Novice build

[yorkist]

Hi,

I'm an interested novice, but have never bulit a full system before. I'm looking to spend £1000-1200 on a new system for work and gaming (reasonably high-powered but doesn't have to be ultra high resoultion or fps), what do people recommend? Also would I be better waiting for Nehalem to go on sale before spending my money?

Thanks

 

[zenmaster]

Never wait to build unless you dont need a new system now.
If you can wait, it's almost always better to wait.

For Now, I would bee looking for a System build aroud

P45 Motherboard.
E8400 CPU
4850 GPU
4GB of DDR2 Ram
Perhaps a Corsair 550w PSU.

If you plan on possibly doing Crossfire in the Future, I would upgrade to the 750w Corsair.

Pick a case with Decent Cooling and a HDD to match the size you want.

Look at some UK Sites and determine what this will run you.
Folks can then help tweak it out.

 

[cal8949]

you can wait for nahelam but i would just build something now

prices are in euros
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 Yorkfield 2.66GHz £210
XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler £25
ASUS RAMPAGE FORMULA LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard £183
Patriot Viper 4GB (4 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1200 £95
PC Power & Cooling S75QB 750W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply £95
SAPPHIRE 100243L Radeon HD 4870 512MB £196x2 for crossfire
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD753LJ 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive £76

total £1,077

but this is newegg prices converted to euros so the price might be different

 

[Kaldor]

Quick answer:

Intel 8400 processor
Asus or Gigabyte P45 mobo
4 gigs of DDR2 800 memory
ATI 4870 videocard
500 gig HD - WD or Seagate
Sata DVD burner
500 watt powersupply - around $100 US for a decent one
Case of your choice
Floppy drive - yes I still use one and for some stuff they are irreplaceable

Total: about $1100 US

If you need these items:
22" LCD - 1680x1050 resolution - if you need a monitor
Windows Home Premium 64 bit - OEM
Im assuming you have a keyboard and mouse.

Should be able to get at least 2 years from that minimum.

If you want to run Xfire or SLI youll need to up your PSU to 750+ watts and change to a 780i mobo if you want SLI.

 

[aevm]

Nehalem will probably start with a very expensive Extreme Edition CPU, for £500+. AFAIK it will also require DDR3, again very expensive. I don't think you'll be happy if you wait for Nehalem just to discover you can't afford it.

If you decide to build these days, you could probably get something like Q9450, HD 4870, GA-X48-DS4, 750TX

GA-X48-DS4, 139 GBP
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=819510

Q9450 retail, 204 GBP. I'm assuming no overclocking, no aftermarket cooler. I wouldn't overclock a work machine.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=743028

Corsair 750TX, 76 GBP
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=684732

RAM, 4GB, Corsair DDr2-800 4-4-4-12, 70 GBP
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=766626

Sapphire HD 4870, two of them , 185 GBP *2
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=836590

WD6400AAKS Western Digital 640GB, two of them, 57 GBP * 2
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=798906

CoolerMaster RC-1100 Cosmos, 164 GBP
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=771271
Maybe get a cheaper case. I wanted to recommend RC-690,
which should be a lot cheaper, but scan doesn't have it. Shop around, maybe www.ebuyer.com or www.overclockers.co.uk.
The case is a personal taste thing anyway. Just make sure it's big enough and has lots of fans.

Total 1137 GBP. Add Windows and shipping.

If you want to overclock, add these Xigmatek products for 26 GBP
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=824662
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=700899
and get the Q9450 OEM to save 5 GBP.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=795731

Edit: forgot the DVD.
SH-S203P, 17 GBP
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=815123

Edit: I'm assuming you didn't include monitor/speakers/mouse/keyboard in the budget. If you did, get only one video card and only one hard disk for now, and a cheaper case.

 

[galta]

The best choice today is:
-E8400
-4Gb of DDR2 RAM
-4850/4870 gpu
-a nice case (Cosmos 1000, Silverstone TJxx etc)
-an after market cooler (Xigmatek, Zalman etc.)
- 500Gb of HDD
- 600W PSU for single card, 750W for CF.
- a decent mobo. X38 for CF, P45 for single card.

As for the brands, the usual brands are OK (Corsair, OCZ, Asus, MSI, Gigabyte). Choose the cheapest.

P.S.: you're lucky not to be here yesterday. By this time, your thread would have started some useless discussion about the advantages of AMD cpus in high resolutions and the coming death of FSB...

 

[kad]

1- ASUS P5Q Deluxe LGA 775 Intel P45 Intel Motherboard
2- Mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
3- ASUS EAH4870/HTDI/512M Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-bit GDDR5
4- E8400
5- Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme+Scythe S-Flex SFF21F+OCZ Freeze Extreme (the best)
reports about XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler are good
6- WD6400AAKS Western Digital 640GB
7- PC Power & Cooling S75QB 750W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply
8- Antec 900

And never wait for Nehalem rig, it will be costly