A bit of help choosing new PC

trekker_50

Hi. I recently got a new job and decided to treat myself with a new PC. I know a good bit about computers and hardware and all that but I just find theres too much choice. Im not a mad gamer but I want to have a good spec computer with a good graphics card and also I want to start getting into overclocking. Ive been using laptops for years so this wasnt an option.

After a bit of research I've found one I like but after staring at so many different pieces of equipment and builds I think I need a second pair of eyes and some perspective.

The pc I've choosen is (and unfortunatly I can link to it) from ankermann-pc.com/offers/Komplettsystem INTEL Core 2 Quad Q9550/4096MB/500GB/9800GTX+ (top right, blue case).

So what if anything should I upgrade? Dont know too much about ram brands and dont know if this is any good. any help on any part of the build would be appreciated. Thanks.

Effluo

I went through this several times when i was buying a new pc a few months ago.

Ankermann really does seem like fantastic value for money!
But if you actually look at the components their using you'll find that a lot of it is just the cheapest components out there.

You're much better off getting your pc with more reliable, high quality components which you can handpick!

Look to hardwareversand.de for pretty much the best prices and they will build it for you for only E20 too.


What games were you looking to play on this system and also what resolution screen were you looking to play those games on?

If you want to play the latest games you may as well throw a budget in here too.

Antar Bolaeisk

Would you consider building your own PC?

trekker_50

I wouldnt mind building my own I have done so before with no problems but 20 euro doesnt seem much to avoid the hassle. Budget is not really an issue I suppose it would max out at 1000. I tend to play stratagy games like age of empire 3 and the command and conquers but play some first person shooters. Id like to get back into gaming a bit and thats why I wanted a good spec graphics card and I've heard the GTX+ 9800 is pretty good.

Ill take a look at that website. Is there any components you could recommend? youre advice would be to avoid ankermann since there components are low quality?

Effluo

trekker_50 wrote: »

I wouldnt mind building my own I have done so before with no problems but 20 euro doesnt seem much to avoid the hassle. Budget is not really an issue I suppose it would max out at 1000. I tend to play stratagy games like age of empire 3 and the command and conquers but play some first person shooters. Id like to get back into gaming a bit and thats why I wanted a good spec graphics card and I've heard the GTX+ 9800 is pretty good.

Ill take a look at that website. Is there any components you could recommend? youre advice would be to avoid ankermann since there components are low quality?

Well you can get better for not that much more money or indeed sometimes for the same price.
Also there have been consumer issues with them in the past...

Also you never said what resolution screen you were going to be using

trekker_50

Im not sure at the moment cause my sister is going to be giving it to me. I think its a fairly new 18 inch?? LCD.

Thanks for the advice about ankermann, i just got roped in by the attractive prices. could you recommend a good motherboard and ram brand. its these two parts im having trouble choosing.

What was the spec of the computer you built?

Antar Bolaeisk

RAM brand and motherboard would really depend on your desire to clock your processor though, from bad experience with them, I would recommend against getting a Gigabyte motherboard.

OCZ and Corsair are both good brands of RAM and I believe Asus make fairly good motherboards.

With regards to an 18" screen I believe the resolution would be either 1440x900 for 16:10 or 1360x900 for 5:4 aspect ratios though I could be wrong.

Either way an ATI 4850 512mb would probably be grand for both those resolutions and certainly an nVidia gtx 270 216 or ATI 4870 512mb.

Perhaps you could post up what spec you're currently looking at and we could make recomendations on what to change?

Effluo

trekker_50 wrote: »

Im not sure at the moment cause my sister is going to be giving it to me. I think its a fairly new 18 inch?? LCD.

Thanks for the advice about ankermann, i just got roped in by the attractive prices. could you recommend a good motherboard and ram brand. its these two parts im having trouble choosing.

What was the spec of the computer you built?

The pc i built for myself then, would definately not be the same pc i'd build now!
I got a C2D Q6700(should have got dual-core), with gigabyte p45 ds3 mobo(should got one with 2 pci-e 2x16 slots), 4g's of ocz ram, 4870 1gb, Corsair 650w PSU(overkill), an Antec 300(vhappy with this) and a 22" full hd monitor.
and i forgot to get a wireless adapter with it too

Since getting the pc however i've learned that games (other than one or two) don't use more than 2 cores in the cpu. So i prob would have gotten the C2D e8400,

I prob would have gotten an ASUS/Gigabyte p45 or p43 motherboard with two pci-e 2 slots so if i wanted to in the future run two cards in xfire i could.

The psu i got is very good but supposedly unesscessaryily powerful and i could have got one for a bit cheaper...
Even though i do find the Antec a bit noisy i'd still keep it, it's so sturdy and it looks good + well more expensive than the E50 i paid for it.
The ram i got was ocz 1066mhz gold i'd prob just go with some corsair 800mhz instead as i've had a problem running the ram at 1066mhz. Also i don't think it gives that much of a performance boost.
Graphics card is great and i can play the latest games on good settings at 1920x1080 which is cool. for your resolution i'd say the 4850 or as i'm sure some would say the 4770.

PSU on hardwareversand.de the earthwatts are supposed to be really really good value.

Someone may tell you the power needs however.

Solitaire

If you got the Q6700 cheap enough I really wouldn't beat yourself up about it - it overclocks a lot better than the 45nm C2Qs

And you're not the first person to realise that all recent OCZ DDR2 really isn't up to standard. Even OCZ's standards. :P Their DDR3 seems to be good stuff though (cheap PC12800 that can hold CL7 @ 1.65V? Yes please!). G.Skill and Corsair are the best for the moment, also keep an eye out for cheap GeIL and Mushkin.

And Gigabyte motherboards are decent enough nowadays (back in the old days they sucked epic-style) as are MSI. Asus still wins by a hair though :P Just try to avoid cheapie brands like ASRock and (worst by far) ECS!

Isn't Q9550 quite expensive though? And 9800GTX+ is old - not even great against a ~€90 HD4850. Great at 1280*1024 or 1440*900 and fair at 1650*1080 but any higher and it starts to suffer. You really need at least a GTX260 55nm or HD4870 1GB for running games at 1900*1080.

trekker_50

I havent forgot about you guys and I really do appreciate the help. Im just trying to finalise a few things and then Id like to go through it with yous and see what would be good to change. Thanks again for your help

trekker_50

Just an update and this is more of a previsional list than anything:

Case - Aerocool Aeroengine II
http://www3.hardwareversand.de/3VPqK2If0V4mWi/articledetail.jsp?aid=6742&agid=631

CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 (step E0)
http://www3.hardwareversand.de/3VPqK2If0V4mWi/articledetail.jsp?aid=19925&agid=398

Motherboard - ASUS P5QL Pro, Sockel 775 Intel P43, ATX
(Need feedback on this)
http://www3.hardwareversand.de/3VPqK2If0V4mWi/articledetail.jsp?aid=22387&agid=659

Let me know what you guys think. especially with the motherboard

Effluo

Those aerocool cases although cool looking the reviews i've read on them have not been great.

I don't understand why you're going for the quad core there...
Only a few games use more than two cores and that's not gonna change for a while to come(by the time that happens you'll need an upgrade any way)

You should just get a intel dual core 2.8ghz or 3ghz processor.
If you don't you're really just wasting your money.

If i were building a new pc today i'd get a mobo with 2 pci e 2x16 slots just so in the future i could upgrade for less by getting a second card in xfire...

Does this look good for everyone?
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/2VzUbWR7fhPYw6/articledetail.jsp?aid=26107&agid=659

Slutmonkey57b

Gigabyte Motherboards are fine and very reliable.

Nvidia chipsets are pieces of flakey ****.

There's no reason not to go quad core unless you're on a tight budget, or a *very* heavy overclocker, things are only going to get more parallell.

Overclocking is only useful if you've got apps that need the headroom - and most of those will lean on your GFX anyway (Adobe and games).

Don't spend €250 on a q9550 when you could spend less on an i7. (yes mobos and DDR3 are more expensive, but you're already blowing 250 on the cpu...)

Solitaire

Case: Not so hot. There's lots of better cases out there - the far better Thermaltake M5 and Antec 300 are both cheaper. And for a fiver or so more there's the CM690...

CPU: Overpriced. If you're adamant about a quad-core nab one of the OEM Q6700s while they're still in stock. Nearly as much cache and higher multiplier so it'll work out better for overclocking while being far cheaper. Otherwise grab a cheap E8400 or something. Or even go AM3 and grab an even cheaper X3-720BE for even easier overclocking and the strong defensive option of high speeds plus a third core for those days where a dual-core just won't quite cut it

Mobo: Not really all that quad-friendly. Or OC-friendly either - dig those unportected voltage regulators. Where'd the heatsinks go eh Asus? Or are you doing an ECS on us?! If you're adamant about a quad you'll need to spend some money on a decent P45, just like any decent AMD build will need a SB750 southbridge in there if you want to OC.

Effluo wrote:

Does this look good for everyone?

... Not really. Its another cheapie (naughty Asus!); see the unprotected regulators? J&W won't even leave a three-phase ITX mobo designed for <100W CPUs without bigassed heatsinks on those VRegs, so I'd be leery of sticking any 95W quad in that - OCing it could result in a lightshow of the terminal variety! Plus that's nForce, not Intel, so no CF. Okay, I know that's just petty... :P

Effluo

Solitaire wrote: »

... Not really. Its another cheapie (naughty Asus!); see the unprotected regulators? J&W won't even leave a three-phase ITX mobo designed for <100W CPUs without bigassed heatsinks on those VRegs, so I'd be leery of sticking any 95W quad in that - OCing it could result in a lightshow of the terminal variety! Plus that's nForce, not Intel, so no CF. Okay, I know that's just petty... :P

Alright cheers for that....

better?

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=22386&agid=659

I figure for the op's sake he might aswell get a mobo which will allow him to upgrade later to a dual card setup.....

Solitaire

Hell yes

Looks like a mighty solid mid-grade P45 with CrossFire and proper heatsink-age all over the shop. If the OP does go for a quad that's a far better option for OC, hell, even without OC it'd be more robust

trekker_50

Ok so this is the build so far. I know the q9550 is a bit of overkill and kinda pointless but I dont want to be upgrading this for a while and I hear theyre going to be bringing in software which will make use of all 4 cores.

Im gonna go with the ASUS P5Q Pro mobo. I orignally meant to post that but stupidly posted the wrong page. Im a sucker for pointless gizmos so im going with the Antec 900 case.

The graphics card is looking like a GTX 250 or 260 (havent looked too much into this) I doubt ill be using crossfire but I have the option now if I do decided on it later down the road. Im completely in the dark on PSUs so any help on this would greatly be appreciated. Gonna go for two 500GB or just get a 1TB havent decided yet. Can you use an internal and external drive with RAID?

Once again all your help is appreciated.

trekker_50

Im starting to have some doubts not and thinking should I wait a while and wait for i7 to get cheaper

Solitaire

i7 won't get cheaper, a) because its really an enterprise platform that flirts with the upper-upper-upper-mainstream and b) because nothing can challenge it on its own turf except maybe Bulldozer/Orochi (which won't be here until 2011) or maybe a very aggressive new Phenom 2 stepping or 32nm shrink in 2010. Don't expect big drops until Intel begin competing against themselves with newer parts, and seeing as both i5 and the 32nm shrink seem to be disappearing into "dev hell" along with AMD's future lineup you may be waiting a very long time