Rather than choke up the BF2 Players thread any longer thought I'd make a new thread.

Basically, my old (built by me) base unit hasn't had anything done to it for 18 months. I'll probably be selling it to a mate which means that I've got to replace it with something much better

I play a lot of games, do a bit of photoshopping and a splash of CAD work.

Would I be better off building my own again or buying off the shelf?

I did spec one up to build and thanks to Dr Evil just the motherboard, ram & graphics card came to ~£800!

AMD (San Diego) Athlon 64bit 4000+ 939pin 1mb L2cache Retail
2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Dual Channel Kit CAS3
ASUS A8N-SLI premium
BFG GeForce 7800 GT OC 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)

The only other things I'd need are a half decent looking case, sillent PSU, and DVD-RW drive. I'll be using my existing SATA H/D drives.

Ideally I'd want something that didn't cost the whole grand but want something that'll last me a similar amount of time as my existing base unit without having to buy anything else for it.

eidt: I'm thinking of buying this next week so no posts says "wait till January when X is bringout out Y so the prices will drop on Z" etc

 

Dont bother with the amd 4000, get a 3000 or 3200 then overclock a little.

as for cases the Antec p160 is the best i've ever had. For the PSU i got the Antec Neopower, it has detachable cables so you only plug in the ones you need.

oh and dont forget a nice big heatsink and fan

 

Similar to the one I'm currently building . . .

AthlonX2 64bit 4400+
2Gb Dual channel Corsair XMS
ASUS A8N-SLI deluxe
Antec P160 Ali case
GeForce 7800GTX
Antec 480w PSU
2 x Maxtor 250Gb 7200rpm/16Mb SATA drive
Pioneer 110 DVD drive

Agree, the P160 is a great case to build into. Only problem currently is getting the DVD drive to fit properly behind the silver facia.

 

Or get the 4000+ if you're not happy with overclocking - can prove to be a complex and fruitless exercise if you're not familar with the concepts. Of course if you have lots of time to familarise yourself with FSB, mem divders, multipliers etc, go for it.

The newer AMDs seem easier to work with than the old 130nm 939s (my FX was a duff one for OC'ing - wouldn't even go to 2.5Ghz ).

A lot of people are getting very good results with the AMD 3700+ (939) basically a 3500 with 1Mb L2 cache, could be worth a look as it'll save you about £90 over the 4000+ and can be a good overclocker.

PSU suggestions...

Enermax Noisetaker 600W EG701AX-VE(W) SFMA ATX2.0 SLI Compliant PSU (CA-021-EN)
circa £95

Enermax Noisetaker 535W EG565AX-VE(W) SFMA ATX2.0 SLI Compliant PSU (CA-023-EN)
circa £75

Enermax Liberty 500W ELT500AWT ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CA-025-EN)
circa £75 - this is the newest Enermax model, s'posed to be very good, but I have no experience of them personally.

Hiper HPU-4K580-MK Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU - Black UV (CA-005-HP)
circa £65, but only one dedicated PCI-E power connector, so no SLI support - not a problem as you can get molex -> PCI-E power converters..

Personally, I'd look at the Enermax 535 and 500, the latter supporting the latest ATX standard, v2.2.


DVD DRIVE

NEC ND4550 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter
circa £32 - I've never had issues with NEC drives

Pioneer DVR-110D 16 x 16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter
circa £32 - apparently good....


CASE

Key things, look for 120 front & rear fan support = quiet(er) & better cooling

Akasa Eclipse-62 Aluminum Case £88 ish
very good reviews for this case...

Silverstone seem to be getting better, Coolermaster seem quite stagnant (sp!) in the UK...

Gigabyte do a funky case (IMHO) called the Aurora: http://www.giga-byte.com/Peripherals/Products/Products_GZ-FSCA1-ANS(ANB).htm
Scan stock it I believe...


CPU coolers

ThermalRight XP-90C or XP-90 and get a 92mm fan (Vantec, panaflow etc..)

Hope that helps

Alex

 

How much is that costing you Dunky?

 

And if you have some spare cash - get a WD 74Gb Raptor

 

I have built many machines now and the best case to date is the Lian Li 6070B plus silent case. It truely is a master piece in comparison to everything else but at around £125 its not cheap.

 

My AMD3500 set-up is in a Lian-Li V1000, lovely build quality, but pricey.
Reminds me.. need some better (silent) fans for it... *ducks out for retail therapy*

 

PS.

SOUND CARD

Audigy 2 ZS OEM - down to about £40 quid now...

 

Just seen the 3700 and 4000 are on special offer until tonight, 3700 @ £176 and 4000 @ £250 .. on OCuk

 

Like that Gigabyte case but it's too tall. Max size is 3x 5 1/4" bays.

Plenty to think about though! cheers guys!

 

Take a look at silverstone if you want a funky looking case, not sure about the build quality - they are alledgedly better than they used to be.

I'm still thinking about swapping out my Stacker for the Gigabyte one...

 

Its about £1200 IIRC and spread all over my living room floor currently GF is well pleased

Could have knocked off £100 or so for the 7800GT instead of the GTX plus maybe shaved a bit more off here and there. But its a reasonable price for a pretty powerful machine

I'm impressed with the OEM heatsink supplied with the 4400+. Its huge !

 

just built this

Shuttle XPC SN25P
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939)
2Gb PC-3200 DDR Platinum Series Dual Channel (CL 2-3-2-5) unbuffered
Pioneer DVR-110DBK DVD+-R/RW Dual Layer 16x IDE Black
BFG GeForce 7800 GT OC 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
2x Maxtor 300GB SATA Ultra 16 SATA150 16MB 7200rpm NCQ - maxline III
bios saviour

cost round £1100

Dave.

 

Very nice set-up there Dave - are you an overclocker or running 3800 @ stock?

 

Dave / Dunk - how do you find the X2s in comparision to the single core AMD64s?

I'm looking at replacing my FX53 with a 4400+ or 4800+.

 

just stock at the mo - bedding it in before I change the memory timings and overclock slightly. the sn25p can run hot so I am just checking what temps I get a present but it is running very cool at the mo.

find the x2 useful - been able to play bf2 and encode at the same time without impact on either - a few problems with the bios but an upgrade sorted that out. It is fun watching (using speedfan) the amount of cpu usage on each core.

just waiting til win x64 is stable and supported to see just what difference that will make.

Dave.

 

Sorry, mines still not built yet Will hopefully get it all completed this weekend.

 

For the case I went for a Thermaltake Tsumani, beautiful looking case and very easy to work with - very happy with it!!!

 

Don't think I'll bother with an X2 just yet. It's not often I do 2 things at once
You lot aren't helping with your £1000+ machines

 

So are you going 3700 or 4000 chap or something else?

 

I'll go for as good as I can afford.
I'll price up everything baring the CPU and gfx card and then work out the best combination I can afford.

 

Have you got permission yet

 

If you have to drop anything, look at the soundcard and dropping back to 1Gb - these are cheaper/easier to upgrade at a later date than CPU and GPU.



Good luck chap

 

Don't need it for this, cause this is my "live in the now" purchase

Love the look of this case

 

Nice case, spec wise looks good on paper.

 

infact: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sho...php?t=17447191

 

http://www.lian-li.com/Product/Chass..._S_PC-6070.htm

This is my beauty in black with carbon fibre on the top lip and around the front USB slots. With a few fan mods you can just hear the machine running now

 

The Antec case looks good, but the PSU goes at the bottom so it may make for some messy wiring, depending on your motherboard

 

Lian Li V1000 is the same, but fortunately you can hide most of the wiring in the chamber without disrupting air flow too much. You *might* get away with the same in the P180 as it has upper n lower chambers..

Get some cable ties