Spec me up Biatches!!

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  • #18846
    TurksMeister
    Participant

    Current PC is giving me the blue screen of death… so time to spend spend spend!

    To cut to the chase!

    Max willing to spend: £600
    Already Have: Screen, mouse, keyboard, xfi soundcard
    Want: Atleast 1tb hard drive, relative quiet (but not water cooling!)
    Dont Want: glowy stuff, massive graphics (want to be able to play some older games but would prefer to save now and chuck something big in at a later date – would onboard cover this?)… but would like a PSU which could handle a meaty card.

    OS: I have found windows 7 pre order for £50… until then, I have heard I can use the beta for free… is this true?

    Any suggestions? Ta

    (on a side note – with an external enclosure, will i be able to easily recover my old files?)
    __________________

    #73051
    To0THBRU5H
    Participant

    I’m not going to spec you a PC because I can’t be bothered.

    My only bits of advice will be: don’t spend more than 125quid on a graphics card because they become redundant within months. I’ve found it much better to get a mid entry one which runs all the games fine on medium, but then again if you are a complete nutter and need to set everything to MAX*8888999789089 AA then you are doomed to waste cash in my humble mind.

    Finally, get watercooling, it’s awesome!!! I’m running my ancient 3ghz P4 @ 3.6ghz and have never cleaned the system out, and it still runs pretty much everything. Although I think OFP2 will be beyond it’s realms of power. But bollocks to it, consoles are the way forward for gaming!

    #73052
    TurksMeister
    Participant

    How much extra do you pay for watercooling? Do you have to install yourself?

    #73053
    nOm
    Participant

    water cooling is a waste unless your into 1. silent or 2. extreme overclocking

    with a decent cooler (can beat water cooling) and cpu decent clocks can be had….my lads intel 6400 duo 1.8 sits at 3 comfortably (with a £15 cooling fan), my q6600 quad 2.4 sits at 3.2 (theres more in it but my case is pants, heat)

    best bang for buck gfx is ati 4890 1g can be had for £140 ish, ram is mega cheap at the mo so not less than four gigs (above can give problems in some games)

    check out threads at overclockers.com for specs in your price range, been out of the loop for a while, but these guys are helpful.

    i think you can get windows 7 RC free until next april ?

    spend your money on a decent (not the best, but best overclocker/stable) mother board, cpu and gfx

    you should be able to build a decent rig for your budget 😀

    Edit. had a quick look….http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18027516″ onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false; a few errors but go for 4890 gfx or http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18027715″ onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false; check out Mattus spec but add the 4890 (best budget rig imo)

    whatever you do get the ati 4890 (any flavour) eats my ati 3890×2 by miles…very very impressive, had mine for a week…best card for the money, my 3890×2 cost almost £300!!!!

    #73054
    xdc the doc
    Participant

    1) Fuck water cooling – you dont need it.
    2) On board graphics? Are you nuts? Go for a good mid range card like the gtx275.
    3) DONT buy the stuff drom overclockers… you will end up paying more than a pre build… and since you are an idiot you may well blow yourself up.
    4) You would be safer just buying a working OS and getting the upgrade voucher rather than trying to install a beta Win 7 (just my personal opinion.)

    I specced this up for you on PC specialist.
    Processor (CPU)

    Intel® Core™2 Duo E8400 (3.00GHz) 1333MHz FSB/6MB L2 Cache

    Memory (RAM)

    2GB CORSAIR XMS2 800MHz – LIFETIME WARRANTY!

    Motherboard

    ASUS® P5QL: DDR2, SATAII, PCI-e x16, 3 PCI, 2 x PCI-e x1

    Operating System

    Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium 64-bit + Windows 7 Upgrade Voucher (£85)

    USB Options

    8 x USB 2.0 PORTS (6 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD

    Memory – 1st Hard Disk

    1TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)

    2nd Hard Disk

    NONE

    1st CD/DVD Drive

    22x DUAL LAYER LIGHTSCRIBE DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

    2nd CD/DVD Drive

    NONE

    Graphics Card

    896MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX275 PCI EXPRESS

    2nd Graphics Card

    NONE

    Sound Card

    ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

    Modem

    NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND

    Network Facilities

    ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT

    Floppy Disk Drive

    NONE

    Memory Card Reader

    INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)

    Case

    STYLISH SILVER/BLACK TRIDENT CASE + 2 FRONT USB

    Power Supply & Case Cooling

    800W Quiet Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£89) (Special Offer)

    Processor Cooling

    STANDARD CPU COOLER

    Firewire & Video Editing

    NONE

    TV Card

    NONE

    Monitor

    NONE

    2nd Monitor

    NONE

    GeForce 3D Vision

    NONE

    DVI Cable

    NONE

    Keyboard & Mouse

    NONE

    Mouse

    NONE

    Speakers

    NONE

    Webcam

    NONE

    Headsets (VOIP)

    NONE

    Surge Protection

    NONE

    Printer

    NONE

    Anti-Virus

    NONE

    Office Software

    NONE

    External Hard Drive

    NONE

    Home Installation

    NONE

    Warranty

    1 Year Return-to-Base incl 1st Month Free Collect & Return

    Delivery

    STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

    Build Time

    Standard Build – Approximately 10 to 12 working days

    Quantity

    1

    £597.39 ex VAT.

    £687 inc VAT and Delivery.

    http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/index.php?page=intelpcsystems” onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false;

    #73055
    nOm
    Participant

    didnt say buy it from overclockers i said read the forums…..vista and 2 gigs of ram…no, do not buy a no name psu if you want to up grade in the future.

    read the oc forums turks and buy from wherever…they will spec you the best for your money

    *edit the rig specified by mattus in second link with a 4890 would be the best bet…read,read and read

    #73056
    xdc the doc
    Participant

    In Vista there is some payback from 1 to 2GB but the payback from 2 to 3 only shows in benchmarks and then only by tiny amounts other than in video editing. Going for 4… heck its hard to argue against more of anything… but bang for buck on his budget suggests to me getting a good motherboard/GFX card before extra ram. Easy to buy another couple of gig later when he has more money if he wants.

    Agree having a good PSU is important, but they dont have an option for any of the big names on that site. Having said that – I have a PC specialist comp with that PSU running for 3 years now… currently powering geforce 8800GTX.

    Easy to get sucked in by hype building PC’s – take crossfire for example 😈

    #73057
    nOm
    Participant

    my pc’s been on for several days and at present is using 2.419mb ram..ok a reboot and it will be 1.2ish, (and there are services i could switch off) 4gig of ddr2 6400 will set you back £40…worth it in my opinion, you need more than 2 to get the best out of vista.

    re the psu, a large watt is redundant if it is shit , a quality 5-600 psu for a single gfx is fine, my corsiar 520 is running my overclocked quad, 4 gigs ram(oh you need it alright) 2 hd’s, xfi sound card,dvd rw and a 4890 overclocked fine.

    the overclocker forums are without doubt (some cocks i know) the best place for advice re pc speccing, i have been pushing my pc’s as far as they can go for the last 6ish years, all with advice from there.

    #73058
    xdc the doc
    Participant

    The danger of reading overclocker forums too much is that you might end up buying quad core CPU’s and crossfire GFX cards like yourself – both rather dubious activities in my opinion! 😈

    Love a bit of geek banter! 😆

    PC component makers are very similar to guys who sell Hi-Fi’s – 95% bullshit very cleverly marketed in the mid to high range category.

    #73059
    XDC_Wolf
    Participant

    Doc is wrong as ever, more is better. It’s a fact.

    #73060
    nOm
    Participant

    hmmm

    okay, after a lot of research i bought the best motherboard for my budget, i bought a cpu i knew that with the motherboard i could get over 3 gigs with, i was told not to buy the 3890×2, but against their advice i bought it. As i said read, read and read. Buying some generic shit will not get you the best ‘bang for buck’ get the best you can for your set budget.

    with my quad i can (as i do) play a game and convert videos without any slow down at the time, i do not have to turn any services off, the q6600 was considered the best (ie bang for buck) oc chip out there at the time and suited my needs, turks has a budget, he wants the best for his money, i am not suggesting he gets a quad or tri sli but only the best components for his budget.

    tbh your condescending tone is pissing me off.

    good luck in your purchase Turks

    #73061
    xdc the doc
    Participant

    Dont mean to sound condescending Nom. Just a bit of banter…. I thought.

    #73062
    XDCiNSANE
    Participant

    I recomend an Ati 4890 X2 gfx card.. faster in majority of games than the Nvidia 285 which is a lot more pennies!

    http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-126-XF&#8221; onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false; <-- This or http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-102-PC&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1403&#8243; onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false; <--- This if you can spend the extra I’m really tempted to get one but not massivly desperate, depends what BF3 and OFP2 will require for me to spend at the mo

    #73063
    TurksMeister
    Participant

    ummm cheers guys!

    Although not after a big graphics card, as dont play PC games anymore!

    Will have a gander at it all .. ta

    #73064
    xdc the doc
    Participant

    @TurksMeister wrote:

    ummm cheers guys!

    Although not after a big graphics card, as dont play PC games anymore!

    Will have a gander at it all .. ta

    Well that would be a shame wouldn’t it? If you have 600 quid to spend you could have a competent rig for playing modern games on… maybe not with all the bells and whistles… but fine for some multiplayer games with us!

    Dont you fancy some COH/ COD with XDC? As well as anything else that might crop up in the future?

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