CAD office or some architects and repeat steps 1-5 but on something like an iiyama or sony 19-22" CRT...

i like CRTs and think that the other type of monitor is blurry, colours are messed up and refresh time is pants! but thats just me personal, and i do end up having to have a big desk because of it...

 

Hmmmm seems legit to me, even tho 20mhz o\c isnt anything special. If it's cheaper then the other cards you have looked at, and its obviously the same minimum spec, i see no reason why it wouldnt be a good purchase

Although the 20mhz extra they got out of it may be all you can get Either that or they just didn't want to push it too far

Just because it looks ****e now, doesnt mean that when hes finished with it it will be, you ppl seem to forget the potential

Death

 

****e as in - will probably make you loose digits when installing your stuff. Cheap cases are notorious for having sharp edges. Many-a-pinkie have suffered from cheap cases.

 

I'll be careful don't worry

I'll be ****ting myself when installing the stuff to be honest, imagine if i snapped anything

felix, I think i'll get a CRT then. I've seen TFT's at school and to be honest they were a little weird from various angles.

 

The tft debate will no doubt continue for eternity. So heres my 2p:

The LG1710B i bought a few weeks back is honestly an amazing piece of kit. I too was sceptical, and hovered around for ages before taking the plunge. But im glad i did. The colours are amazing. Viewing angle is fairly good too. Obviously the screen changes when you move "off centre" (a fair bit off centre before its noticeable) but that doesnt really bother me since im sat right right in front of it.
Refresh is fine too. I only use my pc for the net and games, and its great for both. DVD playback is bloody good too.
Dont compare cheap tft's you may have seen in school etc. The ones we have in work are horrible. You cant even scroll a doc without it all blurring.
17" tft's are also bloody huge. Far bigger than 17" crt. Its comparable to a 19" crt. (screen area)

Id never buy a crt again as long as live.

Just thought id stick up for tft boys out there.

 

not only do they look better IMO but this way you can get a much larger monitor than you could afford with tft monitors, and you will be able to use the high resolution your setup will be capable of. with tft monitors the monitor can actually become the biggest "bottleneck" on the system.

I also agree with the choice of graphics card. I dont think the 6800 series will have any problems with hl2. this issues were with the last generation where nvidia did things a little oddly with pixel shaders 2. It seems this is all pretty well straightened around with the 6800 series (and then some). and from what ive heard the 6800 series have more in common with the radeon 9800s than they do with the previous gen cards (5900 ultra etc.). So by that i would venture a guess that if hl2 was going to run good on a 9800pro then it should scream on a 6800gt.

about the processor: if i were you i would get the fastest processor that you can afford. from what ive seen the processor is becoming more and more important in making a system play games smoothly and give you the "fast" feel you want when your just messing around doing random stuff.

about ram: Ive never held much value to ram brands. I always just get the cheapest stuff i can find, BUT i always get ram a step up from what i need. For instance - in my system i have an athlon 2600+. Its bus speed is 333mhz, so I needed pc2700 ram, so instead of getting cheap pc2700 ram I got cheap pc3200 ram. This way i dont have to worry that the pc2700 ram isn't up to spec, because the pc3200 ram will definately be able to run at least at pc2700 speeds. But then theres certainly no harm in getting name brand ram either. But the next thing about ram: you might want to consider getting more than a gig of ram. I have agig in my system and I noticed a definate increase in smoothness in games and overall operation. And this is on a system that is probably considered mid range to lowish end now (2600+ with a geforce FX 5900). If youre buying a system that you want to last a while you might consider getting more ram. But you can always add that at a later time.

your keyboard and mouse: I dont know how hardcore of a gamer you are, but in my personal experience I HATE and WILL NOT use my wireless keyboard and mouse to play games with. I keep then by my bed so i can use the computer on my tv when im in bed. The reason for not using it for gaming is because of lag time. There always seems to be a slight lag when using a cordless mouse, and sometimes (very rarely) the cordless keyboards miss keystrokes. It only takes a couple times when youre in the midst of a hardcore deathmatch and you get killed because of one of these slight issues. but for general use I like the cordless keyboard and mouse. i keep the corded stuff on my desk with the rest of the setup and i use the cordless as mobile peripherals. but then, im picky i wont even use a laser mouse anymore when gaming because they "wig out" on rare occasions when they move too fast on a surface or get confused because of the surface, or something i dont know why they do it but ive seen it on most every laser mouse ive used.

overall though i think the system looks great. the only thing i would recommend is a faster processor if you can afford it. the ram and keyboard/mouse things are things you can always change later.

 

what about lack of resolution though? My graphics card can probably do at least 1600 x 1200 surely, yet most 17" TFT's can only do 1280 by whatever?

Also Bindibadgi has got me paranoid about a case now, anyone got a preference on that, anything REALLY good for no more than £30 - £40?

 

I can do 1600x1200 with my card on games up to ut2004! so yeah you should be able to do at least 1600x1200 for sure probably even in doom3 and mayby hl2, and more on 'older' games (as in not hl2 and doom3 generation).

i wouldn't worry about the case, its only a overclocking factor in extreme cases. like if youre doing crazy overclocking with volt modding and whatnot where temperature is whats keeping you from getting that last mhz.

 

Resolution for me isnt a problem. I play all my games 1280x1024, and they look bloody amazing too.
Running at a higher res might mean you have to drop the AA and AF. Which for me is a no no. I dont "do" jagged lines. (Although i have no choice at the moment in Doom3 )

Wireless keyboard and mouses are yet another debate. But for me, there isnt one. A cheap one will be a crap laggy piece of turd. But the logitech mx is neither cheap nor a crap laggy piece of turd. The keyboard is just the same as using a wired one. And the mx700 mouse is better than the wired intellimouse explorer i replaced it with. Fact. No debates or arguments. (And no, im not just saying this because i have one) There is a review on this site of the mx700 i think.

 

Ok thankyou everyone, here is the spec for probably the last time:

Asus A8V-Deluxe/wifi-g bundle AMD Skt939 K8T800PR 8X AGP DDR400
+SATA RAID +Firewire +Gigabit LAN +8ch.audio +USB2 (up to DDR400) £89.24
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 64 bit Retail inc.fan (3 yr.warr.) Socket 939 £241.99
BFG GeForce 6800 GT OC 256MB AGP pc world £ 259.43
Logitech Cordless Desktop Opt. MX Keyboard & Mouse USB/PS2 £71.68
Corsair® 1024MB TwinX XMS 3200XL X-Treme Low Latency Memory Kit £197.34
200 GB Seagate Barracuda 8MB Cache 7200rpm ATA100 (ST3200822A) £75.49
Asus 16x DVD-ROM Black IDE Retail £20.27
Creative Labs Soundblaster Audigy Ls £38.53
Enermax Noisetaker 420W silent PSU +act. PFC twin fan EG425AX-VE(G)SFMA £56.40
Chenbro Gaming Bomb Black/Silver with Window +USB2 +F/wire +12cm fan NO PSU (c/w 3GHz cooling) £33.99
Hauppauge WinTV Nova-t USB Digital Terrestrial VCR model 908 £84.00
19" Iiyama HM903DTB 0.25 Pro 454 High Bright(3yrs Onsite) (3yr warr- tel 01438 314416) £232.05

£1400.41

If you notice any incompatability please let me know, i'll be ordering later this week i think.

Once again thanks for all your comments! I'll def be back here to ask how the hell to put things together so be prepared

 

jaggies aren't nearly as visible at higher resolution, plus with that setup AA/AF can certainly accompany a resolution higher 1280x1024 (why are tfts at a diff aspect ratio??).

i have a mx700 keyboard combo, and i can say that while its WAY better than crappy cordless mice the lag is still there, slightly. and the keyboard is nearly flawless but it has the lag too and will very very rarely miss a key (like 1 in a million)

and with the case, i know i would want my new computer to look nice! but if you dont care than thats that. case choice is mearly what pleases your eye.

 

cool maniac, remember to have fun putting this thing together! its one of the funnest parts for me.

 

hopefully it'll be fun. I've installed a DVD writer, graphics cards and a hard drive before, but I'm sure I'll get confused somewhere with a whole system.

Oh yeah, will the fan that comes on the processor be enough and the graphics card's fan too? I think the case I'm getting has 1 90mm fan. Is that enough if I'm not overclocking, or at least for a while?

 

The case supports a 92mm intake and a 120mm outtake fan...I'd suggest putting nice, quiet fans in both spots.

 

Should be ok i think. The HSF that comes with the retail CPU will be enough. But in the future you might want a better/quieter solution. Same for Graphics Card.
As for the case, i dont really know. The better the air flow throughout the case, the better the temps for eveything.

How about this beast http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=5477&GroupID=424 . Plenty of fans (5), and more importantly plenty of modding potential. Looks pretty good for the price, and antec have a good rep.