Build in new year.

[[GIT]Fairy]

Heres what I'm hoping to build in the new year.  Hopefully prices might drop even more, so even better value.  Not sure if I'll use my media centre case or not yet, its a good case though so shouldnt be any problem.  Gief Feedback.  Also anyone else considering upgrading soon, as in new build?

[[TiG]Grim]

cant see anything wrong here all those components are great and will give you an excellent machine to play nearly all current games at max settings and that processor is easily overclocked to 3ghz as well which gives it a surprisingly good performance boost all in all a very good machine for the money imo and well worth it

[[TiG]the_syco]

If you plan getting GTA4 for the PC, get a 1GB gfx card.

My rig, new parts are bolded. (Case) Cooler Master Cosmos 1000 .:. (Mobo) Gigabyte GA-X48-DS5 .:. (CPU) 12MB 64bit Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 .:. (Heatsink) TRUE 120 .:. (RAM) 4GB Dominator PC2-8500 .:. (GFX) 1GB HD4870 [Factory Overclocked] .:. (SATA2 HDDs) 250GB 320GB 500GB 1TB 1TB .:. (Audio) Creative SB X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Professional, 64MB .:. (Joystick) Saitek x52 .:. (Headphones) Sennheiser SK Gaming .:. (Mouse) Saitek GM3200.

Also, look at hardwareversand.de Saved ?100 over Komplett

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=58250060&postcount=229

Aside from the crashes, it's most excellent. Patches for graphic cards and game coming out days after release of the game. When you get your rig in January, it may be all solved

From hardwareversand.de

?244,80 - Club3D HD4870 Overclocked 1024MB, ATI Radeon HD4870, PCI-Express
?297,89 - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 boxed, 12MB, LGA775, 64bit
?213,26 - Gigabyte GA-X48-DS5 ,Intel X48, ATX, PCI-Express
?97,81 - 4096MB-Kit Corsair TWIN2X DHX 8500C5DF, CL5
?87,11 - WD Caviar GP 1TB WD10EACS SATA II WD10EACS

All prices @ 18% VAT (nice Germans charged me German VAT instead of Irish VAT )

[[TiG]ABE]

id get a 1gb gfx card anyways no harm in it. not to sure wat price they are tho.

[[TiG]Grim]

honestly fairy just stick with the build you got there brilliant value for money only thing i would change is ram to the corsair stuff and mobo to gigabyte (still dont trust asus)

also 512mb of gddr5 ram is more than enough on a gfx card

[[TiG]Grim]

would also like to add fuck GTA4 its a console game thats badly optimized for pc and building a machine around it is a waste of time

[[TiG]the_syco]

would also like to add fuck GTA4 its a console game thats badly optimized for pc and building a machine around it is a waste of time

Fully agreed. It's fun to play, though (don't have a console).

If you want to go for the 1GB card, though, it's an extra ?30 according to overclockers.co.uk

[Cully]

Got to agree with grim about Asus, i had 2 Asus mobos just die on me after only a few months.
I went back to Gigabyte, far better boards imo.
Id probably up the PSUa bit too for future proofing while your at it, 500w is fine but you never know what you might add to your system, while your at it maybe go with a 700w from seasonic or OCZ.
Id also recomend Samsung Spinsoft hard drives, they are the best and quietest HDs ive ever had.

[[TiG]Grim]

sigh you got me into thinking about new build now waw

http://www.komplett.ie/k/shoplist.aspx?mode=receive&si=655693&su=AE2C8A7A-5CBD-48B3-9330-FB51522A616E

[[TiG]Boru]

 what ye think about a good graphics card upgrade from 2 Gforce 7900gs cards (SLI) to 2 Gforce 9800 cards?
thinking of spending around the 300euro mark on it.

[[TiG]Grim]

if you have an sli board go with 2 9800gt's should come to about 250 euro

[Cully]

Better still go with this http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=383240

My brother got one last week and its an absolute beast.
From what ive read on the net its 4-5 times the power of my current XFX 8800 GTX.
Considering there isnt a game out that my rig cant run at max res and setting s at high framerate that ATI will be a long term upgrade for anyone.
If you got a large monitor and want to run at super duper res go with the 1 GB version for and extra 30 euros or so.

ATI are definitely top of the pile again [for a while atleast]

[[TiG]Grim]

must stop skim reading!!!! go with the card cully linked great value for money

[[TiG]the_syco]

Better still go with this http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=383240

The factory overclocked version of the above, for ?224 http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=22799&agid=717

Or for ?27 more, at ?251, the 1GB version http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=23371&agid=1004

=-=

Cully: how does GTA4 run on your rig? Latest patch is very good. No crashes since I got the patch.

[[TiG]Grim]

or this is out on 8 of jan looks very impressive http://guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-295-preview/1