Well I built a PC last August from help of the guys on here but some idiots installing lamp posts cut the mains outside my house and most of our appliances blew up! So my Q9550, GTX 280, 4GB RAM rig went up in smoke I was wondering what the best build would be for £1200? Ive heard of the new GTX 285/295s, are they worth it? Should I go for core i7 or just stay with quad core? Thanks Ben
WTF, that's crazy! I hope insurance came through for you and I'd hope for some compensation from those people outside ...what did you lose? I'd suggest that you could put together a very good i7 920 based build, which is what I'd aim for personally, if I had that budget. Something like this - MOBO Asus P6T Deluxe V2 £220 CPU Core i7 920 £218 GPU Palit GTX 275 £200 RAM 6GB 1600Mhz DDR3 £108 HDD Spin Point 1TB £66 TOTAL £814 With plenty of headroom for other bits and bobs to make your system one that you love Good luck!
earlydoors' suggestions look sound, i7 is the logical way to go for builds over a grand, I'd say. I'm surprised cutting the power killed everything! Are you sure? What's the difference between them cutting cables and you accidentally tripping over the power cord and pulling that?
Some power surge or something, my xbox360, 2 lcds, pc and other appliances were fried Room was filled with smoke and I don't really want to diagnose which parts are working and what isnt. Thanks for the suggestions earlydoors, would 2 GTX 275s in sli make a difference? Thanks
Why? You paid a lot of money for it. You could easily make it work again, spending very little. Yes 900W would definitely be enough but I'd say a 700-800W should do even better.
This months buyers guide recomGigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R for the i7 mainly because it's 100 cheaper I think. Also, you might want to consider waiting for the Lynfield processors (formerly informally known as the i5)... Been hearing good things about them today but it will be something like a 2 month + wait.
I personally wouldn't hold out for Lynfield; as I understand it they're a more mainstream (i.e., cheaper) processor family, which is in contrast to the more powerful server/gaming designs of the i7. Plus, if you need a computer now, i5 isn't now. Power surge! Well, I just hope it was insured! I would recommend 800W, give or take 50W either side. The B-T hardware list recommends a suitable set-up. Plus, 2x275s is ridiculous horsepower - you might get better value for money either with dual 260s, or with a single 275 for the moment to SLi later.
An article today claims Lynfield's have been oced to 5GHz on air... Though I do wonder how much truth there is in that... I remember reading somewhere that the Phenom II oced to 6GHz Hummm... Come to think of it, have you tried changing the motherboard? I think it's happened to me b4 and that was the only thing that and the PSU were the only things damaged. Also, I realise it's a bit late, but in Malaysia, all computers need surge protectors (at least where I used to live). But then I suppose there aren't as many lighting storms here
I'd say 850W would be enough If you're going with SLI GTX275s, ensure you game at 1920x1200 or better I'd also recommend SLI GTX260s for that resolution - excellent performance. Gets you very close to GTX295 performance, for £100 less
i think i read a review of 2 gtx 275's vs a gtx 295 and although the 275's offered slightly better performance, the power draw tipped the recommendation to the "single" card solution. but dont quote me on that. I would think either a single 275 or dual 260's would be the logical choice for now.
Had a similar budget for my build a couple of months ago. Specification I went for is in sig but was more tham happy with it. i7 is definately the way to go over £1000.
On air? I doubt we'll see that from retail processors - for sure the Phenom II went to 6Ghz but that was LN2 and dry ice and most people going for world records go for liquid helium, no? On liquid, sure. Liquid what, I don't know. But air... I'll have to see that before I believe it.
I wounder if you actually used a liquid nano partilce, "liquid air cooling system" would it transfer and cool better than liquid or air alone?
