Hmmm... time for a new PC, help required

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Quixoticish
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Hmmm... time for a new PC, help required

Post by Quixoticish »

I've decided to take the plunge and get myself a new PC. However I'm torn between one particular detail that is limited by how far my budget will stretch. I can go for a pair of 6600GT's and run them in SLI, and run it with an Athlon 64 3200+, or I can plump for a single 6600GT and get the dual core AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+

Now I've been out of the loop with regards to hardware so long I haven't a clue which would be the most sensible purchase for a PC who's most played game is FS9 and FSX when it's released.

Now I could shave some money off as this will be a home build by going for a single core AMD Athlon 64 3700+, with a single Geforce 6600GT and then taking things from there if the concensus is that both the CPU and GPU will have about the same lifespan.

So what do you ladies and gents think; SLI, dual core or save £70 and get the single core, no SLI based around the same mobo/RAM/HDD etc?

Any help you can offer would be much appreciated.

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Charlie Bravo
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Post by Charlie Bravo »

Can I ask.... why the 6600GT and what is your budget?
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Quixoticish
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Post by Quixoticish »

Charlie Bravo wrote:Can I ask.... why the 6600GT and what is your budget?
Budget was initially set at £550-ish.

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Chris Trott
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Post by Chris Trott »

If you're going to go that high, might as well get a pair of 7800GT's and SLi them or get a single card and wait for the GeForce 8 to come out around the time of Vista that will be fully DX10 compliant with some additional changes to how the chip handles anti-aliasing (which right now they aren't set to the industry norm, partially because the norm was changed after the GF7 was released).

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Charlie Bravo
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Post by Charlie Bravo »

7800GT's aren't widely available anymore and that would blow his budget anyway.

No point in playing a waiting game, you could wait forever.
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Charlie Bravo
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Post by Charlie Bravo »

Ok, I take it that you already have a S939, PCI-E motherboard? Based on your budget and requirements I'd consider the following:

For max budget:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ £240.82
XFX Geforce 7900GT XXX Edition £258.44

Bit cheaper:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ £240.82
XFX Geforce 7900GT £199.69

Or if your PSU isn't up to powering that config:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ £240.82
XFX Geforce 7600GT XXX Edition £146.82
2Gb GSkill PC3200 (2x1Gb) £152.69


I can also look at ATI cards if required, bearing in mind that the current gen of Nvidia cards will not do AA with HDR.
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Post by Quixoticish »

It needs to be a completely new system as the girlfriend is taking over the old one from me. I was looking at the following bundles from Komplett which seemed quite good and within my budget, hence the limited selections in my first post:

http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=320856

http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=318022

http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=318023

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Charlie Bravo
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Post by Charlie Bravo »

All pretty much the same.... Gigabyte boards (haven't had good experiences with them), Geforce 6600GT's (old hardware), and cheap PSU's (not good)

You've then got to buy Windows XP on top of that which is gonna be apx £60. Let me see what I can put together.
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Charlie Bravo
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Post by Charlie Bravo »

Ok here we go. I've worked on your budget and the prices that Komplett want for that cheap tat. Neither of these specs include Windows XP which will set you back £58 but then XP isn't included in the Komplett bundles either.

Case
Antec SLK1650B £44.59
CPU
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800 £185.59
Motherboard
Abit NF95 £45.77
Graphics
Sapphire X1600XT £99.82
RAM
1Gb Geil Value £58.69
HDD
250Gb Samsung Spinpoint P £59.97
DVD-RW
BenQ DW1650 £26.97

Total £535.50


Case
Antec SLK1650B £44.59
CPU
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800 £185.59
Motherboard
Abit NF95 £45.77
Graphics
XFX Geforce 7600GT £135.07
RAM
1Gb Geil Value £58.69
HDD
250Gb Samsung Spinpoint P £59.97
DVD-RW
BenQ DW1650 £26.97

Total £570.75
A bird in the hand will probably sh!t on your wrist.

Quixoticish
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Post by Quixoticish »

Charlie Bravo wrote:Ok here we go. I've worked on your budget and the prices that Komplett want for that cheap tat. Neither of these specs include Windows XP which will set you back £58 but then XP isn't included in the Komplett bundles either.

Case
Antec SLK1650B £44.59
CPU
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800 £185.59
Motherboard
Abit NF95 £45.77
Graphics
Sapphire X1600XT £99.82
RAM
1Gb Geil Value £58.69
HDD
250Gb Samsung Spinpoint P £59.97
DVD-RW
BenQ DW1650 £26.97

Total £535.50


Case
Antec SLK1650B £44.59
CPU
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800 £185.59
Motherboard
Abit NF95 £45.77
Graphics
XFX Geforce 7600GT £135.07
RAM
1Gb Geil Value £58.69
HDD
250Gb Samsung Spinpoint P £59.97
DVD-RW
BenQ DW1650 £26.97

Total £570.75
So from the looks of it you've managed to get a much better system for the same price? I really need to start shopping around more! Incidentally we already own a pair of XP licenses so that isn't a problem.

Thanks CB, your help in this is much appreciated.

Edit : Will the 350W PSU in that case be enough to power the new rig? I'm not sure how much power requirements have changed.... my current rig had to be updated from an Antec 350 to a 450 as it wasn't providing enough oomph and went bang in the end.

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