January 22, 200917 yr There's a high chance I could be replacing my againg Dell soon. Before I go ahead and order anything, I'd like to ask a couple of questions. As a note, my total build cost will probably be around £1000-1200, I'd be custom making something with pcspecialist.co.uk as my parents aren't keen on me building it myself for some reason :/ Should I get DDR2 or DDR3 RAM? DDR3 seems better as far as future proofing goes, but is the extra price worth it? Would I notice much difference between the two when gaming? What graphics card should I get? I was thinking along the lines of a 9800GT or a 4850HD, the most graphically demanding game I probably have is STALKER: Clear Sky, though I'd like something that will run future games on highest and still give a nice framerate. Any help would be much appreciated, thanks :D "In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
January 22, 200917 yr DDR2. Only if you get i7 or the AM3 Denebs is DDR3 something to think about. I guess for Stalker, both are good. When DX11 is released, DX10 cards will be able to use it, but with some functions turned off. I would get either card, and then if you want full DX11 support, buy a better one then. So maybe a 9800gt or hd4830 for now, and get a fully compatible DX11 card later? Just a thought. J'adore aussi le sexe et les snuff moviesJe trouve que ce sont des purs moments de vieJe ne me reconnais plus dans les gensJe suis juste un cas désespérantEt comme personne ne viendra me réclamerJe terminerai comme un objet retrouvé
January 22, 200917 yr If you're spending £1000+ on a pc, then you can probably afford a top end graphics card like the nvidia GTX 280. I've heard that DDR3 ram isn't worth the increase for what you pay for it. To future proof make sure you get an 800w+ psu, maybe 1000w if it's within budget.
January 22, 200917 yr DDR2 or DDR3 is not an important issue. Just pick the processor that has the most bang for the buck and check on which platform it runs and which memory type it needs. As for the graphic card.. I'd pick an Ati 4850 series card. Simply has the most bang for the buck, so a good pick. Twitter ||| Google+ ||| Facebook ||| LinkedIn ||| My very interesting weblog about science
January 23, 200917 yr HD4850's definitely is the best price for performance card on the market right now. The card can really almost go up head to head on some benchmarks with the GTX260, and it's crazy powerful. :P
January 23, 200917 yr Try to get a small, high-speed drive and a large slower drive; best of both worlds. roll: Veni, vidi, vici - Julius Caesar
January 23, 200917 yr Q6600 SLi/CrossfireX Mobo (IDk you choose) GTX260 BLACK edition (If its not black, its usually trash) or 4850/4870/4850x2 a l337 looking case 750-850W PSU DVD drive/Burner And yes I always forget something :l Current goal: Legends, Regicide, Roving Elf's, Barrows RFD, 95+ Attack.
January 23, 200917 yr Q6600 SLi/CrossfireX Mobo (IDk you choose) GTX260 BLACK edition (If its not black, its usually trash) or 4850/4870/4850x2 a l337 looking case 750-850W PSU DVD drive/Burner And yes I always forget something :l You're getting on my nerves with that, and on a few threads over that. Oh, look I have nothing black edition and both my computers work great!!! They're not trash!
January 23, 200917 yr Q6600 SLi/CrossfireX Mobo (IDk you choose) GTX260 BLACK edition (If its not black, its usually trash) or 4850/4870/4850x2 a l337 looking case 750-850W PSU DVD drive/Burner And yes I always forget something :l SLI: waste of money unless you need every bit of performance you get. It's simply not worth paying money for it and no normal person needs SLI, considering even a single HD4850 will run every single game out right now on all high details at a playable framerate. GTX260: waste of money, better spent on an HD4850 or HD4870. PSU: Stick with 600-650W unless you're running an X2 card, SLI or multiple hard drives. I say 600-650W because it seems to be in a good price range.
January 23, 200917 yr Q6600 SLi/CrossfireX Mobo (IDk you choose) GTX260 BLACK edition (If its not black, its usually trash) or 4850/4870/4850x2 a l337 looking case 750-850W PSU DVD drive/Burner And yes I always forget something :l You're getting on my nerves with that, and on a few threads over that. Oh, look I have nothing black edition and both my computers work great!!! They're not trash! Haha WTF man. GTX260 BLACK edition > Stock GTX280. And BLACK edition is a lot cheaper. Current goal: Legends, Regicide, Roving Elf's, Barrows RFD, 95+ Attack.
January 23, 200917 yr You are right about the BLACK edition [1]Source GTX260 BLACK $250 HD4850 $135 I'm just not sure if the GTX260 BLACK is really worth the extra $100 for someone. It might be nice for a bit of future proofing, but when the highest requirements game he is running right now is STALKER I don't think it's a problem. If my 9800M GTS on my laptop can play Crysis comfortably @ highs than I'm sure he'll live with an HD4850 in a desktop. :) Especially when you look at the growing trend of games for these next few years. There aren't many that are using anything more advanced than Crysis, but we have a ton of games using the Unreal 3 engine or they are going the route of blizzard and Valve, with lower requirement engines that still scale wonderfully. (Source engine, and then blizzard has Diablo III and Starcraft II coming out, not to mention still supporting WoW. All which can be ran easily).
January 23, 200917 yr In my Country, its $200 Diff, but mind you, in my country, prices are screwed (8800 Ultra is $1100). IMO GTX260's BLACK are about to drop. 5800 Series + GTX300 series. Where my info: http://pricespy.co.nz/ Current goal: Legends, Regicide, Roving Elf's, Barrows RFD, 95+ Attack.
January 23, 200917 yr Zzz... He doesn't need a [bleep]ing GTX260 for Stalker!!! New series? They won't be out until several months. Seriously, stop giving bad advices in threads. J'adore aussi le sexe et les snuff moviesJe trouve que ce sont des purs moments de vieJe ne me reconnais plus dans les gensJe suis juste un cas désespérantEt comme personne ne viendra me réclamerJe terminerai comme un objet retrouvé
January 23, 200917 yr Author Cheers for the advice guys. I had a stab at making something today on Pc Specliast (With screen, speakers etc) and came up with the following for £1200 exactly: Intel® Core2 Quad Q9400 (4 X 2.66GHz) 1333MHz FSB/6MB Cache ASUS® P5Q DELUXE: DUAL DDR2, S-ATA II,2 x VGA, 2 x PCI, 2 PCI-E x1 4GB CORSAIR DOMINATOR 1066MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY (2x2GB) 512MB RADEON HD 4870 PCI Express + DVI 500GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm) ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD) 700W Quiet Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£78) SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£15) 22 Inch Wide TFT Silver/Black 1680 x1050 5MS D-Sub, DVI (£122) LOGITECH X-540 5.1 Surround sound effect with full range and deep bass (£57) Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit Edition + SP1, CD & Licence (£85) Also stuck on 2 DVD drives, (1 writer) and a cheap mouse + keyboard. (Also comes with Far Cry 2 for free :P). Case is their standard one, I don't really care how it looks. So, opinions? "In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
January 23, 200917 yr Ugh =/ For that price you could build an i7 computer. It's good, but pretty expensive. 3 questions: How much more is a 16 or 32mb cache harddrive? (i would advice on 750gb or 1tb actually... Will last longer!). Why 2 dvd drives? Why just not take one that reads/write dvd/cd? And why a 700w psu? Seems a bit over the top. J'adore aussi le sexe et les snuff moviesJe trouve que ce sont des purs moments de vieJe ne me reconnais plus dans les gensJe suis juste un cas désespérantEt comme personne ne viendra me réclamerJe terminerai comme un objet retrouvé
January 23, 200917 yr Author I know it's more expensive than if I were to build it myself, but I'm not going to be able to. My parents want something covered by a warranty (rather than just the induvidual components), and they seem to think I'll break something if I make it myself -.- It's either something from here or another Dell, which I really really really do not want. Anyway, to answer your question about £7 more for a 640GB HDD with 16MB cache, and £15 more for a 750GB HDD with 32MB cache. Would I notice much of a difference in performance between the two? Currently I'm only using about 190GB of my 250GB drive, so I'm not hugely concerned about space. I put 2 DVD drives in because I find it saves time, though if push comes to shove I will stay with one. Kick me for asking a stupid question but will the DVD write be able to read CDs? It's listed as a "22x DUAL LAYER LIGHTSCRIBE DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM". 700W PSU I reckoned would be good for future proofing, especially if I was to chop and change parts around. EDIT: I can also get a smaller 1440*900 screen if need be. "In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
January 23, 200917 yr I don't think you'll really notice a difference between hard drives. The price of the machine (for it not being custom built) looks fine. And, yes, pretty much any DVD write drive should be able to read CD's. There are exceptions, of course. Also don't get a smaller screen. Stick with the 1680x1050.
January 23, 200917 yr Hey Drac. I like your build. I agree with the two drives, if duping a DVD it's much faster to put the original in the DVD drive and the disc to be copied in the second drive than it is to rip the DVD and then burn. Keep the big screen. I love my 22". Will they overclock the PC for you? My Blog - Fishing 82/99
January 24, 200917 yr Author They won't OC it for me, but I upgraded the cooler from the stock one incase I ever wanted to. Since it's a quad I doubt I'll need more than 2.66Ghz at the moment tbh. "In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
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