messiah

I think it's about time I started building the new PC I've kept saying I'm gonna do for ages - and I was always planning on going the 64bit route.

It'll be primarily a games monster so I'll be looking at some serious kit but to begin with I'm gonna be researching a spec and so I'm wondering which CPU / Motherboard to go for - but unsure about Intel or AMD.

Whats the best RAM to go for these days?

...and should I go the SCSI route for drives?

more Qs to follow...

Daz34

Crucial Ballistix

Performs better that Corsair, OCZ etc & is cheaper and offers better compatibility.

I have Ballistix DDR500 which I have underclocked to DDR433 & it runs totally stable with timings of 1T CAS 2-2-2-5.

I have yet to see a review of it where it doesn't beat the competition.

Darren

messiah

Just been reading a review of that - will have to go on the list!

darlodge

Check out my post here

I'm still hoping for a bit more imput really but It's already been confirmed that I am on the right lines.

Darren

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Funnily enough, I've just been for a new power supply for my PC, and while it was being fitted, got into a discussion on building PC's.


The guys at the workshop all recommend AMD processors, they say they are better than Intel, faster, better at muti-tasking etc.

Alcazar

R1916v

Totally depends on the app tbh and what it supports, some things are better multitasked with intel chips due to hyperthreading (having a virtual second processor).

But amd generally are cheaper like for like.

messiah

Pc will be mainly used for games, CAD & photo-tampering.

Thinking of going for the dual HDD route (not SCSI but SATA) - how easy is this configuration to set up?

DrEvil

** item ** ** est. cost **
AMD 3500 < £200
ASUS A8V rev2 WiFi < £90
Corsair 1Gb TwinX XMS3200XL PE < £180
Nvida 6800GT / ATi X800pro VIVO £280 -> £320 ish
Audigy 2 ZS circa £70
Altec Lansing 2.1 Speakers circa £50
Samsung 160G SATA HD < £70
Floppy drive for bios updates etc.. < £10
PSU Enermax Noisetaker 470W circa £80
or Antec NeoPower 480W circa £80
CASE, Coolermaste or Lian Li, just make sure its got 120mm case fans for quietness..

my 2 peneth... if overclocking then look at balistix ram.

Money no object.. then look at the new SLI NForce 4 boards + 2x PCI-E 6800GT + FX55

Tidgy

dont go for 64bit yet, you cant run them at 64 bit cos windows cant handel it.

DrEvil

More like Windows doesn't make full use of the functionality, Windows can handle running on a 64bit AMD - but only runs in 32Bit mode

(I know thats what you meant ).

messiah

Whats the min rated PSU I should be looking at? Case & PSU will be first components bought.

Was intending to run the XP64 Beta to begin with.

Balistix RAM is included on list too.

Neil Smalley

Don't go for Win 64 if you want to play games. It's much slower at them than XP 32 bit

JoeyDeacon

Surely if you want a PC for games you may as well go for a motherboard that supports PCI Express and SLI. That way you can run two graphics cards together (Like the old Voodoo 2's)

DrEvil

As Neil said - Nooo don't do Win64!!

470-480 is a good spec PSU especially if you are going to use a top end GPU.
Although in theory this shouldn't be necessary as any PSU > 400W should alledgedly cope with most gaming rigs, unless you have loads of hard disks and DVD drives etc...

I've stuck with a 470W Enermax at the moment.

Alex

DrEvil

Yeah it is if you've got a 2K plus to spend.

messiah

Think I'll be just going for the 1 Graphics Card...

messiah

To digress slightly - My laptop is 1.8GHz 512mb RAM & 64mb GeForce 4 VGA card - I've no doubt it'll run Half Life 2 as it is but not fantastically well, seeing as lappy's aren't great for upgrading, will I get much gaming benefit from upping the RAM?

Anyone running HL2 on a similar spec'd machine?

Neil Smalley

At the moment, unless you are going in for benchmark boasting there is no point in going for an SLI rig. The games out now will not be able to make the most of it, and if some reviews are to be believed need to be coded differently in order to maximise the use of it.

If you upgrade your PC every couple of years or so, then going for AGP/PCI is fine for now. Give PCI-X a couple of years and it'll be stable and offer real advantages. At the moment, the number of decent SLI capable boards is low and the the performance diffence is negligable when taking single card solutions.

Much PC Development is based on gaming, and as it currently takes 2-4 years to develop a top of the line PC game then it makes little sense to buy bleeding edge hardware unless, as I said before you are into benchmark bragging.

mark_h

As has been said, keep away from XP64 for now. BUT this doesn't mean you also have to keep away from the AMD64 processor - the normal 32-bit XP works just fine on it, and it's extremely fast because the AMD64 has an on-board memory controller. DOOM3 benchmarks seem to come out faster on AMD64 platforms than on Intel.

Nick

http://www.adecy.com/psu/

Enermax is a good brand.