I have not built a PC for a few years now. I have been waiting to build one for ages. I have finally just got a bonus....and now SandyBridge is the delay. Should I wait? Must I wait? Desperate not to. If there is an opportunity not to wait (or maybe upgrade in 12 months) that is sensible, please let me know. Prioritise for build are: Use: Gaming (New games coming soon/recent: new Totalwar, new Dragon Age, new Crysis) Must be whisper quiet. Must look understated. Size: Again, flexible. My preference is for smaller, but I do not want size to require compromise on components (e.g. aren't these new graphics cards huge! and therefore need a big case). Budget is flexible: If its worth having I will pay. No point paying for total overkill however. Components: I need everything, including monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, OS. Cooling/ overclocking: No overclocking or water needed. However, I live in Bermuda and ambient temeratures can get pretty high for most of the year. I hate wires. Any help appreciated. Please offer advice.
My advice: Fractal case - quiet and understated. If use is entirely gaming, X58 is still very capable. We need to know how large your monitor is, as the bigger the resolution, the more power you need.
Monitor is, again, somewhat flexible. I would like a HUGE monitor. But it will not be practical for me. Something in the 'reasonable' range I guess (but at the top-end of reasonable so I can feel it has been worth the wait). I use a 17" laptop now....way too small. I used to have 22" monitor on old rigs....I would like bigger than that. I think 30"'s would be too big. So inbetween 24" and 28" I guess.
The Fractal case looks great. I had actual seen this before and liked it. I was worried it might be too small for the recent crop of big graphics cards, especial if they need big coolers on for quietness. I was also worried I could not get from the US but I see that I now can (via NCIXUS). So, that case certainly works for me (if the card fits!).
I suppose you should be looking at a 27 inch dell. At that size you are looking at spending around the 300 pound mark on GFX alone. I really don't see the problem in SB. I have one with no problems. My board has four sata 3 ports which is more than enough. Case wise I would be looking at a Lian li PC-B10 or the Fractal R3 as stated above. It's worth mentioning that socket 2011 in coming out in Q3 of this year. This is the replacement to socket 1336. A budget would be great, otherwise people are going to be recommending 3 580GTX's in Sli
Budget is around 1,500 GBP. I could spend more if it was ABSOLUTELY necessary. It would cost me my wife and kids however (not such a bad thing). I think the U2711 looks great, but it looks a bit expensive with that budget. Ohh....but imagine the evenings of new Totalwar, a glass of wine, and a lovely monitor like that.
I will only really have basic peripharels (SDD, HDD, optical drive, probably one external drive for portability), theerfore maybe SandyBridge is still an option even with the motherboad chip flaw. Can these flawed boards still be purchased?
The rig in my signature is basically the same as Bit-Tech's recommended Gaming Workhorse (hey, I built it first!) and is a screamer, with a total cost of under £1k. I gave the Total War: Shogun 2 demo a go last night, and happily had everything set to maximum at 1920x1080. If your budget is £1500, I'd recommend you basically buy the same system, but add a nice 24" monitor (say the U2410H) with 1920x1200 resolution and an IPS panel. Then add in bits and bobs like a mouse/speakers. The Fractal Designs R3 is a lovely case, and very quiet. I've only got the stock fans (plus the two on the Frio) installed, and I don't notice the noise. Obviously as you add more fans (which means removing the sound-proofing) it gets noisier - but the stock setup seems to be working fine. EDIT: Yes, Scan still sell the Sandy Bridge boards/CPUs. The flaw is overblown anyway, and you won't notice any performance loss by the time the RMAs hit in April.
You could purchase a Sandy Bridge system and just change your board for an updated silicon board when they arrive, I believe Scan allow this option =)
SandyBridge boards fairly available. Therefore, SandybRidge it is, warts and all. Is the Gigabyte in the signature the best way to go here: my research seemed to show a leaning for Asus manufacture. Is there anything in particular to look out for in a board. That new BIOS which is around looks nice.
I got the Gigabyte due to lower profile heatsinks, and at the time a reported flakiness of the Asus, although apparently that may have been resolved. I also got the UD4 variant for future SLi.
