Desktop goes bye bye

amillion

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Dec 9, 2009
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Purchasing in UK tomorrow (!) - gaming & blu-ray; HD video editing.

HAVE MERCY! My desktop PC just stopped turning on and I really can't be bothered to find out why. You know? You know that feeling? Anyway. So I thought, hey, I'm overdue a new PC.

Seeing the marathon build (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/overclock-cpu-gpu,2643-2.html) my requ's differ slightly - I'm not likely to be OCing, so am accepting stock speeds / ratings, the max rez will be 1080p cos that's what the monitor does (!). I will also have 2 x 1TB drives.

From what I can tell in recent reviews, 2 x 460s / 768MB are fine (gief TDU2 / Crysis 2)

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/227499

PSU, felt good to go 850 vs 650 to be on the safe side for drives and future upg to 485 (! HA !)

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/135514

Re: case, it gotta look good. BUT I hate cases that you can't put things in and out of - hence like HAF 932 - but is that rly necessary?

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148685

I have a Xonar D2X - can't decide if to put into the new pc. Still think it's better than mobo sound, but if I have to spend £30 more on a mobo and it has 7.1 and I don't use it, well that's just dumb.

Not bothered about USB 3.0 or latest SATA as I have F3 Spinpoints and won't be upgrading them. Pref intel chipset as using Intel Matrix RAID and want to be able to pull data off without moving disks between PCs. Yuk.

CPU / mobo - no preference. Always had either Asus or Intel boxed, and Intel CPUs. Current is Q9550 - so it GOTTA BE FASTERRRRR... ;) ;)

Thanks in advance guys - make my day better ... :)
 

amillion

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Dec 9, 2009
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Hey Mr Pizza

Was just getting that into my clipboard ;)

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: tomorrow
BUDGET RANGE: £1500
SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, Blu-ray, net, impressing friends with my awesomness
PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Keyboard / Monitor / HDD / Optical Drive
PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: scan.co.uk / ebuyer.com / overclockers.co.uk
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: UK
PARTS PREFERENCES: nVidia / Asus / Intel
OVERCLOCKING: No
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Yes
MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1080 (now) : potential for 3D Vision would be good
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Quiet would be nice - not so overstated as to annoy the other half or make the dog insane

 

amillion

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Dec 9, 2009
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Checking out the options here - 465 in SLI also looks like a goer?
 

amillion

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Ha yeh I got my reviews mixed up :p Gone GTX 460 x 2 as per Hexus Review but still worried about this case issue. I've had fair share of builds go stupid cos of small cases and mobos with slots that make the card hang over memory slots...

Current plan (circa £1,000 which is about right):

Asus P6X58D-E X58 £135.14
i7 930 2.8GHz £192.72
Corsair 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz XMS3 CL9(9-9-9-24) £117.89
CM Storm Scout + Coolermaster Silent Pro 700W Modular PSU £110.00
2 x Gigabyte GTX 460 OC 1GB GDDR5 OC Edition £304.66

Guess this means I'll have a spare Xonar D2X.... anyone want it...!!
 

Mr Pizza

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DUDE, i have to tell EVERYONE this! NEVER GO WITH SLI FIRST! GO WITH A BETTER SINGLE CARD AND THEN DOWN THE LINE ADD ANOTHER!

get a gtx 480 (same thing as two 460s) and add another one later

its stupid to get 2 low powered cards to make one better one!
 

amillion

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OK I see where you're coming from with that ;) ;)

Tho, even the Tom's review for the month says 2 x 460s are, right now, better to spend money on than a 470. If I go for a 470, there's (very) likely to be a better Fermi card which, given all the money in the world, I would swap out for 2 of, rather than buying another 470 which even right now isn't quicker than just a single 5970...
 

welshmousepk

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Mr pizza, in most cases thats right, but not here.

the GF104 architecture of the 460 is far superior to the odler GF100.

Two 460's offers better performance than a 480 while using less power and putting out FAR less heat.

a 480 is a horrible card, but SLI 460s offer insane performance at a great price. and the heat and noise are very reasonable.
 

welshmousepk

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Toms did an article on it recently. two 460 scale over 90 percent in most cases. hence why its quickly become the most recommended GPU in most custom builds.

getting 5970 performance for half the price is pretty phenomenal in my books.