New build - any advice appreciated

PaddyTheNth

Hi folks,

I'm looking to build a new PC. It's gonna be used for some development (Visual Studio), a bit of video conversion and definitely a bit of gaming (how awesome does Mercenaries 2 look )!

Anyway after a bit of scouting around I've come up with the following combo from dabs (hardwareversand were a tad cheaper but I like to think I'm supporting the irish economy by buying from a .ie )


edit: link to picture of items here cos its not showing up for me....

I'm a complete noob when it comes to hardware and I'd appreciate it if some of the heads here could run their eye over this build and reassure me that it's not gonna blow up when I stick it together (I've checked that the ram is compatible with the motherboard in that its non-ecc and I've a fair idea that the 500W PSU should have enough power, but thats about all I know about).



Cheers.

Blazer

Go with 4gbs if you're going to be doing dev work and video conversion. Makes a big difference.
I'd also go for a quad-core if you plan on doing a whole pile of converting?
Also lots of ppl had problems with the e8500 and their boards not recognising it.
Suggest this one (q6600) can be overclocked over 3.2ghz easily.
http://www.dabs.ie/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4DWF&CategorySelectedId=11147&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11147,4294958803,44250000


The video card for the €50 will get you the 4870 which is a fantastic card and will do for a while.

But if you're working on a budget go for the 4gbs of ram first. Besides it's dirt cheap anyhow.

PaddyTheNth

Mathew Reilly wrote: »

Go with 4gbs if you're going to be doing dev work and video conversion. Makes a big difference.

Tbh I'm gonna be sticking with XP for a while cos I've got a copy of that and as you may have noticed I'm working on a bit of a budget Might go for 3 GBs though.

Mathew Reilly wrote: »

I'd also go for a quad-core if you plan on doing a whole pile of converting?

Most of the seriously processor-intensive stuff I'll be doing I won't be multitasking during it, I'll just schedule a batch for a time I'm not using the pc. As pretty much all of the software I'm using can't make use of 4 processors specifically I was gonna go with the dual core simply from a cost basis.

Mathew Reilly wrote: »

Also lots of ppl had problems with the e8500 and their boards not recognising it.
Suggest this one (q6600) can be overclocked over 3.2ghz easily.
http://www.dabs.ie/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4DWF&CategorySelectedId=11147&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11147,4294958803,44250000

Thats exactly the sort of thing I was looking for, thanks a mil. Taking into account my reasons for not going quad-core, would you be able to recommend a different dual-core for the same sort of price? Or should I just go quad-core anyway?

Mathew Reilly wrote: »

The video card for the €50 will get you the 4870 which is a fantastic card and will do for a while.

But if you're working on a budget go for the 4gbs of ram first. Besides it's dirt cheap anyhow.

I'll see what I can stretch the budget to

Thanks again for the advice.

Blazer

I'd definitely go for theq6600..it's only €17 euro dearer than the q8500 while the q8600 is about €70 dearer.
I know your reasons for not going quad but seeing at the q6600 is only €151 on dabs you'd be mad not to go for it.
With my quad and the ones before it i was gaming,, folding@home and also converting dvds at the same time.

As for 4gb of ram the cheapest one I think it about €53.
The kit below is €73 and well worth it.

http://www.dabs.ie/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4RPG&CategorySelectedId=11150&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11150,50830000,4294952408,4294953829

you could stick with the 4850 and go quad-core and 4gb for only about €40 more.
Sounds good?

sunzz

I remember building my system about 3 years ago and how it cost me 189euro for 1gig of 4200 ram, oh my days

PaddyTheNth

Mathew Reilly wrote: »

I'd definitely go for theq6600..it's only €17 euro dearer than the q8500 while the q8600 is about €70 dearer.
I know your reasons for not going quad but seeing at the q6600 is only €151 on dabs you'd be mad not to go for it.
With my quad and the ones before it i was gaming,, folding@home and also converting dvds at the same time.

As for 4gb of ram the cheapest one I think it about €53.
The kit below is €73 and well worth it.

http://www.dabs.ie/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4RPG&CategorySelectedId=11150&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11150,50830000,4294952408,4294953829

you could stick with the 4850 and go quad-core and 4gb for only about €40 more.
Sounds good?

Fair enough, sold on the quad-core!

Done a bit more research on the video card too and I'm tempted to go for the 4870. Ram will be the priority though.

Cheers for the help.

mikeruurds

I'd definitely recommend the 4870. I upgraded two weeks ago from a 7800GTX and am playing Crysis on fairly decent settings.

Blazer

PaddyTheNth wrote: »

Fair enough, sold on the quad-core!

Done a bit more research on the video card too and I'm tempted to go for the 4870. Ram will be the priority though.

Cheers for the help.

anytime

PaddyTheNth

mikeruurds wrote: »

I'd definitely recommend the 4870. I upgraded two weeks ago from a 7800GTX and am playing Crysis on fairly decent settings.

Nice to hear

PaddyTheNth

So after much more dithering and research I think I've finally settled on a configuration. Looks like I'm gonna be going with hardwareversand - the combination of their beating everyone else on price on almost everything, the fact that for €20 they'll save me the hassle of putting the rig together myself, and that they are the only ones I could find stocking 320GB Samsung F1s is too much to resist.



Going for the slightly less top-end video card, and I've realised that I need a bloody copy of XP cos of Dell locking their OEMs to their hardware :mad:. I'll probably end up buying the OS seperately though as I can get a full version on ebay for €117 instead of the OEM version above.

Now to pay for it!:P (and wait for that mobo to come back into stock, or end up going for a slightly pricier one)

Blazer

yep.nice spec..enjoy your new build m8