http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...l_systems.html

Specifically; the Titan, and the Ultima.
I play LOTS of high end games and do a bit of 3d work (maya) and photoshop work.



My current system is getting very Ooolllldddd and needs a kicking..
Its 4 and a half years old now
P4 2.8
Asus IS7E Mobo
1gb ram
1mb L1 cache (i think)
9800 Pro GFX card
it runs way too hot even with all the main fans plus an extra one, and it just cant cut it with CoD2, BF2 and doom3 etc...


Help!?

 

The "Titan" is upper mid-range (hence the price), but not top-of-the-line. The Ultima is getting close, especially if you overclock it. The very last one is the mutt's nuts.


M

 

Personally I'd say the second to last one is the mutts nutts actually.

Dual core processor wins over faster clock single processor.


Andy

 

Agree with Fuzz, the for general use and future gaming dual core for the win.
If you want max fps now for gaming thou, FX57 all the way, as current games don't take advantage of dual core.

Although UT2007 is pencilled in for end of March '06 and alledgedly takes advantage of dual core, so a 4800+ X2 will cream an FX57 at that point...

.. oh Jan'06 should see some more price drops AMD wise...

 

want max fps.... then overclock the X2

SORTED.

Andy

 

Well thats aways that option... but no guarantees..


Sorry still bitter about my duff FX53....

 

heard good things of these people...
http://www.alienware.co.uk/main.aspx

 

Even their top system needs "tweaking" then the prices take a hike into a figure where I'd rather build my own!

£3,259.45
Incl. VAT, excl. Del.

 

Would be cheaper to build to your own exact specification/price.
Overclockers are fine, unless something goes wrong and then you have to suffer their customer services (or lack of).

 

To be fair the last Antec PSU I had fail was sorted quickly and efficiently by them, so far contact to them on the current failure (week old PSU costing £120) is going well.


Andy

 

Soooo true!

 

Not always the case.....

http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20051107/index.html

Oh and Overclockers is just down the road from me, and yes the service is terrible

 

I agree to that. If you buy from Overclockers, make sure you can visit the store (make sure you have 2 hours to spare, they don't like to rush!), As I have heard horror stories about the Home delivery service.

 

The warehouse was never intended for people to visit, so it's not surprising that service is slow - the firm is almost entirely geared up for internet sales. The delivery used to be by Amtrak, which explains any problems there.

As for customer services, it only seems to be certain people who suffer. When I had trouble with a motherboard they went way beyond their legal obligations with no problems, whilst others seem to have endless difficulties. Without being party to the various communications I couldn't really say why. But I've passed about £4000 of business their way over the years without a problem, and I've never waited for more than two days for any product said to be in stock.

But beware of buying stuff that is NOT in stock: OcUK do not split orders, so you'll not get your stuff until everything is in.

As for dual-core - fine in theory, but almost no real-world support currently (says the man using Windows XP 64-bit... ). The first game likely to arrive with dual-core support is Oblivion. Provided it's not delayed for more than another couple of months anyway, then another game may beat it. If you only replace CPUs every couple of years then yes, go dual-core. Personally I'm staying away from DC until socket M2 arrives.


M

 

True, but given the queue can be out of the door at times I'd have thought they'd look to improve the counter service or can it. I've walked in and straight out the "shop" before.

 

Our company bought 2 PSU's from Overclockers a few months back - we had to as they were the only people that had them in stock and we needed them next day. Anyway one went pop within a few days and we tried in vain for weeks by email and phone to try and get hold of them to sort a replacement out but we could either never get through (on the phone) or never got a reply (on email).

In the end we just wrote the PSU off and bought another one from another company.....wouldn't use again.

 

I know what you mean. It appears that the staff they have don't like to hurry.
And getting through tothem on the phone, I know what you mean.
Thats why it's best to visit in person but make sure your give yourself time to wait for the so so desk service. Then again the MD of the place allegedly likes to talk about his flash cars.

 

Re OCuk - The webnote system they now employ has helped sort things out a bit - but bottom line is they don't have enough staff to deal with demand at the moment.

I've had some very good post sales service - but it tends to be the bad experiences that stick in your mind - however I will say I still use them as the majority of experiences have been good.

re Dual core - _Meridian_ - me and a mate are holding off for that exact same reason - but if I were buying now I would go X2.

 

And I could tell you a few bad things about them from bitter experience..

 

1 of lads from my CZ clan paid an absolute fortune for a high spec gaming machine from them. It was over 2 months late and hes had nothing but problems with it.

He originally got it over 12 months ago and it has been back in their hands more time than he has had it in his possesion

Im looking at getting one of these. Bit pricey but i know a few people who have them and they seem to be reliable and the customer service is also suposed to be good.

http://www.beastcomputers.co.uk/beast-le-el.php

 

those BEAST PC's look very tasty...


2x7800 GTX?
BF2 here I come.. just need to find that spare £2.5k!

 

FYI 7800GTX 512 is released TODAY!

 

if your going to be doing 3d animation then you want dual-core. As stated most general apps doesnt make use of it,however, 3D software, Maya, 3DStudio etc does.
Check out something like a Dell with a Xeon processor

 

SLI 7800 512!?!?!?!



Invisbleman: how about the AMD DC's?
Any good?

I am so far behind in terms of hardware its untrue.. it was always a minefield and looks to be worse than ever.

 

X2 3800 if on a budget
X2 4400 mid range
X2 4800 fastest of the lot until Jan'06 ish

The 4200/4600 aren't rated by most.

 

ive just set up a server with 2 3.8 xeon processors for business use but just before i did, i thought i'd put it to better use & fully test its ability with F.E.A.R to the complete max......No FEAR!

 

yeah the 4800 X2 looks good.

just looked at your spec again. interesting to see its 4 yrs old and not good enough when ive got a similar spec(prescot 3.2) last year and it runs everything ding dong(FEAR hi-res, d/ling full on, virus & spyware scanning) though it does run alittle hot...

 

By hi-res do you mean it runs Fear etc at 1600 X 1200 4AA 8AF at over 40 FPS. That's what I would call hi-res

 

1600x1200 at quite abit over 40fps but cant remember the aa/af numbers. As ive built my pc fairly recently (similar to above) im just interested in what exactly makes a pc fast or slow & hope that it lasts for several years to come...

 

I presume you upgraded the crappy 8Mb ATI Xpert chipset servers still use these days?