Haven't been on here in a while coz I spent all my computer money on a huge tv But anyway, could someone please check whether this would be a good system to build? It would be used for some gaming, a little video editing, a lot of internet use, and some schoolwork - including photoshop. I don;t want to spend a fortune. £700 would be nice, possibly less, but could become more. Here's what I had in mind: Processor - Intel Q6600 G0 not really sure Motherboard - Abit IP35-E Cooling - Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 7 RAM - Doesn't matter as long as it's 2GB of DDR2 PC2-6400 800mhz ram HDD - 250GB Samsung spinpoint SATA II 8mb cache 8ms current is 30gb, so this would be fine Graphics - PNY 8800GT 512mb seems like a good idea Case - Cheap case, I don't mind sacrificing my fingers. Power Supply - Corsair HX520W DVD - Samsung DVDRW 20x OS - Vista Home Premium 32-bit I don't see why I'd need 64-bit, so I may as well have max compatibility right? I would really appreciate this, as I've been out of the loop for a while. Thanks! Keller. PS No money
agree with the above but would go for the 8800 gts or the 9600 gt - both around the 8800gt price - the 8800 gts costs a little more but will give best fps if u like high detail on high resolution screen ;-) have fun!
Looks good to me, again I'd go with Vista x64 and 4Gb of RAM in total. The 8800GT is a fine card, I wouldn't swap it for a 9600GT as its faster and cheaper.
Thanks for everyone's help! I will take your advice and get the 4GB of ram and Vista 64-bit, but I don't think getting the 8800gts512 is worth the extra cash over the 8800GT512. If anyone has anything else to add I'll be happy! Is the motherboard a good choice?
Oh, I only clicked on here for the money.... If you want to overclock then it might be worth changing the AC7 to something like the Ultra 120 or similar? Other than that, looks good
Personally I've got dual 96GTs, and they're really not bad at all, even with one of them, gave great performance, Newegg offers em for ~150$ for the lowest end, which can be overclocked to the highest end ones on the market no probs. Definitely go 64bit though. Though if you want to spare the expense, stick with 2Gbs, I haven't noticed too much of a performance difference between 2Gbs and 4Gbs
I'm so evil . I don't intend to overlock much, maybe up to 3Ghz, which the AC7 would be able to do from what I've read. And the ultra 120 seemed to be ridiculously loud last time I heard one. And it is humongus. Thanks for your input Darklord, I don't think it would be worth the extra cost of 2 96GTs plus upgrading to a SLI motherboard as the 88GT will be able to handle crysis on high at a decent res. Thanks for the help !
Not saying get SLI, I did say 1 96GT does wonderfully by itself as well, so if you're trying to cut costs, 1x96GT will also run nicely, and overclocks really well too
Oh, I see. I've done some research and the 88GT outperforms the 96GT ever so slightly, enough to justify the ~£15 difference. Thanks anyway
Spend some money on a case. You will not regret it. I have a £10 case that came with a psu (I am no longer using the psu) and it really shows. No spaces for 120mm fans, shoddy build quality really noisy etc etc. And you can only put hard drives in 4 out of the 6 bays, even with a bit of coaxing with a screwdriver and pliers.
agree with above: 4GB and a better case. do NOT go for cheap cases, a friend of mine bought a £15 case without PSU. it's horrible! noisy, hard to install, no cable management, crappy+noisy hard drive mounts, cuts fingers, dusty and ugly. get something like a p182, it's cheap in the world of quality cases
Or even something like the Lancool Metal Boned http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2008/04/04/lancool_metal_boned_k7/1
Ok, I've taken all of this on board and have decided not to opt for a mega-cheap case. I think I will buy the Coolermaster Centurion 5 due to good reviews, and seeing it first hand at a friend's house. And it's still rather low cost too