Uber games machine

[scorge]

Am thinking about buying a new system, will most lilkely build it myself, unless i can see a very good priced SLI systems.

Usually I prefer AMD chips for gaming compared to Intel, although i have heard some good things about the Intel chips. So Intel or AMD?

Will be speccing for SLI cards (probably Quad)

And as usually will be going for the ASUS SLI MMOBO (unless someone can think of another one thats good)

so what would be your ideal machine with the above? I keep changing my mind

 

[Darzil]

Well, don't think there are any Core 2 Duo motherboards with SLi yet, so you'll be deciding between AMD + SLi, or Core 2 Duo + Single Card. Depending what you're running, one or other would be better. Core 2 Duo > AMD in most circumstances, SLi > Single Card in most circumstances.

For Camelot, as Single Card > SLi for running smooth, you're best off going Core Duo + Single Card.

I went for that, along with RAID 0 Raptor drives, and am not regretting it for a moment. You'll find my spec elsewhere here, it works very smooth on Camelot, not surprisingly, and runs cool and quiet (idle cpu temp is 29 degC, and you can't hear the CPU fan til you open up the case and stick your ear on it!)

Darzil

 

[scorge]

Well, don't think there are any Core 2 Duo motherboards with SLi yet,

Darzil

Alienware have a config for the core 2 extreme with an SLI motherboard, just need to find which MOBO.


edit: have found it think there are two out at the moment

 

[Boni]

My new machine has a CoreDuo e6600 with MSI mobo and GF7900GT, very happy with it. I think CoreDuo is the way togo at present.

 

[Saggy]

And the budget is?

 

[Boni]

And the budget is?

well mention of quad sli, methinks hes got a few bucks to spend

 

[Saggy]

well mention of quad sli, methinks hes got a few bucks to spend

Thats' why I asked - is the budget good enough to forget Quad SLi and get a set with good ~30" screen and good speakers

Or are we just looking as expensive computer as possible with little to nothing gain against computer with halved price?

 

[scorge]

Thats' why I asked - is the budget good enough to forget Quad SLi and get a set with good ~30" screen and good speakers

Or are we just looking as expensive computer as possible with little to nothing gain against computer with halved price?

budget is about £2500, am aiming for as little as possible through

 

[scorge]

so far

Have this so far:

Intel Conroe Core™ 2 Extreme X6800 2x 2.93 4Mb 1066 MHz LGA775

Asus P5WDG2-WS i975X Socket 775 2x PCI-E SLi / DUAL CH DDR2 / DUAL Gb LAN / FIREWIRE / ATX MOTHERBOARD

OCZ SPECIAL OPS DDR2-800 2GB Kit DUAL CHANNEL

Sapphire Radeon X1950XTX 512M GDDR4 (two of these)

FSP Epsilon 700w Psu Atx 2.0 SLi Ready - 20 + 24 pin, 4 + 4 pin, 8 pin 12v for
dual cpu's.

WD 400Gb SATA Hard Drive 150 MB/s, 16 MB Cache, 7200 RPM


not so sure about the graphics card and ram, am i getting my moneys worth?, or should i change them for something else? Think i am going to stick with ATI crossfire as i think this works best with ther MOBO.

 

[Saggy]

This is what I came up with in few mins

DFI Infinity 975X/G, Crossfire (975X, Core 2 Duo & Extreme) ~200€ (good for overclocking )

ANTEC P150 EC PC CASE PERFORMANCE ONE SERIES 0761345-09150-3 ~150€ (comes with good 430W PSU)

INTEL CORE 2 E6400 2.13GHZ 1066/2M S775 BX80557E6400 ~230€ (best value)

TWINMOS 1GB DDR2 667 PC5300 CL5.0 MT1024DDRII667CL5 ~130€ (good value)
TWINMOS 1GB DDR2 667 PC5300 CL5.0 MT1024DDRII667CL5 ~130€ (good value)

ASUS X1950 XTX PCIE 512M GDDR4 HDTV VIVO EAX1950XTX/HTVDP/512 ~450€ (I wouldn't take this expensive )
ASUS X1950 XTX PCIE 512M GDDR4 HDTV VIVO EAX1950XTX/HTVDP/512 ~450€

CAVIAR 320GB SATA2 7200RPM 16MB WD3200KS ~100€ (good value)
CAVIAR 320GB SATA2 7200RPM 16MB WD3200KS ~100€

CREATIVE SOUND BLASTER X-FI XTREMEAUDIO 70SB079002000 ~60€ (good value)

NEC AD-7173-01 DVD-RW 16XWHITE LAB.PRN 50031399 ~40€
= ~2000€

If you want to spend more cash get a good screen and speakers - a year from now your computer is worth shit but screen and speakers are something you can still smile at

 

[scorge]

also

have this one that i just came up with as well, will have a look at saggys

Processor (CPU)


INTEL® Core 2 Extreme X6800 (2 X 2.93GHz) 1066MHz FSB/4MB L2 Cache

Memory (RAM)


2048 MB CORSAIR DDR2 800MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x1GB)

Motherboard


ASUS® P5W DH DELUXE: DDR2, x16 slot, 975X chipset, 2 PCI

Operating System


MICROSOFT WINDOWS® XP HOME (inc. Genuine CD & license) (£59)

USB Options


6 x USB 2.0 PORTS (4 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD

Memory - 1st Hard Disk


250GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7200rpm)

2nd Hard Disk


NONE

RAID (HDD 1 & 2)


NONE

1st CD/DVD Drive


16X DVD ROM WITH 48X CD ROM

2nd CD/DVD Drive


52X 32X 52X CD WRITER

Graphics Card


512MB RADEON X1950 CROSSFIRE EDITION (PRE-ORDER ONLY)

2nd Graphics Card


512MB RADEON X1950XTX PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT

Sound Card


Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ XtremeMusic 7.1: £50

Modem


56KBPS INTERNAL V92 MODEM

Network Facilities


Onboard Wireless 54 Mbps LAN (802.11g) & 2 x Gigabit LAN Ports

Floppy Disk Drive


1.44MB - 3.5" FLOPPY DISK DRIVE

Memory Card Reader


NONE

Case


Stylish Silver/Black Trident case + 2 front USB

Power Supply & cooling


600W Super Quiet Quad Rail PSU + 120mm fan & CPU Cooler (£83)

Firewire & Video Editing


ONBOARD 1394 FIREWIRE PORT


£2167 inc VAT and Delivery.

 

[Neffneff]

I think im gonna cum....

 

[Roalith]

<geek overload>

<splurt>

 

[Penlid]

Either of those 2 for ur motherboard

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Asus_177.html#aMB_2d174_2dAS

Grab a core 2 duo

2gb of this stuff

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Geil_DDR2_Memory.html#aMY_2d058_2dGL

A 7950 nvidia card, don't go too expensive tho, they're all just about the same.

And anything else, i must mention if you go quad sli you will need at least a decent power supply 500W +

 

[Boni]

Couple of thoughts.

a). From what I understand vista will be DX10, no cards support that atm as far as im aware, so spending max on a gfx card atm is possibly a waste. If you are going to vista one day you might be better of getting by with an ATI or GF that will get you through till the new year. Thats one of the main reasons I went with a single GF7900 as opposed to spending more.

b). With your cash I would go for a gf7950, cause of my own nvidia bias, but hell lots of people are certainly happy with the ATI x1950, hard choice

c). One thing I did wrong, or rather wished I had done differently was to stick a small high performance drive in to use for swap file space only.

Good luck whatever you get, sounds like a nice rig

 

[Cybwyn]

I was looking to upgrade to a top end gaming PC as well but was a bit scared of building it myself because of the price of the components.

So I visited http://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/ and put together this lot for £2,399 inc VAT and delivery.

*BASE_PRICE: [+391]
CASE: CoolerMaster TAC-T01 Wave Master Aluminum 420W Case [+57] (BLACK COLOR)
CPU: (Sckt775)Intel® CoreT 2 Duo X6800 Extreme Edition @ 2.93GHz 1066FSB 2x2MB L2 Cache [+409]
CD: SONY DUAL FORMAT 16X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (BLACK COLOR)
CD2: SONY 16X DVD-ROM [+13] (BLACK COLOR)
CABLE: Round Cable Upgrade for Hard Drive, Optical Drive & Floppy Drive [+11]
FLOPPY: 1.44 MB FLOPPY DRIVE (BLACK COLOR)
FLASHMEDIA: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer [+5] (BLACK COLOR)
FAN: CoolerMaster Liquid CPU Cooling Fan System Kit + 2 EXTRA CASE FANS [+34]
HDD: 250GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8M Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive
HDD2: 250GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8M Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive [+60]
KEYBOARD: Logitech Deluxe 104 PS/2 Keyboard (Black)
MOUSE: Logitech MX518 Gaming-Grade Optical PS2/USB Mouse [+28]
MODEM: PCI 56K V.92 FAX MODEM W/VOICE SPEAKERPHONE
MOTHERBOARD: Asus P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe nForce4 SLI Chipset LGA775 Supports Core 2 Duo CPU FSB1066 DDR2/800 Mainboard w/GbLAN,USB2.0,IEEE1394&7.1Audio [+74]
MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory [+144] (Corsair XMS2 Xtreme Memory w/ Heat Spreader [+23])
NETWORK: ONBOARD 10/100 NETWORK CARD
OS: Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional w/ Service Pack 2 [+27]
PRO_WIRING: Professional Wiring for All WIRINGs Inside The System Chasis with High Performance Thermal Compound on CPU [+11]
POWERSUPPLY: Tagan 700W TG700-U25 Dual Engine SLI Ready Power Supply [+89]
RAID: RAID-0 (DATA STRIPING)
SOUND: New! Creative Labs X-FI XtremeMusic 24-BIT PCI Sound Card [+83]
TEMP: THERMAL TEMPERATURE LCD DISPLAY WITH 3X FAN CONTROLLER [+12] (BLACK COLOR)
USB: Build-in USB 2.0 Ports
UPS: Belkin 4-Socket SurgeMaster with Telephone Protection [+12]
VIDEO: NEW! NVIDIA Geforce 7900 GTX 512MB 16X PCI Express Video Card [+241]
VIDEO2: NEW! NVIDIA Geforce 7900 GTX 512MB 16X PCI Express Video Card [+277]
WNC: LINKSYS WMP54GS 802.11G PCI Network Card [+41]

There's no monitor with it (I already have one that's good enough) but having done quite a bit of research I think it's offers the best 'bang for buck' for a made to measure system.

 

[Chronictank]

I suggest you also look at
www.overclockers.co.uk
They offer very reasonable prices for compnents

It's been mentioned before, i personally would wait in your position for the dx10 releases, also by then the chipsets for the Conroe's will be more established hopefully by then the Core 2 Duo version of the DFI Lanparty will be released

Just food for thought

 

[Ara]

Get a copperhead mouse instead of the logitech g5 series, dont know about anyone else but i have had problem with the buttons on the g5 mouses ive used. They have just stoped working or glitching after just a month of use.

 

[Garok]

Would possibly get a 1g graphics card instead of 2x 512. Friend of mine has had real problems with geting his SLI config to sincronise and recons there not worth the money if your building it your self.

Case wise would recomend the Coolmaster Stacker 800 (I got one reciently) can pick it up from overlockers for 150 squid. Its abit of a beast size wise but you wont need to replace it for a while and space wise inside its unbeatable.

http://www.systemcooling.com/cm_stacker830-01.html

 

[Joor]

Have this so far:

Intel Conroe Core™ 2 Extreme X6800 2x 2.93 4Mb 1066 MHz LGA775

Asus P5WDG2-WS i975X Socket 775 2x PCI-E SLi / DUAL CH DDR2 / DUAL Gb LAN / FIREWIRE / ATX MOTHERBOARD

OCZ SPECIAL OPS DDR2-800 2GB Kit DUAL CHANNEL

Sapphire Radeon X1950XTX 512M GDDR4 (two of these)

FSP Epsilon 700w Psu Atx 2.0 SLi Ready - 20 + 24 pin, 4 + 4 pin, 8 pin 12v for
dual cpu's.

WD 400Gb SATA Hard Drive 150 MB/s, 16 MB Cache, 7200 RPM


not so sure about the graphics card and ram, am i getting my moneys worth?, or should i change them for something else? Think i am going to stick with ATI crossfire as i think this works best with ther MOBO.

Change MB to Asus P5w64 Ws Pro.
Cellshock pc8000 RAM - Best atm(they run 400- cas 3-3-3 or 500+ 4-4-4 with only 2.4 volt)
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=117426

And there is no need for the 6800..take a 6600 and raise FSB . All 6600 can do 400x9 easy- well mine does

Nice pick on GFX, I have same card also..15300 points in 3dmark05 with my conroe @ 3600 mhz. If you go crossfire That machine is guaranteed to give high fps