Hi everyone.
I recently decided to join the honourable ranks of the PC gamer. Using my family PC just doesn't cut it any more, and with my new job, I have decided to set aside £1200-1500 for a gaming PC. Whilst my enthusiasm for PC's has recently piqued, I must admit I'm something of a novice. And so I turn to you knowledgeable folks for advice. With the help of a friend who knows more than I do, I have come up with this rough build, leaving out what I am not sure of yet.
Processor- Q9450, or Q6600. This really is down to whether or not the 9450 offers a superior threshold for overclocking, as I could save £70 by going for the 66 if it can overclock just as well.
Case- Thermaltake Tai Chi with watercooling- to supplement any overclocks, I love the look of this case and don't want to fuss about too much with installing WC myself.
Graphics- GTX280- wanted this due to the impressive benchmarks I've seen it post, and in all honesty I could well pair it up with a second a couple months down the line.
Motherboard/Ram- a grand unknown. My friend informs me there's all sorts of craziness regarding motherboards and overclocking, which my miniscule brain doesn't yet understand, so any suggestions here would be of great help. Linking in with the ram purchase, it is as yet undecided, because I'm not sure if it's worth it to go DDR3 yet.
HDD- My friend insists two 150GB 10000rpm drives would be a wonderful thing for gaming, so this is what I'm leaning towards at the moment.
PSU- again, a bit hazy, but I've looked at 1000W OCZ silent PSU thingy. Is this overkill? Bearing in mind future SLI plans.
DVD drive- Any old thing, I plan to upgrade this to a Blu ray/HDDVD drive a month or two down the line.
Any input at all would be greatly appreciated. So my kind thanks in advance.
Oh, just to add, I've been told to go for Windows XP due to an unreliability in Vista? Any advice with that would be grand too.
Thanks!
I recently decided to join the honourable ranks of the PC gamer. Using my family PC just doesn't cut it any more, and with my new job, I have decided to set aside £1200-1500 for a gaming PC. Whilst my enthusiasm for PC's has recently piqued, I must admit I'm something of a novice. And so I turn to you knowledgeable folks for advice. With the help of a friend who knows more than I do, I have come up with this rough build, leaving out what I am not sure of yet.
Processor- Q9450, or Q6600. This really is down to whether or not the 9450 offers a superior threshold for overclocking, as I could save £70 by going for the 66 if it can overclock just as well.
Case- Thermaltake Tai Chi with watercooling- to supplement any overclocks, I love the look of this case and don't want to fuss about too much with installing WC myself.
Graphics- GTX280- wanted this due to the impressive benchmarks I've seen it post, and in all honesty I could well pair it up with a second a couple months down the line.
Motherboard/Ram- a grand unknown. My friend informs me there's all sorts of craziness regarding motherboards and overclocking, which my miniscule brain doesn't yet understand, so any suggestions here would be of great help. Linking in with the ram purchase, it is as yet undecided, because I'm not sure if it's worth it to go DDR3 yet.
HDD- My friend insists two 150GB 10000rpm drives would be a wonderful thing for gaming, so this is what I'm leaning towards at the moment.
PSU- again, a bit hazy, but I've looked at 1000W OCZ silent PSU thingy. Is this overkill? Bearing in mind future SLI plans.
DVD drive- Any old thing, I plan to upgrade this to a Blu ray/HDDVD drive a month or two down the line.
Any input at all would be greatly appreciated. So my kind thanks in advance.
Oh, just to add, I've been told to go for Windows XP due to an unreliability in Vista? Any advice with that would be grand too.
Thanks!