Possible new gaming rig

[soundwave]

Afternoon all,

Following on from my other thread about my brothers new £400 gaming rig...

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17909831&highlight=Brother+%A3400+Gaming

He's just realised that OC now do 12 month interest free finance so he's come up with the idea of spending more cash & spreading it over the next 12 months.

I've thought about the following spec for him but just want your opinions first please...

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (66I-01939) £52.99(£62.26)

LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray Reader & HD-DVD ROM Serial ATA Drive - OEM £55.99(£65.79)

Asus P5Q Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £74.99(£88.11)

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail £96.99(£113.96)

Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case £55.99(£65.79)

OCZ GameXStream 700w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply £74.99(£88.11)

Pioneer DVR-215DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99(£16.44)

Leadtek GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £114.99(£135.11)

Tuniq Tower 120-LFB CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775)£39.99(£46.99)

GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Black Dragon EVO ONE DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GE24GB800C4DC) £59.99(£70.49)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322HJ) £29.99(£35.24)

Samsung SM-920NW 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Silver/Black £105.99(£124.54)

Shipped Total - £937.93 inc VAT

It will be used for Gaming mostly with the odd bit of Media Centre use
I realise I've left off thermal paste but for the cost of it I didnt really think it was worth adding to the basket

Anyway how do you think this will fare with things like Crysis, COD 4, UT3 etc??

Thanks in advance for the advice

Neil

 

[melbourne720]

Have a trawl round the clearance section, there are some nice cheap mobos there that would lower the cost of the build.

Generally I would say the spec is good, except you'd be better off with a 4850/4870 for the graphics card.

Also it is worth spending a tad more for a 20" TFT as the resolution is much higher.

 

[soundwave]

Thanks for that Melbourne

Will have a trawl through for a 20" monitor.

Is there a specific 4850 I should be looking at??
Plenty there for around the same price as the 9800GTX but not sure if one model is better than another.

Thanks again

Neil

 

[VTR]

Any 4850 will be ok, they're mostly the same bar from warranty and bundled software. Go for the cheapest.

 

[melbourne720]

They are all, underneath, pretty much the same card. Powercolour are cheaper than sapphire or HIS, but their coolers are not as sophisticated (i.e. can be a little bit louder). I don't think any of them are loud per se.

As far as monitors go, this one looks cheap:-

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BG-070-OK

 

[soundwave]

Thanks for the info guys, will have a look with my bro tonight then & see if he prefers one card over another.

Thanks as well for the link to the monitor Melbourne.

Thinking about it though bro does already have a 26" Phillips LCD TV that he might be able to use...I'm going to look at the maximum res possible tonight & see if it's a viable alternative if so I may spend the extra saved by not buying an LCD on a 4870 or GTX280 card instead.

Will look into it though & decide later.

Thanks again it's appreciated.

Neil