Haven needs a new rig.

[Haven]

Poor old system is starting to show its age a little now. Currently running on an Athlon 4000 (939), with 2GB corsair DDR RAM and a GeForce 7900GTX. So its not slow but its not up to modern gaming on the Dell 24" monitor that I also have.

So having just come into a little monies I'm planning what I might get to replace it.

Requirements are:
Quad core CPU
Dual Core GPU
DDR3
Audiophile quality sound

I'll be keeping my drives, PSU and chassis so I'm after a base system only.


First thoughts (bear that in mind) are:

Q9300 Quad Core 2 CPU
Thermalright Ultra 120 cooler
Auzentech X-Fi Prelude 7.1 Sound card
Asus P5E3 Premium motherboard
Asus 3870 X2 Gfx

And the bit thats really messing with my head is the DDR3 memory.

I spotted:
OCZ 2GB DDR3 PC3-14400C8
But at 270inc Vat for 2GB its mightily expensive. I will want to overclock the Q9300 to at least 3GHz so I'm looking at something that will handle the high FSB for that. The question I'm asking myself is should I spend more on ram to overclock or more on a CPU that doesnt need overclocking ... Thoughts appreciated.

[update]

Ok switched tack and answered my own question, go for better CPU and cheaper memory.

New CPU:
Q9450
and 4GB of OCZ DDR3

Thoughts still wanted

 

[DeZmond]

That looks like one mighty system there. And if the reviews are to believed you may have picked the ultimate in PC sound cards.

If you go for that system, you *need* to run some benchmarks on that thing

 

[thatbloke]

Poor old system is starting to show its age a little now. Currently running on an Athlon 4000 (939), with 2GB corsair DDR RAM and a GeForce 7900GTX. So its not slow but its not up to modern gaming on the Dell 24" monitor that I also have.

So having just come into a little monies I'm planning what I might get to replace it.

Requirements are:
Quad core CPU
Dual Core GPU
DDR3
Audiophile quality sound

I'll be keeping my drives, PSU and chassis so I'm after a base system only.


First thoughts (bear that in mind) are:

Q9300 Quad Core 2 CPU
Thermalright Ultra 120 cooler
Auzentech X-Fi Prelude 7.1 Sound card
Asus P5E3 Premium motherboard
Asus 3870 X2 Gfx

And the bit thats really messing with my head is the DDR3 memory.

I spotted:
OCZ 2GB DDR3 PC3-14400C8
But at 270inc Vat for 2GB its mightily expensive. I will want to overclock the Q9300 to at least 3GHz so I'm looking at something that will handle the high FSB for that. The question I'm asking myself is should I spend more on ram to overclock or more on a CPU that doesnt need overclocking ... Thoughts appreciated.

[update]

Ok switched tack and answered my own question, go for better CPU and cheaper memory.

New CPU:
Q9450
and 4GB of OCZ DDR3

Thoughts still wanted

That looks like the Shizzle to me!

Buy me some shinies too!

 

[Zooggy]

Ahey,

If you're buying new gaming rigs nowadays, I'd advise you to keep Physics Processor Units in mind, either as a hardware card in its own right, or as a dedicated chip in your graphics card chipset.

I took a look at the link you provided for the soundcard you're looking at and saw that it boasts "Game physics processing capability". I have no idea if that means a full-fledged PPU or not, but it's definitely something I'd look into.

Other than that, looks fine to me.

Cheers,
J.

 

[waterproofbob]

Ahey,

If you're buying new gaming rigs nowadays, I'd advise you to keep Physics Processor Units in mind, either as a hardware card in its own right, or as a dedicated chip in your graphics card chipset.

I took a look at the link you provided for the soundcard you're looking at and saw that it boasts "Game physics processing capability". I have no idea if that means a full-fledged PPU or not, but it's definitely something I'd look into.

Other than that, looks fine to me.

Cheers,
J.

tbh there's very little to be gained from ppu's. They are not even vaguely worth the money you are going to be spending. You gain little in in some case they can be detrimental to the game.


If you have the money to go DDR3 then I'd say do exactly what you are doing. Personally I'd just get DDR2 and OC it due to the availability and low price.

I'd also say go for a Tuniq Tower for the CPU cooler as once you have bought a decent 120mm fan to go with the ultra extreme it is the best part of £45. The Tuniq Tower is a beast and really does the job very well with it being about £10 less.

The ultra extreme is a very good cooler, but there have been some issues with the block being slightly more concave than you'd like meaning you'd need to lap ip it to get good cooling on a quad. I've got a Tuniq tower on mine and it is a very good cooler. I've OC'ed mine to death and have never had any worries of overheating even booting my q6600 at 4GHz.

I'd also personally at the mo go for a x38 chipset as the benefits of x48 are not worth the £75 extra. Again though if you are going for a best of the best no money object then it is an awesome board.

With that spec it appears you are wanting to OC it. As that is the major benefit of DDR3 and the x48 board. They are great bits of kit but they are more importantly awesome Overcloking and tweaking bits. If you aren't then I'd say the RAM the cooler and the mobo are overkill. If you only plan to OC to around the 3GHz mark then I'd say go for one of these. They are by far the best cooler for your buck and if you are only going to 3GHz that'll be all you need.

With the the bits you currently have marked I reckon you'd be able to pretty happily get it stable at 3.8GHz with out trying. I've got my q6600 stable at that and in comparison to that beatiful lot of hardware you have there mine looks mediocre and a bit rubbish.

Basically I'd say if you are happy with everything you have there go for it. Defo go for the slightly better CPU and cheaper RAM tho.

 

[[THN]Buffalo_Hunter]

Also depends on how long you intend to keep it - the current Intel CPUs are the last that will use socket 775, so any future upgrade will require a new motherboard.

 

[Haven]

ahh right thats a good snippet to know - this system will have to last approx 2 years so I'm not going to jump in on tech thats already ready to be replaced.

 

[PsiSoldier]

Slightly off topic, how much would you sell your old rig for?

 

[Nanor]

Slightly off topic, how much would you sell your old rig for?

You wouldn't be buying a rig per se, you'd be buying pieces of a rig.

 

[PsiSoldier]

Pieces of, or a whole, not really a matter of importance. I'm just trying to find a decent (Yet cheap) PC for my brother

 

[waterproofbob]

Pieces of, or a whole, not really a matter of importance. I'm just trying to find a decent (Yet cheap) PC for my brother

with component prices as reasonable as they are at the mo you can build good budget PCs for relatively little money.

 

[Haven]

shadow will be getting my old rig as its better than hers, she might sell you hers though

 

[Zooggy]

Ahey,

tbh there's very little to be gained from ppu's. They are not even vaguely worth the money you are going to be spending. You gain little in in some case they can be detrimental to the game.

This is quite true... today. But:

this system will have to last approx 2 years

I venture it won't remain true for the duration of the interval. There are already certain (albeit very few) games that use PPUs, and within the next two years, I fully expect some advanced shit to come out.

Then again, as bob said, it's unlikely you'd gain all that much.

If it were five years, instead of two, I'd definitely say go for the PPU... with two years... I'd go with his advice rather than mine. Still, it's a judgement call, and you should at least check it out.

Cheers,
J.

 

[Nanor]

I heard nVidia where integrating PPUs into future graphics cards?

 

[Traxata]

yeah on the 9 series there should be a ppu.

 

[waterproofbob]

nvidia have bought Ageia who were the ones who came up with the unnecessary bit of kit to begin with. The simple matter is if you have a ppu you will have lower fps in game due to the nature of the thing. They are an awesome idea in principle but I still can't see them taking off. Hopefully nvidia can do somet useful with them. But we'd still need the game manufacturers to want to make games that make having one worthwhile in the first place.

Personally I'd never bother as they really are a trinket and not even a particularly good one at that. I'd certainly not get one until nvidia do whatever it is they plan to do with them.

 

[Tetsuo_Shima]

Oh no! Not another bit you need to buy for a PC. Graphics cards, sound cards, network cards ... physics cards. What next, 'emotion cards'?

 

[Haven]

mmm I could just buy books and clothes instead ... or is that a little too normal

Imagine £1400 squid's worth of books ... *faints*

 

[Traxata]

I thought you didn't do paper anyway

so £1400 of e-books?

 

[Haven]

mmm I do both, sadly so few books come out in any sort of sane (i.e. linux/plam compatible) format that I often resort to ye olde rainforest mulch method instead.