Is this a good choice?

cronos

I am looking to spend somewhere around 1500 or a bit higher if needed. The PC will be used to play games and watch movies now and again.

Here is what I have come up with so far.

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 tray, 12MB, LGA775, 64bit
261,89 €

Two of the Samsung HD103UJ 1TB 32MB SATA II
216,98 €

MSI N9600GT-T2D2G, 2048MB, GDDR3, PCI-Express
214,89 €

4096MB-KIT OCZ PC3-10666 ReaperX HPC Enhanced Bandwidth, CL6
199,76 €

Pioneer BDC-S02 Retail schwarz
119,19 €

Samsung SyncMaster 245B plus
299,00 €

Sum: 1.311,71

I know I also need a motherboard to tie all this together and a case/PSU.

Have I made good choices above or can I do better. Please make recomendations. Some help on motherboards and Cases/PSU's would be great.

daveharnett

What do you plan to use it for? I'm guessing that it's not an all out gaming rig considering the percentage of the price dedicated to graphics?

cronos

daveharnett wrote: »

What do you plan to use it for? I'm guessing that it's not an all out gaming rig considering the percentage of the price dedicated to graphics?

It is an all out gaming rig. If these arent good decisions for that let me know if you have better ones. Thank.

Anti

Terrible choices to be honest ! Im just grabbing some brekkie now ill respond with a killer pc for 1500€ in a few.

cronos

Manties wrote: »

Terrible choices to be honest !

I will respond to your responce after I finish crying. haha :rolleyes:

Thanks in advance for the help.

Anti

for 1400€ a killer gaming pc. Only went with 1TB of hdd space, but they are so cheap you can pick up more. But went with dd3r and a top of the line graphics card. And a ncie 24" screen to boot.

cronos

Manties wrote: »

for 1400€ a killer gaming pc. Only went with 1TB of hdd space, but they are so cheap you can pick up more. But went with dd3r and a top of the line graphics card. And a ncie 24" screen to boot.

Should I get a solid state drive for the OS as well that would be great. I saw a thread about cheap enough ones but I dont know which ended up being the best deal 64 gb or 128 gb would be nice.

Is the processor you chose much worse than the one I chose or is it really that much of a bargin.

Also I dont have to use that german site for anything if their is a cheaper site for any of the individual parts but they do appear to be the cheapest for most things. Again thanks a mill.

Nothingbetter2d

solid state drives of 128gb or higher are still very over priced... putting solid state with less as your os drive just seems pointless.... no point having a fast os drive with a slow apps drive.... with a 128gb solid state drive your apps and os would fit nicely with a 1tb sata2 for storage of music/videos/files etc

probably this time next year 128gb solid states will be reasonable

i say having a 128gb drive is about right for a gaming rig cos my steam folder is almost 50gb is size at the mo........ my battlefiled vietnam & battlefiled 2 folders account for almost another 25gb and a few other games account for about 20gb combined.... thats 95gb used already... leaving 32gb for vista sp1 x64 ultimate, office, and other apps, & of course file swap space if i had a solid state drive. but i only have a 500gb sata2 drive at the mo.... but when the 128gb solid state drives drop in price ill get one then

Anti

That site is the cheapest out there because vat is charged at a cheaper rate then in ireland. You could use a SSD if you want. But all you will notice if your OS booting up quicker, and programs responding faster. But its upto you at the end of the day

Also, the cpu is about the same speed as the one you picked, but nothing out there even utilises all 4 cores really, so you might be off with a faster dual core. But thinking ahead etc etc. Plus its an awesome overclocker too.

cronos

Nothingbetter2d wrote: »

solid state drives of 128gb or higher are still very over priced... putting solid state with less as your os drive just seems pointless.... no point having a fast os drive with a slow apps drive.... with a 128gb solid state drive your apps and os would fit nicely with a 1tb sata2 for storage of music/videos/files etc

I might wait for the price to come down and get one in a few months. Dont need to get it when I buy the rest of the parts. Thats what I love about the idea of building.

Nothingbetter2d

windows vista & xp ultilizes 4 cores....... basically 1 core will run the game.... 3 cores will run various operating system functions simultaneously. but yes no game uses multiple cores yet

Anti

Well not entierly true, some games have patches ot utilise 2 cores, andi believe supcom now can manage all 4. But thats about it really.

astrofool

Em, Manties, he will probably want to get a socket 775 board to match that CPU. (get the P45 or x48 chipset, run fast away from nVidia).

I'd also stay away from a 600W PSU that costs €50 (and attach it to a 4870x2), look for something by Antec (modular if possible, as it'll save cabling mess).

Also, look at getting a HD with at least 32MB Cache, as this is a huge bottleneck in a lot of systems, the Samsung F1 750GB is a good candidate here.

It may even be worth dropping to a 4870, and upgrading the other components slightly. I'd also try and get a Q9300 or above, than a Q6600, they run cooler, and use a higher FSB. The Q9400 might be a good option (just been released).

Anti

heh yeah, a 775 board would be handy alright I thought i selected one as i was under the lga775 section

That psu also has been getting mega reviews, and alot of the euro overclockers are using them as they are so stable. Hard drive wise, i can not tell the difference between a 16/32mb hard drive at all.

I wouldnt bother with a Q9300/Q9400 as they are simply useless overclockers, and cost a fair bit more then a Q6600.

TiGeR KiNgS

cronos wrote: »

Should I get a solid state drive for the OS as well that would be great. I saw a thread about cheap enough ones but I dont know which ended up being the best deal 64 gb or 128 gb would be nice.

Is the processor you chose much worse than the one I chose or is it really that much of a bargin.

Also I dont have to use that german site for anything if their is a cheaper site for any of the individual parts but they do appear to be the cheapest for most things. Again thanks a mill.

Hey.... you might also want to invest in a sledge hammer to get that cpu to fit in that motherboard........lol :p:p:p:p

cronos

TiGeR KiNgS wrote: »

Hey.... you might also want to invest in a sledge hammer to get that cpu to fit in that motherboard........lol :p:p:p:p

Will this do?

astrofool

Manties wrote: »

heh yeah, a 775 board would be handy alright I thought i selected one as i was under the lga775 section

That psu also has been getting mega reviews, and alot of the euro overclockers are using them as they are so stable. Hard drive wise, i can not tell the difference between a 16/32mb hard drive at all.

I wouldnt bother with a Q9300/Q9400 as they are simply useless overclockers, and cost a fair bit more then a Q6600.

Well, you are using raided raptors, so they make up for any cache difference I've found myself, that a system can be a lot more responsive with a large cache drive, and the price difference is very little these days, the Samsung F1 750gb is very fast and very quiet.

You're right on the Q9300, I went from a Q6600 to a Q9450 a couple months ago, but the Q6600 price has been in freefall since then. When is Intel's next cut? I presume they discontinue the Q6x00 series and price down the 9x00?

Hopefully you're right about the PSU, but to sell a 600W supply for €50, they must be making a cut somewhere. I also love the modular supplies Make everything so neat and tidy.

Anti

I believe intel are keeping the Q6600 but remaning it and chanign it clockspeed by upping and lowering the multi/voltages. Cant remember where i seen this but i think it was an official intel press release.

I believe the next price cut is next month too. Id imagine it to drop to 100€ Which just makes it epic win.

I dunno how the psu is so cheap there, on other sites it almost double that ! Personally, i would also opt for a modular psu like the Corsair ones. A joy to work with.

As for the hard drives, even with unraided raptors i dont notice a difference really. But then i dont relaly use anything that need fast hard drive responce times.

cronos

Manties wrote: »

I believe intel are keeping the Q6600 but remaning it and chanign it clockspeed by upping and lowering the multi/voltages. Cant remember where i seen this but i think it was an official intel press release.

I believe the next price cut is next month too. Id imagine it to drop to 100€ Which just makes it epic win.

I dunno how the psu is so cheap there, on other sites it almost double that ! Personally, i would also opt for a modular psu like the Corsair ones. A joy to work with.

As for the hard drives, even with unraided raptors i dont notice a difference really. But then i dont relaly use anything that need fast hard drive responce times.

So what would your final choices be if it were you spending the money. What would you change from the inital build you showed in the post. Thanks a mill...

Skittle

Nothingbetter2d wrote: »

windows vista & xp ultilizes 4 cores....... basically 1 core will run the game.... 3 cores will run various operating system functions simultaneously. but yes no game uses multiple cores yet

Not true. Supreme Commander and Crysis use multiple cores if present.

Anti

Okay if it was me spending the money i need a little more info. Is 1500€ your absolute max. Do you plan on overclocking your system at all ? Any and all info you can give would be great.