View Full Version : Build me a computer!
Hi All,
As some of you are aware im rubbish with computers. my IT team have decided that my home pc is rubbish and therfore i need to buy a new one.
so im going to. I have given them a budget of around 400 quid to build me a computer and they all seem very excited about it!
now i only use my computer for playing nc and using the internet generally, the only other game i play is CS:S. If NC dies i will probably play a diff game and will need a computer good enough to be able to play that.
as my IT guys have not played nc they are basing thier builds on what they think is best but i was wondering if anyone would also like to 'build me a computer' for the same budget as you guys all know what would be required from a real game machine
then i can compare all your advices with the advice from my IT team and hopefully have a decent machine.
look forward to seeing what you guys come up with.
What do we have to get with the £400?
Just a box? Box + Monitor? Box + Monitor + Keyboard + Mouse + etc etc?
Do you need an OS, or do you currently have a suitable copy of windows that could be installed on it?
Do you have someone available who could actually put the computer together for you? The technical knowledge required is limited but non-zero.
Also, £400 for a decent gaming machine will be possible but difficult. Even more so if we need to buy you an OS and monitor...
I'll build you one, but tell me what components do you already have? Case, monitor I assume for example.
Hell-demon
28-08-08, 14:51
Here ya go good rig cheap price (http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&kc=D4X20003&l=en&m_30=138820&oc=D092036&rbc=D092036&s=bsd)
Stick in a top notch graphics card (the one on the page) and it should come to £374 including delivery and VAT.
Done.
Dell rock.
Edit: Oh and boost the processor power for an extra £10 quid.
You can still build a better one though... for less.
Anyway, we just built an 8-core Xeon, running at a grand total of 18.64Ghz, with 8gig of ECC Fully buffered DDR2 ram, 500gb HDDs - RAID stacked... for a grand total of...
£800.
Of course, we didn't need a graphics card for that - but the £800 included a 2u Rack Server case that cost close to £200...
That's one hell of a computer for £800. Considering how much Dell charge for something similar, I suggest you look around at the different UK suppliers of parts. :)
Your budget will get you a quad core, with a 9 series GeForce card.
As for those whom are saying it will be tight at that budget - I have no idea where you're getting your prices from, but I just build the kid next door one hell of a machine for £350 (No monitor).
Hell-demon
28-08-08, 15:15
I am in awe.
Take my kidneys!
sorry, it will be everything bar an opertaing system and moniter / keyboard / mouse. / disc drives
my IT team will actually be building the machine. I already have a case, however they reakon i need a new one.
james_finn
28-08-08, 15:24
Anyway, we just built an 8-core Xeon, running at a grand total of 18.64Ghz, with 8gig of ECC Fully buffered DDR2 ram, 500gb HDDs - RAID ...
Ugh I hate it when people lump the core speeds together, so you mean you have a server running dual quad cores at 2.33 GHz.....? You dont actually have 18.64GHz of processing power you can throw at one program thread, but you are able to throw 2.33 GHz at 8 different threads.
By the same account I dont have access to 2.5164 THz of processing power, instead I have 270 x 4 processor cores running at 2.33 GHz..... Sorry just a pet peeve, which when applied to companies selling PCs should be classed as false advertising.
OT: Theres a lot of people in the Neocron community who have built lots of PCs so if you let us know what you have already then I am sure we can spec one up - or at least give ideal specs - for example are you willing to overclock the processor to a higher clock speed?
/Delphi
EDIT - Idiotic double post.
Yeah, fair enough James.
I'm not lumping it together as I believe that's the overall power... I'm simply doing the math. :)
We run game servers, and Xeons are pretty well suited to that - due to the amount of services running at once.
Oh, and James - Did you make the Prophecy Network sig? If so, could you let me know which effect you used for the horizontal lines across the image?
I've wondered for some time, but don't seem to be able to find it!
You can still build a better one though... for less.
As for those whom are saying it will be tight at that budget - I have no idea where you're getting your prices from, but I just build the kid next door one hell of a machine for £350 (No monitor).Where did you build? Scan w/ VAT + carriage is coming up at 350 GBP w/out an OS, monitor, keyboard or mouse (but with a Radeon 4850). It looks like he can do pretty well by getting the linked Vostro and then putting in a 4850.
I guess if he doesn't need monitor/keyboard/OS, he can go with more expensive components. An Intel E2220, 4GB of PC2-6400 or PC2-5300/5400, 500GB Western Digital 5000AAKS HDD, Lite-on DVD burner, Gigabyte P35 motherboard, case, Seasonic 380 watt PSU, Asus case, and a Radeon 4850 run around 407 GBP w/ VAT and carriage.
Most people have access to an O/S from an old PC or something. Yeah, anyway - I didn't buy an O/S, mouse, Keyboard or Monitor.
I built it from parts from Scan + Ebuyer. Bought the cheapest from each :)
Asurmen Spec Op
28-08-08, 16:13
Ugh I hate it when people lump the core speeds together, so you mean you have a server running dual quad cores at 2.33 GHz.....? You dont actually have 18.64GHz of processing power you can throw at one program thread, but you are able to throw 2.33 GHz at 8 different threads.
By the same account I dont have access to 2.5164 THz of processing power, instead I have 270 x 4 processor cores running at 2.33 GHz..... Sorry just a pet peeve, which when applied to companies selling PCs should be classed as false advertising.
OT: Theres a lot of people in the Neocron community who have built lots of PCs so if you let us know what you have already then I am sure we can spec one up - or at least give ideal specs - for example are you willing to overclock the processor to a higher clock speed?
/Delphi
The intel Q6600 is an awesome cpu if you want to overclock it, especially with GO stepping. Mine is currently running at 3.0GHz without any boost to the vcore. Im sure I could go higher without touching the vcore too :P.
Oh, and James - Did you make the Prophecy Network sig? If so, could you let me know which effect you used for the horizontal lines across the image?
I've wondered for some time, but don't seem to be able to find it!
the first google hit on scan lines:
http://www.photoshopcafe.com/tutorials/scan%20lines/scan.html
the first google hit on scan lines:
http://www.photoshopcafe.com/tutorials/scan%20lines/scan.html
Didn't know they were called scan lines - but thank you for the link mate. That's excellent :)
on topic, dell computers have one major advantage, at least dell in my country, and that's that they have great support (pickup and return), although you pay for that, but for someone with 0 computer knowledge it's the best way to go unless you wanna bother your IT department every time
err i dont know the specs of my pc but i could try to find out.
i have a 120 gb hard drive and (dont laugh!!) i was running 256 mb ram but now on 512. i know your all gonna laugh but i can actually play fine with this much memory, i am intreged to know how good i would be with a decent computer lol.
NC leaks like a sieve. I have 2GB in the second gaming box and NC used all of it last night while my character sat in Plaza 1, to the tune of crashing the client when I exited instead of exiting gracefully.
If you play for long stretches, get 4GB. While you won't see all of it in a 32bit OS, the system will at least be able to allocate more than 2GB to the client.
i got 3gb and can run 2 instances of neocron quite well, especially if i allocate my dual cores each to one instance, but I had 1gb and that wud crash every hour at least twice if i tried duallogging
see this is what i find very strange.
i know nothing about computers and from the sounds of it have a diabolical gamining machine yet i very rarely crash. i can play for hours and not crash once. occaisionally i lag, granted i havnent tried an op war yet so not sure what that would be like.
now if i compare my machine which is probably the worst on this forum against your guys machines, which must be very good and worth lots of money, i cant understand why you crash and i dont. its just very strange. i have never really suffered from fre's at all.
new drivers appear to be messing with the old coding of neocron, I've heard the newest DirectX (which is most of the graphics stuff in windows) doesn't work well with neocron, so probably your computer + drivers is so outdated, neocron was written for it ;)
on topic, dell computers have one major advantage, at least dell in my country, and that's that they have great support (pickup and return), although you pay for that, but for someone with 0 computer knowledge it's the best way to go unless you wanna bother your IT department every time
Not your personal army.
yeah my IT team love it lol. They love getting involved in this sort of stuff as they get to move away from thier day to day roles of coding new systems etc.
All prices from E-Buyer and are including VAT, if you choose the free delivery that wont cost you anymore. A case is you choice so I left you about 70 quid left in the budget for you to get one.
Motherboard:
81.00 - Asus P5Q P45
CPU:
43.41 - Dual Core E2180 2GHz
Memory:
58.45 - Corsair 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory
Graphics Card:
69.99 - PowerColor HD 3850 Pro 512MB
PSU:
56.24 - Hiper 630W (x4 +12v rails @ 18A each)
Sound Card:
16.97 - Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 OEM
Total:
326.06
Antec Nice hundred case (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-065-AN) £55.99 (Fitting a floopy drive is a bit of a bitch mind)
OcUK Geforce 8400 GS (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-073-OK) £17.99 (it will do the job :))
Intel core duo E6750 (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-157-IN) £94.99
EVGA nForce 650i ultra (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-003-EA) £31.99 (budget board with only one one graphics card)
GeIL 2 x 1 GB (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-066-GL) £23.99 (well I have these in my PC and I'm happy)
250 GB hardisk (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-023-HI) £25.99
Sony floppy drive (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-001-OK) £4.99 (you might need it for disk controller drivers etc F6 option when installing windows xp)
600W power supply (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-018-OC) £54.99
Total £365.33 inc VAT
(http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-066-GL)
thanks for your imput guys im sure they are all good machines, i would comment on them persnally but i wouldnt be able to tell the diff, will have a word with it guy on monday and see what they think, thats for your input though.
I would avoid anything made by nVidia. It appears they have some materials issues.
I wouldn't buy anything less than an ATI 4850. The 4850's cheap and fast. The ATI 3850 is half the speed. The nVidia 8400 GS is a joke.
You don't need a 600 watt PSU. 380 watts is more than enough. Get a quality PSU from Seasonic, Fortron Source/FSP, or Corsair.
For a single card, motherboards based on the Intel P35 chipset are fine. If you want to do Crossfire, consider P45 with two x16 slots, but I don't see that happening in your future.
No problems smokey, glad all this is helpfull.
I've explained a little more below as to why picked out the components that I did. The only thing is to bear in mind is the CPU/Graphics card combination, which is very hard to get right (a more powerful graphics card will require a more powerful CPU to get the benefit). Oh and on graphics cards power requirements, dont be misled, you must look at the requirements specifically on the +12 volt rail.
The P5Q P45 motherboard does have that very nice feature called Express Gate (http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=709&l4=0&model=2164&modelmenu=1) :)
I did put the 3850 down as its cheaper than the 4850 by about 40 quid. Also it draws a lot less power than the 4850 and with the massive increases in energy bills recently it maybe not the best idea especially as the 3850 will be more than adequate for your specified tasks.
I did put the 3850 down as its cheaper than the 4850 by about 40 quid. It's also half the speed. 80GBP vs 120GBP for double the performance?
Also it draws a lot less power than the 4850It's not that big a difference - 13 to 15% more for double the performance.
At idle, a system with a 3850 draws 111 watts (http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/14168/9). A system with a 4850 draws 127 watts (http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/14990/15). At load, the difference is 206 vs 236. I realize the systems aren't 100% the same, but as you can see a 3870 and a 3850 are about the same in terms of power draw, so that can give you a ballpark idea of how idle vs load compare and power draw vs performance.
It's a small increase for double the performance.
and with the massive increases in energy bills recently it maybe not the best idea especially as the 3850 will be more than adequate for your specified tasks.That'll depend on the maximum resolution of his monitor. If he's using a 22" 1680x1050 display, he's better off with the 4850. If it's just 1024x768 or 1280x1024, then a 3850 should be fine.
As for the motherboard, he can save a bit by going with the P5QL-E (http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=710) (also has Express Gate). The only difference I can see between P45 and P43 is that P43 can't do x8/x8 PCI Express, but since neither board has two x16 slots, that's not an issue. P5QL-E is $63 GBP at Scan. The P5Q Pro is $88 GBP.
It's also half the speed. 80GBP vs 120GBP for double the performance?It's not that big a difference - 13 to 15% more for double the performance.
At idle, a system with a 3850 draws 111 watts (http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/14168/9). A system with a 4850 draws 127 watts (http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/14990/15). At load, the difference is 206 vs 236. I realize the systems aren't 100% the same, but as you can see a 3870 and a 3850 are about the same in terms of power draw, so that can give you a ballpark idea of how idle vs load compare and power draw vs performance.
I found the following useful link for the truth about graphics card power requirements (http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/forums.asp?s=2&c=7&t=9354&p=0).
It's a small increase for double the performance.That'll depend on the maximum resolution of his monitor. If he's using a 22" 1680x1050 display, he's better off with the 4850. If it's just 1024x768 or 1280x1024, then a 3850 should be fine.
As for the motherboard, he can save a bit by going with the P5QL-E (http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=710) (also has Express Gate). The only difference I can see between P45 and P43 is that P43 can't do x8/x8 PCI Express, but since neither board has two x16 slots, that's not an issue. P5QL-E is $63 GBP at Scan. The P5Q Pro is $88 GBP.
Good point about the resolutions, that should be the deciding factor in buying a graphics card and is something I overlooked TBH.
Have you got a link or links that shows the 3850 card at half the performance of the 4580?
Just don't slack on the motherboard or cpu imo, you can at least upgrade it later, don't buy from sodden Dell or some shite honestly, be a man and build your own machine. If you get a decent case and board you can always upgrade when you have more cash but if you buy a Dell I'll slap you :lol: because you will find it hard to upgrade as doing so will void thier pointless warranty and thier hardware is built for thier cases. I built my own I did not have a clue how to install the CPU but a quick video from intell showed me exactly what to do.
I found the following useful link for the truth about graphics card power requirements (http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/forums.asp?s=2&c=7&t=9354&p=0).Interesting, although since he's going with a 45nm CPU he can trade CPU power for GPU power and still come out with a decent power draw at the wall.
Have you got a link or links that shows the 3850 card at half the performance of the 4580?Xbit's testbed doesn't appear to have changed from their 3850/3870 review (http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd3870-hd3850_19.html#sect0). At lower resolutions it's about a 50% difference. At higher resolutions the 4850 (http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/ati-radeon-hd4800-games_3.html) appears to reach roughly double the minimum frame rate of the 3850.
Fenix Wylde
01-09-08, 14:10
i got 3gb and can run 2 instances of neocron quite well, especially if i allocate my dual cores each to one instance, but I had 1gb and that wud crash every hour at least twice if i tried duallogging
My 900Mhz pentium-m laptop can run neocron.. it doesn't take much horsepower, though it tends to get choppy with a geforce3 in the swamps at max detail :)
Just don't slack on the motherboard or cpu imo, you can at least upgrade it later, don't buy from sodden Dell or some shite honestly, be a man and build your own machine. If you get a decent case and board you can always upgrade when you have more cash but if you buy a Dell I'll slap you :lol: because you will find it hard to upgrade as doing so will void thier pointless warranty and thier hardware is built for thier cases. I built my own I did not have a clue how to install the CPU but a quick video from intell showed me exactly what to do.
Dell is ok, if you go for their laptops only. But fortunately it's not as annoying to upgrade as during the mid 90:s a'la HP/Compaq/IBM *grrrr*
ok guys this is what i have ordered. went slightly over budget by about 50 quid. what do you think? ps will get more ram when i can afford it!
1 x Asus P5Q PRO P45 Socket 775 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard £72.32
1 x Corsair 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL4(4-4-4-12) E.P.P. Technology Heat Spreader Lifetime Warranty £29.48
1 x BFG 9800GT OC Edition 512MB Dual DVI HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card 4 £88.84
1 x Coolermaster Elite 330 Black Case With CM eXtreme Power 650W PSU £59.56
1 x Seagate ST3500320AS 500GB Hard Drive SATA II 7200rpm *32MB Cache* - OEM £40.23
1 x Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Socket 775 (3.0GHz) 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor
£95.49
I just bought a similar setup but I went for the corsair 8500 dominator ram and a Qaud core processor
Cool setup, should last you a while. Where did you get your parts?
Asurmen Spec Op
13-09-08, 20:31
I just bought a similar setup but I went for the corsair 8500 dominator ram and a Qaud core processor
Go Quad core.
Plus, if you get GO stepping on a Q6600 you can overclock it to 3.0gHZ without any vcore increase(and I'm sure higher than that, I just haven't had time to push it more)
See:
http://pencilo.com/cpuz.jpg
Cool setup, should last you a while. Where did you get your parts?
thanks
all parts are from ebuyer
im hoping that now i have quite an up to date machine (when its built), that i can just upgrade parts every 6 ish months instead of having to buy a whole new macine!
If you can, swap the 2x1GB for 2x2GB. If not, add at least 2GB more when you can.
I had 2GB in the secondary gaming box. NC started swapping. Added another 2GB from some I had removed from the main gaming box (went from 4x1 to 2x2). NC hasn't swapped since.
If you can, swap the 2x1GB for 2x2GB. If not, add at least 2GB more when you can.
I had 2GB in the secondary gaming box. NC started swapping. Added another 2GB from some I had removed from the main gaming box (went from 4x1 to 2x2). NC hasn't swapped since.
whats swapping?
atm i run on 512 mb ram lol and i only just increased that of having 256 lol although you may laugh, it hasnt really casued me any issues having such a low amount.
but yeah, when i can i shall be sticking more ram in
Asurmen Spec Op
18-09-08, 23:34
whats swapping?
atm i run on 512 mb ram lol and i only just increased that of having 256 lol although you may laugh, it hasnt really casued me any issues having such a low amount.
but yeah, when i can i shall be sticking more ram in
swapping is an app using your swap space since it has run out of physical memory.
swap space is on your hard drive and so it is magnitudes slower than your RAM.
Or, it is something you do in naughty films.
Daemon Seed
20-09-08, 23:07
Don't go for a quad core :lol:
Neocron does not make use of multi-core technology (alot of software does not actually!).
A dual core would be much better because a single core of a dual core is faster than a singlecore processor most of the time.
Asurmen Spec Op
21-09-08, 06:36
Don't go for a quad core :lol:
Neocron does not make use of multi-core technology (alot of software does not actually!).
A dual core would be much better because a single core of a dual core is faster than a singlecore processor most of the time.
Neocron not taking advantange of quad cores isn't a good reason not to get one.
The best example is that you can have a lot more things running than with dual(trust me, I have a lot running).
It allows more multitasking, I can play games with all my shit in the background and a few virtual PCs running
Daemon Seed
22-09-08, 23:25
I don't see why our fellow would need 4 cores when running neocron and some other applications. :D
He might have the need to "have alot running".
Even if he does I'm pretty sure he'll be fine running it on the second core. ;)
Quad cores are also more expensive and with the budget he has I don't think it will be the way to go.
And as he said
now i only use my computer for playing nc and using the internet generally, the only other game i play is CS:S. If NC dies i will probably play a diff game and will need a computer good enough to be able to play that.
I hope you never get to build pc's for people!
I'd hate the sight of you equipping grannies with quadcores :p
Asurmen Spec Op
23-09-08, 06:54
I don't see why our fellow would need 4 cores when running neocron and some other applications. :D
He might have the need to "have alot running".
Even if he does I'm pretty sure he'll be fine running it on the second core. ;)
Quad cores are also more expensive and with the budget he has I don't think it will be the way to go.
And as he said
I hope you never get to build pc's for people!
I'd hate the sight of you equipping grannies with quadcores :p
Ah, but thats why you go for the Q6600, quite cheap, but extremely awesome.
Plus, I honestly didn't read the OP >.>
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.3 Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.