First Build

CakeJumperer

Hi, i'm planning on building\buying my first GAMING desktop sometime in the near future and and any advice would be appriciated:)

My budget is around 1000euro for everything incl. monitor, keyboard, mouse and os. But i can stretch further if needs be. I'll probably be getting a 24" monitor so that cuts the budget down a bit.
I have no problem building it myself.

Would this be a good base system:
http://www.ankermann-pc.com/en/cpu_configa26.php?artikelnr=10711
I don't know alot about mobo's but it seems like a good deal.
Has anyone bought a sytem from these guys?
They have the Q6600 @ 2.66GHz? Typo? Overclocked?
Also you can add an 8600 GT for no extra cost! Should i order from these guys?

I'd like a 48XX series gpu, although the 4870x2 probably has little use outside of crysis if it scales to the game at all!
Does anyone know of any upcoming gpu's from ATI or Nvidia?
Ideally i'd like a single card solution powerfull enough to max crysis out in ful high def but also consumes alot less power than the GTX280 and produces less heat.... How long will i be waiting?:D

daveharnett

CakeJumperer wrote: »

Ideally i'd like a single card solution powerfull enough to max crysis out in ful high def but also consumes alot less power than the GTX280 and produces less heat.... How long will i be waiting?:D

Would you like it to do the washing for you too?:D

Seriously, I reckon it'd take a die shrink for that to happen, and that isn't going to be happening today or tomorrow. PC hardware moves fast, there is always going to be something cool on the horizon. Go with what you can afford now, or there'll always be a reason to delay for another few weeks.

CakeJumperer

No thanks, i have trouble enough with drivers as it is:D

Any sign of 33nm on the horizon? Obviously no, but it's worth a try:)

Also, i forgot to add in my op, what kind of hard drive setup would work best:
One large HDD, say 1T, or two smaller ones, one for os and one for games?
Other suggestions are welcome:)

Anti

CakeJumperer wrote: »

No thanks, i have trouble enough with drivers as it is:D

Any sign of 33nm on the horizon? Obviously no, but it's worth a try:)

Also, i forgot to add in my op, what kind of hard drive setup would work best:
One large HDD, say 1T, or two smaller ones, one for os and one for games?
Other suggestions are welcome:)

For 1000€ you will not get a pc to play crysis on high details, especially as you have to subtract the price of a 24" monitor from your budget.

CakeJumperer

I've added a quick build from hardwareversand that should run crysis on high settings easily enough. I'd buy a keyboard and mouse from Ireland for obvious reasons, but i think i got everything else.
Comments?
Also all my original questions still stand

jonny72

If you go XP and 2 gigs of ram you can afford the 8400 chip..

God knows how much money hardware suppliers have made from crysis..

CakeJumperer

If i'm cpu limited in any games i could always OC the E7200, although that's just a *possible* build i've drawn up to rub in manties face lol:D

Anyway i need DX10. I play crysis in DX10 now on my 8400m GT laptop card, it looks better than DX9 with shaders on medium imo, and i really want that extra detail. I know some people say you can recreate DX10 detail with configs but that's BS:\

Anti

you didnt add in a monitor for that price.

CakeJumperer

I did, the samsung syncmaster 24" 1920 x 1200. Is it a good monitor?

Edit: Manties can i ask why you chose your current harddrive setup please and thank you:)

Anti

2 raptors in raid for the os for speed. And a 500gb for games and apps. Then a few external drives for backups/media.

And sorry i didnt see the monitor in the pic *Doh*

PogMoThoin

Manties wins, the HD4870 won't play Crysis on all high details, You gotta use medium for some settings to make it playable and only just at 30fps. I know cos I got one

It'll be the next generation before we can handle Crysis well on high or even attempt very high, then there's antialiasing, be 2 generations before we can add that

CakeJumperer

Ok cool:cool: I should have known not to mess with a man with a hitler smiley in his sigXD
Although maybe i could cut doen on some things and go for two 4850's.. hmmm

I heard that raid didn't offer much of a performance increase? Would you recommend a similar setup for someone building now?
Oh and the budget is just a guideline.. I might end up spending 3k on sli GTX280's and a quad extreme:rolleyes:

Anti

tbh its not that much faster, but it is a little.

If you seriously want a high spec rig, by the time you have bought it and assembled and enjoyed it for a week or two its already obsolete.

I got tired of buying expensive hardware, 1 it costs too much, and when you go to sell it its not worth anything near ehqt you paid for it. I payed 1500€ for 3 x 8800gtx's only managed to sell all 3 for 550€

PogMoThoin

CakeJumperer wrote: »

Although maybe i could cut doen on some things and go for two 4850's.. hmmm

Crysis doesn't scale well on 2x Ati gpu's, just a few extra fps over single gpu

CakeJumperer wrote: »

.. I might end up spending 3k on sli GTX280's and a quad extreme:rolleyes:

Still won't max Crysis.

Would you honestly spend that much just to play one crappy game, its not even that great, COD4 blows it away with proper gameplay. I mean every other game will max on a single HD4870 or GTX 280, In COD4 I get a constant 60fps (except sometimes in smoke) completely maxed with 4xaa and 16xaf. I can max every game I've got except Crysis.

CakeJumperer

No i wouldn't but i would like to play it in high def with high detail. The highest resolution i have gamed in is 1440 x 900 on my laptop so going from that do you think it would be better for me to get a 22", a 4850 and a quad for the rts'?

Also, would a 1T 7200rev HDD be faster than a low density 10,000rev?
I still need you guys to pick my mobo and harddrive set-up for me(you rule:D)

PogMoThoin

Get the 24' monitor, think of it as an investment for the next few years as the resolution is higher than full hd 1920x1200, 22' resolution is only 1680x1050

Get the 4870 also, its good value for money. You can always run Crysis in a window at 22' resolution

The Samsung f1 sata hd's (ones with 32MB cache) are great value and as fast as the older raptors. Available in 750GB & 1TB

I've had the Raid 0 Raptors for years, they cost a fortune at the time, nearly €200 each for just 36GB :eek:, were wicked fast at the time, but slightly faster than normal by todays standards. Having them in Raid 0 gives a little extra performance, I just use them for the Operating System, nothing else. Its great to have your documents, games and programs on a different hd to your OS, never feel a slowdown. Check this thread if your looking for fast hd's for an OS Raid 0 array.

CakeJumperer

Thanks PMT. So what kind of harddrive should i get for the os? I havn't seen any of the 36Gb velociraptors on HWversand, would one of the 300gb ones be a wise investment?

Also does the 4870x2 scale well to games as it's a single slot card? Or will it suck in crysis too:( Any advice is appriciated:)

PogMoThoin

CakeJumperer wrote: »

Thanks PMT. So what kind of harddrive should i get for the os? I havn't seen any of the 36Gb velociraptors on HWversand, would one of the 300gb ones be a wise investment?

Also does the 4870x2 scale well to games as it's a single slot card? Or will it suck in crysis too:( Any advice is appriciated:)

Just get a single f1 sata for now, add to the pc later with a pair of fast solid state disks. Velociraptors are overrated, not a whole lot faster than f1 sata's and slower than solid state for a huge price.

The X2 gives you a fair bit more fps over a single 4870 in Crysis, it does allow you to use aa tho. Its faster than the GTX280, but it is costly. Forget Crysis, its a badly optimised game. Warhead is coming out and is supposed to be better optimised. Far Cry 2 looks great tho

CakeJumperer

:eek: Blasphemy! I play it on my 8400m GT and love it! Far cry looks good, i'll probably spend hours setting things on fire and just watching it spread:D Pity it's going to be on consoles too, fingers crossed for warhead.

What kind of mobo should i go for? Would the 4870's bandwidth be bottlenecked on a non 2.0 pc-ex 16 mobo? Also should i get a DDR3 compatible one? P45?
Thanks again:)

cronos

I want to build my first Gaming PC too but im thinking I can spend up to around 1500 euro. What would be the best options for me. I dont have have to spend all the money haha if its not good value.

Any help would be great. I dont know much about mother boards and hardware compatibility.