My New PC:

[AshMat]

Basically, i know a guy, he threw this together for me (this is from http://www.dinopc.com)

 

EDIT:

Right, i re looked, how does this sound

 

CPU: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6750 (2.66Ghz, 4MB Cache, 1333Mhz FSB)

CPU Cooler: Standard CPU heatsink & fan

Motherboard: Asus P5KPL (6x USB2.0, Intel G31 chipset, SPDIF)

Memory: 2.0GB Corsair DDR2 800mhz (2x 1GB)

Hard Drive: 250GB S-ATA2 3.0Gb/s

Optical Drive: 18x DVD±RW DL

Graphics card: NVidia GeForce 8600GT 256MB

Sound card: Onboard 7.1 Audio

Operating System: None

PSU: 400W

Case: Thermaltake Mambo

Warranty: 3 Year Bronze Warranty

?

Price:£400.77

 

Also, i'm getting Windows Vista Office or Business or whatever it is, (they made waaay too many) for free, and Office 2007.

[Ten10]

I got a bit scared when I saw 20 gig of ram, but I guess that was just a typo

[Slaggis]

Try pcoption.co.uk

 

They were brilliant when I ordered a custom pc from them, and cheap.

 

(5 year warranty with everything)

[Sanchez]

Solid system, if you needed something cheaper you could use a slower CPU and you wouldn't notice much difference.

 

My RAM brand of choice is Corsair but Kingston is a solid brand anyway.

[AshMat]

Whoops, the RAM Is actually corsair, i bumpde it fromt he 667mhz to the 800mhz, Kingston was 667mhz, the Corsair is the 800mhz.

 

I'm pretty confident about this build, talked to a mate about it too he seems to think it looks fine for me.

 

EDIT: Also, the price is fine for me, so i figure i'll stick with the E6750.

[Sheikah]

If you want a big boost you should get an 8800GTS instead of an 8600GT

[Guest Jordan]

Ash, please take this advice.

 

Do not, for the love of god buy a 8600. Its barely powerful enough to run anything DX10 and its DX9 capablities are awful.

 

Either get a 8800GT or a 7800/7900.

[Sanchez]

If you want a big boost you should get an 8800GTS instead of an 8600GT

 

No, he should get a 8800GT.

 

Actually, AshMat you should check how much more the the 8800GT is because if it isn't much then you should definitely go for it.

[gaggle64]

You'll want to chuck a bigger PSU on there too. Skimping on a PSU is like not eating to save money.

[McPhee]

Drop the RAM down to 667MHz, DinoPC are asking too much for 800 over 667 (£26.60 when i checked)

 

Think about an AMD CPU instead. If budget is really tight then an AMD CPU might let you get better parts elsewhere in the system, improving the performance of the machine as a whole

 

If DinoPC won't give you an 8800GT as an option (try ringing them if it aint on they're site) then choose None. An 8800GTS ain't worth £100 of anyones money

 

You'll want to chuck a bigger PSU on there too. Skimping on a PSU is like not eating to save money.

 

It's not the size that matters, it's how you use it (or rather, the quality of the thing)

 

I know theres quite a few people out there running 8800GTX's on 400W power supplies!

[AshMat]

They do the 8800GT, but with the Gaming PCs, i just customised a multimedia pc.

Is the 8800GT The newest one they just released?

 

ALso, i could have an AMD, i picked an Intel based system, i'd rather stick with Intel.

 

Also, putting the 8800GTS moved it up to £440, didn't really want to go that high.

[McPhee]

Phone them up and ask for an 8800GT. If they are any good they'll accommodate. It's cheaper than a GTS (or it should be, it retails for less) but out-performs it by quite a bit.

 

With the Processor/Graphics Card you have to choose. If you can't fit both a brilliant CPU and a brilliant GPU in to you're budget then one has to slide. If the computer's for gaming then the GPU is more important, so drop the CPU by any means necessary, even if it means going AMD (or just up you're budget).

[AshMat]

Yeah, to get an 8800GT on my pc, i have to switch to a gaming PC.

It requires a 600W PSU as smallest.

Price:

£577.37

 

Seriously is the 8800GT the newest one? It says New on the site, i really sdon't want to splash out on the newest graphics card.

 

Is the 8600GTS any better than the GT?

[McPhee]

The 8800GT has just been released. Theres such a fuss about it because it retails for around £180 and yet is better than the GTS (£200-ish) and almost as good as the GTX (£300+).

 

The problem with the 8xxx cards is they lack the 'mid-range'. Traditionally with each new generation of cards there were a few cards that sat around the £100 mark, making a good compromise between a low-end card and a gaming card.

Price-wise, the 8600 is that card. Unfortunately it falls down on the performance level. The 8600 is actually less powerful than last generations cards, and sits closer in performance to the low-end cards than the gaming cards. The leap in performance from 8600 to 8800 is HUGE

 

The result of this is that the consumer is forced to choose between the 8600, which offers pretty terrible value for money or the 8800 series of cards, which are expensive.

 

It requires a 600W PSU as smallest.

 

This isn't true. A good 500W PSU is easily capable of running the 8800GT, theres probably even a few 350-400W models that can manage it

[AshMat]

Right, i really can't afford to bump up to an 8800GT or 8800 of any kind.

 

Is it that the 8600s in general are like that?

[McPhee]

 

*the 8800GT sits between the 8800GTS and 8800GTX, but it's not been added to the chart yet.

 

This chart gives an idea of what i mean when i say the 8600 is bad value for money.

Heres the approximate pricing of the cards i circled:

 

8600GT: £60-£80

8600GTS: £100-£130

x1950 Pro: £70-£100

x1950 XT: £100-£130

8800GTS: £200-£250

8800GT: £180-ish

 

This is why im saying the 8600 is bad value for money. The only alternative i can think of is that you buy a comp from DinoPC with no card and then fit one yourself afterwards. That way you could go for a decent DX9 card like the x1950 Pro, have a better performing card and save some money in the process

[AshMat]

Right. What if all i wanna do is just play games that are out now, e.g Orange box, other recent-ish games.

 

Is the 8600T Not good enough for that? I can't choose to have no Graphics card..

 

EDIT: Also sorry i keep throwing it back, but it's just that if i have t switch i'll have to seriously increase the price.

[McPhee]

Choose Basic PC, you can configure that with no GPU. Or, go to the site Haggis suggested. C2D E4500, 8800GT, 1GB RAM = £404. It's easy enough to stick an extra 1GB RAM stick in when you have the cash (about £40)

 

What sort of performance are you really hoping to achieve? The 8600 will run Orange Box, but the settings won't be turned particularly high. It probably won't be much use in a years time.

 

Personally i'd stay clear of the spec in you're first post. It's very possible to get a really good PC for £400 (i paid about that for mine and can run Orange Box max'd out) but the spec has to be balanced properly. What Dino PC have come up with isn't. It's got a fancy processor, some good RAM and a nice case, but it's let down by a poor GPU and a pretty meh motherboard.

[Sheikah]

No, he should get a 8800GT.

 

Actually, AshMat you should check how much more the the 8800GT is because if it isn't much then you should definitely go for it.

The 8800GTS is great...I have it and I can run Oblivion at max and the Crysis demo on near max. And it's a good price. No idea about the GT, when I bought my PC I don't think it was even available. Either way you won't be disappointed.

[AshMat]

PC Option is confusing the shit out of me..

 

Agh this throws all my plans completely out of order.

 

Right so, DinoPC, without a GPU:

CPU: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E4500 (2.20Ghz, 2MB Cache, 800Mhz FSB)

CPU Cooler: Standard CPU heatsink & fan

Motherboard: Asrock Conroe1333-D667

Memory: 2.0GB Kingston DDR2 667mhz (2x 1GB)

Hard Drive: 250GB S-ATA2 3.0Gb/s

Optical Drive: 18x DVD±RW DL

Sound card: Onboard 7.1 Audio

Operating System: None

PSU: 400W

Case: EZCool K110

Warranty: 3 Year Bronze Warranty

£233.58

 

 

Where am i getting the GPU? I see no 8800GT on ebuyer.

 

EDIT:

This?

http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=17835&category_id=611&manufacturer_id=0&tid=pv-t88p-ydf4

 

Altogether (postage, VAt, etc)

Comes to £436

Is THAT finally good?

 

Right, this is the final deal guys.

I'm buying the original build tommorow night (from the OP).

Then later (possibly after christmas), i will buy an 8800GT (sell the 8600).

Thanks for the help, i know what i'm doing now.

[system_error]

8800GT is 3% less speed than a 8800GTX but nearly 50% cheaper. Get one or else

[Konfucius]

Actually, forgive me for asking this, but why are you getting a PC at this time?

 

I actually think the timing isn't that great. I mean I don't have too much insight, so I gladly stand corrected but I'm under the impression that neither AMD nor Intel showed much development in the past few month and nVidia's Geforce 8800 are also out for quite some time now.

That leads me to believe that there should be another step (particularly in graphics) in two to three month which should get you better components for the same price.

But again I gladly stand corrected.

I only want to point out that at the moment even high-end PCs don't get more than 25 fps out of Crysis.

[AshMat]

Actually, forgive me for asking this, but why are you getting a PC at this time?

 

I actually think the timing isn't that great. I mean I don't have too much insight, so I gladly stand corrected but I'm under the impression that neither AMD nor Intel showed much development in the past few month and nVidia's Geforce 8800 are also out for quite some time now.

That leads me to believe that there should be another step (particularly in graphics) in two to three month which should get you better components for the same price.

But again I gladly stand corrected.

I only want to point out that at the moment even high-end PCs don't get more than 25 fps out of Crysis.

 

Y'see, now is the time i have the money, so i'm getting this while i have the money, and if necessary i'll upgrade bits alter (firstly the GPU after christmas)

 

Also, i had to stump down to 2gb 667mhz DDR instead of 800mhz so i could put a 600W PSU in instead.

[McPhee]

Actually, forgive me for asking this, but why are you getting a PC at this time?

 

I actually think the timing isn't that great. I mean I don't have too much insight, so I gladly stand corrected but I'm under the impression that neither AMD nor Intel showed much development in the past few month and nVidia's Geforce 8800 are also out for quite some time now.

That leads me to believe that there should be another step (particularly in graphics) in two to three month which should get you better components for the same price.

But again I gladly stand corrected.

I only want to point out that at the moment even high-end PCs don't get more than 25 fps out of Crysis.

 

New processors are due before Christmas from both AMD and Intel with a ,probably major, price drop soon.

 

New GPUs from ATi in the next few weeks and more 45nm GPUs from NVidia (8800GTS V2 etc)

 

so yeah, should be a few prices dropping. Hardly a bad time to buy though, prices are already pretty cheap. Only problem i can see though is with new 8800 and possibly 8600 cards due you might not be getting much at all for that 8600GTS

[AshMat]

Just for the record, this final setup:

CPU: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6750 (2.66Ghz, 4MB Cache, 1333Mhz FSB)

CPU Cooler: Standard CPU heatsink & fan

Motherboard: Asus P5KPL (6x USB2.0, Intel G31 chipset, SPDIF)

Memory: 2.0GB Kingston DDR2 667mhz (2x 1GB)

Hard Drive: 250GB S-ATA2 3.0Gb/s

Optical Drive: 18x DVD±RW DL

Graphics card: NVidia GeForce 8600GT 256MB

Sound card: Onboard 7.1 Audio

Operating System: None

PSU: 600W

 

Runs HL2, CSS etc at fully high settings.