My New System Build

[Nix]

What do you guys need 600W PSU for? You can stuff all you want into the case and still you barely get over 500W consumption. And that's peak consumption, which will never be reached. Overclocking is a power hog of course, if you tend to do that.

Was just wondering if people usually calculate how much power does their setup really need? But in the end, you can never have too big PSU

 

[Cemeterygates]

i dont really know much at all about computers tbh but even tho sli apparently isnt daoc friendly would it not be an idea incase it one day is? an maybe for future games? would it not save a gfx upgrade should u need it in the future? so its like...just run 1 untill u need the 2? i have an sli mobo in my comp but only 1 gfx card which is an nvidia geforce 7800gt (256mb) an my plan is to slap a second in it...an double my ram...when i need to ofc

 

[Darzil]

I think you're right. When I next build a system, it'll have a SLi motherboard, but only one graphics card in it.

I can't really justify the extra £300 on something that'll only slow the machine down a bit on the main game I play ! (At the moment)

Darzil

 

[Chronictank]

thought i would give some benchmarks on my new rig

Only oc'd the processor a bit
Speed: 2299 Mhz
Full load temp: 38-40oC

With 3dMark05 i am getting 10525 on the free version

I wanted 10.5k as my benchmark so stopped stepping up the CPU
You can easily have it over 2.5Ghz since at 2.3 it hasnt even broken a sweat yet, but i dont have the time atm to to all the stability testing as i go up (just because someone else is running those settings doesnt mean you can)

 

[confused]

Always better to get a higher wattage psu as it'll last longer and possibly be used in a new rig, and it'll be running at lower %age of max = lower temp produced

 

[Cadiva]

Absolutely. I am not even considering an ATI card for my new rig, given the endless list of woes I've seen from ATI users while Nvidia's drivers are 100% rock solid all the time. And that's not just here; I do tech support professionally and every damn time I see a weird graphics bug or problem, every time, it's an ATI card. I just don't trust them.

Weird innit how people's experiences can be so different, I've never had any problems with ATI cards ever, playing a range of games on PCs of widely different specs.
Yet three people I know with Nvidia cards have had real probs.

Think at the end of the day it just comes down to personal experience and preferences.

PS This is, of course, just a comment on the ATI v Nvidia cards thing and has absolutely no baring or use to the above thread

 

[Honza]

I have to confirm what was said above - about 90% of GFX cards problems I meet at work are ATI ones - be that shitty drivers, overheating, power instability or anything other I would remember.
7900GTX > x1900xt - both in performance and lesser power consumption (which will interest you in case you are sane enough)

Otherwise, being you I'd drop this configuration into dustbin as a whole.
Within several months Intel Conroe CPUs are on market (the fastest normal edition one is < 400 pounds and check the performance on Anandtech ;-) ). Whether you choose being AMDish (which I wouldn't ever understand, but suit yourself) or go Intel, you'll save SHITLOAD of money since CPU prices will heavily drop down - especially with current high-end CPUs (price's gonna drop to about 30% of current one within few months)

 

[Chronictank]

I have to confirm what was said above - about 90% of GFX cards problems I meet at work are ATI ones - be that shitty drivers, overheating, power instability or anything other I would remember.
7900GTX > x1900xt - both in performance and lesser power consumption (which will interest you in case you are sane enough)

Otherwise, being you I'd drop this configuration into dustbin as a whole.
Within several months Intel Conroe CPUs are on market (the fastest normal edition one is < 400 pounds and check the performance on Anandtech ;-) ). Whether you choose being AMDish (which I wouldn't ever understand, but suit yourself) or go Intel, you'll save SHITLOAD of money since CPU prices will heavily drop down - especially with current high-end CPUs (price's gonna drop to about 30% of current one within few months)

It might have something to do with the current Intels which the average home builder can/will afford being a pile of shite. AMD's outperform the current Intel dual cores in the same price range in almost every way due to better architecture and the chokepoint caused by the Intel's hyperthreading system (supposidly fixed in the next releases) meaning if you were going for a dual core you wouldnt want hyperthreading, which AMD's do have a better version of their own.
My opteron is now running at 2.5Ghz and only goes up to 45oC full load (bumped a couple degrees by the hot ATi due to my case funs currently being off), and i havent even started pushing the CPU yet to see how fast it can go.
AMDOpteron 165 is currently THE best value for money if you plan on overclocking taking into account price/performance at the moment.
Seeing as your buying a pc as a gaming rig, AMD outperforms Intel in every game

Spoiler

So unless you plan to spend £500 on a new CPU based on the C1 stepping which may or may not be better i havent read any tests about it yet, the jury is out. Otherwise you are better off with AMD
-DFI lanparties are specifically designed for gaming and overclocking, apart from the placement of the chipset they are absolutely lovely boards to use.
-The Raptor is the fastest drive on the market in a affordable price bracket.
-Personally i have never had any problems with a Seasonic PSU, and it comes highly recommended from alot of people i know who regularly overclock systems professionally and otherwise. I bought it because it is quiet, and i dont hear it above my case fans ^^, the one time i did have problems it was replaced within 2 days


As for the "wait a couple months", if you wait a couple months every time something new comes out you will never build a pc. So its a pretty silly argument.

The only weakpoints in my build are the Gfx card (arguably since it depends what you prefer i found Ati cards alot less hassel to overclock personally), but saying that Ati cards prove backward compatibility which was the major selling point for me, since when you upgrade a Nvidia you HAVE to buy 2 of the same card, on Ati you can leave your current card in to do the physics and buy a brand new master card to the majority of the work.
And the RAM which i could have got better timings on but i had set myself a budget and i wanted to stick to it.

I was going to ignore your post as it had no evidence or research put into it , its a opinion not even based on fact.
But alot of people actually read these posts to get ideas for their new builds so i felt i should put this in

 

[Naffets]

Someone saying intel > amd, rofl.

Due to Intels longer instruction pipeline they suck something awful in games compared to AMD's chips, anyone who has a clue will say the same. The new Conroe intels are different, but are fucking expensive as hell.

 

[Honza]

I was going to ignore your post as it had no evidence or research put into it, its a opinion not even based on fact. But alot people actually read these posts to get ideas for their new builds so I felt I should put this in

Okay.. feel free to have your opinion and 'no research' speech ;p
I work in computer shop atm and have quite wide experience with hardware issues so I really don't need to do some research about graphic cards stability etc. (~100 computers a week we work in store is quite wide spectrum imo).
Further, I don't have slightest clue why you start barking about current Intel NetBurst CPUs. I never mentioned any of them in my post and I have to agree that current AMD CPUs have much better performance per Watt - especially in games.
About new processors: Intel Conroe (see benchmark http://www.anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i=2716 ) and AMD AM2 are going to get out within 4-5 months. I really see no reason why to buy any computer now, since both companies come with things that are very innovative and bring great price-downs. In case you are one of e-peen folks "I must have the fastest CPU ever", suit yourself and buy now, or wait few months and buy the same for half price ;p.
In this case "Wait a few months" has it's real good reason. If you done some research on your own instead of flaming, you could read on every hardware orientated server that 2006 is going to bring the HUGE ammount of news in hardware world.
As for Raptor disc, I would really recommend 150GB version with 16MB cache - there's huge difference in read/write (especially random r/w) speed compared to smaller versions.
Seasonic PSU - not bad... last month we had about 20 of them installed in peoples computers, only one of them was unstable under load, so I'd recommend them too.

And considering graphic cards... I hold on what I said before. You get what you wish, the other readers would do wise if they checked on other resources too (Tom's hardware, Anandtech etc.).

 

[Chronictank]

I was going to ignore your post as it had no evidence or research put into it, its a opinion not even based on fact. But alot people actually read these posts to get ideas for their new builds so I felt I should put this in

Okay.. feel free to have your opinion and 'no research' speech ;p
I work in computer shop atm and have quite wide experience with hardware issues so I really don't need to do some research about graphic cards stability etc. (~100 computers a week we work in store is quite wide spectrum imo).
Further, I don't have slightest clue why you start barking about current Intel NetBurst CPUs. I never mentioned any of them in my post and I have to agree that current AMD CPUs have much better performance per Watt - especially in games.
About new processors: Intel Conroe (see benchmark http://www.anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i=2716 ) and AMD AM2 are going to get out within 4-5 months. I really see no reason why to buy any computer now, since both companies come with things that are very innovative and bring great price-downs. In case you are one of e-peen folks "I must have the fastest CPU ever", suit yourself and buy now, or wait few months and buy the same for half price ;p.
In this case "Wait a few months" has it's real good reason. If you done some research on your own instead of flaming, you could read on every hardware orientated server that 2006 is going to bring the HUGE ammount of news in hardware world.
As for Raptor disc, I would really recommend 150GB version with 16MB cache - there's huge difference in read/write (especially random r/w) speed compared to smaller versions.
Seasonic PSU - not bad... last month we had about 20 of them installed in peoples computers, only one of them was unstable under load, so I'd recommend them too.

And considering graphic cards... I hold on what I said before. You get what you wish, the other readers would do wise if they checked on other resources too (Tom's hardware, Anandtech etc.).

now how much better of a post was that?
as i said before, you can wait a few months again and again since there is always something new out.

I did in fact do alot of research of what my build was going to be at that time they were the most realistic options available to me.
I would have loved to get the bigger raptor unfortunately it would have put the spec out of the budget i decided.
The spec i made is designed for today, as you can appreciate working in a computer shop there is little point making a spec using something that isnt even realeased for a few months yet.

As for flaming you , i did it because you didnt put any substance in your argument at all. Thats the equivalent of me saying Blue is better than Black because i say so

 

[Honza]

Again and again, in last year there was not much new things in hardware and it's price wasn't shifting much (except graphics), which is not case of following few months.
If you urgently need OPed computer, get what you need now for your price, if you can wait, wait at least for AM2 to show up (end of April) and get same machine for 10-20% cheaper. Considering it's price it's worth thinking about it imo.

Edit: I am not saying your build is not a good one, I am just saying you are wasting money taking that at current HW world circumstances.

 

[Chronictank]

Edit: I am not saying your build is not a good one, I am just saying you are wasting money taking that at current HW world circumstances.

I probably am, but old pc cant run the stuff i need for work so was time for a upgrade
I am consding sending back the Ati and geting a Geforce 7900 GTX, but OverclockersUk who are the cheapest supplier i found atm dont have any 512mb versions in stock :<.
I had to actually go back 3 versions of the catalyst drivers to get Darkness Rising to run stably (altho every other program i used runs fine under the new Omega ones), losing alot of the capability of the card in newer games :/

So Honza and Svart are spot on, if you want to play daoc without sacrifing the capabilities of your card go for a Nvidia.
but if daoc isnt your priority i would have got a Ati simply because when i upgrade li effectively have a wasted card left behind as you cant run 2 cards of different versions under Nvidia :<