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Ok, building my first PC around christmas, could do woth some help on the parts. Budget of around £1000. Will be used for pretty much everything, mostly music and internet, some gaming. I want it to be quiet though as my current comp sounds like a foghorn (not too sure on water cooling though). So, that's what I want, please give me an idea of what i'm looking for. Thanks people.
Oh, and is there any new technology likely to be coming out soon that would be useful? Cheers.
Oh, and is there any new technology likely to be coming out soon that would be useful? Cheers.
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Even so, if he's buying now I don't see what the problem would be. They come with a 3 year warranty, so if it doesn't blow itself up within 3 years I'd imagine it's pretty unlikely that it ever would.
Memorandum! wrote:
Anyway, as I see it:
>
> BFG GeForce 7800 GT OC 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
> - Retail £305.44
>
> OcUK GeForce 7800GTX 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) -
> Retail £305.44
>
> I know which one I'd get.
The chips in the BFG and come to think of it the XFX Extreeme are hand picked and QA'd to ensure thay won't cack out. The OcUK cards I am dubious about and as Gibbo mentioned on thier forums, these are very limited in supply as the sypplier is only charging $5 ontop of the cost of the card. Once the initial batch are gone, he said the price will go back up.
FWIW, BFG cards are the only ones to come with a lifetime warranty.
Anyway, as I see it:
>
> BFG GeForce 7800 GT OC 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
> - Retail £305.44
>
> OcUK GeForce 7800GTX 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) -
> Retail £305.44
>
> I know which one I'd get.
The chips in the BFG and come to think of it the XFX Extreeme are hand picked and QA'd to ensure thay won't cack out. The OcUK cards I am dubious about and as Gibbo mentioned on thier forums, these are very limited in supply as the sypplier is only charging $5 ontop of the cost of the card. Once the initial batch are gone, he said the price will go back up.
FWIW, BFG cards are the only ones to come with a lifetime warranty.
Nitram wrote:
> Will be sticking to the one GFX card then probably something like the
> BFG GeForce 7800 GT a couple of you mentioned. These have been
> overclocked though right? Does this mean it will need more cooling,
> therefore will make more noise?
No, they're pre-overclocked and use better cooling than the reference design. They're not 'standard' speeds but for those particular cards they are stock speed.
Anyway, as I see it:
BFG GeForce 7800 GT OC 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £305.44
OcUK GeForce 7800GTX 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £305.44
I know which one I'd get.
> Will be sticking to the one GFX card then probably something like the
> BFG GeForce 7800 GT a couple of you mentioned. These have been
> overclocked though right? Does this mean it will need more cooling,
> therefore will make more noise?
No, they're pre-overclocked and use better cooling than the reference design. They're not 'standard' speeds but for those particular cards they are stock speed.
Anyway, as I see it:
BFG GeForce 7800 GT OC 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £305.44
OcUK GeForce 7800GTX 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £305.44
I know which one I'd get.
gerrid wrote:
> Tagan TG480-U01 480W ATX2.0 SLi Compliant Silent PSU £58.69
or the:
Hiper HPU-4K580-MK Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU @ £64.57
> Tagan TG480-U01 480W ATX2.0 SLi Compliant Silent PSU £58.69
or the:
Hiper HPU-4K580-MK Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU @ £64.57
Tagan TG480-U01 480W ATX2.0 SLi Compliant Silent PSU £58.69
Tyla wrote:
> What monitor have you got? If your TFT'ing it at 1280x1024 then
> Crossfire and SLi are pointless as these are aimed at higher
> resolutions and you won't notice any benefit at anything lower than
> 1600x1200.
I will be getting a TFT, so i will forget Crossfire and SLI, thanks for that tyla.
Will be sticking to the one GFX card then probably something like the BFG GeForce 7800 GT a couple of you mentioned. These have been overclocked though right? Does this mean it will need more cooling, therefore will make more noise?
Anyone one got a suggestion for a quiet PSU for around £90?
Cheers guys you've been really helpful, think i've now got pretty much everything sorted apart from the two mentioned above.
> What monitor have you got? If your TFT'ing it at 1280x1024 then
> Crossfire and SLi are pointless as these are aimed at higher
> resolutions and you won't notice any benefit at anything lower than
> 1600x1200.
I will be getting a TFT, so i will forget Crossfire and SLI, thanks for that tyla.
Will be sticking to the one GFX card then probably something like the BFG GeForce 7800 GT a couple of you mentioned. These have been overclocked though right? Does this mean it will need more cooling, therefore will make more noise?
Anyone one got a suggestion for a quiet PSU for around £90?
Cheers guys you've been really helpful, think i've now got pretty much everything sorted apart from the two mentioned above.
Nitram wrote:
> What about motherboards, There seems to be loads of them that aren't
> that much different. I'll probably want one that allows SLI or
> crossfire for the dual graphics cards. I will only get one GFX card
> to start with but thats the only thing i'm likely to upgrade, i.e buy
> another and link them together.
What monitor have you got? If your TFT'ing it at 1280x1024 then Crossfire and SLi are pointless as these are aimed at higher resolutions and you won't notice any benefit at anything lower than 1600x1200.
Crossifre is expensive. You could initially get a CF ready PCIe card (X8**), say the X850XT PE for about £300, but the cads with the CF GPU on them will be more expensive buy about 20%. Also CF AMD mobos are pretty limited atm though P4 mobo's with SLi have been CF ready for months, they just require a BIOS flash to enable it.
SLI is getting better, though atm your still limited to having to purchase 2 NV boards with matching models and BIOS's. A 6600GT set up would be fairly cheap, but I'd suggest getting a single 7800GT for now and wait for the prices to drop/SLI to be tweaked and pick up another 7800GT in 6 months.
Main differences between CF and SLI are the bus bandwidths. Single PCIe is x16, SLI runs 2 cards but in x8, CF runs 2 cards but in x16.
I'd love to have gone CF, but there's no benchmarks yet, the hardware has been delayed for months and the price hike on the hardware is ridiculous and the early mobo tests are a bit iffy compared to the nForce 4 Chipset.
Bear in mind that if anyone here is looking to go Vista next year:
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2005/09/07/vista_hardware_reqs/
the system requirements for Vista are stupid, but high and I'd suggest using these as a base for building any future PC with.
> What about motherboards, There seems to be loads of them that aren't
> that much different. I'll probably want one that allows SLI or
> crossfire for the dual graphics cards. I will only get one GFX card
> to start with but thats the only thing i'm likely to upgrade, i.e buy
> another and link them together.
What monitor have you got? If your TFT'ing it at 1280x1024 then Crossfire and SLi are pointless as these are aimed at higher resolutions and you won't notice any benefit at anything lower than 1600x1200.
Crossifre is expensive. You could initially get a CF ready PCIe card (X8**), say the X850XT PE for about £300, but the cads with the CF GPU on them will be more expensive buy about 20%. Also CF AMD mobos are pretty limited atm though P4 mobo's with SLi have been CF ready for months, they just require a BIOS flash to enable it.
SLI is getting better, though atm your still limited to having to purchase 2 NV boards with matching models and BIOS's. A 6600GT set up would be fairly cheap, but I'd suggest getting a single 7800GT for now and wait for the prices to drop/SLI to be tweaked and pick up another 7800GT in 6 months.
Main differences between CF and SLI are the bus bandwidths. Single PCIe is x16, SLI runs 2 cards but in x8, CF runs 2 cards but in x16.
I'd love to have gone CF, but there's no benchmarks yet, the hardware has been delayed for months and the price hike on the hardware is ridiculous and the early mobo tests are a bit iffy compared to the nForce 4 Chipset.
Bear in mind that if anyone here is looking to go Vista next year:
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2005/09/07/vista_hardware_reqs/
the system requirements for Vista are stupid, but high and I'd suggest using these as a base for building any future PC with.
Nitram wrote:
> Been looking at some mobo's and some have this AI pipe for cooling,
> does this mean you dont need a fan/heatsink on top of the CPU?
> Sounds good if not a little unsafe!
The cool pipe is for the north bridge/sout bridge (I forget which one is which) only, not the processor. You'll still need a heatsink/fan for that. The mobo I've settled on (Asus K8N SLI Premium) is heatpipe cooled and has had some really good reviews on it's stability.
The only real issue with pipe cooled boards is how they orientate in the case. I was going to get a Silverstone Tenjim 05 for a case, but the mobo is mounted upside down which makes heatpipe cooling a real nightmare as the heat dissapates in the wrong direction. Settled for the Akasa Eclipse 62 instead.
> Been looking at some mobo's and some have this AI pipe for cooling,
> does this mean you dont need a fan/heatsink on top of the CPU?
> Sounds good if not a little unsafe!
The cool pipe is for the north bridge/sout bridge (I forget which one is which) only, not the processor. You'll still need a heatsink/fan for that. The mobo I've settled on (Asus K8N SLI Premium) is heatpipe cooled and has had some really good reviews on it's stability.
The only real issue with pipe cooled boards is how they orientate in the case. I was going to get a Silverstone Tenjim 05 for a case, but the mobo is mounted upside down which makes heatpipe cooling a real nightmare as the heat dissapates in the wrong direction. Settled for the Akasa Eclipse 62 instead.
gerrid wrote:
> I wouldn't suggest getting a dual core processor. We've discussed it
> elsewhere on these forums, and basically there aren't really any
> programs that take advantge of dual core processors. Games certainly
> don't, and by the time they do X2s in their current guise won't be
> very good anymore. If you really want to spend your money on a
> processor, get an FX55. They're about £450, but they are super
> fast if you can afford it, and faster than dual core processors in
> games.
I dont think i can agree with this, an FX55 san diego at a popular store is just over £550, it runs at 2.6ghz with a 1mb cache, meanwhile an X2 4400+ comes in at £375 has the same cache size but runs at 2.2ghz. The difference in clock speed can be negated with a decent overclock and that way you are future proofing yourself into the bargain such that when more dual core compatabilities exist you can wtfpwn the FX55 users.
> I wouldn't suggest getting a dual core processor. We've discussed it
> elsewhere on these forums, and basically there aren't really any
> programs that take advantge of dual core processors. Games certainly
> don't, and by the time they do X2s in their current guise won't be
> very good anymore. If you really want to spend your money on a
> processor, get an FX55. They're about £450, but they are super
> fast if you can afford it, and faster than dual core processors in
> games.
I dont think i can agree with this, an FX55 san diego at a popular store is just over £550, it runs at 2.6ghz with a 1mb cache, meanwhile an X2 4400+ comes in at £375 has the same cache size but runs at 2.2ghz. The difference in clock speed can be negated with a decent overclock and that way you are future proofing yourself into the bargain such that when more dual core compatabilities exist you can wtfpwn the FX55 users.
Tyla wrote:
> cookie monster wrote:
> The new wave of ATI cards should be out by then, i'd probably stick
> one of those in your system.
>
> ETA: Oct 5th for the X1800 but price tags flying about rumour this to
> be near the £500 mark!
Christ.
*Saves harder*
> cookie monster wrote:
> The new wave of ATI cards should be out by then, i'd probably stick
> one of those in your system.
>
> ETA: Oct 5th for the X1800 but price tags flying about rumour this to
> be near the £500 mark!
Christ.
*Saves harder*
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