Buying a new rig.

R

rambos

Geek Trainee
Hi just wanted some general advice on buying a new PC/laptop.

The kind of budget that I am looking at is : £500 or $1000

I use my PC/ 3d Animation using mainly 3DS MAX, I also use a range of video editing softwares and web design, using photoshop, dreamweaver and flash.

As for gaming.. I currently use Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004, however would like to be able to use FSX, therefore I will need Vista.

I have been looking around all the retail stores, and most of them offer a the intel dual cores.

My worry is that most of the dual cores are around 2 ghz or less. which is a little worrying as I would expect the speeds to be around 3ghz.... (maybe it's not the same as single core chips, I don't know perhaps you could help clarify that for me?.)

I've been told that it would be far better to build my own pc, but having no experience with computer hardware would this be difficult to do? It all seems a bit scary, needing to make sure everything is compatible!!

would really really appreciate some guidance =)

PS Can laptops be custom built?

thanks Lee.
 
Hi, clock speeds dont mean much these days, as for Dual core, the E6300 Core 2 Duo is the best, its cheap, and can easilly overclock to speeds of 3.4ghz and beat the most powerfull Core 2 Duo from intel. But even at 1.8Ghz, its still good, it would easilly own a Pentium 4 Pressy 3Ghz in anything...

Are you wanting everything such as case, HDD and CD rom or just the main parts like CPU, Mobo, GPU Ram, PSU.

If you wanting to upgrade to Vista, 2GB of ram is reccomended, on boot i have clocked the ram usage at around 45%, this was with 1GB of ram and on first boot.

CPU:Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - OEM
Mobo:Asus P5N-E SLi nForce 650 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Ram:Crucial 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-4200C4 Dual Channel Kit (CT2KIT12864AA53E)
GPU:BFG GeForce 7600 GT OC 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
PSU:Hiper HPU-4M580 Type R 580W ATX2.2 PSU - Black
Vista: Software » Operating Systems - Overclockers UK

I dunno what version of Vista you want to go for, but if its Ultimate, its preety expensive.


Total £499 no inc case, HDD,DVD Drive, Vista.

£500 as you can see is a tight budget, the graphics card should be good enough for Flight Simulator.

The motherboard has Sli and support for Quad Core, so its got good enough upgradability, if you want to go for a cheap mobo, here is one, doesent have Sli or Quad Core though.

Gigabyte GA_945PL_S3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
 
Flight Sim X is very demanding, the reporter on Inquirer had low FPS with a Kentsfield and an 8800GT*.
 
low FPS with a card like that??? :o, imagine how demanding UT2K7 will be then...
 
Addis said:
Flight Sim X is very demanding, the reporter on Inquirer had low FPS with a Kentsfield and an 8800GT*.
Click to expand...

Surely that's a compatibility problem which will be resolved. I can't believe that the best consumer hardware around would not be able to play FSX.
 
Yea its a compatability problem, i mean fear has better graphics than that game LOL :D
 
Willz said:
Yea its a compatability problem, i mean fear has better graphics than that game LOL :D
Click to expand...

Actually i think you will find it doesnt... Flight Simulator X has a lot more special effects and much better graphics than fear. FSX the most graphically demanding game out at the minute... basically because its the only one designed for directX10 thats out.
As for the statment about clock speed doesnt matter anymore, im sorry but this is very incorrect, especially from a gaming perspective. Games are not yet programmed to utilise multiple cores therefore clock speed is required to be quite high... now 2ghz doesnt seem like a lot but the cores can be overclocked to about 3.2 on air cooling. As for video rendering, graphics design, sound production, i do all three with a single core opteron at 2.8ghz and it performs very well so you have nothing to worry about in that department.
The E6600 is better value for money but the 6700 has been found to give the best performance with games.
 
2ghz may not seem alot, but you should know, its not all about clock speed, that 1.8ghz core 2 duo wood woop my 2.8ghz 3700+, also its not the most graphically demanding game, its buggy as hell, an 8800GTX would run it at all max settings.

Thats why the performance on that game is so crap, because its been designed for DX10, then they ported it to DX9... The E6300 is best value yea, and it can be overclocked and be stable and woop the extreme version, EX6700 or something?
 
Willz said:
2ghz may not seem alot, but you should know, its not all about clock speed, that 1.8ghz core 2 duo wood woop my 2.8ghz 3700+, also its not the most graphically demanding game, its buggy as hell, an 8800GTX would run it at all max settings.

Thats why the performance on that game is so crap, because its been designed for DX10, then they ported it to DX9... The E6300 is best value yea, and it can be overclocked and be stable and woop the extreme version, EX6700 or something?
Click to expand...

Tell me of a game thats more demanding than flight sim x thats out now.... the game requires top hardware to run at full settings with decent FPS
 
Yes, it requires top hardware because its buggy as hell and is for DX10, if it was properly done for DX9 and was not as buggy, the requirements would would not of been as high, its obviouse its the reason it requires top hardware, i have looked around other places and it seems the case. I have seen propor screenies of Flight Sim X, and i wouldent say its the ebst game out tbh, Gears of war has better graphics for that, and will probs run fine with a 8800GTX.
 
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