Building a new rig for Oblivion, need advice.

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I'm going to be building a new rig for Oblivion, I have a limit of about £500-600, 600 being the ultimate maximum. This is what I had in mind:

Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro-SLI SKT939 NF4 SLI SATA USB2.0

AMD Athlon 64 (ADA3700BNBOX) 3700 CPU Skt 939 San Diego Retail

EVGA Nvidia GF 7800GT 256Mb DDR PCI-E

CRUCIAL 1GB DDR PC3200 400MHz 184-PIN UNBUFF (Just the 1gb for now, may upgrade later)

I'm going to keep my old 80gb HDD although I may buy a larger one when money permits.

What do you guys think of this setup? Any advice/suggestions?
 
Soldato
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Liggs said:
I'm going to be building a new rig for Oblivion, I have a limit of about £500-600, 600 being the ultimate maximum. This is what I had in mind:

Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro-SLI SKT939 NF4 SLI SATA USB2.0

AMD Athlon 64 (ADA3700BNBOX) 3700 CPU Skt 939 San Diego Retail

EVGA Nvidia GF 7800GT 256Mb DDR PCI-E

CRUCIAL 1GB DDR PC3200 400MHz 184-PIN UNBUFF (Just the 1gb for now, may upgrade later)

I'm going to keep my old 80gb HDD although I may buy a larger one when money permits.

What do you guys think of this setup? Any advice/suggestions?

Athlon 64 3700+ is a great CPU (even better when overclocked)

Ram is good, but 2 Gig ram would be better.

Get this cheaper mobo ... Gigabyte K8NF-9 nForce4 (Socket 939) PCI Express Motherboard (MB-032-GI) ... as SLI is almost never a good option imo. Best to get a single fastrer card each time you upgrade ... often next gen cards offer better performance than SLI of last gen, also less heat & noise with one card. THe get the card below ....

Would advise to get the Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT for £229.07 Including VAT if you can stretch budget as its a much faster card (even faster than the 7800GTX)
 
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I couldn't find that exact motherboard, but I found this one.

Gigabyte GA-K8NSC-939 SKT939 NF3 250gb 8channel audio AGP8x Retail

It's AGP but it also says it has 5 x PCI slots (PCI 2.3 compliant).

Does that sound okay or what?

Also, is there a case I can get for around £50 that would be good for housing all this stuff? Has to include a decent PSU obviously.

*edit* Ahem.
 
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An AGP motherboard based on NForce3(they are all AGP) will not support that graphics card. PCI is the old standard that has been around since at least the original Pentium, you should be looking for a PCI-E motherboard which can be based on NForce4 or a couple of other chipsets, ATI and Via both make chipsets that support PCI-E as well.
 
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Oh right, that makes sense. That motherboard you suggested sounds good then, what about a case, any ideas on that? I'm looking to keep to about £50 if possible. Lowest possible, I'm not bothered about appearance.
 
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Alright, I also managed to stretch the limit a bit just to get that extra gigabyte of RAM. This is what I have ended up with:

Gigabyte K8NF-9 nForce4 (Socket 939) PCI Express Motherboard (MB-032-GI)
£68.09 Including VAT

AMD Athlon 64 (ADA3700BNBOX) 3700 CPU Skt 939 San Diego Retail inc Heat Sink Fan 3 Years Warranty
£147.96 inc VAT

Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out Dual DVI PCI-E
£224.97 inc VAT

2x CRUCIAL 1GB DDR PC3200 400MHz 184-PIN UNBUFF 128MX64 Memory Modules
£57.46 inc VAT
£57.46 inc VAT

Arctic Cooling T1 Silentium Silent Midi Tower Case - 450W Seasonic Silent PSU (CA-000-AR)
£58.69 Including VAT


TOTAL:
£614.63


What's the final opinion? :)
 
Soldato
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Yeah I would try and squeeze in a dual core cpu, from what I read in the past I think Oblivion makes use of dual cores.
 
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jm240 said:
Why not go for Dual Core?, be a big performance difference for not such a great price jump.

If £600 was the original max budget then we are going to be getting way beyond it soon and the 3700 is still a very good CPU :)

The system looks fine, I'd suggest getting a matched pair of 2x1gb Ram sticks just to be absolutely sure that it will work in dual channel and it may be cheaper as well :)
 
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AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) -
£159.95 £159.95
Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
£194.95 £194.95
OcUK Value 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 184pin DDR Memory Dual Channel
£89.95 £89.95
Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard £61.95 £61.95
Arctic Cooling T1 Silentium Silent Midi Tower Case - 450W Seasonic Silent PSU
£49.95 £49.95

Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £10.95

VAT £99.35



Subtotal £556.75

Total £667.05

50 quid more than your spec but you get a dual core cpu money well spent IMO beg borrow and steal the extra to get the dual core cpu. :p
 
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Liggs said:
How much is it worth the trouble of me trying to get the extra money?
:D

beg borrow or steal it! :D

you will thank the fact you have a dual core under the hood not only in oblivion but other future releases.

50 quid aint that much!
 
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Well, it won't actually be 50 quid extra, it'll be a bit more because it's OEM, so I'll need a heatsink for it as well. Won't I?
 
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Liggs said:
Well, it won't actually be 50 quid extra, it'll be a bit more because it's OEM, so I'll need a heatsink for it as well. Won't I?

yes it will be worth it.you have two cpus for only 50 quid more!

get the Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler or the

Akasa AK-860 Low Noise CPU Cooler for a fiver!
 
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