New PC

[BloodOmen]

So, buying a new pc soon to get ready for diablo III and such and wondering what the build looks like/give some feedback or even suggestions to better bits and bobs.

Swapping over to intel because in all honesty i'm not a fan of AMD anymore, I feel they've let themselves go as far as CPU's go.

It'll be running Vista Ultimate 64-bit.

Antec 300 Three Hundred Case - No PSU - £45.95 (was also considering Coolmaster HAF - but read a few bad things about the HAF)

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 (3.16GHz) Socket 775 Wolfdale 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor - £166.50

Asus P5Q PRO P45 Socket 775 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard - £101.96

OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 1066MHz/PC2-8500 Gold Memory - £44.99

OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 1066MHz/PC2-8500 Gold Memory - £44.99

Samsung SpinPoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB Hard Drive SATAII *32MB Cache* - OEM - £79.19

XFX GTX260 Black Edition 896MB DDR3 Dual DVI HDCP HDTV out PhysX and Cuda ready PCI-E Graphics Card - £231.29

Arctic Power 700W PSU - With PCI-E, 4x SATA, 20+4, ATX12V, 8pin +12V Connectors - Retail Boxed - £41.66

Arctic Cooling AC-FRZ-7P Freezer 7 Pro Socket 775 Processor Cooler - £16.42

 

[kirennia]

Looks like a solid machine; ATI and NVidia cards are disputable which is better at the moment, I'd check them out on different sites to see if you can get better bang for buck with an ATI though. As for sticking with Intel chipset, very wise...AMD ones suck at the moment imo.

One thing that annoyed me with the Antec 300 is that its fans both have adjustable fan speeds but you have to open the side of the case up to get to them... does anyone know if there is a back plate or something you can buy for it which will allow you to put those adjusters through?

edit:Just noticed the CPU cooler...it's an absolute pig to install if you forget to take the fan itself off first like I did. Other then that, my CPU has been very cool ever since. Same as the one I bought about a month ago other then GFX card and processor. I guess for a gaming machine the dual cores are still better and the GFX card I already talked about. Everythingelse is wubbly though It might be worth double booking through ebuyer and novatech as they seemed to (at least for me) compete in prices in different areas so it saved me some £60.

 

[BloodOmen]

Aye, from what i've read up Dual Cores are still superior to Quad Cores for gaming. As for the fan plates I think there are some you can buy that screw onto the back PCI openings, unsure where tho.

And for the cooler, most coolers are annoying to fit these days lol last one I got was a bloody nightmare.

 

[BloodOmen]

All that said, just found a 4870x2 2GB GDDR5 on ebuyer for like £80 more than the 260, i'll get that instead.

 

[inactionman]

Generally looks ok, a couple of things tho. 8Gb of ram, or is that a typo? Unless you are seriously into CAD or scientific calculations you'll never use it! Also never heard of the PSU manufacturer, I'd suggest a more widely known one such as Antec, Corsair or Seasonic.

 

[Kryten]

I'll second the thoughts on the AP psu - they're not exactly *shit* but I'd definitely suggest something a bit better at that specification system.

 

[DaGaffer]

I have a similar spec machine except I only have 4GB RAM and I went for the Coolermaster case. Just a word of warning; although 64-bit Vista shouldn't present problems most of the time, I have experienced compatibility issues here and there, especially with games (even recent ones like Spore) that have completely locked up my PC. Initially I assumed it was the 4870 and have jumped through hoops making sure catalyst drivers and all the rest of it were up to date, only to make things worse. It now seems its definitely a Vista issue and is to do with permissions, except its not a consistent permissions problem; e.g. I had one game (BF2142) that would only work if I was logged in as admin, and another (Spore) which would only work if I wasn't logged in as admin! (and worked fine at first, then stopped). Expect to deal with weird shit is all I'm saying.

 

[nath]

Are you installing these games to the Program Files folder? Might be worth installing it to a completely separate directory. Lots of games have problems with permissions, and installing to different folders can bypass that problem.

 

[BloodOmen]

Generally looks ok, a couple of things tho. 8Gb of ram, or is that a typo? Unless you are seriously into CAD or scientific calculations you'll never use it! Also never heard of the PSU manufacturer, I'd suggest a more widely known one such as Antec, Corsair or Seasonic.

I Tri log WoW accounts quite alot, main reason i've got the ram down and arctic are fine, used their psu's before, fine given they arent well known, easily on par with my old antec PSU in terms of reliability/noise.

 

[Kryten]

Just think it's not worth the risk when you've got a system of that specification. It's drawing more power and under more load.

But less convincingly I've just had a look at the specs for the 700w model. 20a on a single 12v rail - if that's the same model you've indeed chosen, *it will not juice your PC* - no two ways about it. Go to a very basic graphics card and it will but not as it stands.

 

[Embattle]

Remember that if you upgrade your graphics card to the 4870x2 it will draw more power than the GTX260, plus it uses a 8pin and 6pin PCI express adapters.

 

[rynnor]

I have a pretty similar build - on the Antec 300 case the only slightly annoying thing was the PSU being at the bottom of the case.

I personally dont like that much since you have to run the main motherboard power lead accross (or round the edge if your leads are long enough) of the entire motherboard and in general I had to use more extenders and get a more jumbled look overall - works fine tho functionally.

On the 8G RAM id say why not RAM is currently cheap so fill yer boots - I find it handy for dual/tri/quad logging into various games and no doubt it will future proof you for a few years.