Stephen Thomas Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 Hi everyone! I'm looking to get a new desktop setup with a budget of around £1250. My local computer shop can build me this system for £1255 ($2438): Midi Tower case 500W 24pin PSU Intel core 2 duo E6600 2.4GHz processor Asus P5B-E motherboard 2GB OCZ DDR2 PC-6400 800MHz memory Seagate Barraccuda 7200rpm SATA2 320GB hard disk Asus EN8800GTS 640MB graphics card Dual layer 18x DVD writer 19" TFT monitor Wireless k/board + mouse Windows XP pro My question is this: for an extra £25 do I downgrade the 8800GTS card to a 512MB 7950GT allowing me to upgrade the processor to an E6700? The guy told me that the 7950GTs were 'old hat' as they were not Direct X 10 compliant. I would think that this is more a gaming issue though and the 7950GT would be more than adequate for 3d work. I'm using 3ds max 9, vray 1.5 RC3 and just looking for the best power/price balance. Any help on this greatly appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Macer Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 Personally, I'd stay with the 8800GTS because you can always push a lot more speed out of the E6600 with a reasonably simple overclock. If the budget allows, it would be nice to go to the 8800GTX as programs such as Max 9 will give better display results using directX10 especially on Vista. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 "Old hat" is relative. But, yeah, with that hardware, if you add an upgraded CPU cooler, you could get the CPU to 3GHz. With CPU coolers, you're looking for an all copper assembly with a big fan and lots of surface area (achieved with fins and heat pipes) and basically, the more it looks like it would hurt if somebody hit you upside the head with it, the better. The conductivity rating of the thermal compound used when installing it also matters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tecton3d Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 "...basically, the more it looks like it would hurt if somebody hit you upside the head with it, the better. wierd but very true Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e-YELLOWCABS.COM Posted March 14, 2007 Share Posted March 14, 2007 for me, it's simple : all in the processor ! The graphic cards are not so important when you've got such a budget ! Win xp 64 could be good, because your 2 gigs of ram could be "just" for certain pictures. It's hard to wake up with a message of vray telling you that it could not find anymore ram, so he crashed!!! I haven't tested vista, but isn'it better to wait for the sp1 ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrew.forbes Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 My advice would be to get a Haynes manual and build it yourself. You will get more for your money and you will learn more about the in's and out's of the PC so if and when you have problems with it you don't have to pay an extortionate fee for an engineer to fix it. I built the following system for £950 last month, MSI diamond SLI ready motherboard AM2 MSI NVidia 8800GTX 2GB OCZ DDR2 RAM AMD dual core 2.6ghz (5600) 74GB raptor HDD 10000rpm 250GB WD HDD 7200rpm DVD RW 600W PSU CASE I used the keyboard, monitor and mouse from my old PC. I found it quite educational to build iy myself and I'm pretty sure I saved a few quid. It did help that one of my buddies knows a bit about PC's. I just reckon you can get a more powerful system if you spec it yourself, also you can pick and choose your components for your own needs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 Whoa, AMD snuck in some faster chips when I wasn't looking and made them cheap - the 5600 for $250 on Newegg, the 6000 for $369 and combo deals to boot. May be enough to take back the price/performance lead... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Macpod Posted April 8, 2007 Share Posted April 8, 2007 Im waiting to see what their 'real' quad cores are like. Hopefully they will gain back some market share before the intel 'Nehalem' comes out and take it back again. Nehalem is due out mid 2008, so i guess affordable by xmas 2008. Its gonna be close for AMD. If they dont come out with the cards before late 2007 then i would probably stick with my E6600 until the Nehalems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Thomas Posted April 9, 2007 Author Share Posted April 9, 2007 Well I got my system now, thanks for all the posts. In the end I went for this configuration, opted for one of the new 320mb 8800GTS overclocked cards from BFGtech. This and a price drop in some components allowed me to beef up the case and psu spec. Thermaltake Soprano black case 600W Enermax noisetaker PSU Intel Core2duo E6600 processor Asus P5B-E motherboard 2GB OCZ DDR2 PC-6400 800MHz memory Seagate Barraccuda 7200rpm SATA2 320GB hard disk BFGTech 8800GTS 320MB graphics card OC2 edition Dual layer 18x DVD writer 19" Widescreen TFT monitor Windows XP pro Price £1160 inc. VAT Enjoying it a lot, ASUS board comes with AIsuite software allowing dynamic overclocking from windows, so I might look into this in the future. Not sure whether it is worth invalidating the warranty for a modest increase in power. Anyway thanks again for your input! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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