Building a new computer - Need help and advise

[TchuBacha]

As the title says im building a new computer and need help and any advise that past computer builders can offer. Below is a list of hardware I have spent the past 4 hours compiling.

My budget is £1000 and im building the computer to play the latest(ish) games (not neccessarly at the highest resolution), internet and also for doing some photo/video editing.

My main concern is with the GPU. I understand graphics cards are becoming more and more power hungry and require a fairly decent PSU, so will the PSU I have chosen play nice with the 8800GTS?


Also which is the best brand of GPU to go for? POV? XFX? Innovision???


GPU - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/138416/ - Point Of View 8800GTS G92 512MB GDDR3 - £191.44
CPU - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/131950/ - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 - £168.11
Motherboard - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/120936/ - EVGA nForce 680i SLI SKT775 - £124.99
RAM - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/111439 - Corsair 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz - £54.99
HDD - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124228 - Western Digital 500GB OEM - £63.61
PSU - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/114933/ - Antec TruePower Trio 650W PSU - £74.99
Case - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/123912 - Aplus Twin Engine Case - £67.29
Monitor - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/125099/ - Samsung SM226BW 22" - £199.75
Keyboard - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/130500 - ZBoard Black/Silver Merc Gaming Keyboard - USB - £22.99
Optical Drives - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/127442/ - LiteOn 20X SATA DVD+-RW - £22.00

[Jale]

I wish I could get those components at those prices :verysad:

As for video card brand, being nVIDIA, XFX is a very good one.

[TchuBacha]

I wish I could get those components at those prices :verysad:


You need to emigrate. :p

[Jale]

Yeah, I'm thinking on moving to Denmark soon... or maybe to London.

[TchuBacha]

Couple more questions

Do retail CPU's come with thermal paste?
and do I get a sata cable with an OEM HDD or will I have to buy it seperatly

[Jale]

That depends, but mostly they're sold separately.

[Zach]

OEM drives usually don't come with cables. Retail CPU's come with a retail HSF unit, this has pre-applied thermal interface material (TIM).

TIM's are notoriously poor performers, but they work fine for the stuff they are used on, since most people don't overclock their CPU's etc..

Your PSU has more than enough juice by the looks of it.. I own a modular PSU made by Antec myself, though I forgot the wattage.. it's probably 500 something.. or 460, or something, heh..

[Jale]

My computer came with a 250 W PSU and replaced it with a 550 W almost a year ago.

[azoreseuropa]

GeForce 8800GT 512mb is an excellent option for you.

I don't understand your money. I don't know what is £ for $900. Heh... Anyway..

I am going with budget computer:

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6750 (2x 2.66GHz/4MB L2 Cache/1333FSB),
Nvidia GeForce 8800GT 512mb and 2GB memory

It's a bit expensive but it is only $900 dollars with a free shipping. :)

[TchuBacha]

ATM £1 = $2 so my budget is $2000 give or take a few bucks :p

[Alexander_13]

my new pc is pentium dual core 1,60ghz 149gb of space 1gb of memory geforce 8400 xp sp2

[TchuBacha]

Anyone have any idea on the system requirements for Windows 7? Might aswell make it so its futureproof(ish)

[azoreseuropa]

Windows 7 what ? Internet Explorer or Windows Media Player ? You need to be specifically. :)

[TchuBacha]

Microsoft Windows 7 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7)

[azoreseuropa]

No recommended specs decide yet. It is too early to say for now since it will be out in 2009.

[Jale]

ATM £1 = $2 so my budget is $2000 give or take a few bucks :p
$2,000? Ouch!

Since 1997, I went through many upgrades:

My very first computer's specs (1997 - 2000):

Intel Pentium MMX 166 MHz.
16 MB of RAM.
2 GB of disc (and it's still working, in fact, I'm currently using it as a backup on my current system).
1 MB VGA card (no 3D acceleration).

Upgrade (2000 - 2001):

Intel Celeron 600 MHz.
64 MB of RAM.
20 GB of disc.
16 MB integrated graphics.

Upgrade (2001 - Present): Processor burnt.

Intel Celeron 850 MHz.
128 MB of RAM.
20 MB of RAM.
16 MB integrated graphics.

Upgrade (2004 - 2005):

Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz.
256 MB of RAM.
40 GB of disc.
32 MB integrated graphics.

Upgrade (2005 - 2007):

Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz.
1 GB of RAM.
40 GB of disc.
ATI Radeon 9200 SE 128 MB.

Upgrade (2007 - Present):

Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz.
2 GB of RAM.
40 GB of disc.
ATI Radeon X1600 Pro 256 MB.

And a possible upgrade for this year (2008):

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66 GHz.
2 GB of RAM.
500 GB of disc.
nVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT or ATI Radeon HD 2000 series.

[TchuBacha]

No recommended specs decide yet. It is too early to say for now since it will be out in 2009.

Ok far enough, but would anyone know atleast the specs for that early closed beta MS sent out to a select few days ago?

[azoreseuropa]

I dont upgrade it. I sold every computers at least 5 years to get a new one. The newest one I hope to get will be near 900 dollars.. Cheaper. What computer specs which I hopefully get is:

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6750 (2x 2.66GHz/4MB L2 Cache/1333FSB),
Nvidia GeForce 8800GT 512mb and 2GB memory and Windows Vista Home Basic x64 bit. :)

[TchuBacha]

2001 - 2006

(Desktop)
Athlon XP 1700+ (Palomino)
256 MB SDRAM
32 Intergrated graphics S3 Pro Savage :o
40GB HDD
Windows XP Home

I keep meaning to upgrade the RAM (Getting complaints about virtual memory too low, blah blah blah)

2006 - Present

(Laptop)
Turion64 2.0GHz
1 GB DDR2 RAM
ATI Radeon Xpress 1100
120 GB HDD
Windows XP Pro / Media Centre 2005 / Vista Business N / Ubuntu


Future -

Listed above.



I might leave it for a while atleast until I have a better idea of what windows 7 will need.

My guess is it will need 2gb of RAM, a dual-core processor and a direct X 10 GPU

[azoreseuropa]

I do not think so..

The 2gb of RAM, a core 2 duo processor and a direct x 10 gpu will do a good job for windows 7

One more thing I dont care about is windows 7. I dont like microsoft very much for addition too many things that are not need. Too much will store the space that will choke the computer and you will have to buy more HD or something like that. It's annoying. They are evil and wants us to spend more money than what we need. I am into just games, photo things, and many more doesnt need something from microsoft.

[Jale]

And don't forget the evil market strategy (ie. Forcing users to move to Windows Vista for DirectX 10).

[Alexander_13]

my first computer was a pentium 166 mhz 32 mb ram 56k modem and 2gb of c drive then pentium 3 667mhz 10gb of space 384 mb of ram and radeom ati 9200 and now i have the new dual core i explain in the previous post ;) so 3 times for me and myself i always use pentium instead of amd

[Zach]

Won't have to move to a DX10 supporting OS until a lot of games coming out actually support/require it though, so I imagine we have a while yet before absolutely needing to upgrade.