Help With Upgrade - Desperately stuck!

Guys, I need to chooce my next PC to take me through the next few years.. I want the BEST fo the money I'm going to spend.. Which is £650 MAXXXX!

So far, I have found 2.. one custom, one HP. Please give me your opinions/vote on the two, or recommend/propose your other machines/retailers.



MACHINE 1
* ASUS P5NE-SLI
* Intel Q6600 Core 2 Quad CPU
* ThermalTake PurePower 450W PSU
* 3GB DDRII 800Mhz RAM - Samsung
* 18 X Lightscribe DVDRW - Asus
* 320GB 7200rpm S-ATA2 Hard Drive - Samsung
* 2 x GeForce 8500GT with 1GB of RAM giving a total of 2GB video RAM DX10 ready
* Asus TA-210 case


MACHINE 2 - HP Pavillion m9090 (Click)
* Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor
* 2.4 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB, 8 Mb Cache
* Genuine Windows Vista (R) Home Premium
* 2GB Memory
* 500GB Hard Drive
* nVidia GeForce 8600 GTS 512MB


On a side note, des anyone know of this place: PCSPECIALIST.CO.UK - Custom PCs, Custom Computers, Custom PC, Custom Built Computers, Gaming PC ? Seems quite good value, but I thnik the cases really suck..

Appreciate your help guys, thanks!

 

No idea why that link at the bottom came out like that... I didn't mean to advertise, I just copied the URL, sorry.

 

It depends what you're wanting to do with the PC. For gaming, neither of those PC's will be anything special, because of the graphics cards. I have 2 8600GTs in my PC, and with the latest games such as Crysis they will only play it at Medium quality.

If I had that much money to spend, I would custom build a PC something like this:

* Asus P5K Premium
* Intel Q6600
* 2 lots of 2GB (2 x 1gb) Corsair XMS2 DDR 800 (total = 4gb)
* Western Digital Caviar 500GB
* Asus 8800GT 256mb

This leaves you about £90 for a case and power supply, which you should choose yourself (or the case at least).

Those are what I'd go for, you could maybe go for a cheaper motherboard and less ram, but go for a better video card.

 

Don't you mean nVidia GeForce 8800GT 256mb?

Is an 8800 seriously 256mb seriously better than 2x 8500 1GB's??

How hard is building a PC yourself though? I need one, like instantly? Doesn't that take ages?

 

When I say Asus, I mean they have created the card, and used the 8800GT chip in it, which is made by nVidia.

1 x 8800 26mb will be one hell of a lot better than 2 x 8500GTs, no matter how much memory they have, it's to do with the speed of the processor on the card.

Building a PC can be quick (40 mins), or it can take a long time (1 month - if not everything wants to work together, like mine!). If you need one instantly, then yes you should look at a pre-built one. The problem with them is that they cost a lot more because they take time to build, and you may not as good quality parts as you would if you built it yourself.

On PCSpecialist (I don't know how good they are), for £689 (sorry it's over your budget), I got:

* Intel Quad Core Q6600
* 2GB Corsair DDR2 677MHz
* Asus P5K (2xPCI-E for SLi)
* 250GB HDD - Do you really need anything bigger?
* 20x DVD-RW
* 512mb 8800GT (unknown manufacturer)
* 600W Quad Rail PSU
* Windows XP Home (Vista Home Premium is the same price, but XP is quicker)
* 1 Year Return to Base Free Collect & Return

I think this would be a good machine to have, and if you had some money in the future, you could add another 8800GT, and another 2gb RAM, but these aren't be necessary, just optional extras!

 

Cheers man!

Another Q.. If i were to build mysef, where would you recommend I buy the pars - cheapest place?

 

Okay, I'm researching te parts...

I need to know: Looking at Asus MoBo's but dont knoe the different between SLI and CrossFire?

Also, do I need to buy fans etc or do they come with the components case/psu?

 

I can't really recommend anywhere, as the place I used (Novatech) had good, cheap prices. However, 4 out 5 parts were faulty, but they have good customer service so everything got sorted eventually.

Crossfire is for graphics cards with an ATi chip, and SLi for graphics cards with an nVidia chip. SLi has a small part which links the two cards inside the case, and ATi has 2 cables out the back that join to one, and connect to your monitor (or so I understand).

Sometimes you will get a fan with your case, it depends on how much you pay. The PSU will come with a fan if it needs one, the CPU will come with a fan if you go for a retail, if you go for an OEM it most likely won't. The graphics cards come with fans if they need them.

Another thing that you can consider: Intel processors are the best at the moment, and the Q6600 is what most budget minded gamers seem to be using (I think!). However, the processor I went for is an AMD Athlon 64 6000+ (2 cores at 3.0GHz each - which isn't the same as an Intel Dual Core processor with 3.0GHz each). The AMD was £90, and the Intel Q6600 about £150. On this comparison chart (I picked at random), The AMD performs slightly better (CPU Charts | Tom's Hardware). It's upto you which you go for, it's just a case of doing your research.

If you come up with a configuration, post the links on here and I'll check them out (also hopefully someone else will to verify I'm right ).

edit: No, the AMD performs worse, I got muddled with the E6600 and Q6600! D'oh!

 

What do you think of the parts so far:

Antec Sonata III Quiet Super Mini Tower £ £ 63.95
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz 95W G0 Stepping (Retail 775) £ 136.19
ASUS P5N-E SLi NF650i 775 £ 58.95
500Gb Western Digital SATA - 16MB - 7200RPM £ 50.95
nVidia GeForce 8600GTS 512MB DDR3 PCI-E £ 71.25
HP 20x DVDRW LightScribe Black 1040i-B £ 15.95
Kingston 2GB PC2-6400 CL5 (2x1GB) £ 29.95



What do you think of the parts selected and do I need anything else?

 

I'm not 100% sure whether that motherboard will fit in that case... Maybe someone else knows?

Are you going to be paying VAT? You've noted down the exc VAT prices there!

You should also look at reviews of Aria PC ( Aria Technology www.aria.co.uk Review in Online Computer Shops at Review Centre ) - I think that's where you've looked at items. The reviews aren't brilliant!

Also, with the 8600GT you're only looking at light gaming.

Finally, there is no O/S included in that price, I guess you have that sorted already?

Thomas

 

VAT came to 64 and the GRAND TOTAL was £501.

Oh man, I knew the case would be a problem. The other cases are soo ugly..

What is the difference between:

# DDR2 PC10000
# DDR2 PC4200
# DDR2 PC5300
# DDR2 PC5400
# DDR2 PC6400
# DDR2 PC7200
# DDR2 PC8000
# DDR2 PC8500
# DDR2 PC8888
# DDR2 PC9136
# DDR2 PC9200
# DDR2 PC9600
# DDR2 Reg/ECC

??

I'll revaluate the GFX card and get bk to you .

 

Those DDR numbers relate to the speed at which the RAM operates. I know that PC 6400 is 800MHz, and is a good speed to go for. Give me a few minutes and I'll let you know which RAM that motherboard will support.

edit: It will support PC4200 to PC6400

 

Just have a look on th Aria Website at building your own PC...

For £632.39, you can have...

*Standard Case - You probably won't like it but there are other options!
*600W Gaming edition PSU
*Intel Q6600
*Arctic CPU Cooler Freezer 7

 

Just have a look on th Aria Website at building your own PC...

For £619.14, you can have...

*Standard Case - You probably won't like it but there are other options!
*600W Gaming edition PSU
*Intel Q6600
*Arctic CPU Cooler Freezer 7
*Asus P5K
*Patriot 2GB PC6400 RAM
*500GB SATA HDD (Not Sata2, you may want to change this to the 750GB Sata2 for more speed).
*20x DVDRW
*8800GTS 512mb (this is even faster than the 8800GT!)
*Windows XP MCE (or for £6 less Vista Home Premium)

That seems like a pretty good price to me if you're not too sure about building a PC yourself.

 

Guys,

nVidia GeForce 8800GT 512MB PCI-E

OR

ATI Radeon HD 3870 512MB PCI-E

OR

Saphire Radeon HD 3850 512MB PCI-E


Which one is the better one for my needs? HDMI option is pretty nice for future-proofing..

I also heard that the 8800GT is a rather monstrous card and may not fit into my proposed/favoured Antec Sonata III case. Anyone have any info on this?

 

Okay guys, please review my new proposed sys:


MOBO: MSI P35 NEO2-FR - £66.46
CPU: Intel Q6600 OEM - £150.27
CPU COOLER: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 PRO - £14.63
RAM: Patriot 2GB PC2-6400 C4 Extreme Performance (2 x1GB) - 35.19
GFX: ATi Radeon HD 3850 512MB PCI-E2.0 - £105.69
CASE/PSU: Antec Sonata III with 500w PSU - £75.14

TOTAL - £519.02 inc. VAT

My only concerns are with the stock PSU (I mightadd a Corsair VX 450w) and the GFX card... 3850 isn't amazing, but the machine is ready for CrossFire should I need it..

 

Sniper has it setup to name certain sites if we link to them to help out with $$ to pay for HWF's up keep.

 

3850 uses like 70watt of power so crossfire with that stock PSU would be fine.

Oh and btw why not get the Q6600 Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition it's the same price: link

 

All three of those cards are relatively big. The 8800GT is the highest performer out of those down to the 3870 then 3850. What games do you plan on playing? And what motherboard do you plan on getting?

BTW: Thomas, crossfire is now implimented much like SLI now. They switched over the factor to incase using the cable links.

Edit: I actually have got the neo2, it's a good board. You don't want to be using either SLI or crossfire in it though. SLI isn't supported and Crossfire is horribly gimped. So if yo plan to stick with a single GPU then go for it, it's a great board.

 

Gotcha!

You have any info on the size of the new nVidia GeForce 9600 in comparison to the size other the 8800GT and the 3850's?

And finally, what CPU would you recommend, because for £20 more I can get the Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 which is ALOT faster than the Q660 for most applications, including games, however, its not future proof. your views?