New system can someone check components please :D

[niklz]

Hi there, forget the price could you please just let me know about the configuration of these bits of hardware. Btw does anyone know if the mobo would do sli or not (i realise that it is a crossfire board but does that matter?)

mobo - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-GA-X38T-DQ6-Motherboard-Definition-8-channel/dp/B000XQ5HF4
cpu - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-3-0GHz-1333MHz-socket-Processor/dp/B000U5FX98/ref=pd_sbs_ce_title_5
ram - http://crucial.com/uk/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=F92640E9A5CA7304
PSU - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=695914
gfx - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=495286


In all id like to know if im gonna have any problems with those parts or if
im being stupid about any of them .

thanks all

Niklz

 

[nzxtlexa]

That looks like a pretty good and powerful system so far - good to see some other users in the UK! Is this your first build?

Firstly no, I don't think that motherboard will support SLI - or at least it doesn't at the moment - it isn't a very clear subject and there is a lot of confusion on it. Try having a google session on it and see what you find.

I don't know if that is a blow for you but it seems you don't have too much of a budget and if I was you I would probably want to add another 8800gtx in a while. Up to you but personally I would take a look at the latest 680i boards or the 780i boards that will soon be released. They don't support DDR3 but for £150 you could get some nice DDR2.

As for the CPU. I don't know how soon you want to get the parts ordered, but if possible I would recommend hanging on just a little bit longer, as Intel are soon to release a new set of 45nm Core 2 Duo's. The E8500 will be the equivalent of the E6850 that you are looking to get now.

Not 100% on the PSU. Seeing as you have quite a good budget, I would have a look at this list and try and pick something from Tier 1: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=108088

I would recommend this for you: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=539623&source=froogle

Good choice of GFX company. There are also rumors of new GFX cards on the way, but it may be a while and I'm not expecting a major performance increase so 8800gtx should be fine, expecially if you get 2

 

[emp]

The board will not do SLI, only Crossfire. Here are some choices that I feel will be better/will save you some money without losing any performance:

GPU:

BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-059-BG&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=927

CPU:

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-161-IN

CPU Cooler:

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-017-AR

Motherboard:

EVGA nForce 680i SLi (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (122-CK-NF68-A1)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-000-EA

Memory:

OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz SLI-Ready Edition Dual Channel DDR2 (OCZ2N1066SR2GK)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-082-OC&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=817

Power Supply:

Antec Quattro 850W PSU

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-084-AN&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=103

OR

Corsair TX 750W ATX2.2 SLI Compliant PSU

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-011-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=823

Out of those two to be honest, I'd take the Antec TruePower Quattro 850W over the Corsair one if I had to choose. And the GTS I chose for you is the new G92 based GTS which rivals and sometimes even outdoes the GTX in some cases.

 

[niklz]

Firstly hello! thanks for replying.. new here, impressed so far.
im going to bed now ill read further in depth tomorow, Say that £900 is my budget.. not looking to sli for a while.. i have built systems before but it has been a while and im out of date with hardware

So this other GFX is definitely better value for money? I take it that mobo takes that ram speed - (EVGA nForce 680i SLi (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (122-CK-NF68-A1)) (whats the difference if any between DDR2 and DDR3 of the same speed)

Basically im looking to get a powerful system that i wont need to upgrade for a while.. When you say these new chipsets are coming in soon.. how soon and wont they be really expensive?? (i think my original mobo does the new ones anyway.. wouldnt be a huge ask to upgrade to it later... but im not sure i want to cut out my SLI capabilities..)

Its all so confusing! please keep up the advice its all helpful

 

[nzxtlexa]

I'm not sure about the EVGA board, but most of the 680i boards will support the new 45nm chips (dual core only at the moment). At the moment only the Intel chipsets like the X38 and P35 will support the 45nm QUAD core chips, but apparently there is a new BIOS on the way that will allow Asus and DFI 680i boards (but not EVGA) quad core support. That only applies if your interested in getting a quad core in the future.

So basically, Nvidia Chipsets eg 680i = Core 2 Duo 45nm only (at the moment)
Intel Chipsets eg P35 and X38 = core 2 duo and quad 45nm support (but no SLI)

The new CPU's won't be too expensive. The top of the range core 2 duo chip, the E8500 (3.0ghz stock), will cost £170 max.

They are set to be released January 20th, but not too sure how long it will take before there is actually decent amounts of stock in the UK.

 

[rickpcnerd]

Btw does anyone know if the mobo would do sli or not (i realise that it is a crossfire board but does that matter?)



Niklz

No, This motherboard will only do crossfire using two ATI cards. Maybe you want to go with 2 8800 GT in SLI, will be faster than one single 8800 gtx for almost the same price or less.

 

[niklz]

i wanted to go for dual core to those suggesting quad core.. i looked at some charts and it seems for almost all games dual core's out perform quad cores (being a gamer thats what i want )

done some research on OCuk thanks for reminding me of that site, screw scan its all on there

Come up with a new build let me know how it fairs
Mobo - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-000-EA

CPU -http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-156-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=793

PSU - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-024-GI

RAM - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-114-CR&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=817

GFX - http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-051-OK

cooler - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-017-AR

new dvd - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-067-LG&groupid=701&catid=10&subcat=951

New HDD - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-120-WD&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=940

that comes to a total of £874

Which is perfect for me really

Few questions: is that ram gonna be any better than the stuff shown earlier? How many IDE ports does that mobo have? Am i forgetting/doing something stupid

 

[niklz]

sorry cant seem to edit post

CPU - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-156-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=793

 

[nzxtlexa]

OK looks good now. I think the board only has 1 IDE port. The only thing I would change is the GFX. I would try to buy one from a proper company or brand, not an OEM. I would recommend looking at BFG tech, XFX and EVGA.

Also check compatibility of PC2 8500 with that motherboard as I know some 680i boards can play up with anything above PC2 6400. Should be fine though.

The only other thing I would say is to try and wait for the new core 2 duo's that are out soonish. Just my opinion but obviously if you are eager to start building soon then go for it.

 

[niklz]

yeah i kinda want to build it this week.. so ill go for it now

hmm dont think that mobo does pc2 8500

thats the problem with these mobos, hardly any of them do good ddr2

 

[niklz]

How's these 2 mobos?
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-261-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1057
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-000-XF&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=174

 

[niklz]

can anyone suggest a mobo, that does sli and PC2-8500 ram..

btw new branded GFX - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-035-BG&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=877

 

[emp]

That EVGA mobo that I showed does up to DDR2-1200, so it can definitely use DDR2-1066 (PC2-8500). I would strongly recommend from purchasing any GTX anymore, they are simply not worth the money since the G92-GTS can outdo them for about $150 less (Don't know the price in pounds sorry). I would take a quad core over a dual core any day, with a quad core all you have to do to reach 3.0Ghz is to overclock a bit, but you can't add two more cores to a dual core, either way you choose your PC will not be a slow machine.

G92 8800GTS vs 8800GTX benchmarks (G92 8800GTS is the one that says 8800GTS 512MB, not the 320MB and 640Mb ones)

More can be found in this review:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/12/12/geforce_8800_gts_512_mb/index.html

Other than that, I'm not very convinced about GIGABYTE power supplies in comparison to already established power supply brands like Corsair, Antec, Seasonic, or PC Power & Cooling, but it's your choice.

OH and I forgot to mention, that ram you picked out is great (I love Crucial Ballistix ram), but it was a bit too expensive, that's why I didn't showed it to you.

 

[nzxtlexa]

I see your point emp but the GTS only beats the GTX a couple of times and thats with no AA on. The GTX always wins when the AA x4 is siwtched on, which lets face it is what most of us want to play games with (or it may just be me). Still GTS is by no means a bad choice, expecially if you get 2 and SLI them.

I can really recommed the BFG that you have chosen though Niklz. I have the identical one (even though I paid about £60 more when it first came out ) and I have never seen my FPS drop below 50 when playing COD 4.

As for the mobo, it may worth going for 780i seeing as it is the new 680i and you may as well get the latest and greatest if you can afford it.

Also just because a board says its maximum RAM is speed is PC2 6400, that only means the maximum that has been tested. Most boards will actually take more. My striker extreme says its maximum is PC2 6400 (DDR2 800) but some do use PC2 8500 on it. Its just not garuanteed to work without issues.

 

[niklz]

Right im gonna take your advice on the gfx but im gonna stick with the cpu for now.. ill just have to upgrade it if worse comes to worse


Ordered it now! nothing to do but sit back and wait..

ill be back if theres any problems! Thanks all for the help really useful input from everyone

 

[nzxtlexa]

OK glad we could help. Post back as it will be interesting to see how the system performs.

 

[niklz]

Hi, thought id report back, got my items, but they didnt work! after building the rig about 4 times finally worked out the psu was ****, got it running on my old psu and have sent the old one back to be repaired.

The system now runs really nice, havnt tweaked it yet so im not gonna do any benchmarks but suffice to say that crysis, cod4, bioshock all auto detect high and never drop fps to a noticible amount, again thanks for all the help

 

[nzxtlexa]

OK cool thats a nice system you've got.