[Souseke]

ye i was looking at that tsumani one. However, Im not too sure i like how that blue light shines across it.

btw im thinking of dropping the speed of the cpu
I want to keep within the budget of £1000 (can go over slightly)
I am very interested in the antec phantom.. I would like that psu
I think ill choose a cheaper ram and I may even drop the graphics card slightly...
What i really after in this setup is a computer that can play the latest games and look nice with a good framerate...

Case wise. I really like the lian li. I stuck between choice here
v1100 looks like it has better cooling but i like the look of the pc676 more slightly
http://www.lian-li.c...C-V1100plus.htm
http://www.lian-li.c..._C_S_PC-767.htm

Cooler wise, i was thinking of Thermalright SI-120 and get a silent 120mm fan on it (any idea which ones are good that are really quiet with good cfm)

I know in the end it won't be a bleeding edge machine, but as long as it runs new games for a long while i'll be happy.

Edited by Souseke, 04 January 2006 - 03:54 PM.

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Akasa make excellent quiet fans, really the only ones that make quiet fans that arent ugly as sin like the vantecs are.

Well if yould given a budget at the start we could have saved from making up your super wish list, youll not get half the stuff you wanted, and are you needing a monitor with that, having a nice PC is great but theres no point if youre using an old 15 or 17" TFT or fish bowl CRT, completely pointless.

Thermaltake cases are a little hard to get hold of over here for a decent price sometimes you get lucky but they are quite expensive for what they are. And for a 1000 quid forget the lian li unless its the cheaper ones at the top of the page.

[warriorscot]

Akasa make excellent quiet fans, really the only ones that make quiet fans that arent ugly as sin like the vantecs are.

Well if yould given a budget at the start we could have saved from making up your super wish list, youll not get half the stuff you wanted, and are you needing a monitor with that, having a nice PC is great but theres no point if youre using an old 15 or 17" TFT or fish bowl CRT, completely pointless.

Thermaltake cases are a little hard to get hold of over here for a decent price sometimes you get lucky but they are quite expensive for what they are. And for a 1000 quid forget the lian li unless its the cheaper ones at the top of the page.

[Souseke]

well i have a nice 17" TFT monitor already.... Sony one, 12ms refresh rate
With the spec i had before with the p150, i was at £1094.53 including delivery and stuff..

hard drives, dvd burners, tft, keyboards and mouse i dont need....

edit:

i actually found a case i quite like to look of

http://www.xcase.co......tml#a385#a385

Im not too sure of the name cos i never really heard of them but i like the silver finish and the lcd display.

another that i have spotted but not as keen on is the antec p160

http://www.xcase.co...._Mid_Tower.html

If i got the x-case would i need to get that foam cladding for the side in order to dampen sound?

PSU would like one of the Seasonic S12's

Also graphics card. they are notrious loud, the newer ones, what would i need to dampen its sound..

Edited by Souseke, 05 January 2006 - 07:13 AM.

[warriorscot]

Well an Arctic Silencer is the best way to quieten a gfx card. Although they havent released a silencer for anyof thenew brands of cards, you can get one if you buy a HIS excalibur gfx card they come with them pre installed.

The first xcase i wouldnt get because it has the PSU in it, the p160 i like it was a toss up for me between it and the lanboy, i got the lanboy because i take my pc lanning on occasion and it was slightly cheaper. If you want really quiet you are either going to have to get a p180 or a sonata 2 both are the quietest cases on the market.

When they say loud its not loud loud its just standards of how much noise a pc can make have got higher so anything that makes any noise is bad these days. Its going to make some noise you can get foam cladding but they generally dont have it because it affecs the cooling bare metal conducts heat better than an insulating foam does.

Well if you dont all the peripherals thats fine those little things add up quite fast. Those get the budget, although what hard drive are you going to put in it in a gaming rig you want a good hard drive preferably a new SATA drive with enough space. Not a raptor or anything but a good SATA II would be advisable for it if you dont allready have one.

[Souseke]

hmm...
I still got to find a way to drop the prices slightly..
the HIS Graphics card for the x1800xt does not have the new cooler in it so its just as noisy as the normal stock ones...
After looking around i would like one of the graphics cards from the iceQ edition.
However the highest it goes is an x1600xt and its really difficult to get hold of any of the iceq series. I mean i really wouldnt mind and x800gto if it was crossfire compatiable which it does says it is on the official website but on sites like microdirect and ebuyer, it doesnt say crossfire enabled so im not too sure...

Edited by Souseke, 05 January 2006 - 12:33 PM.

[warriorscot]

Well the manufactuers know better than the suppliers do, well the gfx coolers on the double slot deals arent that noisy its the standard single sots that are noisy, iceQ is good but all is, is a slightly better looking silencer and a bit of overclocking software. They will bring out a silencer eventually for it and you can stick it on later they are less than 20 pounds so its not the huge investment.

If you get a cheaper crossfire edition card now wouldnt be too bad but it would mean you would have to get a master card next timke round and they are slightly more money and at the moment slightly more difficult to get hold of.

You can shop around a bit maybe go a bit cheaper on the ram again or settle with some value stuff and get better later. What does it need to be at would have been better to start with, all mice and dandy picking out the best of the best but you need to get a budget and say this is how much i have and then stop when you go over it, the hard way to do it is to pick waht you want then try and get it down to what you can afford.

[Souseke]

ok. i still dont understand the crossfire so much. if i get the HIS x800gto or HIS x1300 (which is better?) and decided i wanted to stick in another graphics card later to use in crossfire mode. will the new card have to have to have specific extension at the end such at gto for gto and xt for xt? I know I will have to get a 'master' card but they are quite pricy at the moment and its prob better to put the better card in as master rather than slave more than likely (i am unsure...)

Edited by Souseke, 05 January 2006 - 02:41 PM.

[warriorscot]

Well it works with any two cards no matter what they are, as long as both are crossfire edition cards and one of them is a master card edition, the master card has another chip in it to control the two cards so they work together for best effect.

Off the top of my head the GTO is a better card i think the x1300s are cheaper budget cards with only ddr2 memory.

You dont need a master card at first to my knowledge you can get a normal card now as long as its crossfire enabled as i think all of the x1800s are anyway you just need to get a master card version of whatever card you get next plug it in and itll go crossfire.

The extensions GT and GTO xl and xt are the extensions ATI uses to indicate performance Nvidia does the same with GT, GS and ultra.

You can read more of crossfire here http://www.ati.com/t...logy/crossfire/ there is also a few reviews crossfire and reviews on the x1800s but the problem with alot of th reviews is that they are old now and because x1800s were so new the drivers they used were older since then later driver revisions have increased the cards performance by well over 50% in some areas. Just google it and youll get all the information you need.

[Souseke]

ive read about the crossfires. from what i understand they will only work with their number counterparts. ie) x800 x800gt x800gto can all be mixed but x800 and x1300 cannot be mixed..

[warriorscot]

As far as i know an x1800 master card and say a x850 crossfire edition will work together. I was just giving the latest stuff a read and it says that you need a pair of cards from the same series i have a couple of the release brochures on my pc and a couple of reviews that said otherwise, so maybe they altered it to get the release fordward they wre having bother with that feature on some of the boards so they might have dropped the mixand match form this version of crossfire.

Edited by warriorscot, 05 January 2006 - 03:02 PM.

[Souseke]

ok I am spending £830.43 so far excludin the graphics card..
I am going to look around at graphics cards. any recommendations on which crossfire one i should get. I would preferable want one savastore or overclockers since im buying a lot of stuff from them already..
You reckon its worth getiing a x1800xt?

[warriorscot]

Well at the moment its the best you can get and they are really pretty cheap when you look at how much the other cards cost, all the x1800s are crossfire enabled but you dont need to get a 512Mb one a 256Mb would be more than capable of anything about now at the moment 512Mb is a nice extra more than it is an essential thing to get.

The gfx card is usually the most expensive component though i usually get that picked first then see what else i can get around that. Of all the things on the list you can drop it would be the crossfire and just get a nforce 4 motherboard like an MSI or an Abit. Sure you lose the crossfire but then again it saves you some money and its like SLI i always say when cutting it should be the first thing to go because its the only thing that you might not use but its the thing that costs the most. Crossfire would be a nice luxury but its not essential you could maybe get 40-20 pounds off to spend on the gfx card which is more important now, next thing after that is cheaper ram but thats something you dont want to do unless you have to.

Edited by warriorscot, 06 January 2006 - 09:49 AM.

[Souseke]

Ok Warriorscot.
I've narrowed down my final spec to two versions. One is slightly more expensive than the other..

From www.savastore.com

£66.96 Antec P160
£73.52 Sapphire Pure Crossfire Advantage Motherboard
£293.95 Athlon 64x2 4400

Total including vat and delivery £517.17

This where it splits:

Option 1:

£29.95 Akasa AK-920 EVO 120
£87.95 Seasonic S12 600W Silent
£5.50 Arctic Silver 5
£141.95 Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200C2PT
£194.95 HIS Excalibur X1800 XL 256mb

Total including vat and delivery £551.37

Option 2:

£29.95 Akasa AK-920 EVO 120
£87.95 Seasonic S12 600W Silent
£5.50 Arctic Silver 5
£141.95 Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200C2PT
£279.95 PowerColor X1800 XT 512mb

Total including vat and delivery £651.25

Therefore:

Complete total for Option 1:

£1068.54

Complete total for Option 2:

£1168.42


Option is not likely to break the bank. Neither is Option 2. However Option 2 goes over my budget by quite a lot compared to that of Option 1.

I will think about this for a while before I decide upon which one to buy....

I thank you for your help Warriorscot. You have helped me greatly..

I would appreciate any comments on these final 2 builds.

Edited by Souseke, 06 January 2006 - 01:02 PM.

[warriorscot]

Well both are going to be incredibly fast systems so no matter what you are going to have a very nice PC.

Big difference will be in terms of how long they will last the 512mb x1800 has the more memory and is likely to last a little longer before you are going to want to get a new one.

Ive got a freind i helped pick the parts for his upgrade with a 256 x1800 and hes loving it, amazing fps even on games like fear with the settings maxed out and his system only has a gig of ram and 3200+, so youre system will be set for a while even if you get the 256mb card. Its up to you if you want to spend the extra money.

[Souseke]

ok ive commited myself. im going to do
Option 2.

Ive added a 3rd company into this and saved £5
not much but better than nothing...

www.tekheads.co.uk were offering the case, psu, hsf and arctic silver slightly cheaper.

I'll let you know how the build goes once i've received all the components.