My choices so far

Stevie_D_D

Hi all,

I've been reading this thread for a while now (and saving money ) and I think I'll order a desktop really soon. Based on what has been written, I didn't really look at the irish sites as unpatriotic as that sounds :P I've got options from HWVS and Ankermann and would really appreciate any input into which is the better deal. I'm pretty new to boards but hopefully I'll manage to insert my images correctly. This is the Ankermann option: (~€1000)


This is the HWVS one: (~€900 but lacking an SSD)


The Ankermann configurator includes the option of changing from the GTX560 Ti to a 2GB HD6950 for €12. Is this a better card? The idea of getting the i5-2500k and a 2GB HD6950 is that I can overclock in the future and maybe try the shader unlock on the 6950 if I ever need to and hope the PC is fairly futureproofed. Finally, can anyone see where the problem is with adding an SSD to the HWVS build? I could not find the option to add the Crucial M4 64gig to the build. Is this something to do with motherboard compatibility maybe?

Thanks for any help and suggestions

deconduo

If you're looking at a HWVS build I'd go with something like this:

Total build cost: €882.54 + €30 shipping
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155 €175.58
Scythe Mugen 3, für alle Sockel geeignet €34.34
ASRock P67 Extreme4 (B3), Sockel 1155, ATX €130.55
FRACTAL DESIGN Gehäuse DEFINE R3 Black Pearl €89.75
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1000GB, SATA II (HD103SJ) €45.14
Club 3D Radeon 6950 1024MB, AMD Radeon HD 6950, PCI-Express €188.59
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA €16.52
XFX PRO650W Core Edition Full Wired Power Supply €67.84
Crucial M4 64GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5") €93.44
8GB-Kit G.Skill RipJaws-X PC3-10667U CL9 €40.79

If you're in Dublin I'd be happy to build it for you, or you can add this option to get them to build it for you:
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=746&agid=829

Unfortunately they won't install heatsinks as they can cause damage during shipping so you'd have to do that yourself.

Stevie_D_D

Thanks, I appreciate the quick reply Ah I didn't realise I could add 'Rechner-Zusammenbrau' as an item. I couldn't select the Crucial M4 when I was using the PC Configurator option. The build you've put together looks very good value too My only question really is whether there is much difference between the 1 and 2GB HD 6950. Am I right in thinking there's not much difference at 'low' resolutions? But the bios flash thing to turn a 6950 into a 6970 can only be done on a 2GB card? (the flash thing does sound risky though, not sure I'd have the balls to do it lol)

deconduo

Stevie_D_D wrote: »

Thanks, I appreciate the quick reply Ah I didn't realise I could add 'Rechner-Zusammenbrau' as an item. I couldn't select the Crucial M4 when I was using the PC Configurator option. The build you've put together looks very good value too My only question really is whether there is much difference between the 1 and 2GB HD 6950. Am I right in thinking there's not much difference at 'low' resolutions? But the bios flash thing to turn a 6950 into a 6970 can only be done on a 2GB card? (the flash thing does sound risky though, not sure I'd have the balls to do it lol)

The performance difference between the 1GB and 2GB is quite small at resolutions up to 1080p. It would only really matter if you have an eyefinity setup or something similar.

To try the Flashing trick you need the reference 2GB model and I can't see any of them available at the moment. The Gigabyte one is out of stock and apparently the PowerColour one is a different model in the reference card box.

Tea_Bag

did alot of reading into unlocking BIOS on the 6950 and its not worth the risk. unlocking shaders is perfectly fine if done with a modified 6950 BIOS but most companies have lazer etched the extra shaders off in the revisions on sale now. also, most people with unlocked shaders have been unable to achieve stable overclocks much higher than stock frequencies. it might be a better time to get a custom cooled card and OC it a little bit to get the same performance as the shaders unlocks, especially when they're the same price roughly now.

I noticed they've all gone up in price lately.

Stevie_D_D

Thanks lads, I'll read up on reviews of the cards that come overclocked etc. Have another query now too lol, I thought I had a free copy of windows 7 lined up but that fell through. I did a bit of research and softwareforstudents looks the cheapest option but they only sell the upgrade version. Has anyone got experience of installing this on a totally new PC? Judging by youtube it should be possible but I just wanted to check first

Tea_Bag

Stevie_D_D wrote: »

Thanks lads, I'll read up on reviews of the cards that come overclocked etc. Have another query now too lol, I thought I had a free copy of windows 7 lined up but that fell through. I did a bit of research and softwareforstudents looks the cheapest option but they only sell the upgrade version. Has anyone got experience of installing this on a totally new PC? Judging by youtube it should be possible but I just wanted to check first

I've installed from an upgrade key (with an ISO downloaded from MS of Windows7 pro x64) and installed fine. Don't enter the key during installation and wait till you boot into the desktop and activate from there.

Stevie_D_D

Deadly, just need to finalise my graphics card and I'm on my way so!