New computer (backbone) build. Opinions?

SubJeff on 12/9/2010 at 22:38

So as you may or may not know (http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=133233) my computer appears to be borked for some reason.

So I figured the problem is either the mobo, cpu, ram or possibly even the gfx card.

And tbh I'm been thinking about upgrading some bits since my current build is from 2006.

I'll be keeping the screen, the HDs, the mouse, the printer, the usb/card reader and so on and just get new cpu, mobo, gfx and ram. And this is setup I'm looking at picking up straight from overclockers.co.uk warehouse since it's in driving distance.

Gainward GeForce GTX 460 GLH 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £199.99
Intel Quad Core i5 750 2.66GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) £154.99
Asus P7P55D Evo Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard £137.99
OCZ Reaper Low-Latency 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 12800C6 (1600MHz) Dual-Channel £93.99

And a new Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 (£31.98) because I like mine so much. The current one will become my spare keyboard since there is really nothing wrong with it.

Total is £526.76 and it's not so much the price that I'd want to tweak (a few £10s here and there don't bother me much) but the configuration. The Gainward card gets good reviews and I know it's a liiittle bit expensive compared to it's stablemates but word on the street is its faster because the 1Gb version has higher memory bandwidth or something.

I'm led to believe that at present Quad Core CPUs aren't used by any games, but I guess they will be in the (near) future. The mobo just fits the stuff I want to plug into it and seems fairly high-end so...

Thoughts?

Ulukai on 13/9/2010 at 18:32

Based on the evidence that my 8800 GTS is only just starting to be taxed by some of the latest stuff at 1680x1050, personally, I'd go for some flavour of 450GTS instead of the 460 GTX and save myself a hundred quid.

SubJeff on 14/9/2010 at 01:56

Yeah, I'd kind of thought that but then I'd like to be able to run lots of new/unreleased stuff at high settings. Crysis 1&2 for one thing. The Crysis demo flopped my 8800 GTS at the scene where the frozen ship comes into view.

Ostriig on 14/9/2010 at 18:32

I'd suggest staying away from OCZ RAM, go for Kingston or Corsair.

And on another note, assuming it's not the graphics card that's screwing you currently, if it's an nVidia too you can keep it and use it for dedicated PhysX processing.

SubJeff on 14/9/2010 at 19:07

Too late now, got it all!

Everything seems to be okay but windows won't load! Logo chokes up then the machine turns off. The auto repair can't find anything it can fix so I've installed Win7 on a fresh sata hd. Same problem.

I figure it's the psu so a new one, 750w, is going in tomorrow morning.

Brian The Dog on 14/9/2010 at 22:44

OCZ Gold DDR2 RAM works fine in my PC, I'd recommend it (although Kingston might be cheaper). Since you're having problems, you might want to run MemTest - get a copy of the Ultimate Boot CD and try some of the CPU, RAM and motherboard tests in there, that might help narrow things down.

Crysis seems happy enough on my 9800, so your 460 card should be more than good enough, even for Crysis 2.

750W is definitely a good idea if you're going to be sticking all this power-hungry stuff in your PC!

SubJeff on 15/9/2010 at 00:22

My last set of RAM was Corsair and aside from the problems I'm having now at least one stick (out of the set of 4, 3 of which have been involved in the current issue) has definitely failed in the past.

I've run the system repair memory test on this OCZ RAM and everything was fine.

The only issue with the current setup is that even with a 750W PSU I'm not sure I'll be able to use both gfx cards. Not that I'll need to but it would be nice!

Volitions Advocate on 15/9/2010 at 02:07

I'd say go with a High end ATI card with eyefinity rather than the nvidia equivalent, because eyefinity is awesome, and 3D is a gimmick.

but... then you have to invest in the screens so... its up to you.

Al_B on 15/9/2010 at 06:48

Quote Posted by Subjective Effect

Everything seems to be okay but windows won't load! Logo chokes up then the machine turns off.

You've got 4GB of RAM. Have you enabled memory remapping in the BIOS and are you installing the 64 bit version of Windows 7?

SubJeff on 15/9/2010 at 20:09

It was the psu. Had a 580W which definitely wasn't sufficient and it's all ok with the new 750W. When I had a cpu use meter I always remember there being a huge spike just as Windows started. Does the psu need to give out an extra kick just at that point?