Calling all geeks!! New rig time, help!

[Chulk607]

Hello everyone! It's high time I got a new rig, and so the wading through heaps of numbers/acronyms begins. I need your help finding my feet in this technological landscape, as it's changed a LOT in the 6 long years since my last upgrade!

I'll try to keep this post straightforward so here's the deal.

I'll have a budget of about £3000, with that I need a new computer/monitor (nothing else like mouse etc)

I was hoping to get a widescreen tft, but I'm open to suggestions. Other than that, my only requirements are that 3dmax renders fast and I can play modern games at full (or near full) spec. I'm a big Team fortress 2 player :p


I've been torn between things like these two beast...

Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme Edition QX9770 3.20GHz (1600FSB)
or this new fangled Intel Core i7 940 2.93GHz @ 3.66GHz Nehalem Quad Core DDR3

I am totally lost...

If you need more info or anything, please let me know! And thanks for looking/any comments! :wave:

[Chulk607]

I forgot to mention, my main issue to resolve is what processor do people think I should go for? Ram, graphics cards and power supplies etc are all fairly easy to get my head around but any ANY advice would be HUGELY appreciated. Thanks again people, and I hope you all had a great Christmas! :)

[Linc]

I would go for the i7 as it's a proper quad core, unlike the normal quads which are 2 duals; as well as that the i7 is hyperthreaded so you actually get 8 threads out of the 4 cores which have shown some promising results so far.

Definitely recommend the Antec p182 for a case, they're awesome.

[Chulk607]

thanks linc, will deffo check out that case.

While I'm here, can anyone recommend any sites for buying comps/parts in the UK? I usually use Overclockers, but wondered if I'm missing out on anything. Cheers!

[Dmitri]

Just throw my two cents in- ya, Antec cases are very nice.

[GuyontheCouch]

I'm building a new system right now also, I would definitely suggest the i7 920, its a few hundred cheaper and is easily over clockable from 2.6 to 3.8 or 4 ghz, depending on the review. and its suppose to be ROCK SOLID. I've always built with asus boards so I'd suggest taking a look at their p6t deluxe.

for monitors, I like the the Dell 24" Ultrasharp. We have them in our lab on campus, fantastic.

Since you want to play games as well, skip the Quadro's and go with a high powered gaming card.

Im a fan of Lian Li cases :)

I think this one could be a winner.
http://www.silverpcs.com/product_info.php?products_id=515&osCsid=9d92ce9ceb0caff2a571ebc10e37229e

Best of luck.

[poopipe]

personally I'd start here ..

dell outlet linky (http://outlet.dell.com/Emea_Dfo/EuDispatcher?target=InventoryPage&action=sort&sortColumn=price_constraint&lob=PREC&sessionID=PTfXJW1B!1549465158!1749966061!123041923 3098&sortDirection=down#inventoryTable)

and then spend the rest of the cash on a gtx280 and a couple of 22" samsung screens.
maybe bump it up to 8gb o' RAM later if you find you need it (not cheap btw).

putting different hardware in will void your dell warranty but you wouldn't get one with your home built system anyway so it's no loss

the benefits of a xeon are many and varied - thats the 1600mhz bus version and the memory is quad channel so it's stinky fast. they come with at least an 875watt PSU (my t5400 has 875) and are SLI ready (there are SLI quadro options on the precisions)

I know its a dell and thats just not cool but you're saving a fair bit of cash on the outlet centre on top of the dell price being low anyway - more than makes up for the stigma of having bought a dell if you ask me :D

[Linc]

hah, custom building is always cheaper than prebuilts, and you get better parts for that cheaper price too.

It's also only worth having a Xeon if you get 2 and that will cost about a grand. Think 3dWorld did a test recently where 2-Xeons were tested against a single i7 (presume it was the same speed, it didn't say) and the Xeons only had around a 20% increase on performance. The i7 920 is around £240 and the 2-Xeons of the same speed are around £1000.

Also with such a high budget it maybe worth checking out the higher end i7's to see how well they overclock.

[Chulk607]

Thanks for the responses guys... I notice nobody is leaning toward AMD at the moment... are they falling by the wayside?
Also, does anyone have any thoughts on graphics cards?
Again, many thanks for the responses, it's certainly food for thought. Those I7's are looking rather interesting...

[fiveways]

I echo everything that's been said so far. If you're considering gettin a core i7 though I'd wait a bit. Even if its in your budget, I personally think the motherboards are too costly right now for what they are..you can probably get something more stable w/ a different processor for cheaper. i7 mobos will probably drop in the spring too I imagine. The biggest benefit to new technology is that slightly older technology gets a lot more affordable :)

I've got an AMD machine as well, I built it 2 years ago. Just a 4200 (2.2GHz) w/ 4GB ram, 2 geforce 7900gs' etc. I'm looking to build a new workstation in the spring and was looking to continue the AMD thing as well but honestly..it seems that ever since the whole multicore processor thing became all the rage AMD's been a step or 2 behind intel :( the intels are a little more expensive but the performance you get out of them is well worth it, plus they overclock like crazy :)

[Chulk607]

Hello folks. Thanks again. Yeah, after some reading I'm hearing more and more people say AMD are a few steps behind at the moment. Well, I'm no fanboy or anything, I've used both in the past so I'll more than likely go with Intel on this occasion. The I7's are looking increasingly interesting. As for graphics cards, anyone have any thoughts? Geforce? ATI?
The ATI Radeon 4870 x2 (http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/product?product=609420) 2048mb is kinda turning my head at the moment, but I really haven't read up on what geforce are doing currently yet.

Heres 2 systems im currently looking at too, any advice would be HUGELY appreciated as ever!


Machine 1

-Intel Core i7 940 2.93GHz Overclocked to 3.66Ghz (Nehalem)
- Asus P6T Deluxe"OC Palm Edition" Intel X58 (Socket 1366)DDR3 Motherboard
- 6GB PC3-12800C8 1600C8 Triple Channel DDR3
- Akasa AK-967 Nero Direct Contact Heatpipe CPU Cooler
- ATI Radeon 4870 x2 2048mb Graphics Card
- Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB 10000RPM SATA-II 16MB Cache
- LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray Reader & HD-DVD ROM Serial ATA Drive (Black)
- Corsair TX 750W ATX2.2 SLI Compliant PSU
- Lian Li PC V1000 Case (black)
- Arctic Silver 5 Heatsink




Machine 2

- Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme Edition QX9770 3.20GHz (1600FSB)
- Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler
- Foxconn BlackOps X48 DDR3 Motherboard
- G. Skill 8GB DDR3 HZ PC2=12800C7 1333MHz
- ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2048MB GDDR5
- Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1.5TB SATA II
- Pioneer 20x DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter
- Corsair HX 1000W Modular Power Supply
- Antec Nine Hundred Gaming Case



Are there any glaring problems/advantages with either one over the other? The 2nd one comes out slightly more expensive (which suprised me). Another thing I was rather worried about was the fact that the first machine has only a 750W powersupply... does that seem kinda low for that spec? Sorry for the MASSIVE post, but I just thought I'd throw out what's really bugging me at the moment :p This is a really really big investment for me so I need it to be right first time, hence my paranoia!

Thanks again people, you're a massive help as always :)