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need some advice please for building a midrange PC, and help with a selection of parts
hi, and thanks for taking the time to look at my post 
i havnt kept up with PC hardware for a couple of years now and i am in need of a new rig, trouble is i need to get it on finance so my options are fairly limited, so i have a few questions
1. which is better for gaming. Phenom / Quadcore core 2 / dualcore core 2
as looking online in various places i can get a phenom 2.3Ghz for around £150, a Q6600 quad 2.4Ghz for the same price and a 3Ghz dual for £170
2. Nvidia 8800 GTS or GT 512Mb or go for an ATI 3870 for the cost factor?
my last Nvidia card was ages ago (Gforce 2 MX440 anyone??? lol) but i have become disilliusioned with ATI over the intervening years as i have had 3 and they aged so fast, but some solid advice is badly needed here
3. Raid arrays. now i know what they are, and what they do roughly, but would there be any point in making a raid stripe with a 30Gb 10K raptor and a 500Gb storage drive, would it improve performance in games or is it a waste of time in that respect?
as i said i have to get my new rig on finance so i have not got much choice in branding ect. which is a shame,
thanks again for checking this post and thanks in advance for replying (if anyone does lol)
Comments
ok seems no body answered, ive been looking around at a few wiki's and stuff and have the answers to my own questions (and a pair of bleeding eyeballs from the reading lol)
ive put together a little system and would appreciate any comments for improvement ect. i can probably stretch to £100 more if it came to it but i would rather loose a bit of cash off it tbh lol
Motherboard : Asus P5N-T, NF780i SLI
CPU : Intel Core 2 Quad-Core Q6600 G0
CPU Cooler : Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
GFX : 512MB BFG Technology 8800GT OC
RAM : 2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX DDR2 XMS2 Dominator, PC2-8500
HDD : 500 GB Samsung HD501LJ Spinpoint T166, SATA II
monitor : 21.6" Hanns G HG216DP, Silver/Black, Widescreen
and a few other bits like gaming keyboard and mouse, all in all it comes up to £1070, if there is anything glaringly wrong here, please let me know asap as i will be ordering this lot next week some time
the only thing im not sure of is the Mobo as the place im getting it from has a very strange way of organising their Mobo's (www.scan.co.uk) and it was the only decent looking one they had in stock
thanks for reading and thanks for replys (if any)
looks like a nice build.
PSU ?
what will you be using as an OS ? if you're going to be using vista splurge for another 2 gig.
____________________________
TheCore
Aye, what about the CASE , PSU and OS?
As mentioned above, even Vista OEM is £70, the proper version is more like £180.
PSU : 520W Coolermaster Real Power M520 Modular PSU 2xPCI-E >80% Efficiency
CASE : Aspire X-Cruiser Black Midi Tower with Window w/o PSU (cause it looks nice
)
OS : well i have vista and XP on CD so i can pick and choose whichever will probably go for vista 32, as i know the 64 version is very unsupported for drivers, and games at the moment, though as soon as it looks more supported i can upgrade the RAM to 4Gb and then put 64 on it no problem
i bought the board for future upgradability with SLI compliance so i figured not to need any more then 520W especially with the Q6600 being 90W G0 stepping version, though i cant see myself getting another card unless they drop to £80 roughly lol, basicly this rig is upgrading me from ...
P4 3.0Ghz HT, 1gig 400Mhz DC, X800 pro, 200Gb HDD (which will go into the new one for another storage drive)
thanks for the replies
Thats not really a mid range PC, it's actually on the higher end. If you *could* afford it I would get a slightly higher power supply just for upgradeability later. If y ou decide to SLi or even if you add another case fan, cooling system, or USB port, you don't want to be short on power. Alot of times your PC will run slower then normal and in most cases not at all.
aye i see where you are coming from, but the reason i picked the 520W is because all of the parts i picked were low draw, and with >80% efficiency and a good make i thought that i would go for a smaller PSU on principle for sound levels, but i will have a look and see what they got in the 7-800W catergories and see if i can find something else with good efficiency
thanks
* Dual Core - No point in spending extra for Quad
* 8800GT - All the rest have critical defects
* Skip the Raid Array
* 2g RAM is all you need
* XP Home ; VISTA later
Just my 2c on a Medium system
ok the only one i found under £100 was
PSU : 730W HiperPower HPU-5M730-SE, Quad-SLI and Crossfire certified, 80%+ Efficiency
runs in at the same price as the coolermaster, though ive never heard anything about hiperpower, and its a bit suspect that its £30 cheeper then its nearest competitor at the same wattage, if anyone has heard anything about them would appreciate feedback ta.
the quad core is actually cheeper from the place im getting it ( though it is OEM) over the dual core
He is right though, quad cores really aren't worth it at the moment.. they have potential, but whenever something new like this comes out it will burst with goodness in the next year.
But if you can get a q6600 for the price of a e6750 (extremely comparative).. then do it!
Oh- the GTS outperforms the GT.. plus the GT has an awful cooling system (seriously). I don't know what he means by "critical defects" heh.. the 8800gts (g92) version is golden. But if you are looking for price, the 8800gt is fine.. just try to get an aftermarket heatsink/fan,
Also, for the processor cooling, get a zalman 9700 NT, fit it with mx-2 thermal compound, you can overclock that baby til' your heart desires.
4 gigs of ram is nice, but 2 is fine.
Vista will slow your gaming down by about 10%.. it's a real recource hog.
730w psu is a lot.. 600w is fine for what you are building, and your electricity bill won't be so bad (obviously). Do not be cheap on a PSU.
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He is right though, quad cores really aren't worth it at the moment.. they have potential, but whenever something new like this comes out it will burst with goodness in the next year.
But if you can get a q6600 for the price of a e6750 (extremely comparative).. then do it!
Oh- the GTS outperforms the GT.. plus the GT has an awful cooling system (seriously). I don't know what he means by "critical defects" heh.. the 8800gts (g92) version is golden. But if you are looking for price, the 8800gt is fine.. just try to get an aftermarket heatsink/fan,
Also, for the processor cooling, get a zalman 9700 NT, fit it with mx-2 thermal compound, you can overclock that baby til' your heart desires.
4 gigs of ram is nice, but 2 is fine.
Vista will slow your gaming down by about 10%.. it's a real recource hog.
730w psu is a lot.. 600w is fine for what you are building, and your electricity bill won't be so bad (obviously). Do not be cheap on a PSU.
Actually I believe in recent tests the GT performed better in price per performance comparisons with the GTS. Don't get me wrong I have a GTS and it performs great, but the GT is cheaper and offers about the same performance wise.
He is right though, quad cores really aren't worth it at the moment.. they have potential, but whenever something new like this comes out it will burst with goodness in the next year.
But if you can get a q6600 for the price of a e6750 (extremely comparative).. then do it!
Oh- the GTS outperforms the GT.. plus the GT has an awful cooling system (seriously). I don't know what he means by "critical defects" heh.. the 8800gts (g92) version is golden. But if you are looking for price, the 8800gt is fine.. just try to get an aftermarket heatsink/fan,
Also, for the processor cooling, get a zalman 9700 NT, fit it with mx-2 thermal compound, you can overclock that baby til' your heart desires.
4 gigs of ram is nice, but 2 is fine.
Vista will slow your gaming down by about 10%.. it's a real recource hog.
730w psu is a lot.. 600w is fine for what you are building, and your electricity bill won't be so bad (obviously). Do not be cheap on a PSU.
Actually I believe in recent tests the GT performed better in price per performance comparisons with the GTS. Don't get me wrong I have a GTS and it performs great, but the GT is cheaper and offers about the same performance wise.
I enjoy running 20fps faster than my friend in BF2, thank you
). Reason I choose GTS, is because right now places like newegg are giving away crisis with it too, and have it marked down (EVGA). So it's -30$, doesn't need an aftermarket cooling system to void the warranty.. and I can overclock it much better than an 8800gt.
But indeed, the price is still steep! 8800gt is an excellent card, that will run any MMO with ease.
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hehe thanks for the answers chaps, i dont intend to OC anything but the CPU really thats why i thought OEM chip with a artic pro 7 to pump out the heat in a well ventilated case, cant see it not clocking to 3 -3.5Ghz happily i dont really want to go mad on the OC though so it should be ok (plus the fact my front room where the pc will be, is very cold, lol so more for the better imo), basicly im just pissed off with my old rig not being able to play newer FPS / Sports games (UT3 and speedball 2 tournament
) im not actually building it for MMO play, its for all round gaminng 
well i will take into account all that has been said here and will post back next week after ive built it 
If you aren't in a hurry wait a month or 2 for the new Intel 45nm quad cores to come out. Theres one that goes for around £150.
hmm tempting to wait for the new CPU's tbh, but the pc im using keeps cutting out on me and crashing and all sorts, tho to be fair its been on nearly 24 hours a day scince i built it 3 years ago lol, and its only just started happening, think the mobo is on the way out again (this is my 2nd mobo ive had in this pc bought it 1.5 years ago) so with my usage its not surprising i rinse through motherboards and PSU's like the clappers was thinking after i built the new one to keep this one upstairs for a FTP server and replace the parts as and when they die, but its getting quite critical that i get the new rig soon
but thanks for the suggestion will take it in to account as i have with everything else suggested so far
ok revised part list
CPU : Intel Core 2 Quad-Core Q6600
CPU Cooler : Zalman CNPS9700-NT NVIDIA Tritium Super Aero Flower Cooler
PSU : 600W EZ-Cool Silent SLi pPFC Power Supply (damn cheep and cheerfull) ??
Mobo : Asus P5N-T, NF780i SLI, 3-Way SLi, 775, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR2, 667/800/1066, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX
GPU : 512MB BFG Technology 8800GT OC, PCI-E 2.0
RAM : 2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX DDR2 XMS2 Dominator (cant justify the price for another 2Gb)
Case : Aspire X-Cruiser Black Midi Tower with Window w/o PSU
HDD : 500 GB Samsung HD501LJ Spinpoint T166, SATA II
NIC : Edimax EN-9250TX-E Gigabit 10/1000 PCI-Express NIC card
Monitor : 21.6" Hanns G HG216DP, Silver/Black, Widescreen, 5ms, VGA & HDMI,
DVD : Samsung SH-S203N/BEBN
Accessories :
Ideazon MERC Stealth Gaming Keyboard, USB 2.0, Wired, Black
& Razer Diamondback 3G 1800dpi, Flame Red [RZ01-00020500-R3M1] USB Mouse
think that will do
totals in at a modist £1,066.90 including V.A.T and delivery, and considering to make this same system with dell / alienware / any other computer company it would be well over 2 grand i think it will be a good choice. will be placing the order the day after tomorrow so any big fat error's still in sight please dont hesitate in telling me, the only real Q mark i have left is the PSU, the one i picked comes in at £20 roughly, and has SLI and everything, and the nearest competitor was £60 roughly but this one is garenteed for 100k hours run time so it cant be that bad and im sure ive heard some good reports about EZ-cool
also im a tad unsure about that Mobo still do you guys reckon that this board is worth getting for myself, for this computer? if not any alternatives would be appreciated too, as that board comes in at nearly the same price as the GPU for a triple SLI (that i will not use) though the rest of the board looks top notch, as i stated previously, the place im getting it from (www.scan.co.uk) organises their mobo's in a confusing way to me, and im unsure which type to go for
thanks again
Nice job. I'm very confident you'll be happy with everything you picked, though I don't know about the PSU. That is only because I don't know the brand. Chances are though that it will work well for you.
Happy gaming!
D.
I would say get a better PSU. You wouldn't want to use a crappy PSU on expensive parts. I would recommend the corsair PSUs, they are very reliable.