Bell
Frosties > Cornflakes
+362|7000|UK

RIGHT, I've had enough of this complete and utter crap I call a PC.  So to all you gentelman out there who actually know what you are talking about, what do I need to get the best gaming machine for my cash.  I am willing to spend between £1500-1800, I know a bit about computer's but tbh when spending that amount of cash I need advice.

Now, if you are of the opinion I should hold off for the vista and what have you then fair dooze, but giving me a rough idea of what I will need would be greatley appreciated.  I speced this DELL (ahhhh the shame of it) and for the 1st 18months it was great actually, but it's making up for that now 10 times over, constantly crashing, cpu running at 100% most of the time, and the fan is blasting at full all the time!  Keep getting message's tellin me there is critical error's.  I can not run a programe very long without some huge error occuring and loosing all my data.  Few friends are of the opinion it's 'fucked up mate' sooooooo, replacement is on the card's.

If the vista thing means I need to wait then I suppose that isnt to much of an issue, I can get by on an old laptop I have laying around, but I am in some real need of advice on what I need.

If youve seen one on the net link's would be great, and just general spec's would be welcome to.  Just need some help from those who know what they are talking about, any help would be greatley appreciated.

Thanks guy's

Martyn
DeCon_1
Member
+16|6972|Atlanta, Georga U.S.A.
For that amount of money, I can think of some ways.....
1. Intel Core 2 Extreme 2.93 Ghz
Newegg.com $950.00

Asus 975X motherboard (Go for the P5N32 SLi motherboards)
Newegg.com $220.00

Corsiar DDR2-800 RAM (XMS2 series PC2-6400 C4 PRO)
Newegg.com $350.00

1 XFX Geforce 7950 GX2 or 2 if you want quad SLi
Newegg.com $575 for 1 or $1150 for 2

Western Digital Raptor X hard drives
Newegg.com $329.99

At least a 650 to 1100 watt PSU

A mid size to full size case

Creative XFi sound card

Last edited by DeCon_1 (2006-10-20 17:12:31)

MECtallica
Member
+73|6955|jalalabad
intel core 2 duo X6800 (if possible), 2gb 800DDR2 ram, (named brand) 7600GT, possibly water cooling.... 10k RPM HDD.

should be enough for anything of today, and tomorrow. 7600GT is very good for its price 180~ US $, which is around possibly 100£? If you want to wait for DX10 cards... 2gb ram is the new 1gb, and core 2 duo processors beat the very best AMD processors.
younggun
Member
+28|7095
E6600 - $315
Gigabyte DQ6 - $215
7950GT - $300
2GB Corsair DDR2 800 - $250
Antec P180 - $100
Seasonic S12 550W - $130
Seagate 7200.10 320GB - $95
X-Fi Platinum - $178
DVD/DVD R - $35

That is a top of the line computer for $1600 USD, you could even upgrade the video card to a 7950GX2 or X1950XTX for a few hundred more. I left you room in your budget for the personal preference stuff like monitor, speakers, keyboard, mice, etc.

All prices were from NewEgg but I'm sure you will find a site that ships to Scotland with similar prices.
Bell
Frosties > Cornflakes
+362|7000|UK

Mmmmmm, I've looked on a few UK site's and it's gonna be pushin two grand!

So a new question, atm I have an ATI x1300 which is fine......ish, I was wondering Could I spec up my machine like you guy's say, and just use my current card for a while till the dx10's are out then I will splurge on that.  Just dont wanna spend £300 on a 7950 and in about 4 months the new gen run's ring's around it.
kylef
Gone
+1,352|6944|N. Ireland
First of all, the reason why I've given you the X1900XT is because DirectX 10 cards are coming out soon and you should get it! Here goes :

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6700
Motherboard: Asus P5W DH Deluxe
RAM: 2GB Corsair XMS2-PC2-6400-C4 Pro w/ LEDs
Video Card: ATI Radeon X1900XT 512MB Master Edition
Hard Drive: 150GB Western Digital Raptor X 10000RPM 16MB Cache
Hard Drive 2: 320GB Western Digital SATA-II 16MB Cache
Optical Drive: Asus DVD-RW Drive 16x16 Dual Layer
Sound Card: Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Retail
Case: Antec P180B Advanced Super-Midi Case
Power Supply: Seasonic M12 Modular 600W Silent

... and :

Watercooling: Zalman Reserator1 **V2** Fanless

.. this all hits around 1750 quid from Overclockers so you can get it cheaper from other places. The water-cooling is great and that is a fantastic system!
DeCon_1
Member
+16|6972|Atlanta, Georga U.S.A.
Little problem with your X1900XT there, its not a true DirectX 10 card. All it is is a DX9 card that emulates some of the features of DX10 but cannot do it natively.
ShotYourSix
Boldly going nowhere...
+196|7170|Las Vegas

Bell wrote:

So a new question, atm I have an ATI x1300 which is fine......ish, I was wondering Could I spec up my machine like you guy's say, and just use my current card for a while till the dx10's are out then I will splurge on that.  Just dont wanna spend £300 on a 7950 and in about 4 months the new gen run's ring's around it.
Bingo!

That's what I'd do.  Nvidia's G80 (GTX8800) DX10 hardware should be out around mid november. Ati's R600 DX10 card will be a bit late (february).   Don't forget to set aside some cash in your budget for Vista if you want to run DX10 on those cards, though they will still be smokin fast with DX9/XP until you get around to upgrading windows.
kylef
Gone
+1,352|6944|N. Ireland

DeCon_1 wrote:

Little problem with your X1900XT there, its not a true DirectX 10 card. All it is is a DX9 card that emulates some of the features of DX10 but cannot do it natively.
You didn't read my post properly....... read it again.
Dieselboy
Flicker of beans since 1986
+87|7001|Reading, Basingrad

leetkyle wrote:

First of all, the reason why I've given you the X1900XT is because DirectX 10 cards are coming out soon and you should get it! Here goes :

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6700
Motherboard: Asus P5W DH Deluxe
RAM: 2GB Corsair XMS2-PC2-6400-C4 Pro w/ LEDs
Video Card: ATI Radeon X1900XT 512MB Master Edition
Hard Drive: 150GB Western Digital Raptor X 10000RPM 16MB Cache
Hard Drive 2: 320GB Western Digital SATA-II 16MB Cache
Optical Drive: Asus DVD-RW Drive 16x16 Dual Layer
Sound Card: Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Retail
Case: Antec P180B Advanced Super-Midi Case
Power Supply: Seasonic M12 Modular 600W Silent

... and :

Watercooling: Zalman Reserator1 **V2** Fanless

.. this all hits around 1750 quid from Overclockers so you can get it cheaper from other places. The water-cooling is great and that is a fantastic system!
Good advice but I would leave out the Raptor and just go for 2 x 320gb sata's and RAID 0 them..... Raptors are too noisy and a waste of money (I know..I have one!)

Alternatively.....

Got to www.wired2fire.com
They make rigs so fast they make Alienware and Co look like Commodore 64's

Last edited by Dieselboy (2006-10-21 16:17:22)

Bell
Frosties > Cornflakes
+362|7000|UK

So one last thing, what is it to be, the Nvidia or ATI dx10 card?
GR34
Member
+215|6996|ALBERTA> CANADA
I think ATI's will blow NVidias out of the water. mainly b/c atiis comming out later. I think they have a few tricks up there sleev
ShotYourSix
Boldly going nowhere...
+196|7170|Las Vegas

GR34 wrote:

I think ATI's will blow NVidias out of the water. mainly b/c atiis comming out later. I think they have a few tricks up there sleev
Yes.  It's called unified shaders and the ATI R600 cards will be the first PC GPU's to utilize them.  Nvidia is sticking to fixed shaders again this time around (although if they pack enough horsepower under the hood it's still possible for them to end up as top dawg).  I'm banking on ATI and unified shaders for the win however.

Bottom line is until ATI R600 ships (around Feb '07) we can only speculate.  G80 should release during Nov. so at least we will have something to keep things interesting until they can go head to head.
younggun
Member
+28|7095
G80 will use unified shaders....
Its supposedly over 30% faster than the X1950XTX. That puts it right around 12k in 3DMark06 which is what has been speculated all along. R600 isn't supposed to be much faster even though its coming out 4 months later.

Board footer

Privacy Policy - © 2025 Jeff Minard