Thinking of building a new pc

[die5el]

Thinking of building a new pc my pc is 5 years old now still stuck with agp now i think its time to build a new one this is the specs im thinking of the pc will be used for gaming.

Asus GeForce 9600 GT 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe AMD 790FX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

Corsair TX 650W ATX2.2 SLi Compliant PSU

GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz Black Dragon DDR2 Dual Channel Kit

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6400+ 3.20GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail

Are these specs any good for playing todays games ie cod 4,crysis. got about £600 to spend my new build has got to last me for a few years pmsl or the misses will kill me .

 

[digicol]

Is it just the base unit you need or do you need a monitor?

Also do you ever overclock your processor or would you in the future?

 

[die5el]

Its Just the base unit i need i dont overclock at all i havent got a clue on overclocking to be honest

 

[digicol]

Just a few quickies, you need to be looking at the 4870 ATI card, nothing else at the moment can touch it for the price.

As for the boards, well you just need something that will be rock solid at stock levels, so no silly money required, maybe £70 max. I will have a look later, I just typed some out but all my blumming Internet Explorer windows just closed on me!! So I lost it all, LMFAO, don't you just hate that!!

As for the RAM, again if your running at stock I will find you the best for the board, no silly money needed and you will still see awesome performance from them. (Obviously what I choose will still be top quality so you can push it all higher at a later date if you wish, I guarantee what I choose for you will not be limited by a silly Via chipset or a low FSB board.)

For gaming at this moment in time the e8400 is still the best to go for. Very good price for what you get. In fact a very very good processor.

So:

Processor = Intel Core 2 Duo e8400 (Awesome gaming processor.)
GFX card = ATI 4870 (Nothing else, seriously for the price you will not get anything better or even close.)
Board = still to come
Ram = still to come.

Off to bed now mate, will be on later to see what I can find, considering I have been off the scene for a few weeks things may have changed, so will look into it for your.

(Also please note that the GFX card market at the moment is moving at a very fast rate, so what is todays technology is obsolete within 3 months, never in my life have I seen it move so fast, but those old cards such as the 9600gt you posted earlier are still awesome cards, just not AS awesome as what they are releasing now, and maybe things will move on in another 8 weeks or, who knows?)

 

[allroad]

how do you go about this overclocking business and what does it do ?

 

[digicol]

Now overclocking is very simple, if you keep it simple you can get very good overclocks from most Core 2 Duo (Intel processors) using Intel chipsets, you can get away with Via etc if you use the right combo, but for cheap skates you can turn a £40 board and £40 processor into a 3.5ghz monster just by upping the FSB in the bios and making sure the PCI-express is locked down.

Obviously you will not have the massive cache of higher priced processors which may result in the same 3.5ghz processor you clocked being maybe 20% less effective in gaming than the stock £150 - £200 monster someone else bought. But who cares for £40 or so compared to hundreds??

Just do a quick Google on overclocking a core 2 duo processor, just type in the model you have and the model motherboard, there are lots of combos out there, not every one is the same, each one varies, but all now at basic levels follow the same guidelines to get the overclock thanks to Intel!!!

We all now love Intel, come on AMD, catch up!! After all it is a buyers market!!!

 

[die5el]

4 got to say also i need a new psu How about this motherboard Asus P5Q Deluxe with Intel P45 chipset will the Intel Core 2 Duo e8400 fit in that motherboard :Cheers:

 

[die5el]

i Have now decided not to get a amd processor at all but go with intel
so far i have decided
Processor = Intel Core 2 Duo e8400 (but may go for a Intel CORE 2 QUAD Q6600 1066FSB SKT775 RET.)
GFX card = SAPPHIRE HD4850 512MB PCI-E
Board = Asus SKT-775 P5Q DELUXE S/L 1600FSB (will this motherboard work with a Intel CORE 2 QUAD Q6600 ? any information much appreciated)
Ram = GEIL 2GB DDR2 800 CL5.0 16 CHIP BRUSH ALUMINUM (Will this ram work with my mother board ? )

 

[SkinbacK]

I'm also thinking of getting the Intel Quad Core Q6600 as Dabs do it for £113.25 inc vat & Pc world will match there price & +10% of the difference, incidentally pc world do it for £149.99

Motherboard my be the Gigabyte ga-73pvm-s2h

G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PQ PC2-8000C5 (2x2GB)

 

[little_pob]

Col the retail version of the E8400 can be had for £109.27 from ebuyer: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139971 Good price?

i Have now decided not to get a amd processor at all but go with intel
so far i have decided
Processor = Intel Core 2 Duo e8400 (but may go for a Intel CORE 2 QUAD Q6600 1066FSB SKT775 RET.)
GFX card = SAPPHIRE HD4850 512MB PCI-E
Board = Asus SKT-775 P5Q DELUXE S/L 1600FSB (will this motherboard work with a Intel CORE 2 QUAD Q6600 ? any information much appreciated)
Ram = GEIL 2GB DDR2 800 CL5.0 16 CHIP BRUSH ALUMINUM (Will this ram work with my mother board ? )

Standard question; are you going to be gaming? As I know Col has been actively pushing the E8400 for gaming rigs.

Why? Whilst the Q6600 is a perfectly capable processor for games (I have one), the E8400's faster clock speed and larger FSB, plus the continued lack of multicore processing in games (the OS is expected to balance load across cores), means they out perform the Q6600's.

However, the 'Q' series are still a CPU of choice for people that use applications that can properly utilise multiple core processors, e.g. video editing etc.

That motherboard won't have a problem with the Q6600 or the E8400. Whilst it won't run at its full potential with either (i.e. 1600 MHz), it does leave room for future upgrade.

That RAM will work fine, but if you want the best performance from your setup, go for RAM that matches the FSB of the lowest common denominator, in this case the CPU. The Q6600 gains ~5% when used with DDR2-1066 (aka PC2-8500) over DDR2-800. Therefore, on that motherboard, DDR2-1066 for the Q6600, DDR2-1333 (if you can find any) for the E8400. However, you'll be able to use anything from DDR2-667 upwards on that motherboard.

The other option would be to go for a DDR3 based motherboard, but the expense to performance gain over DDR2 is still poor. (NB a 'hybrid' DDR2/DDR3 motherboard delivers worse performance than a wholly DDR2 option.)

I'm also thinking of getting the Intel Quad Core Q6600 as Dabs do it for £113.25 inc vat & Pc world will match there price & +10% of the difference, incidentally pc world do it for £149.99

Motherboard my be the Gigabyte ga-73pvm-s2h

G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PQ PC2-8000C5 (2x2GB)

If PC world need a delivered price, ebuyer offer free 5day delivery on orders over £49.99. They have the OEM Q6600 for £109.96, and the retail for £116.73.

I've had two of gigabyte's mobos, for the price at the time they where slightly under spec'ed, but they have lasted - one is still in use, the other is mothballed. The only problem I had was installing to a SATA hard drive, but this was an issue with certain versions of the NF4 chipset. I'd also suggest looking at ASUS and MSI.

If going for 4Gb RAM definately go for a 64bit OS. XP, Vista and Linux all have 64bit versions.

 

[jay 210]

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500

only a few quid more and can be clocked to 4Ghz with ease!
£107.99
£126.89 inc VAT
h**p://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-193-IN

The new Penryn-based Dual-core cpu's have finally arrived! An evolution on from the Conroe-based cpu's these 'Wolfdale' cores have core improvements along with a 45nm process shrink which will surely help these to become overclocking monsters with reports of the e8500's hitting over 4Ghz with ease!

The Intel® Core2 Duo processor E8000 series , like the previous Intel Core2 Duo
processors, are based on the Intel® Core microarchitecture. The Intel Core
microarchitecture combines the performance of previous generation Desktop products
with the power efficiencies of a low-power microarchitecture to enable smaller, quieter systems. The Intel Core2 Duo processor E8000 series are 64-bit processors that maintain compatibility with IA-32 software.

- Dual Core Technology
- 3.16GHz clock speed
- 6MB L2 Cache
- 1333fsb Bus Speed (9.5x Multiplier)
- 45nm Process Technology
- Enhanced Halt State (C1E)
- Enhanced Intel Speedstep Technology
- Intel Thermal Monitor 2
- Intel Virtualization Technology
- EM64T 64-Bit Technology
- Execute Disable Bit
- Cooler running technology, less heat and less noise!
- Supplied with Intel referance heatsink & fan

 

[digicol]

Yup it looks like the price drop has come again.

Some great prices on both the 8400 and 8500.

The only real difference between the 2 is the multiplier, oh and obviously the stock mhz. In some cases the 8500 will clock higher than the 8400 due to you needing less FSB ramped up, but in most cases any decent board will push both chips to the same level. The 8500 may come into place if your ram maxes out as the extra .5 on the multiplier will keep the ram speeds down.

But overall the 8400 is still the best buy, may as well get a few beers with the £20 saved.

But nice spot on both of them, great to see the prices coming down again. :banana:

 

[SkinbacK]

with the motherboard at the moment it's between ASUS P5E-VM £70 & Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H £40 but not sure as the latter is said to have scanning problems & the former has bugs although most of that was when it was first launched

 

[SkinbacK]

@ little pob I dont think pc world matches ebuyers prices