Rate My Spec Please!

[Zoom7000]

I'm building a nice gaming machine for my brother. Here is the specs, tell me what you think!

I was tempted to go for the cheaper RAM just to bring the price down a little:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct....20(OCZ2G8004GK)

Stick with the better RAM or go for the OCZ Gold?

[Sikh]

Well if your installing 8 gigs, are you using a x64 OS?

Also, 4 gigs should be good enough, i have that ram, 4 works fine.

Dont step over the line. Your basically building a PC that wil lbe mid end next year Q1. Since the Core I7 came out, your Comp will be "mid-high" end.

So dont spend TOO much.

[StealMySoda]

All I can say is. Can I be your brother please? :)

[mclaren05]

Fail.

i7 or nothing if its a gaming machine. And that OCZ RAM will be perfect.

Please post in dollars/euros :) so I can get a amount I understand

[Elessar]

Fail.

i7 or nothing if its a gaming machine. And that OCZ RAM will be perfect.

Please post in dollars/euros :) so I can get a amount I understand

The C2Q that he has would be better than the i7. More so, i believe the i7 is on a different platform (aka not 775).

Edited December 1, 2008 by Elessar

[Zoom7000]

Yes add to the fact that the i7 would send the price through the roof if the spec wasn't pricy enough already!

So cheap OCZ ram or the more expensive OCZ ram?

[Raiderman]

I would go with a MB that supports Crossfire and get two 4850's or 4870's. Other than that, looks good!

[ViZioN]

Pretty nice PC you got there :) I wouldn't bother going I7, right now as others have said its not worth it for the performance versus price

[NienorGT]

Samsung HDD have a bigger return rate than WD or Seagates.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct....%20(WD1001FALS)

That's a WAY more reliable HDD and it's faster.

[mclaren05]

Seagate has a better war.

[ViZioN]

Samsung HDD have a bigger return rate than WD or Seagates.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct....%20(WD1001FALS)

That's a WAY more reliable HDD and it's faster.

Source or is that your personal view?

[Beastage]

I got some ideas:

1. Seagate HDD, they just better in my opinion, tho I think at this point, Samsung all around capability puts them in 2nd place.

2. Motherboard and Memory, you spending alot of money there, go with a P45 mobo or similar and 8gb of ddr2 when ddr3 finally getting cheaper it is just not the smart choice.

3. Video card, a radeon 4850x2 will beat it, not sure about prices.

Those are the issue as I see them.

[Skulltrail-old]

My Rating: :star::star::star::star::star: out of 5

Looks good to me. (Y)

I'd personally step up the RAM to 8GB since I have a dusty copy of Windows Vista Ultimate x64, but that's just me. ;)

[the big dill]

I think thats an excellent build :D when i was building my rig i lacked ram and i am still happy with mine :D!

good choice of motherboard and excellent choice of HDD i dont know why ppl are complaining... it is the fastest 7200 hard drive out there (at least one of them, other than that would be the AAKS640)

Great choices, hope you enjoy your build :D

[NienorGT]

Source or is that your personal view?

Being told by someone that work in a Computer store.

Hardware.fr, a big site in French (Actually rated as the Biggest Forum in the Hardware category) have released some articles on this, here the most recent:

http://74.125.93.104/translate_c?hl=en&amp...Tk5aPAIFrbiDEHw

A thing to look for is the Warranty, they are mostly covered for 3 Years, except for WD RE and Black drives as well Seagates drives.

Having the longest warranty don't make you better, but it show a certain confidence of a manufacturer in it's products.

It would be stupid to give a big cover time if you sells Lemons, unless you want to loose money.

Though it's not a valid argument, people tend to say the same:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/245312-3...tal-reliability

Here a review between the Black and the F1: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2328727,00.asp

The Black is more silent in idle, use less energy (dissipate less heat by the same way) in all situations even if the Black have a "Dual Processor" controller, the PC Mark Vantage show that despite being close each ones, the Black is superior.

This is the result: "The Caviar Black is the best single, 1TB hard drive you can get today, but it's not well suited for RAID 0 environments."

I could argue on the Raid0 argument as in the PC Mark Vantage, the results show spectacular performances for Vista/Application loading and Gaming tests witch is the best benchs for a gaming PC. It actually even crunch the Raptors in Gaming test :blink:...

For this week specially the WD Black is only ?11 more than the F1.

For this you get a slightly faster harddrive, a more economic and cooler drive, 2 more years of warranty, and more reliable brand, I don't know how I can still say to go for the Samsung after this...

You have better arguments that I'm not aware?

[theAnimal]

An E8500/8600 dual core will be faster in almost all games.

Change the mobo to a P45 based, and the RAM to 800 or 1000.

For a 22" monitor, an HD4850 is also a good choice.

Second the vote for a Caviar Black.

[+shift. MVC]

Xigmatek S1283 better than Tuniq Tower 120. Cheaper and performs better.

Q9550 will perform similarly to E8500/8600 when overclocked to around 3.0GHz.

And P45 chipset preferable over X48.

Otherwise everything else looks good.

[Zoom7000]

For everyone telling me to go for P45 as opposed to X48, would the Asus Maximus II Formula be a better choice? I always thought the Rampage was better hence why I chose it. But I like the max 16Gb RAM compatibility on the Maximus II.

Also, with the potential of running Crossfire, should I go for the Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024Mb as opposed to the BFG GeForce GTX 260 896MB. I've been told the GTX 260 is a much better card and running the 4870 in Crossfire at the moment will be breaking the budget way too much, but if I get the 4870 now, it'll be only half the cost if they decide to go Crossfire later!

All I can say is. Can I be your brother please? :)

All I can say is... Can I be my brother! My parents have too much cash, wish I wasn't working and still living with them! :p

[+shift. MVC]

Do you NEED Crossfire later? i.e., does the resolution that you are running indicate a need for Crossfire?

Generally, a single GPU card will be sufficient for up to a 24" monitor. Using Crossfire in those situations wouldn't give you as good of a performance gain compared to what you would pay for it.

If you were running dual 24" monitors, then I would think that Crossfire / SLI would scale a bit better and give better value for the price premium you pay.

[J400uk]

I don't rate that.

The current processor to have is Core i7. The performance is extreme. Don't waste your time with ye olde core 2 quads. CustomPC did a good writeup on the i7, and even the base 920 model at stock blows every other CPU in the market out the water. Pair that up to a good graphics card and 3GB of DDR3 and your lauging. Feel free to ignore this post if you want, but all the benchmark figures speak for themselves tbh.

EDIT: You would also probably want a 1920 x 1080 23/24 TFT, again 1680 x 1050 22 is old school. If you have over a grand to spend may as well go for the latest and greatest; best you can get for the money.

[Zoom7000]

No, it'll be single monitor only. I was thinking only of the gaming performance. Would it be any better?

[+shift. MVC]

It would be better, just not worth the price of another video card; and most would agree with me on that.

[Zoom7000]

Thanks. So, which motherboard? Asus Rampage Formula or the Asus Maximus II Formula?

Rampage = x48, Max 8Gb RAM

Maximus II = P45, Max 16Gb RAM

EDIT: Decided to go for the Maximus II, found it much cheaper on Ebuyer.

Edited December 1, 2008 by Zoom7000

[Zoom7000]

Updated Specs (Prices include VAT @ 15%) :)

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.83GHz 12MB-cache (1333FSB) Processor - OEM

Price = ?218.49

Asus Maximus II Formula P45 Socket 775 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard

Price = ?156.51

OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel Platinum Series DDR2 (OCZ2P10664GK) (x2)

Price = ?126.48

BFG GeForce GTX 260 OC MAXCORE 896MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

Price = ?247.24

Corsair 650W TX Series PSU - 120mm Fan, 80+% Efficiency, Single +12V Rail

Price = ?69.99

Antec P182 Gunmetal Grey Super Mid Tower Case - No PSU

Price = ?92.44

Samsung SpinPoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB Hard Drive SATAII *32MB Cache* - OEM (x2)

Price = ?147.96

Samsung SH-S223F 22X DVD?RW/RAM/DL Serial ATA Black Bare Drive - OEM

Price = ?15.35

Samsung SM2233BW 22" TFT Monitor 1680x1050 20,000:1 300cd/m2 5ms VGA/DVI-D Glossy Black 3 Years Warranty

Price = 166.36

Tuniq Tower 120-LFB CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775)

Price = ?28.74

Total (Including Shipping) = ?1279.32

I saved nearly ?100 going to Ebuyer for some parts, so I added in another 1Tb HDD with the remaining cash.

[J400uk]

Rubbish, waste of ?1200. i7 is the way forward