£1200 budget, and an old PC...

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27 Dec 2005
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Guys,

I've hit the end of the upgrade path for my old beige minitower PC, and I'm looking for some recommendations for a replacement.

I currently use this:

P4-2.8
Abit TH7II-RAID
Custom BIOS (It isn't supposed to accept 2.8Ghz chips...)
XFX GeForce 6800GTS AGP
1.5Gb PC800 Rambus (Horribly expensive)
2 x 120Gb IDE HDD (No RAID)
SoundBlaster Audigy Player
450W PSU
Nasty beige case.

I already own an LCD screen, mouse & keyboard so they are not needed. Would prefer an Intel CPU, Nvidia video card and a (cheap) Creative sound card. I'll also need a DVD-R/W, FDD & either a Seagate or Western Digital HDD (Bigger then 200Gb) 2 or 4Gb RAM would be nice as well.

Can we keep it fairly quiet, and avoid beige?

I'll be dual-booting between XP/Vista and Kubuntu (Windows O/S for games) Something which would run Oblivion at maximum setting at my LCDs native resolution of 1680x1050 would be good.

I've got an £1200 budget - What would you suggest? I'm looking for something which has a upgrade path...

Is the Quadro Pro Q6600 an option?
 
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Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case £55.99
(£65.79) £55.99
(£65.79)
Asus Striker Extreme nForce 680 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £189.99
(£223.24) £189.99
(£223.24)
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) £126.99
(£149.21) £126.99
(£149.21)
Intel Core 2 DUO E6700 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.67GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £269.99
(£317.24) £269.99
(£317.24)
Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-620HXUK) £84.99
(£99.86) £84.99
(£99.86)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £51.99
(£61.09) £51.99
(£61.09)
LiteON DH-18A1P-018C 18x DVD±RW x12 Ram Dual Layer DVD-Writer - OEM £14.99
(£17.61) £14.99
(£17.61)
Asus GeForce 8800 GTS HTDP 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £179.99
(£211.49) £179.99
(£211.49)
Sub Total : £974.92
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.95
Vat : £172.88
Total : £1,160.75
 
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6 Dec 2005
Posts
37,553
Location
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Jay123 said:
Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case £55.99
(£65.79) £55.99
(£65.79)
Asus Striker Extreme nForce 680 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £189.99
(£223.24) £189.99
(£223.24)
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) £126.99
(£149.21) £126.99
(£149.21)
Intel Core 2 DUO E6700 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.67GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £269.99
(£317.24) £269.99
(£317.24)
Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-620HXUK) £84.99
(£99.86) £84.99
(£99.86)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £51.99
(£61.09) £51.99
(£61.09)
LiteON DH-18A1P-018C 18x DVD±RW x12 Ram Dual Layer DVD-Writer - OEM £14.99
(£17.61) £14.99
(£17.61)
Asus GeForce 8800 GTS HTDP 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £179.99
(£211.49) £179.99
(£211.49)
Sub Total : £974.92
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.95
Vat : £172.88
Total : £1,160.75

I would change the mobo to a cheaper 680i board. The cheapest that can be found.

Wouldnt get a E6700. Probaiblly get a E6600 or a E6320 and overclock then.

Also go for a 640mb 8800GTS instead of the 320mb.

Change the case to an Akasa Eclipse.

If you can fork out the extra cash for a Q6600 then go fir it I say.
 
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Azza said:
I would change the mobo to a cheaper 680i board. The cheapest that can be found.

Wouldnt get a E6700. Probaiblly get a E6600 or a E6320 and overclock then.

Also go for a 640mb 8800GTS instead of the 320mb.

Change the case to an Akasa Eclipse.

If you can fork out the extra cash for a Q6600 then go fir it I say.

What is the big advantage that the 640mb has over the 320mb? I thought the premium price wasn't worth it?

If I go the Q6600 route, would the recommended parts work well, or will I need to make some changes?

Cheers.
 
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Unless you are doing lots of encoding I wouldn't bother with the Q6600, just get an E6600. Also, follow Azza's recommendations, very sound advice regarding the mobo etc. The Striker is OTT in a spec like that, go for a cheaper mobo that will still do a good job (I recommend Asus) and spend the extra on an 8800 GTS 640mb.

And regarding the case get either the Eclipse or a Lian-Li.
 
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nicktay2605 said:
Unless you are doing lots of encoding I wouldn't bother with the Q6600, just get an E6600. Also, follow Azza's recommendations, very sound advice regarding the mobo etc. The Striker is OTT in a spec like that, go for a cheaper mobo that will still do a good job (I recommend Asus) and spend the extra on an 8800 GTS 640mb.

And regarding the case get either the Eclipse or a Lian-Li.

It sounds like using an Q6600 will be future proofing, as there are already games appearing which use all the cores...? If I do go down that route, would you suggest any changes to the spec?

Thanks for the advice on the mobo, and video card.

I'll have a look at those cases as well.
 
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The only game I'm aware of at the moment that benefits from even dual-core is Supreme Commander, which also supposedly benefits from 4Gb of ram. To be honest the biggest factor in gaming is still going to be your graphics card. Like others are saying, wait til the next lot of Intel processors come out, supposedly in September. They will be true quad cores and will probably be used more effectively by then.
 
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1200gtx.jpg
 
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Paul's spec is good, but why get the PC8500 RAM when you could go for the Crucial Ballistix 5300 for cheaper. Not like you'll need anywhere near that speed.
 
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fen739 said:
Paul's spec is good, but why get the PC8500 RAM when you could go for the Crucial Ballistix 5300 for cheaper. Not like you'll need anywhere near that speed.

its on offer and runs faster timings when using that board and gpu... and its cheap for what it is...
 
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nicktay2605 said:
The only game I'm aware of at the moment that benefits from even dual-core is Supreme Commander, which also supposedly benefits from 4Gb of ram. To be honest the biggest factor in gaming is still going to be your graphics card. Like others are saying, wait til the next lot of Intel processors come out, supposedly in September. They will be true quad cores and will probably be used more effectively by then.

Good point. I'll probably look at getting an E6600 instead and upgrade in the future.
 
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it depends on what you want is terms of ports ect..

NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI media and communications processors (MCPs) are designed for extreme overclocking. With true dual x16 PCI Express slots for NVIDIA SLI technology and advanced overclocking capabilities, the NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI is the foundation for the definitive enthusiast platform.

NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI MCPs are designed for gamers. With support for NVIDIA SLI technology—which delivers up to 2x the graphics performance of a single graphics card configuration—and overclocking, the NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI MCP delivers a high-performance gaming experience.
 
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