Design me a Custom PC.....please

W

Waffle

Alpha Geek
Hi, in a couple of months, I'm going to be buying a custom built pc, but I am unsure as to the best specifications available. I want it for the sole purpose of monster games, a la Doom 3 etc.

I'm so far having the following setup, but could any one here please tell me how to improve it, and give a good arguement as to what graphics card I should get. Greatly appreciated!

Intel Pentium 4, 2.8Ghz Prescott 800fsb 1mg Cache. <--- this I want :D

Kingston 512Mb DDR500 PC4000 HyperX. <--- want 1 gig of this

160Gb Maxtor Hard Disk w/ 8Mb Cache.

Soltek SL-CW-FL 875P 800FSB Dual channel DDR 400. <--- specifically designed for Prescott Processor

Graphics Card....the great debate. Radeon or nVidia. Please give me an honest, helpful opinion as to the best card out there. (Don't count the nVidia 6800..little too expensive :eek: ) Ideally, a cost of £350 maximum, which includes both the 9800XT, and 5950 Ultra.

Thanks to all who help!!!
 
id say that the radeon would handle it best, im running it on unreal tournament 2004 and its running clean as ever
 
The Prescott really doesn't offer anything over the current Northwood, except higher temps. While it does have a 1MB cache, the pipelines in the processor negate the effect it would usually have on a CPU. The Prescotts run extremely hot, and until they come out in Socket T format, you're better off not buying one...and even then. I'd really just avoid the Prescott as a whole right now, unless you want to overclock and in that case, you should go with the 2.4A. The 2.8C has the 800MHz FSB still, and runs much cooler.
Kingston: Good stuff. I only use their ValueRAM, but that's been a real champ. If you're not going to overclock, you really don't need anything faster than PC3200 (DDR400).

Maxtor. I've been pretty happy with them. Western Digital is also a good choice.

Soltek. No first hand experience here, but harrack here likes them. He does use their AMD stuff tho. Others you might want to consider: Asus P4C800, Abit IC7.

Graphics card. ATi. The main, and pretty much only deciding factor is the DX9 compliance of the Radeon 9800/9600 series of cards. The GF 6800 isn't out yet even if you wanted it, and the best nVidia can do with the GFFX line is do some driver to make it work as best they can. Hardware implementation is always better than software implementation.

Lastly, since you're going for a nice setup, don't forget to buy a good power supply. Antec and Sparkle are what I've found to work well. If you really have cash to burn, get a PC Power & Cooling unit. These are the best units you can buy, but they are expensive.
 
Thanks all.

So unless I intend on over-clocking my hardware - which I don't, the RAM and CPU aren't really necessary for me. In which case, would a standard P4 2.8Ghz be better suited? Over-clocking's fine and all, but I just don't do it.
 
Yeah, there's no point in buying anything faster. Faster memory will be necessary eventually, but right now, PC3200 is the fastest you need for stock speeds. A 2.8C is all you'll need. Any 'C' designated chip will have the 800MHz FSB. Get the retail version: you get a heatsink packaged with it, along with a 3-year warranty. Nothing fancy, but the stock Intel coolers work quite well and they're fairly quiet.
 
Okay, how does this sound....

Intel Pentium 4 2.8ghz 800FSB SKT478 512k Cache

Kingston 512 DDR400 PC3200 Memory Module x 2

Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9800 PRO 128 MB DDR 8x AGP DVi & TV-Out

Mother-board – go for the Soltek, 6.1 Surround Sound is appealing to me.

Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 9 200Gb 7200rpm 8mb Cache ATA133 Hard Drive.

What do you reckon? And is it quite easy to mod the Radeon Pro to an XT? I hope so as I can save myself £200....:D But from the benchmarks, I'm not too bothered by modding it. Thanks.

Oh yeah, what does OEM stand for? I guess that Retail Box means it comes in a nice box with a couple extras like a heat-sync, but OEM?
 
Keep in mind that the sound unless otherwise specified is generic AC97 audio. It's sound, but you really might want to consider an actual sound card because of sound quality.
 
True, but the company I'm getting it from assured me it's more than I'd ever need for games. Which may be true, but may be not.

What about the graphics card? Would (and I know this sounds dumb) a 9600XT be better than the 9800 PRO, because it's bundled with HL2, and the PRO isn't? I doubt it, but hell, nothing asked, nothing learned. :cool:
 
Half-Life 2 isn't available yet, and it's just a voucher for whenever it comes out. ATi has since discontinued this program. If you want a card to hold off until the next-gen cards are available, that's a solid card. For pure gaming power, you're better off with the Pro. Also, OEM cards (non-boxed) don't come with a HL2 voucher. You won't get Half-Life, just a voucher.
 
Sorry, from what I got of that is that the 9600XT is a solid card that can hold off til the next-gen cards, and that the PRO is pure gaming power. To me that sounded roughly the same. Unless you were just talking about the PRO.
So if you had a choice, which one would you have? And would you get 128Mb or 256Mb?
Thanks!
 
If you just want something to tide you over until the GF 6800 or the new ATi cards come down in price, I'd go with a 9600. The plain ones go for around $100USD, and Pro's run around $30-40 more. XT's run a little more than that. 128MB will save money.

The 9800 is faster than the 9600, but it depends on how much power you want for now.
 
Alright, I think a 9600XT is what I'll get. Thanks. Yet another question, I know, but which brand is the best? Creative I know is one to avoid, Sapphire tend to get very hot, and I'm not keen on messing about with the heatsinks etc. That leaves Hercules, Gigabyte and HIS, that I know of.

Cheers.
 
My Sapphire 9600XT has been fine since I've had it. FarCry is a beast in itself and it handles that one pretty well. If Sapphire doesn't do it for you, look at Hercules...but you may have trouble finding them since they dropped out of the video card business due to certain restrictions by ATi. I haven't used Gigabyte video cards before, but if they make them like their motherboards, you're looking at a solid product. I've not used HIS before, so no comment.
 
When you say that your 9600XT handles Far Cry pretty well, is that like 1024 resolution, with all settings on max? I'm not bothered too much about FSAA and anistropic filtering, I also don't care about what resolution, providing its playable at 1024 at a minimum, I'm happy.

I am perfectly hapy with running say, Doom 3 on 800 x 600 at low, if the 9600XT can't cope, but do you think it will, as you already said, Doom may well eat the 6800 alive, not to mention current flagship models.
 
The Radeon 9800XT can't run FarCry at 1024 with AA and AF to the max. It is playable at 1024. I have noticed hard drive access, and I've even got it on a 10k RPM SCSI drive. It's not just video card intense, as it does tax the system. 512MB is really the minimum you should be running in the first place, and people have been shown to get better results with 1GB. The 9600XT will work fine as long as you can live without AA and AF jacked to the max.
Until Doom 3 comes out, we have no clue how it will perform on systems today. It may run smooth as glass on a Radeon 7200, but we don't know---and I doubt you're going to get away with such a low-end card anyway.
 
I'm hoping to get at least 2.8Ghz, the 9800xt or 9600xt, and 1024mb RAM with a 200Gb 7200RPM HD. At least it'll play.

What card can handle it then, as you said the 9800XT is the best on the market, and if that can't handle it...sheesh.

Thanks greatly
 
It can handle it, but not everything ed to the max. This is good, since you'll have something that you'll actually notice a benefit getting something faster. Take Counter-Strike: if that's all you play, you really don't have any business spending $500 on a video card. You can play that fine with a GeForce 2 MX. Alot of the features of a Radeon 9800 aren't being used, and CS being older, it doesn't need the power of today's mid-range to top-end cards to run smoothly.
On the other hand, you've had stuff like Unreal 2, UT2k3 and Deus Ex: Invisible War that were just poorly optimized and ran like crap because of it. FarCry probably can be optimized more, but in general people who want to play it should have some idea of what they need to run it. The CryEngine is pretty good, but it requires a meaty system to run it. The Serious Engine...which powers the Serious Sam series, is built to render large outdoor areas and masses of enemies.
 
I missed a question earlier: OEM. OEM=Originial Equipment Manufacturer. Basically, it's the bare card/board/part with only the stuff necessary to have a working part, like the driver CD and maybe the manual---but that may be on the CD itself as well.
 
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