Another "spec my PC" thread.

punky · 08-09-2009, 16:06

Hi all. Looking at upgrading my PC as Mr Capital One is offering 1 year interest free on balance transfers and would look to run the new games coming out well (Far Cry 2, COD:MW2, Dragon Rising, etc). I'm trying to do it as cheap as possible whilst leaving it fairly future-proofed.

Currently P4D 805 (was overclocked, it won't anymore), 2gb DDR2-667 and 8800GT.

I'm looking at using the 8800GT and scrapping everything else for:

Â£105 Q8200 CPU: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148933

Â£70 XFX 750i mobo http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151011

Â£44 4gb DDR2-800 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143844

The Core i7s are nice but it starts getting a bit expensive, nigh on Â£400 for CPU, mobo and memory.

I was going to go for the Q6600 but its still Â£50 more and the Q8200 seems to be very similar in benchmarks on Tom's Hardware*. Is it worth paying the extra Â£50 for the overclock? I probably won't overclock but might if its really worth it I might.

I wanted a cheapy SLI mobo so if need be I can get another 8800GT cheap and its a cheap upgrade. Its a lot cheaper than buying a brand new top GFX card I reckon.

1. Any comments on the selection?
2. Any cheap upgrades somewhere that can get me a lot more?

Many thanks in advance guys.

*http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/2009-desktop-cpu-charts/compare,1401.html?prod[2631]=on&prod[2638]=on

08-09-2009, 16:23

You could go with an i5?

You aint gonna get a new 8800GT you would be better off just using a 4870/90 imo(seen 4870's for <90 notes)

The Q8 are bottom end Quad cores not overly impressive

punky · 08-09-2009, 16:35

Cheers mate.

Did look at the i5s, but still quite a lot more. Â£150 for the processor Â£130-Â£160 for the mobo. Did see a 8800GT for sale for like Â£40-Â£50 but looks like I missed that boat. Point taken about the GFX. Would wait and then go straight for a 4890 as the 4870 is only a slight increase.

08-09-2009, 16:43

There are P55 mobos under the ton

I would pay the extra at least and buy a Q9 myself

---------- Post added at 16:43 ---------- Previous post was at 16:41 ----------

BTW if you play at higher resolutions such as 1680: 1050 and above the 4870 is miles ahead of the 8800GT

punky · 08-09-2009, 16:46

Cheers for the tip, i'll hunt around.

I normally prefer the lower resolutions with higher AA which is why I think there only seems to be a 5-10fps increase in benchmarks over the 4870.

DocDutch · 08-09-2009, 17:44

Punky, deffo ditch the 8800 as its not up to scratch for the more modern games coming out.
How much you thinking of spending as like Zing has said the i5's are out and about now and a mobo you can get for 85 Gigabyte P55-UD3 and the proccy at 150, only thing that you would need is memory for it and then you got a machine thats future proof

so add in a 4870 or 90 and the 4gb of mem and you'll be on around 4 notes.

08-09-2009, 18:16

TBH I am guessing the 8800GT will be holding up quite well seeing as most of the decent games hardly push the 4870 . I am sick of console clones ive just started playing Section 8 Unreal3 engine which is what 2 years old now and the engine was used in games prior to UT3. Hardly a push

MW2 I doubt will push the 4870 to the limits meaning the 8800GT should handle it fine also

If it wasnt for the fact I sold 2 high spec machines last year that were mine id still have the 8800GT in my machine

Punky is the machine you are still using the one I helped you build?

punky · 08-09-2009, 23:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by DocDutch

Punky, deffo ditch the 8800 as its not up to scratch for the more modern games coming out.
How much you thinking of spending as like Zing has said the i5's are out and about now and a mobo you can get for 85 Gigabyte P55-UD3 and the proccy at 150, only thing that you would need is memory for it and then you got a machine thats future proof

so add in a 4870 or 90 and the 4gb of mem and you'll be on around 4 notes.

Was hoping to spend as little as possible. Was thinking about going down the low-end quad core route at Â£200ish I didn't think was too bad.

As per Zing's advice, i'm looking at the core i5. The 750 is Â£150, mobo is Â£115-Â£130 (couple Asus jobs) but there really aren't many about yet. I've seen a couple for Â£80ish, but i'd rather get a SLI board so I at least got the option to get a 2nd hand 8800GT its a cheap n quick boost. For 4gb of DDR3 its abtou Â£50-Â£70 so:

Core i5 750, 4gb DDR3, Mobo = Â£330
Q8200, 4gb DDR2, Mobo = Â£220

is sort of how its looking.

I really wanted to avoid upgrading my graphics for another Â£70-Â£130 unless its necessary.

Quote:

Originally Posted by zing

TBH I am guessing the 8800GT will be holding up quite well seeing as most of the decent games hardly push the 4870 . I am sick of console clones ive just started playing Section 8 Unreal3 engine which is what 2 years old now and the engine was used in games prior to UT3. Hardly a push

MW2 I doubt will push the 4870 to the limits meaning the 8800GT should handle it fine also

If it wasnt for the fact I sold 2 high spec machines last year that were mine id still have the 8800GT in my machine

Punky is the machine you are still using the one I helped you build?

It is indeed. I really wish I made sure I was buying a quad core mobo (I thought it was). Then I could just dump a quad core in there and a bit more RAM and it would have saved me a bit of money and agro.

08-09-2009, 23:11

I would still opt Q9 over Q8 though

ZrByte · 08-09-2009, 23:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by zing

You could go with an i5?

You aint gonna get a new 8800GT you would be better off just using a 4870/90 imo(seen 4870's for <90 notes)

The Q8 are bottom end Quad cores not overly impressive

The Q8s do perform very similar to the equivalent Q9s though. They are just missing some of the more advanced features such as Virtualization etc. I don't know if punky even needs those features, if not it may be worth taking the Q8, I know I'm looking at doing the same as I have little or no use for those features.

I recently bought an XFX 4870 on a build for one of my customers, phenomenal card, Maxed out settings with everything I could throw at it. In the end the CPU (E5200) caused the few slow downs I did see but that was down to budget limits and the existing hardware I had to work with.
I plan to buy one myself in a couple of weeks time for my new build ready for Windows 7.

EDIT: In fact after having a quick look the equivalent Q8s seem to outperform the Q9s in most benchmarks, though only marginally.

MovedGoalPosts · 08-09-2009, 23:30

Bear in mind that for Call Of Duty, especially CoD 5 a number of players have seen odd issues with the ATI cards related to speed of loading games. At least that seems to be the common link we've seen over on NTHW on multiplayer games, when some are still twiddling their thumbs whilst others are playing, yet the PC specs should have been more than adequate, as was the internet connection. ATI cards, as a whole, can be great value, but perhaps there is a reason for it

08-09-2009, 23:33

That was COD 5 and its a poorly supported game though

ATI and Nvidia are out on their own big players big market good market share each . In the IT world the 4870 has been very well recieved in favour of Nvidia cards which are far to expensive

08-09-2009, 23:42

Links Zeph?

@ Punky if you intend to do a lot of number crunching I would consider the i5 although I have little knowledge of it. I am very happy with my Q9450

---------- Post added at 23:39 ---------- Previous post was at 23:35 ----------

The q9550 for example has 3x the L2 cache of the Q8 cpus they are both Yorkfeild cores

---------- Post added at 23:42 ---------- Previous post was at 23:39 ----------

If it wasnt for the possibilty of wanting to go sli I would actually consider the AMD quads with a nice AMD chipset board

ZrByte · 08-09-2009, 23:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by zing

Links Zeph?

@ Punky if you intend to do a lot of number crunching I would consider the i5 although I have little knowledge of it. I am very happy with my Q9450

---------- Post added at 23:39 ---------- Previous post was at 23:35 ----------

The q9550 for example has 3x the L2 cache of the Q8 cpus they are both Yorkfeild cores

---------- Post added at 23:42 ---------- Previous post was at 23:39 ----------

If it wasnt for the possibilty of wanting to go sli I would actually consider the AMD quads with a nice AMD chipset board

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/common_cpus.html

09-09-2009, 00:04

sorry had a drink got your name wrong lol

That benchmark list puts the Q8 cpus well below the Q9 Intels matey

The Q8300 beats the Q9300 and thats it the Q9400 9450 9550 9650 all beats it

---------- Post added at 23:51 ---------- Previous post was at 23:47 ----------

was you looking at the AMD 9 series?

---------- Post added 09-09-2009 at 00:04 ---------- Previous post was 08-09-2009 at 23:51 ----------

My overclocked Q9450 scores a little bit more then the i7 920 which is interesting

and 2000 points higher than the Q8300