Looking to Futureproof with a new PC

SK1979

Hey

I'm looking at seriously upgrading my PC in the very near future and at the moment I'm in a better position to spend a bit of money on it. I would be interested in some assistance from you guys if possible.

The main usage of the PC will be to play forthcoming high spec games (ala Bioshock and Crysis) on as good a setting as possible. Plus I would be an active online player as well so performance, graphics and memory are probably the most important points for me.

I guess I have a couple of questions that I could do with some direction on.

1. Should I go with a Core Duo (say 6850 3.0 ghz) or a Quad Core (say 6600 2.40 ghz)? I'm just assuming Intel as they are pretty much dominant at the moment?

2. Is it worthwhile getting a smaller capacity (say 150gb) 10000 rpm hardrive, like a Raptor? Then if storage is required, an external hard-drive could be purchased afterwards.

3. Any particular memory speed on RAM, or make I should look out for. I was considering 4GB of corsair RAM at 800mhz. Is that plenty?

4. A good mainboard, should I get a SLI capable board, or is SLI going to be overkill?

5. Finally I guess a good GFX card, was seriously looking at a SLI board to support a 8800GTX (buy one now and one when the price comes down in some months). Is the 8800 GTX performance really going to be a huge step up from a 8800 GTS etc?

6. I guess with all those issues, what sort of PSU should I be looking at.

Thats about it, sorry for all the questions, but while I know a little bit, I dont know enough to be truly confident.

Thanks in advance though.

dazftw

1. Intel a definitely ahead so core2duo would be the way to go, only go quad if you need to do alot of video encoding!

2. Well I have a 320GB Samsung and thats 7200RPM and I find it fast enough loading games! Although I was contemplaing a Raptor I decided to save oney instead!

3. PC6400 is the main used id like to think! Just with Ram being so cheap you could go for maybe PC8500.. or DDR3...

4. I got SLI and I didnt regret it hopefully over the next couple of months when I have all the cash ready and willing to spend im going SLI and a new monitor to boot So yes if you plan to go SLI get an SLI board cant hurt really can it?

5. 8800GTX is the way to go if you want to play all the new games! Im not sure if there Rumors about the new "8900" series but looks like they wont be out for awhile so yes 8800GTX now is the one you want!

6. Avoid no name brands and get a good one brand like Tagan, Corsair, OCZ and Enermax.. I have a OCZ 700 Watt and its fine even though if you plan to go sli now get a large one 850 Watts and up.. I have to upgrade mine now when I go SLI. Oh and try get modular I dont know if theres much of difference in tidiness but id like to think there is!


Few Questions:

1. Whats your budget, someone can spec you up a pc!
2. Are you buidling here or upgrading an old pc with all new parts?


Im sure someone will help you more when they come on!

SK1979

Thanks for the reply Daz.

I guess to give you some more info, my budget is probably around €2000 - €2200 (max). Included in that though I definitely need to get a monitor. And while I would love the biggest one I could afford, realistically I will only be able to afford a 22' one.

I also would definitely be building from new as the current one I have is complete crap and after a few upgrades to it, it has reached the end of the road!

Also, I wouldn't be confident enough to completely build a PC from the ground up (all I've done in the past is replaced RAM, gfx cards, sound cards etc). I wouldn't be soldering or anything like that I dont think. Therefore, I was kinda looking around the Komplett site and having them assemble it for me (so buying a full pc from them or someone similar was the way I wanted to go).

Aside from that though, I'm really open to suggestions, I guess Komplett are the saffest bet, but there is probably a little cheaper out there?

I think I would probably try and overclock once I had the right tools and components to make it worthwhile so on that basis, how careful will I need to be about a PSU?

Is 800w the kind of minimum wattage I would need?

Also, when it comes to cases, I was looking at a Gigabyte 3D Aurora with 3 coolant fans. Is that enough to keep everything cool and safe?

Thanks again for the advice.

8T8

If you plan on overclocking then the Q6600 would be the way to go but they require good air cooling to overclock as put out a fair bit of heat. Don't bother with SLI support unless your going all out from the start with dual cards.

Having the Raptor as your primary HD is liking having a RAID 0 array just in a single drive for performance so if you want a big HD for backup that is viable.

If you've done upgrading before than it's fairly easy to build yourself you've already done most of the steps.

If you want Komplett to build it here are some suggestions with high quality parts (click the customize with expert options link).

Power Supplies - Tagan EasyCon 600W PSU
Mainboards - MSI P35 Platinum *
Processors - Core 2 Q6600
Memory - Corsair Twin2X 6400C4 DDR-2 2GB kit
Graphics Cards - Point of View GeForce 8800GTX
Hard drives - Western Digital Raptor 150GB
Hard drives (additional) - Samsung Spinpoint 400GB
Optical Drives - Samsung SH-S203B SATA DVDRW
Monitors - LG 22" L226TQ-SF **

Total €1964 (no OS included)

* Have this board myself rock solid and dead easy to overclock MSI even provide a step by step guide. P35 chipset comes with all the bells and whistles.

** LG monitor very popular one at the moment good reviews all around.

Komplett do not allow you to select the CPU cooler they just apply the stock cooler for the CPU so you will have to change that yourself to something better if overclocking

Blazer

If you're looking to futureproof your PC then go for the Quad-core.
There's only a few games out there that acutally are optimised for quad but Crysis and Bioshock will utilise all 4 cores when they come out.
With the price of a Q6600 not only €300 you'd be mad not to go for it.
You'll get more long term use out of it.
The vidoe card is a tough one..If it was a year ago I would have said buy the 8800GTX. Now though it's hard to tell with DX10. We all know that the currennt high end graphic cards are all fairly crap with DX10 so whether this will improve either on the drivers side or on the game dev's side it's hard to know.
Of course knowing Nvidia/ATI they will just launch a new DX10 killer card.
I'd say with the 8800GTX you'd get another year out of it before you've have to replace it.
Would definitely go with the 4 gigs of ram especially if you're running Vista.
If you plan to do this go with 64bit as it's a lot more stable and faster than the 32bit version.
PSU- I'd definitely recommend the Corsair 620w. This is both Quad and SLI certified. Had one of these and was extremely happy with it.
As for hard drive go for the raptor. You can always add in other drives later on.I could never understand this adding in external drives..why would you? It's a lot cheaper to buy internal drives and use these plus they would last longer as well.

papu

Looking to Futureproof with a new PC

This Is Not Possible!!!
all hardware is replaced by newer models or different brands every few months , buy a pc now and the hardware will be old news in a few months , it will still be very good at playing games but it wont be able to play it on highest settings , the real future proof pc is one thats upgraded once or twice a year

1. Should I go with a Core Duo (say 6850 3.0 ghz) or a Quad Core (say 6600 2.40 ghz)? I'm just assuming Intel as they are pretty much dominant at the moment?

penryn is out end of this year start of next year native quadcore with 45nm , also amd's barcelona is on its way and their promising 3.0ghz on a quad by november

2. Is it worthwhile getting a smaller capacity (say 150gb) 10000 rpm hardrive, like a Raptor? Then if storage is required, an external hard-drive could be purchased afterwards.

ssd are future proof ive seen 30gig ssd for 160 euros

3. Any particular memory speed on RAM, or make I should look out for. I was considering 4GB of corsair RAM at 800mhz. Is that plenty?

ddr3 is out and only getting better its at 1300mhz or so for about 300 euros timings are **** but its only gonna get better

4. A good mainboard, should I get a SLI capable board, or is SLI going to be overkill?

the cards out at the moment will be obsolete in a couple months with dx10.1
on its way the hd2900xt may support dx10.1 but im not to sure as it requires shader based aa

5. Finally I guess a good GFX card, was seriously looking at a SLI board to support a 8800GTX (buy one now and one when the price comes down in some months). Is the 8800 GTX performance really going to be a huge step up from a 8800 GTS etc?

read above the real future lifeline of this will be 3 or 4 months

it will however still be a monster in dx9 games for another few years

6. I guess with all those issues, what sort of PSU should I be looking at.

a good 650 or 800 watt psu should be good enough for a long long time

---

i reccomend if you must buy now

a good p35 board that supports ddr3 theres a gigabyte one out that does

a cheap dual core and wait for penryn

a cheap x1950 to keep you going for a while

some cheap 800mhz ram 2 gigs of it

vista home premium

a good solid psu

a 500 gig hdd to run it off

SK1979

Great advice, thanks all.

I agree about the LG 22' monitor, it seems to have received a good number of favourable reviews around the various sites. Plus good value at about €280.

Its probably more accurate to say that you can never futureproof when it comes to PC's, but I would really like to get something soon that I know will last a while at least and still be able to play the newest games on (pretty much) max settings. And as mentioned before, job circumstances are dictating that I currently am in a position to get a decent rig.

I think after all you guys have said, I will probably lean towards the 6600 Quad core, with 4GB of 800 mhz ram. I think I'll get an SLI-enabled board with one 8800 GTX for the moment (and maybe another depending on price and compatability with Dx10 etc).

I think Corsair for the RAM and probably the 620 Corsair PSU from Komplett. I think I'll go with the Raptor 10000 rpm hdd.

Its probably a doable build on Komplett for around 2k which is around the most that I want to spend, I realise that there is probably roughly an assembly fee of about €150 being inbuilt to the order but I can live with that I guess once the rig is done correctly and delivered in good health.

Cheers again guys

dazftw

The way people are saying it, he will buy a pc now and it will be complete waste in 6 - 12months... Even if he does wait for all the new stuff in a couple of months time its going get him what an extra 6 months before something new comes out?

Really if you bought anything really for about 2000 it will last you a good while without upgrade..

God I was playing BF2 on 15fps for so long and it was grand :rolleyes:

RoyalMarine

athlon 64 3000+ 135 euro
512mb ram 38 euro.
160gb 7200 hd 50 euro?
nvidia radeon 7000 <--- haha 29.99 at the time
some cheapy 50 quid motherboard 50 euro
350watt psu 30 euro second hand
cheap set of speakers 15 euro
mouse and keyboard 10 euro
17" crt monitor.
nice case but its old now..

still plays css at amazing levels.
plays supreme commander if you screw with the graphics card drivers.
plays everything else i can think of.....

ok, its not great, but it boots in like 11 seconds and never fails!

2 years running now

id say you would pick it up for about 300 quid now.

so i think 2,000 will buy you something that will last you a long time.

imo the term outdated in 6 months is used too often.
anything you buy now for 2,000 will play everything you want.
maybe not at 120% but it will do you for years to come.

L31mr0d

RoyalMarineComm wrote:

athlon 64 3000+ 135 euro
512mb ram 38 euro.
160gb 7200 hd 50 euro?
nvidia radeon 7000 <--- haha 29.99 at the time
some cheapy 50 quid motherboard 50 euro
350watt psu 30 euro second hand
cheap set of speakers 15 euro
mouse and keyboard 10 euro
17" crt monitor.
nice case but its old now..

still plays css at amazing levels.
plays supreme commander if you screw with the graphics card drivers.
plays everything else i can think of.....

Try FEAR, GRAW, Prey, Call of Juarez, Quake 4 and Doom 3 (to name a few) with that machine.

The main benefit of single player PC gaming is the graphical content. If you are forced to play a game at 800x600 with no AA, AF, HDR or high quality textures then whats the point. I well believe CSS will run on your machine, but at what? 40- FPS? I know it doesn't perform any better because I built 15 machines slightly higher specced than yours for the compsoc in my college and they all played CSS, but with a lot of the graphics turned low and at only 800x600 res. Not worth it imo, so we reverted back to 1.6 which has superior gameplay to CSS imo.

If the op chooses wisely, he will be able to get a machine where he won't have to upgrade the majority of his components for the next year. But i'd say expect to upgrade your graphics card in about 6 months.

RoyalMarine

L31mr0d wrote:

Try FEAR, GRAW, Prey, Call of Juarez, Quake 4 and Doom 3 (to name a few) with that machine.

The main benefit of single player PC gaming is the graphical content. If you are forced to play a game at 800x600 with no AA, AF, HDR or high quality textures then whats the point. I well believe CSS will run on your machine, but at what? 40- FPS? I know it doesn't perform any better because I built 15 machines slightly higher specced than yours for the compsoc in my college and they all played CSS, but with a lot of the graphics turned low and at only 800x600 res. Not worth it imo, so we reverted back to 1.6 which has superior gameplay to CSS imo.

If the op chooses wisely, he will be able to get a machine where he won't have to upgrade the majority of his components for the next year. But i'd say expect to upgrade your graphics card in about 6 months.

thats exactly the point i tried to make. ok im not the best at making points

for 2,000 he can buy something pretty sweet. and what ever he gets will play everything thats available at a great level.
ok, his graphics card wont take dx10.1 but so what? will he really notice the difference between 40fps and 35fps?

L31mr0d

RoyalMarineComm wrote:

will he really notice the difference between 40fps and 35fps?

thats not the point i'm making, fact of the matter is the fps fluctuates wildly when playing any game and having an average of around 40 is going to mean that in graphically intensive scenes it could drop into the high teens. You always want a fair bit of headroom with FPS. At minimum it should match the refresh rate of the screen (i.e. 60 - 75 FPS)

papu

L31mr0d wrote:

thats not the point i'm making, fact of the matter is the fps fluctuates wildly when playing any game and having an average of around 40 is going to mean that in graphically intensive scenes it could drop into the high teens. You always want a fair bit of headroom with FPS. At minimum it should match the refresh rate of the screen (i.e. 60 - 75 FPS)

#

true , dirt runs great on mine with about 35 fps no tearing , blazing angels on the other hand runs at a capped 60 and yet it tears like hell.....

but for games like ut css and online games you really want a solid 60 or 85 fps

awhir

papu wrote:

#

true , dirt runs great on mine with about 35 fps no tearing , blazing angels on the other hand runs at a capped 60 and yet it tears like hell.....

but for games like ut css and online games you really want a solid 60 or 85 fps

how about a solid 260 for css

papu

awhir wrote:

how about a solid 260 for css

at 800x600 maybe :P

nibble

papu wrote:

at 800x600 maybe :P

800x600 FTW! It's what all the pros game at, along with no AA, AF, HDR...
OP indeed go with a Q6600 if you want to make your build more future proof plus they're dirt cheap, so why not? Riduculusly OT but Hugh, do you think R. Molloy would buy my DFI, what's his MSN handle?/Offtopicness.