High-end gaming PC for £1500 w/o monitor

[jamiepotter]

Suggestions/comments welcome. Here's what I want to do with the PC. No monitor: I will be using my Dell 3007WFP, which I'm fairly fond of! This necessitates having somethign that will run at 2560x1600, so 8800gtx's in sli! It seems I haven't yet put on a DVD-RW either, but this is hardly important: add £20 if you want.

Tried to spend all the cash on the GFX. So I'm using a cheapish mobo and CPU. Will try to OC the E4300 past 3ghz. Heard good things about the tuniq cooler (bit worried it won't fit p180b though). Apparently the GTX's will fit provided you remove a HDD cage.

Would like to make the computer quiet, hence Antec P180b. Is there now going to be a problem with temps?

Let's keep the budget near £1500, please. How can I make this computer more of a gaming beast? UK suggestions only please. Don't link me to newegg. They don't send stuff to England. It would be very nice if they did.

Intel Core 2 DUO E4300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail £95.99

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £114.99

OCZ GameXStream 850w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply £114.99

Asus P5N32-E PLUS SLi nForce (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £129.99

Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler £29.99

Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 5000AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache

2 x OcUK GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-
Express) - Retail (£309.99) = £619.98

Antec P180 Advanced Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Black) £79.99

Sub Total : £1,265.91
Total (with VAT and delivery)l : £1,516.76

 

[akhilles]

*stamp of approval*

Not only that, you guys pay 15-50% more than us for the same products in the u.s.

The case is great even for an sli setup. The 4 120mm fans are plenty. 1 front intake & 1 rear exhaust would be minimal for obtaining optimal cooling. You probably have to remove the middle cage & use the bottom cage instead.

http://www.antec.com/specs/P180_spe.html

 

[Viceras]

You do not need 2 x 8800GTX in SLI one alone can conquer all todays games and will continue to do so for atleast a year by which time there will be a better card out to replace it SLI and Xfire are a complete waste of money the only result that you'll notice is bragging rights but dont just take my word for it see the reviews for yourself.

Just buy one and use the extra cash to get a faster CPU such as the E6600 or the Q6800 and a better mainboard such as the eVGA 680i.

Read this review to see how a CPU can effect gaming performance.

Link

But that being said it is your money and you're free to waste it if you like

 

[jamiepotter]

Thanks, bit I think that that article, if anything, proves the opposite of what you're saying. Look at the top resolution, 2560x1600 (the one I wish to play at). The difference between the AMD FX-60 platform and the Intel platform becomes negligible, precisely because the graphics card becomes the bottleneck.

Look at Oblivion: even a single 8800GTX doesn't get you above 22fps. If you wanted to play it properly at 2560x1600, you already need two in Sli.

Besides which, an OC'd E4300 is pretty darn quick anyway. The only reason I would have for going for the e6600 is for the extra cache, as far as I can see.

And why do I need to spend more on the EVGA mobo? It's the same chipset. In what way is it any better?

 

[Viceras]

The extra cache accounts for a 4 - 6% increase in overall performance and as for the 8800GTX Sli i did say it wouldnt make a difference at normal resolution but yes at that resolution your are planning to run ofcourse it would make a difference although i still do not think that justifies the cost but thats just me! As for the eVGA its been reviewed as the best board and platform for the core 2 duo/corequad chips on many, many websites and the support from eVGA is second to non. The only con is it runs hot but then again the 680i will run hot on any board.

 

[killtacular]

2 x 8800GTX is a complete waste of money. One will do. If you are a millionaire or must have Oblivion running so perfectly, then go for it, anything else, don't...it's your money...

 

[killtacular]

And instead of spending £600+ on two OcUK 8800GTX, I would suggest to get one 8800GTX by either BFG or EVGA. Yeah, it may cost more but at least you have piece of mind with the warranty, 10 years with EVGA and Lifetime with BFG. It just makes far more sense. Also, with EVGA you have the step up program...

 

[jamiepotter]

Alright. Fair enough. I think I'll go with just the one. Not convinced by branding or this 'step-up programme': looks like a gimmick to me. I'll keep everything else the same so that I can get another card if and when I need to.

Cheers people.

 

[killtacular]

Alright. Fair enough. I think I'll go with just the one. Not convinced by branding or this 'step-up programme': looks like a gimmick to me. I'll keep everything else the same so that I can get another card if and when I need to.

Cheers people.

Branding does matter when considering warranty. I don't think OCuK give anything more than a year for their version of the 8800GTX. Trust me, the better the warranty the better your mind, unless you are considering to sell the card in a years time or something...