High end component choices

telemachus

I've been asked by a friend to put together a self-built pc with the rather hefty budget of between three and four thousand euros. I'm getting rather paranoid about my choices thusfar, firstly obviously because it's not my money and I don't want to make a bum choice, and secondly because my whole pc buying experience comes from adding bits and pieces in stages and picking up second hand bargains, i'm a little overwhelmed at the prospect of buying this much cutting edge, premium priced gear in one go .

Now I know there are some deranged folk about these parts who buy the best and fastest there is on a regular basis so any advice on what I should be looking at would be hugely apreciated, i'll layout my rough ideas thusfar, don't hesitate to correct me if there's a better choice for any particular component (the machine will primarily be used for gaming by the way).


Mainboard: Dfi lanparty nforce4 with sli (komplett lists a number of models, the differences between them ones I can't immediatly discern (sli or sli-dr expert?)

cpu: Opteron socket 939 2/2.3 ghz overclocked with watercooling (swiftech/waterchill?)

Graphics card: single 7800gtx 256Mb, I figure since one can manage pretty much anything presently i'd leave the second sli slot free for a second down the line upgrade when they lose thier price premium.

Monitor: 19" Samsung 940/30, or is it worth the extra hundred for the 4ms 960/970?

Hard drives: raptor 74Gb with a 300Gb maxtor for storage

ram:2Gb corsair, in terms of overclocking what sort of speed should I go for3200/3500/3700, or is the premium for guaranteed overclocking on it unnecesary with some quality 3200 corsair?

mouse/keyboard: logitech g7 and wireless microsoft keyboard of some sort

psu: fortron 550watt

case: not entirely sure here, something suitably large for the watercooling with decent air cooling itself, not sure wether to go for a mid tower or full tower case.

Cuddlesworth

For a case I would go with a lian li pc-75b or pc-75.

I drew up a quick shopping list from www.extremeprometeia.com

3/8" BSP 1/2" Barb - Nickel
£3.90
Hose Clips
£40.80
Fillports
- Colour: Red
£9.35
1/2" ID Tygon
£13.26
AquaXtreme 50Z-DC12 Inline Pump 1/2" Barbed Fittings (Blue)
£46.80
Thermochill PA120.3
£49.35
OCZ Powerstream 600W
£137.00
Subtotal £300.46
VAT £52.59
Total £353.05

Then talk to viper-john, wizzard knows his site address. You can pick up a volt-modded 7800gtx with waterblock for about 100 euro more than you would pay for one here.

The rad would work quite well with low speed/low noise fans.
The pump is one of the best around. You might want to consider 2 in series.
The ocz powersupplies are rockstable.
For a cpu waterblock going with a swiftech storm would be your best bet.


Yeah and the dfi-expert is the best board out there at the moment.

Dman_15

Ram: Go with 2X1024 OCZ PC4000 EL from www.shop4memory.co.uk
DFI expert is a good choice on motherboard.
I'd prefer the seasonic 600w to the OCZ, better quality.
Monitor: the Viewsonic VP930 seems to get the best reviews.
And a Creative X-fi soundcard with G500 speakers should sort out sound
Raided sata's are nearly as fast as 10k raptors at a fraction of the cost. Go with 2x300 instead of one 300 and a raptor

www.over-clock.co.uk do custom watercooling prefitted to the case of your choice. I've ordered from them before and service was excellent

telemachus

Thanks for the advice all, I think i'm gradually narrowing it down and i've settled on most of it, the main thing i'm pondering at the moment is which cpu to go for, i'm pretty sure it'll be a socket 939 but exactly wich one i'm not certain as there seems to be a fair degree of overlap between the 939 ranges (eg x2 dual cores, athlon 64's and 939 opterons). If I could get an opteron 146 from ebay with the cabne/cabye stepping for around 300 euro would it be worth choosing this and clocking it to 3ghz-ish rather than going for a high end X2 or athlon 64? I'm also waiting to make a final decision on the cooling/case depending on the cpu, if I go the opteron path I think i'd be more likely to watercool to ensure a stable overclock. Graphics wise I think i'll get one 7800gtx 256Mb as it should handle anything current easily, and the second free sli slot gives a good upgrade path down the line when an identical card loses it's price premium.

shanethemofo

i'd say get a 3800x2.... but then again opterons are great value.......

Cuddlesworth

I would go for a opty 165 and a good wc setup. the processer will be replaced in 2 years but the water-cooling with good care should last much longer

Col_Loki

Mainboard: Dfi lanparty nforce4 with sli

DFI , Great choice especially with overclocking in mind.

cpu: Opteron socket 939 2/2.3 ghz overclocked with watercooling (swiftech/waterchill?)

Would go with an Opteron alright, they are generally overclocking better than the AMD64's.

Hard drives: raptor 74Gb with a 300Gb maxtor for storage

The raptor is excellent, so fast. I would stay away from Raid TBH, its just not worth is when you loose 200-400gb of data if one of the drives fail, you will cry. Raptor and storage is the best idea.

psu: fortron 550watt

Fortron are excellent, that power supply is a beast you should have no problems. Seasonic are a little overpriced in my books.....

With reguards ram, i wouldnt jump in and get Pc4000 Ram. The board / CPU combo will be able to take advantage of the speed no doubt but the majour issue is the timings. Too loose timings on the AMD64 takes a performance hit. I found ideally you would want 2.5-3-3-7 as the max timings... going to 2.5-4-4-8 / 3-4-4-8 (found on Pc4000 sticks) really doesent perform aswell.

Possibly think of some good Pc3200 (possibly TCC5/TCCD chips) , and mabye start with 2x512mb, and upgrade to 4x512mb should you find you are using all your Ram.

Cuddlesworth

Or take advantage of your board and get some ocz vx pc4000.

gline

krazy_8s wrote:

Or take advantage of your board and get some ocz vx pc4000.

or mushkin redline 4000

Cuddlesworth

yeah untill the board destroys them, then you get some ocz pc500 dfi special ram from wizzard