Building Desktop. Need Advice.

VonLuck

Threathening to do it for a while now, but I finally decided to build a desktop gaming pc. Was going to go for a laptop, but I realised it really wasn't cost effective.

My budget? Around €1600

I'm not exactley an expert on computers so if you guys could recommend wheter this set up is worth building. I'll be mostly playing games on it like Half-Life 2, Company of Heroes, games like that. I'd also want it to last at least 3 years before having to upgrade. I made this list off Komplett, but I don't know if thats the best place to buy from. So here goes:

Case: Gigabyte Triton, GZ-XX1CA-SNS Silver
PSU: AXP Powersupply ATX 630W Retail SLI,
Motherboard: MSI P6N SLI-FI V2, nForce-650i SLI,
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz
RAM: A-DATA DDR2 PC6400 4096MB CL5
Graphics Card: XFX GeForce 8800GTS 500M 320MB GDDR3,
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB SATA2
DVD Drive: NEC DVD±RW burner AD-5170 IDE Silver
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Home SP2b
Monitor: Samsung 22" LCD Syncmaster 225BW TCO03,
Wireless: D-Link DWL-G510 PCI 54Mbps

Total cost? €1,560

Any recommended changes? Anywhere I could save money or get a better part?

The most important question is wheter or not it will be able to handle the latest games at high settings and last for at least 3 years before something needs upgrading.

By the way, that isn't necessarily the monitor I am getting, I just put it in because it's around the same price as one I want. Also, I selected Windows XP Home. Wasn't sure wheter to go Professional or even Vista. Advice?

Thanks.

8T8

Drop the RAM to 2GB unless your going 64-bit (in which case get Vista Home Premium 64-bit).

For the graphics either bump it to a 8800GTS 640 or 2900XT as if you are going to be hanging onto this for a while the 8800GTS 320MB's RAM will be a constraint in the long run. At high resolutions games currently are around the 300MB mark but that amount is creeping higher and higher over time especially with number of PC/Xbox 360 titles as games are developed with 512MB on Xbox 360 in mind.

Everything else looks okay.

VonLuck

I didn't realise about the whole 64 bit thing. If I do go for vista, will it be worth my while? I hear it's a bit iffy. And is 4gb a bit excessive?

yoyo

My last upgrade from Komplett included a Q6600 + that exact MSI mobo, I can say they work very well, my system is quite simular (I have The EVga 8800GTS 320 card) and 2 gig RAM, HL2, COH run fantastic on it, actually COH performance test with everything maxed the FPS doesnt go bellow 30 iirc, I was also quite impressed at the mobo for the price, it comes with 2 IDE on board controllers, SLI capable and I thought the board was very well layed out, just to let you know it uses American Megatrends BIOs but that shouldnt really make much difference anyway!

Good luck,

Nick

8T8

VonLuck wrote:

I didn't realise about the whole 64 bit thing. If I do go for vista, will it be worth my while? I hear it's a bit iffy. And is 4gb a bit excessive?

At this time you don't really need 4GB you will do fine with 2GB and 32-bit XP but RAM is so cheap and the fact that this is a new build you can also say why not it doesn't hurt and can only help.

As for Vista 64-bit for the most part it's fine now, driver support is good and most recent games work with it, very little in the way of compatibility problems.

On a personal level if going 64-bit I would lean towards the Radeon 2900XT GPU as NVIDIA's 64-bit drivers don't seem quite as polished as their 32-bit ones but that said there are those who have no problems with NV under 64-bit. Also if you go ATI ditch the SLI motherboard no need for it get an Intel P35 motherboard rock solid with stability.