helkp on selecting parts please im rly confused

ok i have 1500 pounds 2 spend on the best gaming and genral use computer i can afford i want somthing like this:

quad core cpu
2 gb ram
8800 gtx
750-1kw psu
1 fast 10 000 rpm small drive
1 750gb drive
water cooling

is this to much 2 ask 4 my money and wat parts do u recommend i should get any help is great

thnx guys

Firstly, welcome to TCF.

Is this build to include o.s, screen, keyboard/mouse and speakers?

Also, I'd stay away from a Raptor if you're after low loading times for games. I'd recommend a 500gb Samsung Spinpoint. Faster than the 150gb NCQ raptor at loading, quieter, cheaper, runs a lot cooler. You also get a lot more capacity.

I'd also stay away from watercooling unless you're overclocking, have a larger budget (as there's no point w/c'ing unless you do the whole rig as the components not cooled by liquid will still need cooling, just my opinion) and you have some experience in liquid cooling- bleeding the system, topping up the res, ensuring you place the res at the highest point of the cooling loop etc.

At the minimum you want to be cooling the cpu, gpu(s), Northbridge, and potentially the ram. This will be costly to do correctly. Leaving you that much less for the components, especially when you state you want a gaming computer.

If you also factor in the cost of the screen etc you're really going to be pushing it at the budget quoted.

A gaming pc should have a minimum of a 20/22" monitor (same resolution hence both sizes quoted). You'll then need quite a powerful card to run this with high detail settings and good frame rates.

Working on my personal minimum settings for a game of 25 fps, 2x AA, 4x AF, full detail settings you're going to require either a 512mb 2900XT or a oc'd 320mb 8800GTS (preferably with the stream shaders oc'd as well) or vanilla 640mb 8800GTS.

These are all still costly cards. For the monitor and the card alone, working on the above specs, you're looking, at a guess, at around £450-£500. Without water cooling this is possible at your budget quoted. It would be a shame to compromise as you could get an awesome air-cooled pc for the budget quoted, but I feel you'd need to cut corners to get a decent gaming pc with liquid-cooling.

Pointless getting a GTX at that resolution, you'll never hit it's peak. If going single card don't bother with a 1KW psu. Enermax infiniti 720w or Enermax Galaxy 850w will suffice and keep some future proofing.

Lastly, seriously DO NOT bother with all in one liquid cooling solutions to save some money. They don't, any of them, offer any benefit, whether it be cooling prowess or low noise, over a decent air cooling setup.

Also, as games aren't optimised for quad core yet (and probably won't be in a mainstream way for some time) I'd not recommend a quadcore. I'd definately go for a dual core, potentially the E6850. Absolutely awesome on a bang for buck basis.

thnx thats given me alot to think about well firstly the thing is some people in my house are reli sensitive 2 noise so thts y i went for w/cooling also i am a quite seriuse overclocker and like to get the very best out of my components i chose the lager psu and gpu because i want it to be up to date for as long as possible to play games such a crysis and i think i will b doing sli in the not 2 far future 1ce i get a bit more money together i dnt need speakers because ialredy have some but i would like a new keyboard mines getting a lil tired so is there anyway i can get a decent system for tht i am willin to push my budget but only by and extra 100 quid probs 200

thnx 4 the help

Regarding the noise issue, whether the fans are on rads, or simply a hsf fan/case fan(s) noise could be an issue regardless.

You've got to choose the fans carefully and, if you're serious about noise, get them hooked up to a Big NG fan controller. This is as superb piece of kit, you can program profiles/speeds of the fans based upon the temps within the case (temp probes included).

Choose your case carefully as well. If going w/cooling go for a full tower. Lian Li's V2000 series, or Temjin TJ09. You'll need the room. If going air cooling go for the Antec 900. These cases all have decent thickness walls, preventing shudder when fans are spinning up or spinning at peak, which also reduces noise. To further reduce noise you could also get ptfe fan 'screws' to mount the fans.

Stick with the Samsung hdd then, very quiet. But if you want to quieten it further get an Zalman Heatpipe cooler. I have this setup and I can't hear it with ear pressed to case.

The Big NG is about £45, the Zalman heatpipe cooler is around £30.

For a cpu hsf I'd recommend the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 pro, at around £15. I've had my X6800 upto 3.6ghz (this cpu's limit) using this hsf and it's not that loud. Temp was also 45c at peak. At 3.6ghz. Trust me, this is good.

Fair enough on the gpu and psu. Go for the Galaxy, is my recomendation.

A decent 8800GTX w/c plate goes for around £80, go SLI and you've £160 just for these.

Arctic silver 5 should be the only T.I.M on your list for the cpu. About a fiver.

My opinion is to go air cooling, you'll then have a much wider range of components you can afford.

Upto you, let us know how you want to proceed and we can quote you w/c parts as well as the main components or air cooling parts with the main components.

Here to help.

can i go for w/cooling plz an ill only need 1 gpu 4 now ill probs get a second after xmas or sumin wen i got a bit more money

thnx 4 the help btw

Yup, no problem. Your money, your choice.

Could be tomorrow evening though as I'm at work at the moment, but someone else could come along and assist.

thnx m8

Im not siding against you alex just giving more options :D

Go to:

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pr...hs1&l=en&s=dhs

thats their top gaming range, pick which base you want, with a budget of 1500 I'd pick the second from the left, and then click customize to buy.

Then you can tweak anything you don't like the look of. That'd be my option ;)

Hey up Ollie, don't worry about siding against me or not. Opinions vary and we're all entitled to ours. What works for me might not work for someone else and vice versa.

I think he's after a custom build though, preferably by doing it himself.

RMD?

yeh i am after a custom just 4 the satisfaction of doing it urself and i h8 not being able 2 overclock it as much and not getting everything u want

Which is where the Dell will probably fall short, considering they usually lock the majority or overclocking-friendly features out of their bios's.

ok

you'd get half the deal with Dell, your build, theyre building. (you can tell i came up with that on the spot)

Im always wishing for a site that sells all different models of all components, like all graphics cards, all sound cards, all psu, all motherboard, all cases.

etc. and at the end of choosing exactly what you want, you can choose for them to build it, or them to send it all to you in a nice big box.

of course the whole thing would cost no more than one pound.

lol tht wud b 1 gd site lol

alex do u have exel?

Danger Den - 8800GTX VGA Block SLI Ready
£86.34£86.34
BFG Nvidia 8800GTX OC 768Mb PCIe HDCP
£322.36£322.36
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Retail (2x2.66GHz 1333FSB 4Mb)
£115.99£115.99
A-Data DDR2-1066 2x1024MB Extreme Edition Dual Channel Kit
£134.34£134.34
Asus Blitz Formula Special Edition (Intel P35 - 1333 FSB)
£148.89£148.89
Pioneer 112DBK DVDRW Black OEM
£21.37£21.37
500Gb Samsung SpinPoint T166 HD501LJ 7200 16mb Cache SATA II
£85.62£171.24
SILVERSTONE TJ07 Black CASE (NO PSU)
£187.57£187.57
Enermax Galaxy Modular 850W PSU
£145.36£145.36
Samsung SM206BW 20" 2ms 1680x1050 LCD Monitor Black
£189.00£189.00
Windows XP Home Edition SP2 OEM
£52.99£52.99
Swiftech Apogee GT Universal CPU 3/8" and 1/2" ID
£38.59£38.59
Dangerden MCT-5 (32oz) Fluid
£14.02£14.02
Swiftech DD12V-D5 1/2" ID
£49.48£49.48
ThermoChill PA120.3 Triple 120mm Radiator
£48.50£48.50
ThermoChill PA120.2 Double 120mm Radiator
£42.50£42.50
Repack Cooling 5.25" with UV LED
£29.29£29.29
Tygon 3603 tubes 1/2" ID (1ft)
£2.39£11.95

This is what I've come up with, more to prove pricing than the best components at this stage. Although, you will need good cooling components considering the card you quoted (partnered with the cpu) and th