Hi, I have managed to put off my new PC purchase for a few months (summer and work helped with this) but now the weather is turning I really should get a new PC for the weekends. Budget: <= ~1500 GBP (the issue is the budget must be approved by my wife who doesnt play games, and it just gets exponentially harder as budget goes up) Main uses of intended build: High end gaming (Metro 2033, SupCom, Crysis 2, etc) Parts required: All except mouse/kb/HDDs and I'll make a separate thread for display Previous build information (list details of parts): mouse/kb, HDDs Monitor resolution: 1920*1080 (probably a 37" LED TV in gaming mode) Storage requirements: No worries, have HDDs Will you be overclocking: yes Any motherboard requirements (no. of USB, Xfire/SLI, fan headers): Sli Extra information about desired system: Want it to play games well for 2 years with no upgrades (including Crysis 2). Want an SSD to reduce boot times. Would be keen to wait for (insert new cool tech like UEFI, next series of Radeon/Sandy Bridge/Etc here) except Winter will be over by then and I have a backlog from Jan of games I've bought but not played... (I'm 30 with a job, but still remember games are cool and fun). yes i think i will need a decent cpu for supcom + future games I think sli now is good, will get it eventually, so why not have it now? Will get the etailer to build for me as well (my free time is quite limited, so I want to spend it on leisure activities, not building and getting stressed with returning dud components, etc like I did with my last build ). Would also like the price to come down, but dont want to wait a month for that (so are there any sales here/coming that beat scan?). Here's what I am planning: www.scan.co.uk/savedbasket/5f8db5c4394f440480031b7e0b7e4186 +~125 build cost -38 scansure-12 postage. My planned build seems broadly like a 1366 version of http://3xs.scan.co.uk/ShowSystem.asp?SystemID=1167 so I'm thinking the Antec 300 + fans will cope with 460 sli. (also it does well in this review of the utgard http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cases/2010/04/14/xigmatek-utgard-case-review/3) Thoughts? And if you have advice on a display, I'll make a thread for that too.
I wouldn't chose a small case like the Antec 300 for a SLI build. A £45 case for a £1500 build doesn't seem wise.
Agreed. The coolermaster Haf 932 is a good case. Total without graphics card £1035.30 inc delivery. This includes 1TB samsung f3 HDD for storage and a 64GB SSD for a boot drive. + a faster processor. Now that leaves you nearly £500 to spend on a decent GFX card. If I was you, I would wait till the HD6870 comes out, as from the reviews so far, it looks like its going to leave the competition standing Excuse the pink theme, as this is from my misses laptop lol. Cheers, Simon.
Mid-range GTX460s seem a bit strange in a £1500 build? If the plan is to keep the system as-is for years, I'd recommend waiting for the HD6-series cards that should come out rather soon. And nothing wrong with the 300. It's a good, sturdy case with plenty of cooling. No need to spend any more on the box.
Yeah, it is inexpensive, but it doesnt seem cheap: near as I can tell SLI isnt an issue (http://3xs.scan.co.uk/ShowSystem.asp?SystemID=1167) and cooling doesnt seem to be an issue http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cases/2010/04/14/xigmatek-utgard-case-review/3 ... ??? I also like the look (not flashy, just a plain featureless box).
Yeah, but when is it coming out http://pixelsmashers.com/?p=5701 (there is always something new and good just around the corner in my experience). At what price, will it give me more bang for buck than SLI 460? And I'd miss out on PhysX then (unless I bought another nvidia just for physx...). And if its awesome I can just sell the sli 460 later and buy one then (esp once the price comes down, the HD6xxx are likely to have premium prices for a while and the budget is already turgid).
As long as your aware that PhysX is a bit of a gimmick, and yes theres always new tech coming, but new graphics card generations usually come once a year and it seems silly to commit yourself to graphics cards right before it comes out.
You have posted on here for advise. I have given you my advise. I have also given you a faster PC for less money. Now obviously you are a Nvidia fanboy. Go for the GTX460, and then when the HD6*** comes out, and you find that the GTX 460 have dropped by £50, you will now have lost £100. Good luck.
its a shiny gimmick yeah last build i bought GPU and swapped it out a month later for the next gen at almost no cost once old resold, so dont think swapping out in the near future is not an issue for me. im also happy to let others test the drivers for new hardware and get in 3-6 months later. and i can just lose one 460, keep one for physx. edit: thanks for your advice, it is well received (but may not have seemed it since i had already thought through those issues - my apologies if i seemed rude)
sorry i should have thanked you, thanks for your advice. i wouldnt count myself as a fanboy of anything (apart from complex analysis and halo). yeah you are right, i might lose 100 which would be annoying, but I dont think that is probable judging by typical price movements in the past for pc hardware. im also more concerned about getting a pc sometime in the next 3-4 weeks. yep you did get a cheaper pc, but the issues with it: downgrading the SSD from 128->64 which might be a bit of a squeeze, i typically have 30gb of programs and win7. that would leave ~30gb for games. games tend to be 5-10gb a piece theses days, which would be a little inconvenient since i have lots of games to play and will want them in parallel (instead of beating one and starting on the next). I have 117gb of games installed on my laptop right now... win 7 oem isnt HD6xxx upgrade friendly (I thought the OEM version locked to hardware on install). will look at the tx psu and geil ram. i previously had a tx in my list but liked the idea of having less cables in pc. might just get the tx though.
OEM locks its self to its motherboard i believe or when a number of parts are changed. But yet some people have no problems with reactivating it (like me). If it deos not reactivate just ring/email microsft saying you motherboard/graphics card broke and it had to be replaced, or some rubbish like that.
its to the motherboard, You can change every other part of the pc. and you can still get around it if your willing to sit on the phone to microsoft for activation just say you got a virus and they will give you the code ive done it before. nor would i downgrade the ssd to 64gb as its really 60gb of space which is rather limited same thing would be said the 6 series whilst close means more money, i think we are talking £220 minimum for the cheapest ( 6770 equivelent or whatever they call it ) so not sure it will work out as a better performance to price ratio than a 5870 for example which will drop like a stone once the 6 series is out or the current 460 if you sli them. and id still buy the frio as a cooler. the h50 is just too dependent on air config of your case and requires an additional fan to go with it. case is a personal choice the diffrence between an antec 300 and hsf in real terms is space + cooling performance + some noise.
Are you guys not seeing the 1TB samsung f3 for storage? why will he need more than 64GB SSD for a boot drive? Also I have never had a problem when changing all my hardware using the same OS key. So
win7 -> motherboard? fine. Im not going to swap that out. cheers for that info, oem is a lot cheaper, and I didnt realise. h50 vs frio: are there going to be any issues with airflow through the cases? i kinda figured the antec had plenty of places to put fans. i was planning on front-in, side-in, top-in, back-out. wont the frio just dump heat into my case (as opposed to the h50 which should dump it outside)? antec vs haf: (which haf: 912, 932?). which will be quieter (this is actually quite important since the pc will be in the living room)? reading reviews it seems they will cool about the same amount (similar delta T in bit tech reviews). is space an issue? i think the antec 300 looks a lot nicer/cleaner (less places to gather dust)...
if it was just boot, i would agree, 30gb would be enough, but i want to put my games on it for quicker loading and I didnt think the f3 was anywhere near as quick as an SSD for games (150% of 256GB C300). http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/storage/2010/08/23/western-digital-velociraptor-600gb-review/8 ive got another 2*1TB HDDs already, so if its just extra storage ive got that covered.
You won't be able to put too many games on a 60gb SSD. Pop GTA IV on there and a quarter of it is gone. Install 3 games and you're leaving no room for Windows to breathe. But then i'd personally keep my games on the F3 to begin with, it's more than fast enough for that.
