pc purchase - help needed

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1. April 2007 - 20:27
Arax'KG
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Hello. I need some help in terms of choosing a reasonably priced pc (no monitor). Any tips are very welcome. Here's what I though of so far:

    CPU - Pretty straightforward, I am (most likely) going to get a Core 2 Duo, I just don't know which model (probably either E4300, E6300 or E6400). Depends if they're significantly overclockable, if there's a big enough reason to do so and if it is pretty easy to do.

    Motherboard - Not much of an idea, one possibility I've heard is Asus P5LD2 SE/C.

    HDD - Either a Seagate 320 Gb 16 MB cache, or the same from WD. Dunno which one is better, feedback appreciated.

    Memory - Hum, I'm not sure about the company.. I'm aiming for 1 / 2 gigs DDR2 800MHz. Is Dual DDR really better?

    GPU - Until recently I still wanted a BFG Tech 8800 GTS, but then my dream of playing the newest games on high details vanished. I'd like something relatively cheap (but not too much). For the occasional q3 game or something similar.. though on the other hand those flashy graphics in new games look quite tempting. I'd settle for something mid 7000 (geforce probably), 7300, 7600, no idea about make or model.. (I don't think a integrated card would be good enough). Some help appreciated.

    The rest - All of the other stuff including power supply, additional cooling (if needed), chassis.. Here I have completely no idea, though a mid-tower with a little screen displaying the uptime would be a nice feature (captured my heart, ho). Also a dvd writer would be nice. Should I buy the chassis and power supply seperately or is it too much of a waste of time to go looking through gazillions of combinations?

All of this should cost around 2000 zł (~ 520 eur, though more likely the polish price as prices probably will vary a lot when taking euros into account) (if possible) or a few hundred more.

Thanks

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1. April 2007 - 21:50
#1
x.foksie'loy.drt?
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Re: pc purchase - help needed
Arax'KG wrote:

HDD - Either a Seagate 320 Gb 16 MB cache, or the same from WD. Dunno which one is better, feedback appreciated.

Seagate FTW. quiet and relaiable.

WD is a lotery. You have some 50% chance that it dies during first 2 months, at least acording to the avarage from all my friends that had it. Happy

I am proud of spreading a pirated Excessive Plus version and claim to be the original author, yay!

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1. April 2007 - 22:46
#2
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pc purchase - help needed

Yes,stay away from wd.Concerning cpu,I would recommend amd platform over intel any day.But its up to u...
Taking time to decide which case/PSU combo u will have is never a waste of time,its probably the smartest thing u can do when building a pc :] Case should be big,have places (holes) for 12 cm fans so there will be nice air flow ,and it also should be firm,which means if u press the sides with both hands when closed they should not bend.That guarranties good build quality.For PSU I can recommend antec,enermax,fortron,pc power&cooling,very expencive but one of the best in the world (http://www.pcpower.com/home/) and enlight is also not bad.500W should be enough but its always good to plan ahead,so 600 or 700W will not be a bad move.For dvd-rw consider plextor as primary choice and pioneer as 2ndary.

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1. April 2007 - 22:51
#3
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Re: pc purchase - help needed
Arax'KG wrote:

CPU - Pretty straightforward, I am (most likely) going to get a Core 2 Duo, I just don't know which model (probably either E4300, E6300 or E6400). Depends if they're significantly overclockable, if there's a big enough reason to do so and if it is pretty easy to do.

definitelly E4300
its easy to overclock it and get results THE SAME as E6... without any additional cooling system

article in polish http://pclab.pl/art24336-7.html

saved sum of money you can add to GPU

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1. April 2007 - 22:56
#4
NecrogeddoN
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pc purchase - help needed

Seagate ftw, I'm in agreement. If 2000 złotys is your limit, don't settle for onboard gfx, go all-out on RAM, storage and mobo... spend the rest on good gfx, good sound and adequate cooling Cool

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2. April 2007 - 6:14
#5
mow Q [EN]
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pc purchase - help needed

I just can give u an direction, what a medium-fast system would cost.

- Core 2 Duo 6600E
- on a Asus P5-series
- with an 7950 GT
- with an HDD from Samsung (i use 300gb)
- with ExteMemory

my pc (with case) was at arround 1.200 €, i think its a bit cheaper now.

Click the sysprofilebar to get a closer info about the above infos.

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2. April 2007 - 7:35
#6
CZE|BEAZT
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pc purchase - help needed

iam amd platform fan too. 2 cores in one cpu is only marketing strategy how to forget to AMDs victory with 64bit platform. Result of war between DDR and DDR2 depending on platform which you have. DDR is better for older processors like AthlonXP which can use low latency. New processors can use high freq of RAMs so higher latency isnt so big problem like in past. If you will buy intel core2duo, you will have more power in 32bites but dont forget to 64bit:-) Intel is only 32bit processor. And 64>32 :!:

I have new WD HDD and its ok. I never heard about problem with this hdd. Only in very long past (1GB hdd). I have raid serie of 250GB WD 7200rpm, 16MB buffer, SATA2, NCQ. True is, that this hdd makes more noise (than my old Seagate Baracuda IV) if reading/writing but working fast:-)

GFX: i have good experience with nVidias. Ati can provide you more power and are cheaper but nVidia has better drivers and better compatibility with older games. So i can recommend you as minimum 7600. Very good choice in power/price are lower models of 8800 serie (better than any ati gfx)

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2. April 2007 - 7:44
#7
mow Q [EN]
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pc purchase - help needed

core2duo is just marketing? in which way?

64 bit is just "really" usefull if u use also 64 bit programmes (in generell). But the availability of 64 bit progs is still pritty small.

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2. April 2007 - 8:12
#8
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pc purchase - help needed

Big grin

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2. April 2007 - 10:09
#9
{D*R*T} Anemic
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pc purchase - help needed

The Core 2 Duo has the EM64T instruction set, which is Intel's implementation of AMD64.. So yes, it supports 64-Bit.

CPU: The E4300 and E6300 are both good choices. I'm using the E6300 and it's running stable at 2,93Ghz (which is the same speed as the X6800). You can probably get better results with the E4300, due to it's low FSB.
Edit: From what i've read in different forums, the E4300 is merely an E6xxx which couldn't run perfectly stable at a higher FSB. Theoretically it has a greater overclocking potential, since the multiplier is higher, but it seems you'll have better chances of success with the E6300. Both cost about the same anyways.

Mainboard: I'd go for something like the Asus P5B, since it's using the latest P965 chipset.

HDD: Nothing to add, Seagate seem to be the most reliable.

Memory: If you intend to overclock, go for DDR2-800, otherwise 533 oder 667 are enough. Dual-Channel will give you a better performance, though i don't know how big the difference really is.
Don't think the company matters that much, anything from Kingston, MDK, Corsair, GEIL, OCZ, Infineon should be a good choice.

GPU: 7600GT or 7950GT should do the job. Ati also has some good cards for a bit less money, such as the X1950 Pro or XT.

PSU: Anything from 400W - 500W should be sufficient, as long as you get something from a good brand such as Enermax, Seasonic, BeQuiet etc.
I'm using a BeQuiet SP 400W and it's enough for my system (E6300, Asus P5B, 2x 1gb Kingston DDR800, Leadtek 7950GT)

All generalizations are false, including this one. ~ Mark Twain

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2. April 2007 - 17:05
#10
-C4-TYRANTuk.tyrant
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pc purchase - help needed

i agree with ane :} you won't go wrong with any of the c2d e6xxx series, probably go for 6300 for price:performance ratio.

graphics - i have the radeon x1950 pro, its a really nice card that at the moment can handle most popular games well, for a low price :}

memory & mobo are pretty important if u do go down the c2d path...for e.g. i could only afford E6600 & a cheap mobo...and this cheap mobo is holding my 6600 at clock speed(2.4) which sucks...if i had the money, definitely p965 chipset FTW with some decent corsair ram :}

~tyrant!~ZoO.ConcreteDonkey

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