Planning for new gaming PC - advice needed

Wouter

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Willz

Wouter, dont get the Logitech Z5450 Wireless, get the Logitech Z5500, its alot more powerfull, cheaper, and the Z5450 is only more money coz of the wireless rear speakers which in my opinion are useless since you need to use 2 extra plug sockets..., i see 2 wireless rear speakers more of an annoyance since it takes up 2 extra plug sockets, but if space is an issue, z5450 or z5500 wont be an option since they have quite large subwoofers for computer systems, and when i say large i mean bigger than the normal subs you get in 5.1 all in one home theatres.

the Z5500 has plenty long enough speaker cable for the rears, depends on the size of your room, i dont like wire clutter form the speakers too, simply put the wires under the carpet, but if you dont have carped, maybe you can lift the laminate flooring or w/e you have and place them under, its deffenitly worth it and outweight the needs of wireless rears, i got vid on youtube showing the power of this speaker system, but i dont know if you want power?

8800GTS is awsome man , i think it would be quite silly to get a 7900GS or something, as the 8800GTS/GTX have future compatability, and as more games come out, the tougher they are to run on even 7900 series cards, and the 8800GTS/GTX will easilly run them on the highest settings, but then again it may be silly to buy the 8800 Series cards as soon they may be an even better card or something..

If you get an 8800GTS, you deffenitly will not need SLi yet lol, unless you want it for bragging rights :p

Concerning the ram, i think that the 675Mhz ram will be ok, it will proberbly run at the nearest compatible speed which is 667.

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Wouter

Thanks for the reply, but I am going to forgo the speakers and sound card for now. The motherboard I picked has pretty good 8-channel audio. A SoundBlaster and good 5.1 surround boxes, will be on my wishlist for upgrades (plus then I know what to ask for for my birthday :p). Maybe headphones or 2.1 boxes would be a good solution in the meantime. My current boxes are crappy, and I don't even have a subwoofer...

I'm going to think a bit more about the graphics card, but it's becoming more clear to me what to pick for the rest of the system.

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Willz

Ah, ok, Headphones might be better, no complaints from the neighbours

So what graphics card you gonna get?

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Wouter

Willz, probably I'm going to get a plain-old, boring 256MB 7900GS :p
Well, I might got for something else if the prices come down, after
all this computer isn't for *immediate* purchase (somewhere at the start of 2007 I reckon) so I'll see... I want an nvidia card basically, best value for money I can get, but it should actually be able to run most games (also current ones such as Medieval 2 or Dark Messiah of Might and Magic) fluently... SLI is for when I need more graphics power in the future... so maybe it's even an advantage if I don't buy the best-best card right now (less remorse to throw it away, and by the time I need SLI the card should be dirt-cheap...).

Here's my adapted system:


I was concerned about having enough room for the Logitech speakers, but I took a look at some pictures and they're compact enough to fit most of them on my desk, except for the rear speaker. And price for them is pretty cheap.

Now I only need to consider if I need extra hardware for cooling and noise reduction...

Also my no-brand LCD (19" Medion... whatever that is) might turn out not to be so crappy at all... probably not the LCD's fault Splinter Cell Chaos Theory looked so awful sometimes then ...

Also, I'm not sure if the RAM I picked will fit the motherboard...

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Willz

I had a Non brand Medion 17" LCD, it was fautry from the day i got it.

X-530 speakers seem to be good for the price, just not good if you like lots of bass :p

If you did get the z5500's though, the sub is like, 13" wide, 13" tall, by 15" deep.

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Big B

Asus is going with the official JEDEC specs. RAM speeds are like tire ratings in that they are the maximum speeds, and by definition, that's the maximum official speed they are guaranteed at. If you buy a tire rated for 150MPH, it's going to work fine at 40MPH. RAM is the same way. You can buy PC2-800 right now. Unless you run the RAM:FSB asynchronously, you won't be able to use the full speed, but it won't damage anything. Underclocking will not damage anything.

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Wouter

My configuration should be just about finished now...

A little about my reasoning for these components... if I'm dead wrong, please warn me...

The goal is to have a system that can play current games fluently on 1280*1024 at high settings, that is easily upgradable in the future (while ripping out as little other components as possible), has to be relatively quiet and cool and has to look good.

Therefore, the Gigabyte Aurora case should have enough room to house future components, seems to have just the amount of cooling and noise reduction I'm looking for and of course, looks good. The OCZ 700W PSU should be able to support it when new components need extra resources (e.g. another card in SLI mode).

The processor is because it's currently the best 'bang for the buck'

The motherboard has integrated Wifi, a plus for me, is full-featured and supports RAM with speeds up to 800mhz

The 2GB of PC6000 Kingston DDR2 Ram isn't the fastest if the fastest RAM available, but should still be plenty fast.

The 7900GS video card is the best performance/value card I could find in nVidia's 7900-range.

A fast WD Raptor 36GB will be used as drive for the operating system. A Samsung 400GB, SATA II 16mb drive, reputed to be very good and silent, will be used for all the games and other 'data.

For the DVD Writer, I picked the Samsung SH-S182M LightScibe Black. This seemed like a great drive feature/performance-wise

As for speakers, I am doubting between the X-230 2.1 speakers or the X-530 5.1 speakers.

Since I do not want to bother (or risk) putting my computer together myself, I'm going to have a specialized shop assemble it for me
(price: €37,50 ). The shop has a good reputation on all accounts, most notably after-sales.

Guarantee
- Since the shop is a bit far from where I live, I picked an option for '2 years pick up&return policy', which sounds very useful sine the shop isn't really close. Price is: €80, at a hardware defect they pick it, repair it and return it at no extra cost.

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Big B

I don't see anything that's glaring.

Samsung is a good brand. If you have Pioneer available to you, I've been really impressed by them and have a couple of their DVDRW drives in use, but I really wouldn't crap my pants over Samsung.

Sound is subjective, IMO, so I would listen to any speakers you're considering.

As far as any "Oh, shit!" issues, I don't see any.

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Wouter

Thanks, you've been a great help

(yes, you too Willz ;-)

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Willz

I just remembers, if your wanting a good budget 2.1 sound system, i think the z2300 is good, its cheap and powerfull.

Apart from that, i am jelouse of your system :p, your going to have one smashing setup there

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Wouter

Can't wait to order it B)
First though, I'll have to wait for my paycheck for the end of the year...

Must... have... patience... x]

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Willz

i see, still gonna be jelous of your system :p

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Wouter

Well, I think my integrated audio and Philips 2.0 speakers already sound GOOD... but that crackle when I turn the volume loud, and I do miss some extra 'oomph', such as volume, bass boost, and "crisp-free" sound from my current speakers... plus they're boring beige and since I'm also trying to go for a "stylish" setup, they have to go.

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Willz

If you like some 'oomph' then those z2300's, 560's, z680's and z5500's will be good for you, the crackling is called distortion, my z5500 speakers go up to full, then have an extra called boost, which can damage the speakers, but they dont distort untill boost 9, the sub has to be turned down though, any of the above systems i mentioned dont look boring too, i dont know how you can cope with beige stuff, so old fasioned and ugly looking lol.

I have noticed Sony have this AMAZING Mini Hi-Fi system with a huge subwoofer lol, its 200 quid, and it pounds, even in a large store, and at low volume, it has Bass Boost, everything you could want.

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