Looking for advice on a new build fairly large budget

[adders666]

hi, i currently have a midrange system from a couple of years back (E2180 2Gb 800mhz ram 8800GT 512Mb) i now have £700 to spend on a new system (can stretch it to £800 but preferably wouldnt want to.)

I would like a gaming pc that can and will be able to play anything for the next few years, i play on a 22" monitor at 1680 x 1050 at the moment but get horrible performance, i have all the bits (monitor, keyboard, mouse and 5.1 sound system) so the whole budget is for hardware, i can strip this machine for parts if possible, but would rather sell this to try and recoup some losses.

I am on my pc most of the day and would want something that isnt going to be super noisy or super hot (would love to watercool but i doubt thats in my price range with decent hardware, though maybe you guys could suggest something)

So what would you guys suggest for a very good system at this price point? would prefer to use Ebuyer or Scan but if anyone knows of a cheeper place then feel free to let me know

Thanks in advance

*edit* i have a coolermaster 330 elite case, which i dont like very much but it could be salvaged if needed, but my PSU is an extra value piece of rubbish that i belive is responsible for my bad performance

 

[Darren]

Ebuyer.com and Novatech.co.uk are the cheapest, you get free delivery on orders over £49.


OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 1066MHz/PC2-8500 Gold Memory £38.06
ASUS M3N78-EM GeForce 8300 Socket AM2+ VGA DVI HDMI 8-channel Audio MATX Motherboard £53.63
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2 GHz Socket AM3 8MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor £146.83
Casecom KB-7720BK Black ATX Midi Tower Case - No PSU £12.99
Arctic Power 700W PSU - With PCI-E, 4x SATA, 20+4, ATX12V, 8pin +12V Connectors - Retail £42.99
Enermax Magma 80mm Fan with Batwing blades £6.49
Enermax Magma 120mm Fan with Batwing blades £9.19
Samsung EcoGreen F2 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 32MB Cache - £56.99
XFX GTX275 XXX Edition 896MB With FarCry 2 DDR3 Dual DVI HDTV Out PhysX and Cuda ready PCI-E Graphics Card With Free Terminator Salvation Game Download While Stocks Last £174.45

Total: £541.62 (free super saver delivery)

If you want you could replace the GTX 275 with the 4850 X2, its slightly faster when it scales properly.
Sapphire HD 4850 X2 1GB GDDR3 £180.20inc vat
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152203


PS. The cheap power supply would not effect performance, although cheap PSUs have a tendency to be unreliable as the life span is rumoured to be shorter and could easily take out the entire rig if they blow. I'd say at current your low performance is likely to be your E2180 they are very slow by todays standards, they were never that fast to be honest, although they do allow for some good overclocking headroom. I'd sell your current rig on ebay for £200 and put the money towards this new build.

 

[adders666]

PS. The cheap power supply would not effect performance, although cheap PSUs have a tendency to be unreliable as the life span is rumoured to be shorter and could easily take out the entire rig if they blow. I'd say at current your low performance is likely to be your E1280 they are very slow by todays standards, they were never that fast to be honest, although they do allow for some good overclocking headroom. I'd sell your current rig on ebay for £200 and put the money towards this new build.

The power supply is putting out 13V on the 12V rail and i have been getting a lot of VGA problems since putting this build together (artifacting, CtoD hitching ect.) its a very random thing and its 100% not caused by overheating as my rig runs very cool even under load, its overclocked (3Ghz processor 900 odd ram) the overclock tests out stable with prime ect. and it only ever crashes in DX games (wow, demigod, bloodbowl, supreme commander ect.) it can run stable for days on end, or it could have a really bad day where it starts messing around within 10 mins of a cold boot and the only thing that i can see causing it is the bad voltage on the 12v (i turned the overclock off for a month or so to see whats going on with the same results)

*edit* its an E2180 not a E1280 btw

 

[Darren]

The power supply is putting out 13V on the 12V rail and i have been getting a lot of VGA problems since putting this build together (artifacting, CtoD hitching ect.) its a very random thing and its 100% not caused by overheating as my rig runs very cool even under load, its overclocked (3Ghz processor 900 odd ram) the overclock tests out stable with prime ect. and it only ever crashes in DX games (wow, demigod, bloodbowl, supreme commander ect.) it can run stable for days on end, or it could have a really bad day where it starts messing around within 10 mins of a cold boot and the only thing that i can see causing it is the bad voltage on the 12v (i turned the overclock off for a month or so to see whats going on with the same results)

Doubt its the PSU, seems more like a unstable overclock whether the CPU, GPU, or Memory is taken too far beyond its tolerance. To be on the safe side replace the PSU anyways I've put in a new PSU in the build above, it should be adaquate for your needs. I've recommended it to other people on this forum and they have never said anything negative about it.

have you got any questions about the build I spec'd you?


Edit:

Would that card fit in that case you linked? i was under the impression that u needed somthing like a lian li case to get them monster cards to fit

It should do, it will definitely fit in your coolermaster 330 elite case as a last resort.

 

[adders666]

If you want you could replace the GTX 275 with the 4850 X2, its slightly faster when it scales properly.
Sapphire HD 4850 X2 1GB GDDR3 £180.20inc vat
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152203

Would that card fit in that case you linked? i was under the impression that u needed somthing like a lian li case to get them monster cards to fit

 

[adders666]

no questions specific to the build, it seems a nice system, but if i was to go the amd route, i would go for an ati card to go with it i think, probably a 4890, and also shopping around today i saw a nice offer on scan.co.uk for the Asus Crosshair III Formula seems quite reasonable and it got really nice reviews. is AMD the way to go these days for a gaming rig?

 

[BroBQ]

Whatever it is you decide... You should wait untill Directx 11 video cards are released

 

[Darren]

no questions specific to the build, it seems a nice system, but if i was to go the amd route, i would go for an ati card to go with it i think, probably a 4890, and also shopping around today i saw a nice offer on scan.co.uk for the

The 4890 is a good choice, eBuyer.com sell the MSI 4890 OC version for £141.17 - if you buy that instead of the GTX 275 you'll save some money on the build I spec'd you.
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/168768

For gaming rigs AMD's Phenom IIs are pretty good, Intel's Core 2 Quads are good too but they cost more for the same performance, plus socket 775 has been replaced. You could go the Intel i7 route if your budget allows, you will not get much of a gaming boost but you'll get a boost in encoding, rendering, compression etc.

Take a look at this review---> http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3551&p=14

URL="http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-Crosshair-III-Formula-AMD-790FX-AM3-PCI-E-20%28x16%29-DDR3-1600%28OC%29-1333-SATA-II-RAID-ATX"]Asus Crosshair III Formula[/URL] seems quite reasonable and it got really nice reviews. is AMD the way to go these days for a gaming rig?

Its a good motherboard but its AM3 socket so its expensive, I went for a high end AM2+ motherboard to save you money, the money saved can be redirected into a better video card or processor, also with that particular AM3 motherboard you are forced into using DDR3 memory which costs sligtly more for little to no performance increase over DDR2.

PS. I do not like Scan as they tend to overprice their hardware in comparison to eBuyer.co.uk and Novatech.co.uk.

Also Scan does not offer free delivery.


Edit:

Whatever it is you decide... You should wait untill Directx 11 video cards are released

He should not wait for technology, knowone should, unless it is coming in the next few weeks, otherwise we may as well wait for DX12

 

[kyle2020]

Hmm, gaming build @ 22" = GTX 260 or higher. On your budget you could even go i7 with say a GTX 275.

 

[adders666]

yeah i dont see the point in waiting around for the new range of DX11 cards / 5000 / 300 series as going that route i could be waiting months with money burning a hole in my pocket .

as for the AM3 ive been looking around and while its viable to make do with an AM2+ board and DDR2 i already have DDR2 on this system. I would like this new system to be future proofed as much as humanly possible and seeing as i have quite a high budget i thought i would go for something special though if i could factor in a decent sized case and internal watercooling then i could forgo a little future proofing

 

[kyle2020]

If your new to watercooling go for a case with two 12cm fans up top and buy a swiftech H20-220 compact.

 

[adders666]

Hmm, gaming build @ 22" = GTX 260 or higher. On your budget you could even go i7 with say a GTX 275.

ive been trying to put together an i7 system for £700 but cant seem to do a complete system. i think it might be better for £ per performance to go amd atm anyway

 

[Darren]

as for the AM3 ive been looking around and while its viable to make do with an AM2+ board and DDR2 i already have DDR2 on this system. I would like this new system to be future proofed as much as humanly possible and seeing as i have quite a high budget i thought i would go for something special though if i could factor in a decent sized case and internal watercooling then i could forgo a little future proofing

DDR3 does not neccessarily signify futureproof with AMD rigs, a lot of reviews indicate that it makes absolutely no difference at all.

Read these DDR2 vs DDR3 reviews, they are AMD Phenom II specific.

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1782/amd_phenom_ii_ddr2_vs_ddr3_performance/index.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/socket-am3-phenom,2148.html

If you're determined to go the DDR3 route with an AM3 motherboard I've seen a few 790G, 790GX and 790FX chipset for around £90-100. Spending £140 on a AM3 motherboard is a waste of money, you may as well go Core i7.

But if you've got a huge budget and "futureproofing" is a necessity you could go the i7 route, that is as future proof as technology can get at the moment.