Building a new PC? Look here first.

Re: Building a new PC? Look here first.

Postby Balious on 29 Aug 2009 10:54

Thanks everyone for helping me. My dad I believe has gone off to buy me a power supply or at least price it up.

Was looking on newegg and found three 4850 that I could get.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814102837
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814102834
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814102824

I don't have much money and thought those three were in the price range. Which one would you reckon be the best?

Edit:
I decided to go with this one.
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161309

It seems good and much cheaper then the above three if I change them into £ right (unless my maths is crap as it usually is).

Also my dad brought a 2gb memory and a 700W power supply called storm. So after getting this card I can just play and enjoy the way I like. Until I make more money for a sound card that will allow me to record sound and talk on my microphone without no problems :D
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Re: Building a new PC? Look here first.

Postby Grump642 on 29 Aug 2009 19:05

Hope you have fun! :thumbright:
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Re: Building a new PC? Look here first.

Postby audioave10 on 30 Aug 2009 01:42

That one comes with a better cooler...nice choice. Prices are really down on those cards.
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Re: Building a new PC? Look here first.

Postby ket on 04 Nov 2009 03:24

That time has come again. At some point in the near future I will be listing different types of systems ranging from budget to no expense spared. Yes socket 775 does still have a home, and is a platform thats still has a lot of muscle to offer :thumbright:
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Re: Building a new PC? Look here first.

Postby MeanderingBeing on 05 Nov 2009 00:36

I have to ask, was this 775 thing inspired by my thread? :P
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Re: Building a new PC? Look here first.

Postby ket on 07 Nov 2009 21:11

Nope :p I just look at things objectively, and from that point, you can see 775 may be mature but its far from dead :thumbright: I'll do the new systems soon. Playing with my PC atm.
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Re: Building a new PC? Look here first.

Postby MeanderingBeing on 09 Nov 2009 00:58

Well, considering that you can still get a 775 Pentium 4 dual-core running at 3.8 Ghz and 800 FSB, its no surprise that they're still kicking. Although, these new quads are kinda making me jealous...

Hey, this is off-topic but... Remember those days when they were running that Pentium 4 commercial where they had the BLue Man Group painting the roman numeral III, and the one catapults himself at the wall leaving a big blue smear making IIII?
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Re: Building a new PC? Look here first.

Postby ket on 03 Dec 2009 18:26

Ok here we go, not going to be as much detail as the first system list I done as you all understand by now from the first system list why I pick the components I do, but as a brief refresher this is why;

Warrenty period
bang per performance - overall system performance (read: no real weakness)
Overclocking headroom / potential
Quality

With the basics aside lets get to it.

System 1: "superbudget" Socket 775

I'm sure most of us have been here, a shoestring of a budget for a new PC. Just because you don't have a lot to spend doesn't mean you have to put up with some mass produced piece of kit made with all the cheapest, crappiest components the manufacturer could find to throw in it. So, heres my top pick of components for a superbudget system.

Mainboard: Asus P5Q Pro Turbo. This board is basically the standard P5Q Pro. It makes its appearance yet again due to its 3 year warrenty, excellent feature-set and gobs of overclocking options. The P5Q Pro Turbo can be found for around the £80-90 mark. Utilising the stalwart P45 chipset with ICH10R, the P5Q Pro Turbo also isn't too short on futureproofing with PCI-E 2.0, dual GPU (ATi only) capabilities and a whole hoast of other handy features, making it a fantastic superbudget mainboard to build a system around.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400. Some may instantly wonder why I haven't chosen a E7200 or E8500 or similar. The reason is simple, the 2 former options are almost the same price as the Q8400, with the obvious disadvantage of lacking the 2 extra cores of the Q8400. The Q8400 can be had for around £115 (whereas in contrast the E7200 costs around £90, and the E8500 about £130). With the onset of Quad computing and more and more software being programmed for Quad CPUs, it makes it very hard to justify buying a Duo, even if you do save £25.

RAM: 2GB G.Skill DDR2 PC2-8500 (5-5-5-15) PK Series Dual Kit (8-layer PCB). "Only" 2GB it may be, but in this case its quality over quantity. For PC8500 this RAM has excellent timings, a 8 layer PCB instead of the commonly found 6 layer PCB with cheap and no-name memory kits. At £41, its also very affordable to upgrade to 4GB of this if you need to as well. Operating at 2v, you also don't have to worry about the RAM getting hot under heavy use - it should stay quite cool.

Graphics: ATi HD4830 512MB. Do not underestimate this card, despite it having a little age under its belt now it packs a lot of performance for its price. 256bit memory bus, DX10.1 support, crossfire capable, and cool running. Incredibly I've seen this card for as little as £30 NEW from oyyy.co.uk LINK. Initially people may wonder why this card is so great for its price - its simply down to what it offers and its potential. Stock performance wise you will feel this card is perhaps slightly underwhelming, but dig a little deeper and overclock it, and you will find its still quite the powerhouse. To put this into perspective, with a overclocked PC (CPU, RAM, GPU) this card is happy to play games even like Crysis warhead with incredible detail settings and resolution with aplomb.

HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB. Still the undisputed champion in my book. For £44 you are getting a HDD thats just as good as a WD Velociraptor in the performance stakes. Thats a hell of a hard drive.

PSU: Corsair VX 450. Not the ultimate PSU of course, but hey this is a budget system we are building here not a supercomputer. The Corsair VX 450 can be had for around £50, providing quality and reliability even in your new superbudget PC ensuring you have no phantom instability often caused by cheap generic PSUs.

Total: £370-400 + postage.

Overview

This system can naturally be made cheaper by buying a cheaper CPU if your content with a dual regardless of how PCs and the software industry are progressing, as can it be made cheaper by choosing a cheaper (read: less capacity, slower performing) HDD. Graphically I wouldn't recommend choosing anything less powerful than a HD4830 if you want to have any kind of longetivity in that area, but of course if your not a gamer then its another area you can save some money on. This superbudget system has been configured to represent best value for money while providing the necessary muscle to provide a enjoyable PC experience regardless of if your gaming, file archiving or encoding, or simply wanting to watch a HD movie with H.264 hardware acceleration.

Next: Mainstream.
Last edited by ket on 03 Dec 2009 18:33, edited 1 time in total.
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HDD: 250GB & 500GB nVME 3.0 M.2 drives, 2TB Seagate Barracuda, Sata3 64MB Cache, 250GB Hynix SL301
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Re: Building a new PC? Look here first.

Postby ket on 03 Dec 2009 18:26

We get a bit more serious now, enter the mainstream arena. Here your going to find the exact same criteria met as for the superbudget system, but the quality, performance and equipment bars have been raised.

Motherboard: Asus Maximus 2 Formula (P45), or Asus RAMPAGE Formula (X48). Both of these mainboards are extremely capable and a absolute delight to look at (yes, their sexy, very sexy). However their looks are not just skin deep and will ensure that you can squeeze every last little drop of performance out of your hardware. While both of these boards offer almost idential feature sets I'll highlight the biggest differences between the two. The X48 board is better at overclocking memory (apparently) and offers full 16x16 PCI-E lanes in crossfire, unlike the P45 board which does 8x8 in crossfire. Despite the positives of the X48 board, it too has its weakness just like the P45 version. That is to say, the X48 board takes a lot more work when pushing for 500FSB and beyond, in contrast the P45 version will hit 500FSB and beyond without breaking any real sweat. Of course while one board is more capable than the other by chipset choice for FSB clocking, your CPU will be the biggest limiting factor of what FSB you can run stable. Apart from those differences, both boards are the same more or less. Perhaps the biggest thing to note is the inclusion with both boards of the ADI2000B audio CODEC, which utilises a X-Fi software layer to bring many X-Fi features to the inculded audio such as EAX 4.0. Because of the extremely high quality of this CODEC, a add-in soundcard is certainly not required, though I will list a good choice all the same. The Maximus 2 Formula can be had for around £135, and the Rampage Formula for around £150.

CPU: Q9550 / Q9650. Theres really not too much difference between these CPUs and the Q8400. The biggest difference is the Q9550 and 9650 both sport extra cache and possibly better OC potential. The 9550 can be had for around £160 and the Q9650 for around the astronomical price of £220.

RAM: 4GB OCZ PC9200 LV Platinum, or 4GB OCZ PC9200 LV Blade. Both of these kits use a 8 layer PCB, ultra tight timings of 5-5-5-15 @ 1150MHz and a operating voltage of 1.8v. These are quite possibly the ultimate high density DDR2 modules. I wish you luck in finding a stockist with these currently in stock.

Graphics: HD4870 512MB / HD5850 1GB. The best performing and best value next generation graphics card. DX11 support with performance completely unrivalled and only beaten by the HD5870. The HD5850 can be bought for about £200. It certainly leaves a dent in your wallet, but the performance you get in return is truely stunning and will make your jaw drop and your eyes bleed. If £200 notes is a little hard to swallow the HD4870 should provide ample satisfaction still and can be had for around £100.

HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 750GB. Yep again with the Black, its a truely immense drive. The 750GB model you can find for about £60.

Sound: Xonar DX 7.1. Entirely optional at this level, but if you do choose a add-in sound card the Xonar DX 7.1 should be at the top of anyones list. Time and again its proved its superiority over Creative offerings and can be bought for a very reasonable £50-60. A comprehensive review of the Xonar DX 7.1 can be found HERE.

PSU: Corsair 750W TX. The bigger brother of the 450w. This particular unit will ensure that your system has more than enough power now and to cope with any upgrades such as dual GPUs without any fuss. Can be had for around £88.

Total: £660+ Depending on the configuration you choose.

Summary

This system is the superbudget system on steroids. If you choose a system like this you will certainly have quite a powerful system. Should you choose to OC you can expect to have a system with a Quad core CPU around 4GHz (more if you put the time in), and a final RAM speed anywhere between 1200-1400MHz. This system will be almost untouchable for the money and will certainly nip at the heels of a 1156 i5 or 1366 i7 platform.
Last edited by ket on 03 Dec 2009 21:07, edited 1 time in total.
Mobo: MSI X570 Tomahawk
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RAM: 2x16GB Klevv BoltX 3600MHz 16-20-20-35
GPU: Powercolor 6800XT Red Devil
Sound: Asus Xonar DX 7.1 PCI-E, Realtek ALC1200
HDD: 250GB & 500GB nVME 3.0 M.2 drives, 2TB Seagate Barracuda, Sata3 64MB Cache, 250GB Hynix SL301
Opticals: DVD-RW, Blu-Ray
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Re: Building a new PC? Look here first.

Postby ket on 03 Dec 2009 18:27

Now we enter the upper midrange area. Here you won't be finding the best bang for performance so much, but rather the latest technology on offer at the best possible price.

Motherboard: P7P55D-E PRO. If you really have to go the 1156 path (it doesn't offer very good value really if your wanting to jump on intels i wagon) then this board should be the only one you consider. Unlike a vast majority of 1156 boards this board offers USB 3 and SATA 3 support, thus ensuring you get a futureproof board without having to upgrade it in 6 months time to a board that has USB 3 and SATA 3 support as well as supporting quad SLi and Crossfire GPU configurations. Pricing on this board is fairly sporadic. Expect to pay anywhere between £150-180.

CPU: i5 750 / i5 870. Unfortunately, these 2 CPUs are the only real choice for the 1156 platform. Perhaps worse still, for the large part these CPUs perform on the same level as a C2Q, only the 750 costs £150, and the 870 a choking £394.

RAM: 2GB Patriot Viper DDR3 PC3-15000 (1866MHz). This kit costs around £61, and has fairly good timings of 8-8-8-24 @ 1.9v. For the money, its a good kit and can likely be taken to about 2000MHz. Unfortunately, another caveat of the 1156 platform kicks in here. The 1156 platform supports dual channel memory configurations, not quad channel memory configurations like the 1366 platform. Whats the problem? Most higher capacity DDR3 kits are sold in quad, not dual, kits. Which means if you want 4GB of DDR3 in 2 modules you will likely have to purchase a 6GB Quad channel kit, overspending in the process.

Graphics: HD5850 1GB. The best performing and best value next generation graphics card. DX11 support with performance completely unrivalled and only beaten by the HD5870. The HD5850 can be bought for about £200. It certainly leaves a dent in your wallet, but the performance you get in return is truely stunning and will make your jaw drop and your eyes bleed.

HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 750GB. Yep again with the Black, its a truely immense drive. The 750GB model you can find for about £60.

Sound: Xonar DX 7.1. Entirely optional at this level, but if you do choose a add-in sound card the Xonar DX 7.1 should be at the top of anyones list. Time and again its proved its superiority over Creative offerings and can be bought for a very reasonable £50-60. A comprehensive review of the Xonar DX 7.1 can be found HERE.

PSU: Corsair 750W TX. The bigger brother of the 450w. This particular unit will ensure that your system has more than enough power now and to cope with any upgrades such as dual GPUs without any fuss. Can be had for around £88.

Total: £770+

Summary

Given the various downsides of the 1156 platform, no quad channel memory, expensive CPUs and mainboards, I really can't recommend this platform as a viable option if you are looking for a system thats futureproof NOW. My advice is wait for the P65 chipset, which will have native USB 3 and SATA 3 support, as well as prices being much cheaper by then. 1156 does have a life ahead of it, but currently buying in to the 1156 platform will require a certain amount of wasted money in the process, particularly on mainboards and CPUs.
Last edited by ket on 03 Dec 2009 22:00, edited 2 times in total.
Mobo: MSI X570 Tomahawk
CPU: R7 3700X @ 4.4GHz 1.3v
RAM: 2x16GB Klevv BoltX 3600MHz 16-20-20-35
GPU: Powercolor 6800XT Red Devil
Sound: Asus Xonar DX 7.1 PCI-E, Realtek ALC1200
HDD: 250GB & 500GB nVME 3.0 M.2 drives, 2TB Seagate Barracuda, Sata3 64MB Cache, 250GB Hynix SL301
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Re: Building a new PC? Look here first.

Postby ket on 03 Dec 2009 18:27

This is it.. the big one. The arena where the top technology meets fat wallets. Welcome to the bleeding edge highend. I'll forego my normal recommendations such as the lack of USB 3 and SATA 3 support on current X58 chipsets, as at this point if your looking here your probably not worried about that.

Mainboard: P6T Deluxe V2 (£173) / Rampage II Extreme (£205) As both boards use the X58 chipset (keep your eyes peeled for X58A chipsets, these will include USB 3 and SATA 3 technologies) their feature sets are near identical. At this pricepoint you mays as well get the R2E, but the P6T Deluxe remains a quality choice also. No feature of either of these boards makes one stand out more than the other.

CPU: i7 920 (£200) / i7 975EE (£715....) Sickening, isn't it? £400 already on just the mainboard and CPU... but lets keep going. Neither of these CPUs have anything to seperate them, apart from the 975 pricetag. If you can find a 920 D0 stepping, grab that.

RAM: 6GB G.Skill DDR3 PC3-17066 2133MHz Perfect Storm (9-9-9-24) Triple Channel kit (£210). This kit will fly without question. What more can I say about it? Its expensive for a reason - its amongst the best DDR3 on the planet at present.

Graphics: HD5870 1GB (£277). This is it, THE ULTIMATE next gen graphics card. Its performance is absolutely unrivalled, and so it should be for the price.

HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB. Yep again with the Black, its a truely immense drive. The 1TB model you can find for about £66. Some might wonder why I've picked yet another Black instead of a Raptor RAID array or the like, simply, there is absolutely no justification to buy a Raptor drive given its price, noise, and heat outputs vs. the Black.

Sound: Xonar DX 7.1 / Xonar D2X 7.1. If you do choose a add-in sound card the Xonar DX 7.1 should be at the top of anyones list. Time and again its proved its superiority over Creative offerings and can be bought for a very reasonable £50-60, the D2X a not so reasonable £80. A comprehensive review of the Xonar DX 7.1 can be found HERE.

PSU: Enermax Revolution 1250W 91% gold energy rating (£215). Arguably the best PSU on the planet. This thing could power a nuclear power plant nevermind a PC.

Total: I'll let you tot this one up... its sick.

Summary

Just be in awe if you splash the cash on this system, its as close as you'll get to your own personal supercomputer.
Last edited by ket on 03 Dec 2009 22:44, edited 5 times in total.
Mobo: MSI X570 Tomahawk
CPU: R7 3700X @ 4.4GHz 1.3v
RAM: 2x16GB Klevv BoltX 3600MHz 16-20-20-35
GPU: Powercolor 6800XT Red Devil
Sound: Asus Xonar DX 7.1 PCI-E, Realtek ALC1200
HDD: 250GB & 500GB nVME 3.0 M.2 drives, 2TB Seagate Barracuda, Sata3 64MB Cache, 250GB Hynix SL301
Opticals: DVD-RW, Blu-Ray
PSU: eVGA 1000w G2 Supernova
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Re: Building a new PC? Look here first.

Postby Grump642 on 03 Dec 2009 21:15

Can't argue with your choices, they are all very good. Am guessing you will use a I5 and P55 MoBo for top end?
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Re: Building a new PC? Look here first.

Postby ket on 03 Dec 2009 22:02

Nope, the highend is none other than the 1366 X58 platform :thumbright: Some will notice I haven't included AMD CPU and mainboard alternatives. Thats because intel do currently offer the best performance, however if people want AMD alternatives just ask and I'll add my recommendations.
Mobo: MSI X570 Tomahawk
CPU: R7 3700X @ 4.4GHz 1.3v
RAM: 2x16GB Klevv BoltX 3600MHz 16-20-20-35
GPU: Powercolor 6800XT Red Devil
Sound: Asus Xonar DX 7.1 PCI-E, Realtek ALC1200
HDD: 250GB & 500GB nVME 3.0 M.2 drives, 2TB Seagate Barracuda, Sata3 64MB Cache, 250GB Hynix SL301
Opticals: DVD-RW, Blu-Ray
PSU: eVGA 1000w G2 Supernova
Case: NZXT Phantom 530

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Re: Building a new PC? Look here first.

Postby MeanderingBeing on 03 Dec 2009 23:15

ket wrote:Nope, the highend is none other than the 1366 X58 platform :thumbright: Some will notice I haven't included AMD CPU and mainboard alternatives. Thats because intel do currently offer the best performance, however if people want AMD alternatives just ask and I'll add my recommendations.


You know, I've had alot of luck with AMD and ASUS, could you post your recommendations for future reference?
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Re: Building a new PC? Look here first.

Postby ket on 04 Dec 2009 14:05

Released just today so now worth mentioning, the HD5970 2GB. This behemoth is 13.5" long and is the most powerful dual GPU graphics card on the planet. It has GPU clocks of 735MHz, vRAM clocks of 4.04GHz, and a 512bit memory bus. This thing is a whole bloody PC all by itself. If you want to get your sweaty mits on one of these mammoths it'll cost you in excess of £415.
Mobo: MSI X570 Tomahawk
CPU: R7 3700X @ 4.4GHz 1.3v
RAM: 2x16GB Klevv BoltX 3600MHz 16-20-20-35
GPU: Powercolor 6800XT Red Devil
Sound: Asus Xonar DX 7.1 PCI-E, Realtek ALC1200
HDD: 250GB & 500GB nVME 3.0 M.2 drives, 2TB Seagate Barracuda, Sata3 64MB Cache, 250GB Hynix SL301
Opticals: DVD-RW, Blu-Ray
PSU: eVGA 1000w G2 Supernova
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Re: Building a new PC? Look here first.

Postby ket on 04 Dec 2009 14:30

MeanderingBeing wrote:
ket wrote:Nope, the highend is none other than the 1366 X58 platform :thumbright: Some will notice I haven't included AMD CPU and mainboard alternatives. Thats because intel do currently offer the best performance, however if people want AMD alternatives just ask and I'll add my recommendations.


You know, I've had alot of luck with AMD and ASUS, could you post your recommendations for future reference?


On the AMD front, I would recommend the systems I already specified but just replace the mainboard with a Crosshair III Formula (AM3, DDR3, AMD 790FX/SB750) which is available for £124, or if thats a little much a Crosshair II Formula (AM2+, DDR2, nForce 780a SLI ) which is available for £96. As for CPUs, the Phenom X4 9650 (AM2+) is a great choice available at as little as £72. For AM3, the choices would be between a Athlon 2 X2 250 available for about £50, the Athlon 2 X3 435 available for about £60, the Phenom 2 X4 925 available for about £100, or the Phenom 2 X4 955 Black Edition available for about £120.
Mobo: MSI X570 Tomahawk
CPU: R7 3700X @ 4.4GHz 1.3v
RAM: 2x16GB Klevv BoltX 3600MHz 16-20-20-35
GPU: Powercolor 6800XT Red Devil
Sound: Asus Xonar DX 7.1 PCI-E, Realtek ALC1200
HDD: 250GB & 500GB nVME 3.0 M.2 drives, 2TB Seagate Barracuda, Sata3 64MB Cache, 250GB Hynix SL301
Opticals: DVD-RW, Blu-Ray
PSU: eVGA 1000w G2 Supernova
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Re: Building a new PC? Look here first.

Postby ket on 04 Dec 2009 17:36

Perhaps a little unneeded, but I'll do it anyway for sake of a good example. The above systems are the "ideal" specification / mix of components for their entry level and price bracket, however that doesn't mean you can't "pick n mix". Lets look at my system;

Mobo: Asus Maximus II Formula
CPU: Q8400
RAM: 2x2GB OCZ LV Platinum PC9200
Graphics: 2x XFX HD4830 512MB
Sound: Asus Xonar DX 7.1, ADI 2000B "SupremeFX X-Fi"
HDD: WD Black 640GB 32MB cache
PSU: Hi-Power 800w Modular, 12v rail = 80A

Whats the first thing we notice about this system? It uses a highend mainboard (for its platform). This ensures that even if you were to choose a superbudget CPU, as I have with the Q8400, your not going to have much trouble minimising that delta between a cheap and more expensive CPU. With my old P5Q Pro, it could handle 455FSB on a 8x multiplier, thats not too bad. With the mainboard upgrade, the very same CPU can now do 480FSB x7.5. Right away the more expensive board with higher quality components allows me to run the FSB 25MHz higher, which is pretty significant when thinking in terms of DRAM frequency (1FSB = +3Mhz mem frequency). Also, my P5Q Pro couldn't handle my CPU much beyond 3.6GHz, which again isn't bad, but with the M2F if I want to I can run 3.8GHz, and with work even 3.9-4GHz. Thats a extra 200-400MHz out of the same CPU "for free" all due to the mainboard upgrade.

Next you will probably notice I have the highest quality high density DDR2 modules available. I was extremely fortunate on this one, getting hold of LV Platinums or LV Blades is almost like gold dust. But, with these modules it allows me to push limits even further, or more to the point. I get 9.1GB\s Read, 10GB\s Write, and 10GB\s Copy bandwidth results in Everest @ 3.6GHz CPU 480FSB, mem frequency 1150MHz (for those curious, PC9200 LV Platinums and LV Blades are capable of between 1250 - 1300MHz). I'm not pushing things to the extreme like users on xtremesystems do, and I'm already into the upper echelons of the kingdom of gods with platforms similar to mine. This did not take any kind of luck, just a educated choice of components that didn't involve going bankrupt.

Now lets analyse my choice of GPU, you would probably think why I didn't choose something more powerful in light of my other choices. The reason for this is again another educated one. The HD4830 runs much cooler than the 4850 and 4870, but thats not the best reason for getting the 4830. The best reason is for what the 4830 hides, which is its overclocking potential. Once a 4830 is OCd it easily reaches performance levels of the HD4850, and with a little extra tweaking can comfortably surpass the performance levels of a OCd 4850 due to the 4830s alarmingly lower heat output. Although if you want a 4830 outdoing a OCd 4850, you'll need to break out your vmodding gear. None the less a little issue of voiding a warrenty doesn't bother someone like me for the additional benefits :p

So, explanations aside you can see its very possible to get a powerful system for not too much money. Based on current prices my system would set somebody back about £550-600 for the essentials inside the box. Now bare in mind that the system can handle whatever is thrown at it, and £600 starts to look quite attractive for its all-round performance :thumbright:

Anyway hopefully all my ramblings and that example have given people a good idea of what to look for, and what a educated choice can get you all.
Mobo: MSI X570 Tomahawk
CPU: R7 3700X @ 4.4GHz 1.3v
RAM: 2x16GB Klevv BoltX 3600MHz 16-20-20-35
GPU: Powercolor 6800XT Red Devil
Sound: Asus Xonar DX 7.1 PCI-E, Realtek ALC1200
HDD: 250GB & 500GB nVME 3.0 M.2 drives, 2TB Seagate Barracuda, Sata3 64MB Cache, 250GB Hynix SL301
Opticals: DVD-RW, Blu-Ray
PSU: eVGA 1000w G2 Supernova
Case: NZXT Phantom 530

STALKER: Singularity (SIN) homepage
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ket
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Re: Building a new PC? Look here first.

Postby Grump642 on 04 Dec 2009 23:31

Hmmm.. I might have added a SSD for boot to the top sys. I am looking at doing that next to beef up my HDD area. Kingston's new SSDNow V 40Gb is $129.95. 170 on the reads, but only 40 on the write. And it is MLC. Good for a boot drive at a good price. Paired with your 1Tb WD Black, you will have no bottleneck there. Just a thought
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Grump642
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Re: Building a new PC? Look here first.

Postby ket on 05 Dec 2009 00:44

SSDs have a lot of problems, the main one being they degrade rather fast. I talked about it at length with various reviewers I know, and general view is that SSDs show promise, but their currently rather unreliable. Storage will move on from magnetic storage, but theres no reliable alternative really right now. Just like anything, SSD technology needs to mature. Once it does I'm sure it'll be great but until then its perhaps a wise move only to use SSD drives as storage for non important data and judge for yourself how things go.
Mobo: MSI X570 Tomahawk
CPU: R7 3700X @ 4.4GHz 1.3v
RAM: 2x16GB Klevv BoltX 3600MHz 16-20-20-35
GPU: Powercolor 6800XT Red Devil
Sound: Asus Xonar DX 7.1 PCI-E, Realtek ALC1200
HDD: 250GB & 500GB nVME 3.0 M.2 drives, 2TB Seagate Barracuda, Sata3 64MB Cache, 250GB Hynix SL301
Opticals: DVD-RW, Blu-Ray
PSU: eVGA 1000w G2 Supernova
Case: NZXT Phantom 530

STALKER: Singularity (SIN) homepage
User avatar
ket
Senior Resident
 
Posts: 1262
Joined: 14 Sep 2008 11:57
Location: The solar system

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