New PC!

[Tilda]

Well, after 4 years with my current PC i figure it could use an upgrade!
I can't afford to have super duper parts, so i've come up with this (see attached image!)

Is that any good? I'm fairly sure they'll all fit together!
My worry is how good the gfx card is, PC PRO recomment it as a great mid range gfx card. Any opinions on this, or any other bit?

Is there something stupid i've missed off like a wire for something?
Any tips for putting it together would be appreciated as its the first one i've made! Although I have read a guide on how to do it!(haha!)

Many thanks,

Tilda

 

[Embattle]

Personally I would pay a little bit more for a mobo with SLI, just so at a later date if you feel you computer needs an easy upgarde then you could drop in another gfx card.

 

[Matriarch|Sneakers]

Personally I would pay a little bit more for a mobo with SLI, just so at a later date if you feel you computer needs an easy upgarde then you could drop in another gfx card.

Agreed. SLI is a must have really.

 

[Ch3tan]

Unless you talk to people who have it, like Tdc. Who tells everyone it aint worth it.

 

[TdC]

and it isn't imo. I've got two 7800GT's in my pc and in my studied opinion you should only get it if you have a hardware fetish or need to drive a stupidly large screen, like apple or dell's 30". or have too much money.

if you don't you're better off spending the money you'll save by not getting SLI on beer.

 

[Lazarus]

i take it you have (or will get) the cables for the floppy drive and I assume you get the SATA cables with the mobo. IDE cable also required for the DVD drive.

Isnt there also a cable from the DVD/CD drive to the mobo (something like a sound cable)

 

[TdC]

Isnt there also a cable from the DVD/CD drive to the mobo (something like a sound cable)

yes. this allows you to play audio directly, bypassing any OS media-player things.
some pootas even allow you to do this when the pc is powered down I hear tell, though this magic is lost on ickle me

 

[Ch3tan]

MY old, old cd-rom drive (3rd pc back), had play, stop and forward and back buttons on the front. This allowed direct play of cd's without involving any software. Was great for playing music during gaming.

 

[inactionman]

How about this?

£70 more, but you get an SLI mobo, a better PSU, 2Gb Ram, and a funky floppy/flash drive. Be aware that some of that stuff is on today only, so will need to be ordered before tomorrow.

 

[Embattle]

and it isn't imo. I've got two 7800GT's in my pc and in my studied opinion you should only get it if you have a hardware fetish or need to drive a stupidly large screen, like apple or dell's 30". or have too much money.

if you don't you're better off spending the money you'll save by not getting SLI on beer.

Yet.

 

[Aada]

Agreed. SLI is a must have really.

SLI a must have? please tell us why? i laugh at people who say SLI is great.. whats it great for? the extra graphics card in which you will see no noticable difference?

Yep a MUST have.

 

[inactionman]

It's a must have because in 1-2 years time, when your graphics card is starting to feel a bit slow in the latest games, you can pick another one up second hand, SLI them, and get an extra 80-90% graphics power, for pretty cheap (probably cheaper than upgrading to a new card), running the game comfortably.

 

[Ch3tan]

But it doesn't give you that much extra graphics power.

 

[TdC]

I'd say between 0 and 40 % depending on what you turn on.

 

[Embattle]

The Sli Mobo is a must have, the extra gfx card right now perhaps not but it still gives you a future upgrade path. However I myself was considering a new system recently but will hold off as the 939 socket based AMDs are due to be repalced with a newer model after March.

 

[TdC]

but there's always the next model sometimes you just have to stop waiting and buy your kit. I've still got my 4400+, a seasonic and a new case to go ffs

 

[Embattle]

Yes but when the next model is just round the corner then you should really give it some thought, the top of the line for socket 939 will be the FX-60 that just got released.

 

[TdC]

muh, I'm not too worried. the times where I'd actually pay that kind of dosh are past. still, if AMD play nice and start selling 4400's for the new socket for a *decent* price then I might change over (example). atm I do not plan to, as I believe that my current system will last me a good two years, and by that time the next-next best thing will be old news.

 

[Embattle]

Would the past bit include to two GFXs cards

My current system will be over 2 years old when I replace it, the basic problem with my current computer is that while it was near the top at the time it had limited upgradeability as the processor was based around the 478 socket and the graphics card round an AGP slot. I was considering a AMD X2 4800+ but this again would be near the top of the 939 socket and with the new AM2 socket due in a few more months I'm willing to wait

 

[TdC]

aha I was wondering when you'd bring that up I got an SLI mobo and two cards on a whim and totally not researched. Looking back I should have saved myself 450eur and I'd already be done with this pc. The performance gain isn't (imo) worth it. having said that, I can't compare to one card and am going purely by guesstimation.

I'm going to get three things and then I'm done:

• X2 4400+ toledo 2x1m cache etc.
• seasonic S12-600W psu
• a thermaltake Bach or Tenor case depending

in all respects they're decent upgrades to what I have now, even with my 3200+ running at 2500MHz. I expect to be entirely pleased with it for a couple of years. I've got the cards running in sli dual gpu mode, with AA supersampling on etc. and BF2 runs very nicely indeed. So nicely in fact that I tend not to see other players as they blend into the background in their cammo suits Talking about this to Will he laughed and said it was due to my AA and AF being up so high, and I realised that I'd been relying on jagged edges to spot people

all in all I'm pleased. my previous system lasted two years, this one will too.

 

[Embattle]

The X2 4400+ is worth it now and will become more worth it once more games use the dual cores, a good example being the beta patch for Q4 and the bad being COD2. The SLI side of things may not blow you away but the advantages of it may become more apparent with the next generation of games....btw you might get a bigger boost out of SLI once you've upgraded the processor.

I've also considered getting a Dell XPS M170 Notebook

 

[TdC]

hehe is that the one with the dual cpu and dual gpu? was reading about that lark

I hear that there's a quad-core quad-gpu workstation about somewhere. you can do 32xAA with that mmmm

 

[Embattle]

Naaa it's the gaming notebook they do with a 7800gtx option, see here. It was the quad gpu, shown at CES recently, and is called the XPS 600 Renegade however it is a bit of a gimmick. Not only does it use a Intel processor but generally there won't be enough computer power to really take advantage of quad gpus....plus being Dell they would most probably load it up with so much crap software it would be pointless

 

[Embattle]

Sadly the rational part of my brain just won another fight against my spend spend spend fingers and instead I've gone for a X850 XT 258mb AGP graphics card so it'll extend the life of my current machine.

 

[TdC]

they're not bad though you can always get that 1900 later

 

[Embattle]

Least I can let the new AMD socket mature a bit and then possibly look at one of the new Toshiba Qosmio laptops.

 

[TdC]

yeah, tbh I'd not want to go for a 1st generation mobo myself either.

 

[Deacan]

I need to upgrade myself.

I was thinking of going on the AMD X2 4400, But I might just wait it out.

What to do oh what to do

 

[TdC]

the 4400+ is dropping nicely in price. imo it's the "one to get" of the X2's

 

[Embattle]

I would say wait unless you already have a 939 socket mobo.