Parts for my PC

[Kshitiz_Indian]

8800GT's good enough to play most recent and upcoming games(crysis scene is sort of shaky) upto resloutions of 1680X1050

 

[khan31]

What about the ATI 3870? Can it do that also?

Kshitiz or anyone who is able enough:

Can you please price this system up for me without taking labour costs into account? Still unsure about motherboard:

Motherboard - ? Unsure on which is compatible with all parts
CPU - Intel Multi-Core Processor 2.4GHz+
RAM - 4GB - 2x2GB
GFX Card - ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 - want a GFX card to play all latest games and won't need upgrading for a few years
Sound Card - Will the sound from the motherboard be good enough?
Hard Drive - 300GB min to hold games, movies etc
OS - XP (Install Vista64bit in Future)
DVD/RW

 

[pingusten]

I just went to cclonline.com to see what you could get for those parts.

http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=12316&category_id=249&manufacturer_id=0 - Processor - ?151

http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=19870&category_id=257&manufacturer_id=0 - Graphics - ?280

http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=15439&category_id=261&manufacturer_id=0&tid=2gb667 - RAM - ?45

http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=19161&category_id=112&manufacturer_id=0&tid=hdp725032gla360 - Hard Drive - ?50

http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=11839&category_id=251&manufacturer_id=0&tid=946gz7ma-8krs2h - Mobo - ?33

http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=1230&category_id=119&manufacturer_id=0&tid=crx320e-10 - CDRW/DVD - ?11

All that comes to ?570. The graphics card could probably be found cheaper, but apart from that it fits your ?600 budget.

Vista may then push it over ?600, but the parts should be under it.

 

[khan31]

Thanks alot mate. Don't worry about Vista, as the guy who is doing it can get it for nothing. He isn't charging for labour but my Dad will buy him a drink to cover it. I was worried that it would be well over £600! Also, I just realised I have a Dual Layer DVD/RW CD/RW in this computer, so a simple transfer should do the trick. Thanks again to all you guys! Can't wait to get this beast built.

Would rep you all a million times if I could, but unfortunately I can't.

EDIT - Pingusten - For my RAM do I need to buy 2 of those 2GB RAMs and fit them into the motherboard to achieve 4GB RAM?

Also would this do for my GFX card - http://www.it247.com/Product/3723-2...ards&campaign=kelkoo&utm_medium=GraphicsCards ?

Sorry to pester you mate!

 

[pingusten]

For my RAM do I need to buy 2 of those 2GB RAMs and fit them into the motherboard to achieve 4GB RAM?

Quite simply - yes. The price I listed is the cost of two of the 2Gb sticks, which have really come down in price lately. You would just put both into the Motherboard and have the full 4GB.

As for that Graphics Card, I see no problem in doing that as it only requires a PCI-E slot, which is on the board. The 3870 would certainly satisfy your needs for several years.

 

[khan31]

Quite simply - yes. The price I listed is the cost of two of the 2Gb sticks, which have really come down in price lately. You would just put both into the Motherboard and have the full 4GB.

As for that Graphics Card, I see no problem in doing that as it only requires a PCI-E slot, which is on the board. The 3870 would certainly satisfy your needs for several years.

You are top class mate. Thanks alot. Turns out my Dad's mate can these parts at discount prices and so I don't need to do any more shopping! Tanks alot to you all!

 

[player786]

I would recommend that you go with Vista from the start (eew), which is only to make sure you get the best from your multi-core CPU, and can fully utilize your RAM. The Service Pack is just around the corner, and you're set up would not suffer from its misgivings. If you are prepared to wait a couple of months, the new Geforce 9000 range are looking very promising, and they are probably the video card of choice in the near future.

As for SATA drives, I think it is just the connectivity to the Motherboard - I have two slots on my mobo, and two IDE slots. The transfer speeds off the SATA are faster, so I run games off there.

also most important is that vista supports direct x 10, allowing u to fully utilize the full potential of the nvidia geforce 8000 series cards

 

[angryangy]

Only installing Vista wouldnt help, if you're going in for 4GB RAM, then go for Vista 64bit. 32 bit would be no difference from XP.

Also, I strongly recommend against AMD, as the fastest AMD has got for now is the Phenom X4, which have a TLB error in the chips, not allowing you to go for speeds above 2.4 GHz. I would suggest wait for the Penryn QC chips to come out if you want to go for quad core. Or If you can do with dual core, then buy the Intel E8400, which is available now. all the penryn chips overclock in excess of or atleast equal to 4GHz

In regards to a graphics card, i would suggest either choose The newly released AMD radeon 3870 X2, or take two 8800GT's and put them in SLI. Both these would cost much less than a single GTX/Ultra, but would give lots more performance than it. The AMD card can be put in any motherboard, but the SLI rig can be only set up in an SLI compatible motherboard. Opt for the newly released 750i or 780i if you're going in for SLI.

Next up is the sound card. Just one word - Useless. Its not needed actually at all. The onboard sound in the motherboard these days is more than ample to even fulfill the desires of your 7.1 audio system. The Xfi is not required until you are going in for the highest model Klipsch 7.1 channel system, which i think is highly unlikely in a 600 bucks rig. Save the money here.

Whew, what a long time and i didnt give any advice to anyone. Its a relief Believe my advice and you would be happy for a long time.

1. If you're not intending to overclock, most of AMD's CPUs are cheaper than their corresponding Intel model. Intel motherboards are also significantly more expensive. Intel's Quads are unrivalled, but appropriately more expensive.

2. I think you your point about SLI and your point about sound cards are contradictory. If you're trying to save money, a second video card is really, really unnecessary.

3. This just comes down to a matter of taste; for a majority, a sound card is useless, but so is a decent graphics card. I have a reasonable 4.1 speaker system and Sennheiser headphones, fairly common gear. I've found the X-Fi sounds massively different. Crystalizer is great for music. The X-Fi supports the highest quality EAX in games. The X-Fi has an onboard 64 MB "XRAM" for storing sound samples and delivers improved performance in games by taking the heat off the CPU and system RAM. The remote control and audio-drive panel thingy are also pretty useful if you use your PC for home theatre.

 

[omkarjere]

I would really suggest you to go with a Intel Core 2 Duo Processor and have a high end cooling for it and you will enjoy its overclocking. as far of GFX card I recommend go with a Radeon HD 3000 series card (gives very tough competition to 8800GT) or wait Nvidia will be Launching Geforce 9600GT which will be launching soon. Check more details on 9600GT here:
http://www.techtree.com/India/Reviews/Nvidia_GeForce_9600GT/551-87079-537.html

 

[Kshitiz_Indian]

I guess he's probably purchased it by now.