Building a new PC - guidance needed.

[Regan Valdis]

I'm trying to figure out what components to buy in order to build myself a new PC. I more or less know the main things I'll be buying, but of course I need to make sure they're all compatible.

I'm considering buying the following 2 components, but I don't know what motherboards will support them:

Video Card: PCI-Express GeForce 8800 GTX 768 MB, DDR3, SLi, HDCP, DVi, TV-Out

Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz SKT775 FSB1066 8MB Cache.

Out of interest, would this motherboard support them?

- Asus P5WDH Deluxe Skt 775 Quad Core ready, XFire, Intel 975x.

If not, I'd appreciate some recommendations.

[Figrin D'an]

Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad are Socket 775, so yes, that motherboard would support the processor you've selected.

The 8800 GTXs are physically rather large video cards, so make sure whatever case you get has the clearance to handle it. They're also power hogs, so a healthy-sized power supply is a must. Most of those cards will provide a minimum power requirement in terms of total combined current (amperage) on the 12V rail.

The P5WDH Deluxe is a pretty good board (it's what I have in my system at the moment). Not the best, but more than capable.

[Regan Valdis]

What would typical prices for those three components be online? I'm just wondering since I'll be getting them through my dads friend who works at a university - I'm not sure whether the prices he can get them for are better or worse.

[Figrin D'an]

www.newegg.com

Probably the best online retailer of computer components.

Without looking myself, I'd say probably $300 for the processor, under $200 for the motherboard, and probably somewhere between $450-$500 for the video card (the 8800 GTXs are expensive).

If your dad's friend gets parts via a university IT department, I'm sure there is a discount, I have no idea how much it would be though.

[Morgan Evanar]

The intel 975x is an obsolete chipset. You should be looking at something with the P35 chipset instead. Any of the Asus P5K derivatives would be fine.

I don't recommend any of the nForce chipsets, there are some low-level bugs nVidia won't fess up to. You may want to get a GTS640 instead of a GTX, unless you have a very high resolution monitor.

[Firebird1]

One quick question about Power Supplies, what wattage would be good. Most of the bare bone kits I'm seeing are coming with a 500 Watt Power supply and I just want to make sure thats enough.

[Regan Valdis]

The thing I have to look at is price, ultimately. I can get the 'PCI-e GeForce 8800 GTX 768 MB, DDR3, SLi, HDCP, DVi, TV-Out' for £352

(By the way, I'm including the whole line of text on each component page since I don't know what everything means and I might leave out something important.)

On the other hand, a 'PCI-e GeForce 7600GS 512MB, SLi, DVi, TV-Out' will only cost me £53. Now on price alone, it makes sense to go for the 512MB card. I was wondering if it's possible to have 2 of them, and if so what motherboards would I be looking at?

The cheapest 512mb PCI-e video card on newegg.com is...

- An 'Open Box: BIOSTAR V7602GS51 GeForce 7600GS 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - OEM ' which can be found here (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814141032R) for $85.99, which works out at about £43 for me - the card is

I'm not sure how that card compares to the GeForce 7600GS for £53 - the only spec I understand on them is the 512MB part, the extra info is alien to me.

I'm also stumped on the processor part. How good is Quad Core? Is it much better than Duo Core? If so, how much better? Will I notice a difference in the games that are out now, or will the Quad's be needed over Duo's in the future? As it is, I can get an 'INTEL CORE 2 QUAD Q6600 2.4GHZ SKT775 FSB1066 8MB CACHE' for £178, which would be around $359.

Now, newegg.com has 2 Quad core processors for sale at the moment...

- An 'Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 Kentsfield 2.66GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor' for $554.99, or around £276, and...

- An 'Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor' for $299.99, or £149.

How do those two processors compare to each other and the one for £178? If they're all rubbish, what alternatives are there? I'm going on the assumption that quad is better than duo, but I've been wrong before. I want the end result to be a system that can play Bioshock effortlessly, and be able to more than cope with games over the next few years.

Thanks in advance for any replies - I really appreciate the help since I'm rather clueless when it comes to specific computer specifications, and I'm aching to get some power on my desk. I've been stuck with a laptop with 512MB RAM for the last 2 months, and it gives itself a heart attack when I play WoW (I have TBC which asks for 1GB RAM - I avoid Shattrath like the plague). My main machine is in my uncle's - it needed repairs. I bought a new motherboard, and some extra RAM, and since found out my processor didn't fit the new motherboard, so he's ordered a celeron 2.4 or something - I know its the same GHz as the one I had, but only a celeron. Overall, it needs updating if I'm going to be able to play the next generation of goodness coming our way - hence this thread.

[Morgan Evanar]

RE: PSUs.
Wattage really means exactly nothing. What are you going to power? The manufacturer is far more important than the "wattage" in 90% of cases.

RE: System
The 7600 is nearly an order of magnitude slower than the 8800. Literally. You don't want two video cards as it always makes more sense to spend the money on a single, faster card for the same price.

The Q6600 is a much better deal than the barely faster Q6700. Quad core applications/games are coming over the next few years. You'll be able to upgrade from a cheaper dual core, though.

Right now very little takes advantage of 4 cores.

If you give me a budget I can pretty much tell you what to buy, although I'll have to ask some of my friends from the UK where to find parts/prices.

[Peter McCoy]

I'm looking at anything between £500 to £700. Thats because I might be able to get some of the components through my dad's friend who can get me lower prices from business suppliers. And just so you know, this is just the PC I'm concerned with - the monitor/speakers and whatnot can be dealt with some other time since the ones I have at the moment are fine. For that price range, could you suggest a couple of different options for components at different prices?

Don't take that as concrete either - you might come up with something good for £700, but I might be willing to fork out a bit more if it'd be worth it.

[Morgan Evanar]

Got this from OverclockersUk, which I think is reputable, but I still need to check with some other people I know over there. VAT is a pain. You could save some money/gain performance for now by maybe dropping down to a E6550 CPU and getting a GTS640 instead of the 320, maybe. It does depend on what kind of monitor you have.

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £149.99
(£176.24) £149.99
(£176.24)
Leadtek GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail Leadtek GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £154.99
(£182.11) £154.99
(£182.11)
Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Case - EarthWatts 500W PSU Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Case - EarthWatts 500W PSU £60.99
(£71.66) £60.99
(£71.66)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £45.99
(£54.04) £45.99
(£54.04)
G.Skill 2GB DDR2 NQ PC2-6400 (2x1GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit G.Skill 2GB DDR2 NQ PC2-6400 (2x1GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit £49.99
(£58.74) £49.99
(£58.74)
Asus P5K Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard Asus P5K Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £74.99
(£88.11) £74.99
(£88.11)
Sub Total : £536.94
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £95.88
Total : £643.77

[Peter McCoy]

Wow, thanks a lot! I didn't expect a reply so quickly.

I'd probably be inclined to fork out the extra cash in order to get the 640 card. I assume that would fit the same motherboard?

[Park Kraken]

As far as RAM goes, Corsair is your friend when it comes to computer games. I've seen deals on newegg that sells 2x1GB sticks of Corsair RAM 240-pinn, with a rating of about 3-4, for under 150$.

[Peter McCoy]

Funnily enough, I bought a 1GB stick of corsair from a computer fair the other week for £27. I'd previously bought 2 sticks of 1GB unbranded RAM from another stall a fortnight before, and that was the cause of my new motherboard not working. The guys who I bought the motherboard off tested it with their corsair ram and it worked fine, so I bought a stick there and then.

And although the other guy wouldn't give me my money back, my uncle swapped the RAM for the power supply he gave me since the dodgy RAM worked in a machine he was building.

I found it strange how something as obscure as the type of RAM could cause major problems.

It'll be a while before I can afford the new computer. As such, the alternative is to upgrade my existing one cheaply, such as another gig of ram perhaps. Or I could see if I can use what I've got to end up with a better PC. I'm not sure if the motherboard I have supports Quad Core - I doubt it since it only cost £48 but I'll check anyways.

[Morgan Evanar]

What do you have right now?

[Peter McCoy]

lol, good question. I would have included it in my previous post but I was at work and don't know off the top of my head. I'm at home now and the box it right here - it's an 'Asus P5B-MX/WiFi-AP'. And just reading the manual, it says in the specifications summary...

CPU: LGA775 socket for Intel Core 2 Extreme/Core 2 Duo/Pentium Extreme/Pentium 4/Celeron D Processors; compatible with Intel 05B/05A/06 processors; Intel Hyper-Threading Technology ready.

I guess that answers my question :(

As for my current gfx card, it a MSI MS-StarForce GeForce 6600 (NVidia GeForce 6600) according to Device Manager. And my processor is a Pentium 4 3.20 GHz, and with 1GB of DDR2 RAM.

Out of interest, what are the chances of me running Bioshock on that? I'm guessing slim to none.

[Morgan Evanar]

Oh jeez, don't throw everything out. Get a decent C2D and a new video card and more RAM. You can move over to a newer board later. That would run bioshock just fine. For reference I have a C2D E6300 and a Radeon 1900XT 512mb with 2gb DDR2 and it runs Bioshock nicely. What monitor do you have now?

[Peter McCoy]

It's a Medion 15" LCD, model number MD 5042 OC. I'd love to get myself a decent-sized widescreen monitor.

[Morgan Evanar]

15" ?!?! Get a GTS320 instead and look into picking up a 19" or so for around 100~L you saved.

I figured you had a Dell 24" or something. Anything lower than 1680x1050 is better served by a GTS320.

If you kept the monitor you could get a Radeon 2600XT or Geforce 8600GTS, as either will feed 1024X768 easily. If you're getting the monitor get the 8800GTS320.

Until you hit 1600x1200 there isn't really much difference between the 320 and 640 at all.

[Peter McCoy]

Ok, it makes the most sense to upgrade my existing machine, now that my mum has gone back on her word that I wouldn't have to pay back the money I owe her. As such, the cheaper option is the best. There are a few different C2D processors I could go for:

Core 2 Duo E6550 2.33GHz for £93.63 (£110 inc VAT)
Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz for £127.84 (£150.21 inc VAT)
Core 2 Duo E6700 2.67GHz for £173.40 (£203.75 inc VAT)

I can also get a PCI-Express GeForce 8800GTS 640MB for £252 inc VAT

Hmm, just checking newegg.com and the prices are even cheaper than what my dad's friend can get.

[Morgan Evanar]

No VAT is why Newegg is so much cheaper. Because of your frontside bus limitations, you won't be able to get the 6550. Your best bet from that list is the 6600. The L40 difference in price won't justify the tiny speed boost to get the 6700. I also doubt your current power supply will be able to cope with the much larger draw of the 8800 GTS, so you'll want to get a Corsair (450 or higher) or Antec 500W of some sort.