PC Setup - £1,400 or thereabouts

Jameslee · 19 May 2009 at 00:19

Hey guys,

I'm just going through some new bits for a new setup. Would be great if I could have some feedback on any bits to swap out or add before I go ahead with it.

Samsung 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - £264.99
Zotac GeForce GTX 275 AMP! Edition 896MB GDDR3 - £252.99
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.83GHz 12MB-cache - £206.99
Asus P5Q3 Deluxe @ Wifi-N Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard - £172.49
Antec P182 Super Midi Tower Case - £118.44
Corsair TX 750W ATX SLI Compliant Power Supply - £109.99
OCZ Gold 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 (1600MHz) Tri-Channel - £76.99
Asus Triton 88 Quiet CPU Cooler - £51.74
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - £49.44
150GB Western Digital VelociRaptor 3.5" Hard Disk Drive - £152.95

TOTAL: £1,457.01

I'd ideally be looking for upgardes to my keyboard (Saitek Eclipse), speakers (Logitech X-230) and mouse (Logitech MX518) also. But they'll have to come later unfortunately.

Razor-BladE · 19 May 2009 at 00:24

I'd swap out that GTX275 and stick in a 4870x2. Same price, better performance.

Imo, you don't need such an expensive mobo.

You need dual channel RAM, not triple channel.
Perhaps these?
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-109-OC&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1387

Thought about a modular psu? They make life (and cabling) so much easier.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-004-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084

EDIT:
I don't know why i didn't think of it before.. i need some sleep..
But with that amount of money why don't you go with an i7 build?

skippy2421 · 19 May 2009 at 00:29

for that budget you probably would be more sensible looking at i7, a lot of gains to be had going that way plus it's far more futureproof as socket 775 is on its way out.

Razor-BladE · 19 May 2009 at 00:39

Maybe something like this?

skippy2421 · 19 May 2009 at 01:09

Asus GeForce GTX 285 1024MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail Asus GeForce GTX 285 1024MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £249.99
(£217.38) £249.99
(£217.38)
Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail + Far Cry 2 Game Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail + Far Cry 2 Game £235.99
(£205.21) £235.99
(£205.21)
Samsung SM2433BW 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor Samsung SM2433BW 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor £219.98
(£191.29) £219.98
(£191.29)
Asus P6T Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard Asus P6T Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £204.99
(£178.25) £204.99
(£178.25)
Antec P182 Super Midi Tower Case - Gun Metal Black (No PSU) Antec P182 Super Midi Tower Case - Gun Metal Black (No PSU) £118.44
(£102.99) £118.44
(£102.99)
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad-Crossfire 750W Power Supply & Free OCZ 2GB Rally2 Flash Drive PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad-Crossfire 750W Power Supply & Free OCZ 2GB Rally2 Flash Drive £89.99
(£78.25) £89.99
(£78.25)
Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (WD5001AALS) Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (WD5001AALS) £48.99
(£42.60) £48.99
(£42.60)
G.Skill 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 NQ PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Triple Channel (F3-10666CL9T-6GBNQ) G.Skill 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 NQ PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Triple Channel (F3-10666CL9T-6GBNQ) £42.99
(£37.38) £42.99
(£37.38)
Titan TTC-NK85TZ Fenrir CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/LGA775/LGA1366) Titan TTC-NK85TZ Fenrir CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/LGA775/LGA1366) £33.99
(£29.56) £33.99
(£29.56)
Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
(£15.64) £17.99
(£15.64)
Sub Total : £1,098.55
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £15.50
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £167.11
Total : £1,281.16

That leaves you with £120 left to either swap some stuff with or maybe even upgrade your mouse and keyboard. I've left the case as it is as i assume you like that case or something, if not swap it with something you like, i've left the velociraptop out as i've never really been a fan. I'm assuming you don't need an operating system, if you do go windows 7. As for GPU 4870x2 is better however with the gtx 285 being the best single GPU and at only £250 i had to bring it up for consideration.

Jameslee · 20 May 2009 at 21:06

Hi guys. Thanks for the input so far.

I've changed a couple of things around and got this for now:

I'm thinking of getting the Roccat mouse with a Razer Lycosa 'Mirror Special Edition' keyboard eventually also. Still on the prowl for some glossy black 2.1 speakers though.

wbc1 · 20 May 2009 at 21:13

Jameslee said:
Hi guys. Thanks for the input so far.

I've changed a couple of things around and got this for now:

I'm thinking of getting the Roccat mouse with a Razer Lycosa 'Mirror Special Edition' keyboard eventually also. Still on the prowl for some glossy black 2.1 speakers though.

Wouldn't a SSD be better than that 15k rpm drive? consumes less power, less noisy (and faster? im not sure).

Jameslee · 21 May 2009 at 19:28

wbc1 said:
Wouldn't a SSD be better than that 15k rpm drive? consumes less power, less noisy (and faster? im not sure).

I'm planning on alsogetting a Sata II HDD also I reckon.

I've also changed my PSU to the Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 750W Modular SLi.

ViRuS2k · 21 May 2009 at 20:34

you want to change out the motherboard, get the ud5 version, more stable, higher clocks. if your into overclocking that is.

Jameslee · 9 Jun 2009 at 12:37

Ok. Major rethink and extra budget added.

Here is the new spec. Again I'm open to crits on where better components could be put in. I'm wanting the sas drive for all my system files, with the 500gb sata for data. I've got a feeling I'll need a controller card/cable for the sas drive though - could somebody confirm?

Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5
Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ)
Noctua NH-U12P
Corsair XMS3 6GB - x2
Seagate Cheetah 15K.6
Samsung SpinPoint F1 500GB SATA-II
Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 750W
XFX ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2
Sony NEC Optiarc AD-5200A
Antec P183
Samsung SM2494HM 24"

The price absolutely can't go up really

philjohn · 9 Jun 2009 at 12:57

You'll need a SAS controller to use that Seagate Cheetah (SATA drives can be used on SAS controllers but not vica versa).

Seriously, just get a small SSD if speed is of the essence.

edit: Also, look at this PSU instead, Corsair (very highly regarded apparently) http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-004-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084 and it shaves some moolah off the total.

Microwave · 9 Jun 2009 at 13:01

Why are you so keen on getting a SAS drive? They're not really designed for consumer/desktop computers.

And what he said ^^ get an SSD.

Jameslee · 9 Jun 2009 at 13:03

philjohn said:
You'll need a SAS controller to use that Seagate Cheetah (SATA drives can be used on SAS controllers but not vica versa).

Seriously, just get a small SSD if speed is of the essence.

edit: Also, look at this PSU instead, Corsair (very highly regarded apparently) http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-004-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084 and it shaves some moolah off the total.

So maybe go for this instead -Corsair SSD?

I only picked out the SAS for the high speeds, but I guess SSD makes more sense for a desktop machine. I was initially looking at the Corsair PSUs as well. Will I have enough power at 620w?

Soldier786 · 9 Jun 2009 at 13:15

Yea that Corsair SSD is amazing for that price, i mean compared to the others... i don't know much about it but others are recommending the OCZ Vertex series which are faster and much more expensive.
Well if you want to know more about this SSD check my post because here a guy wrote quite a lot about it

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18017724

BTW its the 7th post

Casdawer · 9 Jun 2009 at 13:25

What is with people and the i7, soon enough it's going to be obselete. Get the Phenom II