Proposed Pc Build

[AppleShark]

This will be my first time putting together a PC and was hoping for some advice. The following parts are all subject to change and any suggestions are welcome.

Budget will be approximately €2,000.

 

CPU: Q6600/Q9450

Mobo: Asus Maximus Formula

HDD: 300GB Velociraptor

PSU: Corsair 750W

Cooling: Swiftech H20-220 compact watercooling kit

Case: Coolermaster Cosmos S

Monitor: Samsung SM226BW 22"

RAM: OCZ Reaper 2GB PC2-9200

Graphics Card: BFG 9800 GX2

[Saxe]

I'd take a smaller raptor disk and put in large storage disk instead

 

And wait for the 280 GTX?

[AppleShark]

Thanks for the input. Just to let you know, the 300Gb is more than enough for me, and if i needed more, i could just get a Spinpoint or something similar.

As far as the graphics card is concerned, I don't see how the GTX 280 can justify a 50% price increase for such a marginal boost in performance. I was thinking about 2 260's but I know nothing a bout SLi so I planned to steer clear of it. I'm also interested in cooling the graphics card by water. If anyone could show me a good, easy to install waterblock I'd be delighted.

[Saxe]

Thanks for the input. Just to let you know, the 300Gb is more than enough for me, and if i needed more, i could just get a Spinpoint or something similar.[/Quote]

 

Good point.

 

 

As far as the graphics card is concerned, I don't see how the GTX 280 can justify a 50% price increase for such a marginal boost in performance. I was thinking about 2 260's but I know nothing a bout SLi so I planned to steer clear of it. I'm also interested in cooling the graphics card by water. If anyone could show me a good, easy to install waterblock I'd be delighted.

 

I'm not sure it's marginal. I can't seem to find any tests comparing the Gx2 with the 280 GTX, but I found one with the 9800 GTX and the 280 GTX, and it seems to be quite a big boost - up to 200% at the high resolutions. Especially considering the gx2 is nothing but two 8800 GT.

 

Also, if you don't need the computer asap you could always wait a month, and the price will probably be cut with 25%

 

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/06/14/complete-gtx280-scores-here

[AppleShark]

Just to let you know, I'll be playing at 1680x1050, so it's not a huge resolution. Also, a comparison between the GX2 and GTX 280 can be found here, and imo it's not all that impressive.

[Dark Torcher]

dont forget, the 9800 gx2 uses one pci-e slot with 2 high-perf gfx cards, if you have pci-e 2.0 it may not be much of a problem

then theres always microstuttering since sli technology has its downfalls, also some games may not good coding for multi-gfx card usage, same as some games run better on dual core rather then a quad core

the gtx 280 shines in high detail at high resolutions, beating a 9800gx2, now think of a gtx 280 sli, or even tri-sli, but then again, you only want to go to 2000 euro

I would just get a 74gb raptor and a 500gb or 750gb storage drive, but thats only since i deal with a lot of media files, im already at the 2 Tb mark

the raptor is a good drive as i own one myself, has a good response time and files load quick

since its your first build, its may be too much to go into watercooling, but you could be a fast learner; im still on air cooling since it works enough already, id only switch to water if i wanted to overclock higher, but again its ur first computer so you prob wont be doing that right at the start

if u have the extra money, just get a 9450, its 45nm (6600 is 65nm) better temps, but then again you're on water, and the 9450 has a larger cache, 12mb

just what i think an ideal comp would have...

[AppleShark]

Thanks for the advice. I was going to change this slightly but I felt that the thread had died - apparently not! I will now instead be using an ATi Radeon 4850/4870 as my graphics card. The card is great value and as Crossfire is relatively efficient in comparison to SLi, it will give better scope for upgrade in the future. As for the processor, I'll be going Q9550, assuming it incurs its rumoured price-drop to the level of the Q9450. I have also decided against water-cooling, as I feel that considering the money I am willing to spend, the difference in temperature will be negligible when compared to good air-cooling. I'll most likely use a Tuniq Tower or something similar. Finally, the proposed case is to be replaced by an Antec 1200.

 

*Edit*

Is it just me or does the 750 watt PSU seem like overkill? I wasn't quite sure what kind of power i would need but I think I overestimated.

[Dark Torcher]

i've never used ATi, so I cant say anything other then there new R770 cards are supposed to be super-powerful, and also you can crossfire cards of diff models, somethin you cant do with nvidia

and for the 9550, it has the same specs as the 9450, just an increased clock speed, it'd be easier to just buy a 9450 and overclock it to 3.0 if u got enough headroom

the tuniq tower is a good one, but i recommend looking at the thermalright ultra extreme-120, a 9450 on stock settings with a scythe kaze usually runs at 34C

the antec 1200 is a good case, but u better be ok with that much blue light, only the top 200mm leds can be turned off, but overall its a good case with good airflow, just remove the filters on the fans, they increase noise levels and also the dust clogs up the filter making less and less air flow in, dust coming in will just settle at the bottom of the case anyways, as long as u dust ur pc off every month or so, you're fine

just for a look, herse what im running

 

Antec 1200 + Antec Quattro 1000w

Intel Q9450 (TRUE + Scythe Ultra Kaze 3000), mushkin DDR2 1066 (2x2Gb)

EVGA 750i FTW, EVGA GTX 280 FTW, WD RaptorX 150Gb, Seagate 500Gb

Auzentech 7.1 Prelude Sound Card (Altec Lansing 2.1 Surround + Sony Noise Cancelling Headphones)

as you do not have a sound card listed dont worry about it, but if u want to have high clarity sound, u can get an audio card, but if u do, u have to get speakers/headphones of equal quality for the full benefit, good speakers will run around 200-300 while good headphones go around 100-150

 

 

as u can see, theres plenty of space inside, and also a slot behind the mobo to tuck in the cables, i was just lazy, i tucked in a couple cords then got tired

just to open another route for you since you're deciding for air-cooling, buy a lapping kit which will run at most 20, basically its just wet/dry sandpaper @ 400/800/1200/2000 grit

you can pick these up at any hardware store, all it does is provides a smooth, even surface after you sand both the heatsink and the cpu ihs, allowing for more contact which will aloow a greater thermal flow from cpu to heatsink, this can lower temps from 3-10 degrees celsius

[Red]

more ram

[Dark Torcher]

more RAM wouldnt help him unless he decided to go 64bit, since the max he will get with the ATi 4870 will be 3gb of RAM in 32bit, but 32bit is better for gaming as games were written for 32bit os (mainly windows)

anyways, hes doing good with quality over quantity

he has ddr2 1150, but his motherboard, asus maximus II formula can take up to ddr2 1200, im running with 4gb ddr2 1-66 and i dont even use 2gb of memory when playing games, heres a way to think of it: is it better to get 2 ferrari, or 3 mustangs?

the max he would do with a 32bit windows is 2x1gb and 2x512mb for 3gb dual channel RAM (make sure its low density) but mainly games take gfx card power and processor power