NEW PC RECOMMENDATIONS - HELP PLEASE

[gokhan76]

HI GUYS,

I AM ABOUT TO BUILD NEW GAME MACHINE;

MY HARDWARE LIST GOES ON LIKE THIS;

CASE: I CAN'T REALLY CHOOSE I NEED HELP ON THIS I WAS ACTUALLY THINKING ANTEC SONATA II BUT IT COULD BE GIGABYTE AURORA CASES BECAUSE SINCE ANTEC IS ONLY 450 W PSU WHERE AS YOU CAN HAVE 550W WITH OR EVEN 600 W WITH GIGABYTE AURORA
I NEED DEFINETLY HELP ON THE PSU SINCE I WAS THINKING GETTING 8800GTS OR GTX I HAVE TO CAREFULLY CHOOSE CASE AND POWER REQUIREMENTS SO GIVE ME SOME IDEA GUYS ON THIS PLEASE.

CPU: CORE 2 DUO 6700 2.66 WOULD YOU HAVE 6600 OR STICK TO 6700
M/B: ASUS P5B DELUXE
RAM : CORSAIR 8500 2GB RAM 5.5.5.15 XMS SERIES
HDD : SATA II SEAGATE 16M 320GB X 2 STRIPED
GRAPHIC: 3 OPTIONS DEPENDING ON PRICE OF COURSE BUDGET IMPORTANT BUT HEAR IT GOES:

1. ASUS 7950GT 512 : $450 AU DOLARS
2. ASUS 8800GTS : $719 AU DOLARS
3. ASUS 8800GTX $915 AU DOLARS

TELL ME YOUR IDEAS PEOPLE. ON THIS GRAPHIC CARDS CHOOSING AS WELL SINCE IT IS FOR GAME SHOULD I GET JUST 7950 OR 8800 IS THE WAY TO GO EVEN THOUGH IT IS EXPENSIVE A BIT.

NOW CAN YOU GUYS GIVE ME RECOMMENDATION ON THIS NEW GAME MACHINE PLEASE I HAVE ABOUT 2 - 3 DAYS TO DECIDE.


THANKS GUYS, :roll:

 

[pinkcaddy]

Nice setup to start out with!!!

A couple of questions before i offer my US 2¢. Are you planning on overclocking? Is gamin the only thing you'll be using this machine for?

Case - I'm partial to the Antec P180 case. Good ventilation, lots of fans (it comes with 3 120mm, but has an opening for a fourth), etc. Lian Li cases are great eye candy, but I'm not familiar with their ventilation quality or layouts.

PSU - I would reccomend you not use a PSU supplied with a case. They are typically low quality PSUs. I would go with something more high end - Seasonic, PC Power & Cooling, etc. 700W minimum - especially if you are planning to OC. You've got some really nice components picked out - no need to use a cut rate PSU (just ask mpilchfamily).

Processor, if you are planning on OCing, you could save a few dollars and drop down to an E6600 or an E6400. Use that cash to get a great case and power supply. But then again, the 6700 is mighty fine!!

Mobo - good
Ram - good (and is compatible with the mobo)
HDD - I'm assuming you are talking about the 7200.10, correct? If so, great choice.

Graphics - Scratch the 7950. Nice cards, but they are not DX10 compatible. If you are not going to get a DX10 card (8800 or ATI's soon-to-be-released R800), then I would save yourself the money and get either a 7600GT or a 7900GS. On that note, if your budget allows, I'd reccommend an 8800 series card - especially if gaming is your primary use of the system.

Other items:
If you are planning on overclocking - look into cooling fans. Zalman, Tuniq, and Arctic Cooling are all good brands for CPU fans. Also pick up a tube of Arctic Silver to put that fan on your proc. If the case you go with doesn't come with fans, be sure to pickup some of those.

With all this great equipment, I personally would go ahead and add a Soundcard and speakers, if you don't already have them. Onboard audio is good, but you can't beat a PCI soundcard.

Good luck with your build!

 

[burn-e86]

caps dont make you shout...
but apart from that i'd go with a lower Core duo either a 6300 or 6600 simply cause they are really good cpus alone and they OC pretty damn well...specially the 6300.
the 8800 is the way to go. but they use different drivers to the 7 series, they apparently have compatibilty issues though i dont know if thats been resolved yet.
also its a pretty big range in the cost of graphics.... if your not going for Dx10 then go with Radeon X1xxx series.
btw if you get the 8800 your gonna need more omph then the 450watt.
atleast 600 with everything that you've got.

 

[yas]

Save yourself alot of money and get a E6600. Especially if you plan on OCing it will be easily OCed to the speeds of the E6700. THe E6700 is way overpriced and not worth the money.

Also for the gfx card the 7950gt is great for playing games now and perhaps over the next year or two then you could upgrade to a better DX10 card. Or you could just get a 8800GTS now and be futur proof for the next perhaps 3 or 4 years atleast. Its really up to you yet on todays games you wouldnt really see a difference between 7950 and 8800gts.

For PSU get a good 500/600W PSU like enermax or thermaltake. I wouldnt get a crappy PSU that comes with a case except for the antec sonata 2. Buy case and PSU seperately

 

[gokhan76]

THANKS FOR REPLIES .

ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION MATE I DON'T DO REALLY MUCH OC IF THAT ANSWERS YOUR QUESTION BUT HAVING SAD THAT I WILL BE USING THIS MACHINE FOR NORMAL HOME PC AND AT THE SAME TIME HIGH END GAMES MOST OF THE TIME...

NOW IF YOU CHUCK ADDITIONAL 2 DVD BURNERS

1 X PCI CREATIVE AUDIGY 4

8800 GTS OR 7950 GTX HOW MUCH REALLY DO YOU NEED POWER WITH 6600 CORE 2 DUO AND 2 GB RAM , 2 HDD RUNNING ON RAID 0

DO YOU STILL NEED 500W +

AND ALSO OTHER QUESTION IS PEOPLE SAY WHEN YOU GET 8800GTS OR GTX YOU NEED MORE POWERFULL MACHINE THAN LOWER END CORE 2 DUO SOME SAY 6700 MINIMUM IS THIS CORRECT OR WE CAN STILL RUN THESE GRAPHIC CARDS WITH THE CORE 2 DUO 6600 FINE.

WHY DONT YOU GUYS RECOMMEND AURORA CASES FROM GIGABYTE ARE THEY BAD?

HAVING SAD THAT ANTEC SONATA II WITH TRUE POWER 450W I THINK IT WONT BE ENOUGH FOR THIS CONFIG I GUESS?

WHAT ABOUT COOLER MASTER AMMO CASE WITH 600 W PSU FOR ALL THIS CONFIGURATION ONLY IS A BIT HEAVY 25 KG : )


THANX FOR ADVENCE,

 

[Talon]

Any Core2Duo cpu will run fine with an 8800 series card. You dont' need to waste money on the top CPUs when the lower end CPUs easily clock to the same speeds on air(usually even stock cooling). I would recommend a good 600w PSU especially if you go with a 8800. It might be a tad more than you need just to run it but better that than running borderline and having occasional stability issues.

Oh as a side note, you would only see any "slightly lower" performance with a lower end C2D over a high end one in lower resolutions, 1024x768 and lower generally. Anything above that and turn on some AA and AF and you're pushing the GPU enough for it to be irrelevant.

There is nothing wrong with the Aurora. I recommended it to someone the other day. Its a good case with good qualities. Having said that you may want to make sure that if you get the 8800 GTX (not the GTS) then you will need to make sure the case you buy has room for that card as its the longest GPU card I think ever made and will not fit in some cases without modification.

I hear good things about the Armor case but I personally would prefer the Aurora assuming it fits your needs. Another good case is the NXZT Zero and their Apollo cases are good as well. Still get the case without the PSU and buy a good one separately, TT, OCZ, etc.

 

[gokhan76]

THANKS FOR ADVICE MATE,

SO YOU GUYS RECKON 450 TRUE POWER IT WONT BE ENOUGH FOR THIS SYSTEM AT ALL. (SONATA II 450W TRUPOWER 2.0)


I HAVE DECIDED TO GET NOW 6600 C2D SINCE I HAVE READ ALL THE REPLIES I THINK IT IS NOT WORTH SPENDING THIS MUCH MONEY ON THE 6700 C2D

I RATHER INVEST ON GRAPHIC CARD AND CASE ....

THE ONLY QUESTION COMES UP TO NOW DECIDING ON GRAPHIC CARD OPTION WHICH IS EITHER 8800 OR 7950 WHICH ONE IS WROTH TO BUY FOR A GAMING AND ALSO FROM BUDGET POINT ?


FOR THE RAM I HAVE ALREADY DECIDED TO GET XMS 2GB 8500 SINCE THEY ARE VERY GOOD RAM FOR MONEY. AND FAST ENOUGH...

2 SECTIONS I HAVE TO MAKE DECISIONS CASE AND GRAPHIC CARD:

IN AUSTRALIA WE HAVE CASES ANTEC, COOLER MASTER, THERMALTAKE,
GIGABYTE, LIAN LI, SILVERSTONE

PS: DO I REALLY NEED TO GET COOLING FAN FOR CPU INSTEAD OF USING STOCK C2D FAN SINCE I WILL NOT BE DOING SO MUCH OVERCLOCK

 

[pinkcaddy]

I did a run up on your system at the PSU calculator:

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine

With your config, you need around 400W of power on the +12V rails. That is roughly 33A for you current configuration. If you decide to overclock, you'll need more head room - I tried an OC at the calculator for 400MHz fsb and 1.35vCore (taking the 6700 processor to 4 GHz) and it spewed out 435W for the 12V rails. That's roughly 36A. If you ever upgrade, add components, etc, you'll more than likely draw more power, thus you'll need more power. Lastly, you always want to leave room for efficiency. Running a PSU at 95% load isn't a great idea for stability.

Point being, whatever PSU you choose, make sure that you have at least 45A on the combined +12V rails. Many PSUs have multiple rails with a rating on each rail and a combined +12V rating. The combined is what you are most concerned about.

Lastly, the PSU forum here has some good stickies to read and mpilchfamily is a great resource on power questions. Cheers!

EDIT: Bear in mind that the 400w or 435W I mentioned above is for the +12V rails only - not for the entire PSU. Also, I don't know how familiar you are with power calculations, but if a Amps = Watts / Volts. So, 480W on a 12V rail = 40A (some PSUs show Amps, some show watts).

 

[qrhetoric]

I'm going to clarify the earlier poster's point about the cpus:

You clearly should get the 8800GTS.

If you have a 6400, and you upgrade to 6600, you gaming framerate will increase by 5%.

If you go from the 7950GT to the 8800GTS, you gaming framerate will increase by 50%.

Hence, knock down the cpu another notch, and upgrade the video card.

Bruce

 

[gokhan76]

OK

WHAT ABOUT FOR THE RAM TIMINGS WHEN WE SAY 4-4-4-12 OR BUYING 5-5-5-15 WHICH IS THE 8500 SERIES WHICH ONES ARE BETTER FOR GAMING SIDE ( 2 GB KITS) FOR CORSAIR OR OCZ OF COURSE I AM OPEN FOR ANY RAM BRAND RECOMMENDATIONS OTHER THAN THESE BRANDS IF YOU GUYS KNOW ANY BETTER.
BECAUSE A LOT GUYS IN THIS FORUM I SEE THEY USING 4-4-4-12 INSTEAD 5-5-5-15 SO THERE MUST BE A GLITCH IN THERE WHICH I DONT KNOW?

I CHECKED THAT SIDE FOR POWER METER CALCULATOR THANKS FOR THAT LINK BY THE WAY IT WAS VERY HELPFULL MATE.

ALSO WHEN YOU GUYS SAY UPGRADE FROM 7950 TO 8800GTS %50 INCEREASE WHAT ABOUT UPGRADING FROM GTS TO GTX ON 8800 SERIES IS THERE A MUCH DIFFERENCE ???

I JUST WANT TO JUSTIFY $200 BETWEEN THESE 2 CARDS THEN IF IT IS WORTH TO GET GTX I GO FOR GTX!!!

LAST THING IS: COOLING FAN STOCK STANDART IS THAT GOOD ENOUGH WITH THIS CONFIGURATION CONSIDERING I WILL NOT BE DOING SO MUCH OC..??? OR SHOULD I GET COOLER MASTER COOLING FAN or someother good brands???

THANX IN ADVENCE,

 

[burn-e86]

seriously whats with the CAPS?
tighter timings allow the RAM to run better. but since your not gonna OC I wouldnt bother with getting the RAM with tighter timing. btw if this sentence has confused you i'm talking about the 4-4-4-12 and 5-5-5-15.
i like corsair for RAM since they are the most affordable. (i run mine on a pretty tight budget)
also since you have already said that your gonna get the XMS i thought that i should say, its more for OCing then anything else, thats why its more expensive because it is(can be) selected to run at a higher clock speed.

also if the stock fan isnt good enough running standard speeds do you really think that they could supply them? the stock is fine.

what size monitor are you using? or are going to use? if beyond 20inch then go with the GTX otherwise its a waste. or in other words it 65% better!!!

 

[gokhan76]

My monitor is Samsun931BF 2ms , 19"

So you reckon even with the ram I am making mistake to go for a expensive rams... Since I wont be doing any OC but I thought latency times makes rams a bit faster as well thats why I was looking for an answer on this field....So for the ram my mind is confused as well than what should I get instead of XMS...?

And for the graphic card You definetly confused me now I guess I should get 7950gt for now later on I might change it to some DX10 cards of course I should think about my budget as well but on the other side I dont want to see crappy gaming performance on my graphic card as you can understand me.


Because difference like this on graphic cards:

Asus 7950GT : $450 Au dolars.

Asus 8800GTS: $718 Au Dolars.

Asus 8800GTX : $930 Au dolars.

Now is it worth with my pc to buy a graphic card jumping from 7950 to 8800 is justifying nearly $500 difference thats what I want to really know... Also how muc does it make a difference between 7950gt and 7600gt as in with game performance on 19" lcd monitor....?

I agree with you on the cooling side I will be staying with stock standart...

 

[wallis]

remember not all cases can accomadate a 8800GTX. I can recommend the NZXT lexa case, its a great looking case and it fits the 8800GTX no probs.

the 8800GTS is no longer than a 7900 so that will go in just about any case