New PC - What can you recommend?

Hey guys,

Might remember my 5 page thread soaked in tears as my PC broke infront of me - Well I'm throwing it out the window if I can scrape the cash together to get a new PC.

Thing is, I know little about building a PC from the ground up - I only know -bits- about individual components.

Now, I'm a pretty heavy gamer and definately anal about FPS (so long as it's about 31 perminantly I'm fine)

A friend of mine bought components to make a new PC from scan.co.uk that total'd £1,500, and from the looks of them it was a bloody beast of a PC.

I know it's a tall order, but can you help me with recommendations with regards to making a new PC? A PCI-E ATI graphics card is a must I think, and 2+ gig, DDR2 (Pref 900mhz if it's not too costy :O ), I don't know much about core duo processors, so I'll leave that to you boffins.

I don't think the following needs replacing:

Keyboard & Mouse
DVD-Reader
CD-Rewriter
Floppy Disk Drive
2x 80GB HDD (A large external one would be nice though.)

Definately need a new monitor as my current one is kind of dying.

My budget is between £700-1000

CURRENT PC SPEC:

AMD Athlon 64-bit 3700+ 2.2gHz
2GB Kingston DDR RAM (400mHz)
600W PSU
Nvidia GeForce XFX 7600GT AGP 256MB
CD-Rewriter
DVD-Reader


Any help appreciated, thanks.

- Heskey

 

Wouldn't go calling anyone a boffin round here - won't get you anywhere.

• CPU - E6600 @ £142
• Motherboard - Gigabyte GA 965P-S3 @ £58
• Memory - Corsair XMS2 Pro (2x1gb) @ £152
• Graphics - Radeon X1950 XT @ £159
• Monitor - 20.1" Dell E207WFP @ 193

Totals £704 including VAT (I dropped all the pence just for time saving).

That should all be fine for gaming.

 

Okay thanks for your help; I took what you've recommended and consulted a friend of mine. In total he came up with the following.

My question to you guys is:

1.) Is all this compatable?
2.) Do I need any additional cooling?

• CPU: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=430633 @ £142.16
• Mobo: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=467394 @ £157.45
• RAM: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=491422 @ £116.31
• GFX: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=595228 @ £251.09 (DX10)
• PSU: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=446788 @ £68.02
• Cooling: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=369638 @ £29.95
• Case: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=501972 @ £69.31
• HDD: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=226863 @ £39.23
• DVD-RW: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=575301 @ £20.35
• Monitor: http://www.hotukdeals.com/deal/3187/hannsg-19-widescreen-tft-monitor-8m @ £50 (I saw a 17" for £85 on scan, my friend will sell me his barely used & working 19" one for £50)

In total that's £958.79

Not counting the monitor, the checklist looks like this: http://img236.imageshack.us/img236/5167/newpcja7.jpg

Whatcha think? Compatable? Liable to overheat without any other cooling stuff? (I'm very sceptical about water cooling..)

 

Why spend so much on a motherboard? Get a cheaper one like I suggested and spend more on the monitor.

That monitor looks horrible, hence why I linked to a more expensive Dell that will produce amazing results.

 

looks good to me but i agree with mcadam, you should get a Dell monitor, they are some of the best out there

And unless you're going to run Crossfire you shouldnt need a crazy expensive mobo

 

Humm, okay - Was just thinking for reliability's sake because I think the problems I'm currently having are down to the current mobo, but sod 'em.

• CPU: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=430633 @ £142.16
• Mobo: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=448643 @ £58.74
• RAM: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=491422 @ £116.31
• GFX: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=595228 @ £251.09 (DX10)
• PSU: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=446788 @ £68.02
• Cooling: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=369638 @ £29.95
• Case: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=501972 @ £69.31
• HDD: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=226863 @ £39.23
• DVD-RW: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=575301 @ £20.35
• Monitor: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=503582 @ £193.75

Okay, so thaaaaat totals: £1007.50 which I guess I can stretch to

http://img127.imageshack.us/img127/1818/newpcpt7.jpg

However, would all -that lot- be compatable, and is that enough cooling? A lot of PC problems come down to cooling these days, and I don't want to buy a shit-hot PC to have it malfunction all the time, me coming here asking for help when all it might've needed was more cooling

Thanks for your help so far!

 

id get this hdd instead: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=345219

seagate is much better than hitachi and this drive has 16mb cache rather than 8mb. its not much more $ either

everything else looks good! the antec 900 is really good at keeping temps down, and that cooler is one of the best

 

Okay, £1012.70 now

But I really have gotta know if all that's compatable You can imagine how annoying it'd be to blow £1000 and find somethings don't go together

 

looks fine to me

one thing though: it can take up to ddr2 800 while yours is only ddr2 667. If you wanna squeeze out some extra performance id check into some higher clocked RAM though you can probably just OC it, Dominator is good overclocking memory

 

Hrmm, would it be much more costly though? When I asked that friend of mine what speed that RAM was (Cause it doesn't clearly say), he said 800 :S

Do you have a link to this other RAM? I mean, I'm hitting £1012 atm, or £900 if you knock off the monitor and speakers I intend to buy (Logitech 5.1 surround sound, £60 - My bro got some today and they're amazing), I could keep my current monitor for a little while with the new CP and save for a new one whilst using it, but really I'm hitting the ceiling cost-wise here, so I gotta start being cost efficient

 

DOH! my bad, it is 800, i got it mixed up with the pc6400, oopsrolleyes

 

Hokay, so what we've compiled together there is A.O.K?

 

Read your previous post viper - was about to mention your mistake about pc6400 not being 800mhz

Looks fine to me Heskey, I'm glad you've stepped down from a more expensive board and put it towards a nicer monitor. The graphics looks good too, didn't know how much you wanted to initially spend on one, so hence why I linked to a cheaper one.

Let us know how the building process goes and if you encounter any problems feel free to start a new thread regarding any issues

 

Thanks Mcadam - But just to clarify, the RAM I've chosen IS 800 right?

 

yes it is

Haha yeah im not making much sense am I. when i was reading the specs and i saw the 6 i guess i just thought, "hey its 667" again, i apologize lol

 

PC6400 = 800mhz

 

Actually, something may have come up with regards to my current PC.

Of all the problems and troubleshooting I've tried it could very well be an overheating problem as my PC, besides the stock fans for the GFX, CPU and PSU, actually has no other fans...

What information besides my current PC specs (listed further down in this thread) would you all need to determine whether or not that 'new case' I proposed would accomodate my current stuff, and to be able to recommend me some cooling fans?

Could save myself £1000 here xD

 

as of now the best video cards u can get for AGP are the x1950 and the 7950GT; both are powerful cards but you are just digging yourself farther into a pit as far as being future-proof. spending more $$ on a somewhat dated system isnt exactly the best investment but you could easily prolong the life of your current system just by upgrading the processor and the video card. previous gen. AMD procs are VERY cheap now so you it shouldnt be too expensive.

 

Nuuuuu I need a quick fix for now, something cheap, but something that works. Can you advise cooling stuff for my current PC before I buy out a new one? xD

 

whats wrong with your current cooling setup?

 

I don't have one! xD

I have 0 fans, other than the CPU, GFX and PSU fans.

So all my PC is doing is puffing hot air off the components and throwing it into the case with no way to get out, thus turning my PC into a giant radiator block, and forcing my card to run at a slower speed to prevent crashes - In essence; I get sustained performance, but the quality of that performance is rock bottom.

I need some fans put into my PC, or even better if you could tell me if my current PC will 'work' inside the new case I proposed to buy (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=501972)

Even if I do buy that and cooling doesn't seem to be the problem, I'm 1 step closer component-wise to getting my new PC.

Basically mate, I'm a poor student and piling £1000 together will be a dedicated task; if I can fix my current system I won't NEED to buy that new PC until I'm at least out of uni.

 

the 900 is a very well cooled case. if you're concerned about cooling then id grab that case and u can swap in your new computer when u get around to building one.

 

Exactly, thanks for the reponse. I'll see about getting it shortly then