PC Upgrading Discussion

[Dave Stephenson]

If you want to save a bit of cash I'd reckomend the Q6600. still one of the best performance.cost cpu's on the market. Mines served me very well and very high speeds are attainable if you are that way inclined.

 

[Knut Omdal Tveito]

I know it includes a cooler but it is the Intel stock cooler, you really need to buy a Scythe Mugen or simular product. They are about 35 euro, very silent and your cpu will be arround 25 degrees idle, it will be atleast 10 till 15 degrees cooler then the Intel stock cooler.

OK. Will have to get a cooler aswell then. A quick search yielded this. The Xigmatek HDT S1283 scored very good all round and it's cheaper than the Mugen.

 

[Ollie Flint]

Another vote for the Q8200.

I have a GTX 260 and it runs every sim I play @ Max detail - 1680x1050 (GTL, rFactor, GTR, Race07, Evo, etc) (sims tend not to need much GPU power).

If you go for a GTX 260 make sure you get one with 216 cores.

 

[Knut Omdal Tveito]

Thats good to hear. This is what I got so far:

APLUS Case Seenium, ATX, Black, (Without PSU)
Corsair Powersupply 550W Bulk, black, ATX/EPS, 120mm fan, 4xSATA, SLI
Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L, P45, Socket-775, ATX, GbLAN, DDR2, PCI-Ex(2.0)x16
Intel Core™ 2 Quad Q8200 2,33GHz, Socket 775, 4MB, 1333MHz, Boxed w/Fan
Corsair TWIN2X 6400 DDR2, 4096MB CL5, Kit w/two matched CM2X2048-6400 Dimm's
GEVGA GeForce GTX 260 896MB PhysX CUDA, PCI-Express 2.0, 2xDVI, HDCP, Core 216, Graphics Plus, 3D Stereo, 55nm
Samsung SpinPoint F1 750GB SATA2 32MB 7200RPM
Sony NEC Optiarc DVD±RW burner AD-5200A, DVD+R/+RW/DVD-R/-RW, OEM, IDE, Black
Power kabel PC 2m Straight plug
Total 880 Euros

Plus:
CPU cooler Xigmatek HDT S1283 - 50EUR
(Corsair Powersupply 620W - 140EUR)

 

[Christopher Aponte]

if you can check the antec true power trio (650Watt) is also good...but don't know how expensive it is there

 

[Ollie Flint]

I can recommend the Antec 300 case... http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Antec-Three-Hundred-Black-Midi-Tower-Case-w-o-PSU

Also, Why have listed 2 PSU's?

 

[Knut Omdal Tveito]

Just did. It is cheaper at 120EUR. Looked around and some meant the Corsair is better quality, but Antec is less noisy. They seem to agree that the Corsair 620W is the better choice though...

EDIT: Ollie, It's a build kit that comes with the 550W. If I change the setup I lose 110EUR of discount, so buying an extra PSU with the original kit is the same cost. I'm really not sure if I should stick with the 550W or if I need more power. Could save 140EUR if I don't need it...

 

[Ollie Flint]

Just did. It is cheaper at 120EUR. Looked around and some meant the Corsair is better quality, but Antec is less noisy. They seem to agree that the Corsair 620W is the better choice though...

EDIT: Ollie, It's a build kit that comes with the 550W. If I change the setup I lose 110EUR of discount, so buying an extra PSU with the original kit is the same cost. I'm really not sure if I should stick with the 550W or if I need more power. Could save 140EUR if I don't need it...

Well. I have a GTX260, E8400 @ 3.8ghz (425mhz fsb), 4gb DDR800 @ 850mhz 4-4-4-12, 2x 250gb HDD's & 1x 80gb HDD. All running on a 580 watt PSU. And its rock solid.

So unless you plan to overclock the Q8200 I would say 550 watt would be fine.

Do you have any more info on the 550 watt PSU?

 

[Knut Omdal Tveito]

OK. It sounds like I will be fine then The PSU in question is a 550W version of this one. Seems like a good unit from what I have read.

 

[Tim Ling]

With the power supply worry, it depends on how much you have connected to the board (oci cards, usb stuff etc), and how much you are going to overclock, plus if you are going to add new cards in the future (sound card, new gfx card).
Check this site : http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine
You can get a rough ideaa of how much wattage you will need for your system, and it includes a generous overhead so you don't overstress the system. Looking at your specs, you will need about 320w, so 550w will probably be ok for now. With a Corsair PSU, it should be stable enough.

 

[Knut Omdal Tveito]

OK Tim. Nice link. Thats what I wanted to hear. It will probably be quite a while until I upgrade... Save 140 EUR then:good:

 

[Matt Alpeter]

I was running an AMD 6400+, GTX260, 2Gb, a couple harddrives, and a water cooling system and I blew my 550W...I got a new 630W for $60 (~45EUR). It's powering the same system except I upgraded to a heavily overclocked Phenom II 940 and added 2 more gigs of ram. Point of this rambling is yes the 550W will get you by, but barely and if you should upgrade something later, you'll need a new one.

link to the psu (i'm a nut for rosewill )

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182149

 

[Eric. K]

I was running an AMD 6400+, GTX260, 2Gb, a couple harddrives, and a water cooling system and I blew my 550W...I got a new 630W for $60 (~45EUR). It's powering the same system except I upgraded to a heavily overclocked Phenom II 940 and added 2 more gigs of ram. Point of this rambling is yes the 550W will get you by, but barely and if you should upgrade something later, you'll need a new one.

link to the psu (i'm a nut for rosewill )

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182149

AMD??? Why would you do that to yourself?? I thought you were smarter than that Matt :rofl:

 

[Matt Alpeter]

i'll always run AMD. sure they're a bit behind, but the new Phenom IIs are a huge step forward and are able to compete with the lower i7s.

 

[Eric. K]

i'll always run AMD. sure they're a bit behind, but the new Phenom IIs are a huge step forward and are able to compete with the lower i7s.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

They cant even compete with the old Core 2 lol....

 

[Knut Omdal Tveito]

I was running an AMD 6400+, GTX260, 2Gb, a couple harddrives, and a water cooling system and I blew my 550W...I got a new 630W for $60 (~45EUR). It's powering the same system except I upgraded to a heavily overclocked Phenom II 940 and added 2 more gigs of ram. Point of this rambling is yes the 550W will get you by, but barely and if you should upgrade something later, you'll need a new one.

link to the psu (i'm a nut for rosewill )

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182149

Interresting. When you blew the 550W did it damage any components?

 

[Simon Trendell]

What brand was that 550w Matt?

Sounds like you brought a cheap one.

 

[Abdul Al-Amry]

u you are welcome Abdul now have fun with your new machine

I am having soooo much fun with this pc.

Getting all components together took me 4hrs to complete. That was 4am when I finished. Booted without any hiccups. No errors, all sounding very well.

I have installed Windows 7. Installed drivers etc etc. Installed Race07.

Launched GTR-Evo. Its like 'Click' and the page opens. So fast to load compared to the laptop. Set everything on MAX. Started playing.

Fainted after first lap.

The resolution is just amazing. 1900x1080 with MAX settings. Framerate is smooth as silk.

I actually believe that I am driving much faster now. I can hit the apex almost spot on. Infact even the G25 is responding better than on the Laptop. Weird but its true lol.

It was all worth every penny building me own PC. One satisfied Sim racer.

I'll get pictures of the PC up soon.

Thanks guys.

 

[DeeezNutz]

Just did. It is cheaper at 120EUR. Looked around and some meant the Corsair is better quality, but Antec is less noisy. They seem to agree that the Corsair 620W is the better choice though...

I have the Corsair 620W and it is as smooth as can be. No noise what so ever, so don't worry about that.

 

[Matt Alpeter]

@ Knut - nah, it just blew and wouldn't restart. everything else was unharmed

@ Simon - it was a Corsair..it was like $100 at the time (about 2 years ago). thing about it was it only had 2 12v rails and they were just a tad under the recommended amps, so i was playing with fire anyway. my new one is only 630W but it has 4 rails at 80 amps...which is plenty for my setup.