New Gaming Rig

[bobsonthegreat]

Hello chaps, I'm just about to buy a new system for gaming/surfing/blu-ray/dvd/music. Looking to spend no more than £900 (obviously, even cheaper would be better) and was wondering if you can offer any insights/suggestions Here's my current component selection...

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
Abit IP35-E
G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PQ PC2-8000C5
Point of View GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB
Enermax Modu 82+ 525W

74GB Western Digital Raptor - for Vista & programs/games
500GB Samsung SpinPoint T - for file storage
Pioneer BDC-202BK Blu-Ray Drive

Antec P182 Case

Currently comes to £859.97 from overclockers.co.uk (with an extra SATA cable and some Arctic Silver). What do you think?

Was also wondering how much you reckon I'd get for my old comp... I'm thinking about £100?? Gonna put it on eBay...

MSI Neo2 Platinum nForce3 250 Motherboard
Athlon64 3000+ (Winchester)
2GB Corsair TwinX2048-3500LLPRO (437MHz) 2-3-2-6 DDR RAM
Leadtek GeForce 6800 128MB
16x Samsung DVD +/-R Drive
Lian-Li PC-65 w/Side Window
Enermax 350W Power Supply
150GB Western Digital WD1600

 

[chinaman1472]

Just get a single Western Digital 640GB or Spinpoint F1.
Point of View GeForce? Never heard of that company.
I think Enermax is okay, but others would probably recommend something from Corsair, Antec Earthwatts, Seasonic.

Can't say how much you'd get for your old rig though, you'll have to check prices on that yourself.

 

[bobsonthegreat]

Really? I've always thought that there would be advantages in running two drives speed-wise. I heard once somewhere that if you stick the page file on a different drive to the OS then it would speed things up. I suppose it wouldn't make much real-world difference though come to think of it.

 

[chinaman1472]

Not sure how prices are over there, but in the US, the 74GB Raptor is about the same price as the 640GB WD and the Spinpoint F1. Would you rather wait two seconds less or have 8-10x more space? There's probably a slight speed advantage in running OS and data on separate drives, but you're talking in seconds, maybe even milliseconds. In the end, there isn't much real world difference for the average user in terms of speed; but I'm sure you can make a real world difference with the money you save.

Here's TechReports latest round up of hard drives. http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/14583/1

 

[bobsonthegreat]

Very true. Good advice, thanks man. Had a little look on overclockers and even if I buy a 1TB F1 drive I still save about £20! Might even be able to juggle it around and get myself a 9800GTX. Will have to read a few more reviews and find out where I can maximise the performance.

 

[Roguestar]

Try to check some of your prices with www.scan.co.uk - in my experience a lot of their stuff is a few pounds cheaper than OCUK, even if OCUK has a better range.

Also, you can get a 1TB F1 off amazon.co.uk for £110 right now!