Budget: £700 - £800 Main uses of intended build: Gaming Parts required: Everything Storage requirements: 1tb Will you be overclocking: no (but might if i can) Any motherboard requirements (no. of USB, Xfire/SLI, fan headers): Nothing specific, although a nice soundcard would be cool Hopefully not a repost, only saw the list after posting one originally. Been out of the loop for a while and have no idea what's on the market anymore so some help would be errrrr.... helpful Thanks!
Have been recommended Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz does this sound right? or should i opt for a i5 or i7 for gaming?
What? Truly terrible recommendation for an £800 computer; socket 775 is dead, gone, obsolete - you do NOT want to put money into a system based around that CPU. If gaming is your thing, you're looking at an i5 750/i7 860 (i.e., a 1156-socket quad-core) with as powerful a graphics card as the budget will allow. Have a look here and here for component ideas. My suggestion would be; Core i5 750 Gelid Tranquillo Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) Dual Channel 1600Mhz CAS 8 DDR3 ATi Radeon HD 5850 Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB Corsair HX650W ATX-chassis - Cases are a personal choice so choose one and we'll let you know if it's a disaster. Good brands include Lian Li, Antec, Fractal Design - something in the £80-100 range should be suitable. Optical Drive - These are all the same, just pick a good brand. Regarding soundcards, I'm no expert but the UD2 comes with excellent on-board sound, as do most mid-high-end motherboards these days. I'm not sure you need one.
Puresilver said what needed to be said but about the cooler, it's a brilliant cooler but only available AFAIK from 2 places in the UK, Overclockers (which everyone will recommend you against) and Scan but it's out of stock at Scan and I emailed them today because I want one and they said they're awaiting confirmation from Gelid that they've sent another shipment of tranquillo's so you might need to wait a few days before being able to get your hand on it. Just thought I'd mention that. As for the power supply Custom PC recommend the Antec Truepower TP-650 and gave it a premium grade award it's also £15 cheaper than the corsair http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/650W-Antec-Truepower-New-PSU-Modular-120mm-PWM-Fan-80plus-Bronze
Just take the bit-tech monthly recommended here: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buyers-guide/2010/03/09/pc-hardware-buyers-guide-march-2010/3 And swap the 5770 for a 5850. Job done.
