New build

[Mikesan]

Hey all.

Ok heres the deal, ive decided to go the whole hog and build my own PC, turns out cheaper and ill get the PC i want rather then buying a prebuilt PC. I have some strong knowledge on PC's and i have done some research and finally come out with a list of components.

The reason i am posting on ehre is because i know you guys give very helpful, trustworthy advice and simply ask for your help , just to check for any sort of flaws that you may be able to point out or whether you can give me any info on any optional components that will turn out cheaper and give the (roughly) same performance, or whether any of the components seem, excessive.

It will be used for gaming mainly , nothing extreme (Bioshock , shadowrun) as i own an xbox 360 , but so that i can run games at high quality now and average quality in the future. Games such as HL , Halo 2, futre RTS games , Warhammer online, Conan Online [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

XFX nForce 68-ILT9 SLI = £103
Core 2 Duo E6600 = £134
Antec 900 = £60
Samsung SH-S203B 20X DVD±RW/RAM / DL Serial ATA Black Bare Drive - OEM = £19
Samsung SpinPoint HD501LJ 500GB SATAII Hard Drive 16MB Cache - OEM = £60
OCZ 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 = £74.90
Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTS 320 Mb = £170

Total = £620

(U.S. dollers convertion is roughly $2 = £1 )




note : I already have a Coolermaster eXtreme power 500W PSU , XFX nVIDIA Geforce 8500 GT , Sound blaster Audigy SE

I dont have much knowledge on DVD drives , im guessing they connect via SATA . whether it is compatible with the motherboard i am unsure.

I will be extremly grateful for your help.

Mikesan

[Jomo]

Mike,

Heres a review of the 8600GT http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/Zotac/index.php I think your going to be disappointed in performance with new games.

The rest of the system looks good, but only buy 4gb if your going to run Vista 64.

[kilroy67]

After looking over that review, the 8600GT looks to be capable of running pretty much any game currently out. Now, the question is, do you have to run the game always maxed out at the highest resolution and every setting cranked up. Do you care about having AA being on. It all depends upon what you want, if you can settle for medium settings at time then the 8600GT will be fine, if you have to run everything cranked to the highest setting then it will not. I can fully understand though not everybody has $300-$500 to dump on a video card.

[Mikesan]

Originally posted by: kilroy67
After looking over that review, the 8600GT looks to be capable of running pretty much any game currently out. Now, the question is, do you have to run the game always maxed out at the highest resolution and every setting cranked up. Do you care about having AA being on. It all depends upon what you want, if you can settle for medium settings at time then the 8600GT will be fine, if you have to run everything cranked to the highest setting then it will not. I can fully understand though not everybody has $300-$500 to dump on a video card.

Actually tbh, so long as it looks fairly decent and has nice FPS, smooth yano i dont mind. The only reason im saying that is because i played WoW with lowest settings and it ruined my gaming for a year O.o heh .

I was also wondering, in SLI do both cards need to be the same or can u have to different cards e.g. the Geforce 8500 and 8600 running together?

[Mikesan]

Originally posted by: Jomo
Mike,

Heres a review of the 8600GT http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/Zotac/index.php I think your going to be disappointed in performance with new games.

The rest of the system looks good, but only buy 4gb if your going to run Vista 64.

ah i read through your link and have taken it to heart , i have Vista 32 and ill probably stick to it so if i drop the 4Gb RAM and settle for 2Gb and go with the 8600GT rather then the 8500 GT it will make a big difference and also i can then give this current system + 8500 GT to my younger brother who only plays things like WoW.

Thanks for advice [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[Jomo]

What res are you going to be running Mike?

This is one reason why I can't recommend you that card. http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/article/1853/

[Mikesan]

Desktop resolution probably 1280 x 1024 . in WoW i usually have it set at that aswell.

[kilroy67]

I was also wondering, in SLI do both cards need to be the same or can u have to different cards e.g. the Geforce 8500 and 8600 running together?

You have to have 2 of the same, but at that point you might as well just get a single higher end card like a 8800GTS or even GTX.

[Mikesan]

I might stick with Windows XP for a while though before actually using Vista . And also i probably wont use DX10 either.

[Mikesan]

You have to have 2 of the same, but at that point you might as well just get a single higher end card like a 8800GTS or even GTX.

Scrap that thoguht the 8800 GTS is around £300 whee i can get 2x 8600 GT for £140