Gah! Building a PC afterall

-Loki-

So after looking at laptops for games for a while, I've ended up back at building a desktop - I've got the room for it now. Checking a few local places for prices, I found one that does a build your own PC online quote, which I thought was neat, but I have no idea if the parts are actually compatible, or, well, if the system is good at all. Can anyone give me feed back on the system?

Core2 Duo E8400 3.00GHz/6Mb/1333FSB
Cooler Master 650W Power Supply
1TB SATAII HDD
4GB Dual Channel DDR3 1333Mhz (2x2GB Kit)
Gigabyte P55-UD3P Intel Motherboard 1156
Nvidia GTS250 1GB PCI Express

The only things I'm really worried about is the motherboards compatibility and if the graphics card is a lemon. From what I've read online, the motherboard shouldn't have any problems, but you never know if someone has a nugget of vital information.

shadydentist

I don't really know anything about whats currently good but there's an entire sticky thread full of people who do.

Tanooki Mario

Might want to try the computer build thread stickied to the top of this forum.

Touché, shadydentist.

lowlylowlycook

First of all that motherboard does not match your CPU. You'll want a i5-750 anyway and it will work with that MB. At least in the US it's $30 more and is much, much faster.

For a single GPU setup, you only really need a 500W PSU at most.

The GTS 250 is on the verge of obsolete (compared to other options it will still do a good job playing most games.) But it's hard to give advice not knowing either the prices of ATI 48XX cards or the availability of ATI 5XXX cards down under.

-Loki-

... how did I miss that? Thanks. I'll have a poke around.

lowlylowlycook

-Loki- wrote: »

... how did I miss that? Thanks. I'll have a poke around.

Just keep in mind that the OP is in a bit of disarray since most of the cards I want to recommend are in short supply for now.

-Loki-

I've been checking and changed a few things in my online quote based on that, and my PC has come out at about $1600au.

Reboot

Have you considered a Radeon GPU? They tend to be cheaper for comparable performance.

-Loki-

No, I'm going with a nvidia card. I've always had one, never had problems with them, and I want to see what this phys-x business is all about.

As I put in the computer build thread, I changed my quote at this place to:

Core i5 750 2.66Ghz/8Mb/LGA1156
Thermaltake ToughPower 750W
1TB SATAII HDD
4GB Dual Channel DDR3 1333Mhz (2x2GB Kit)
Gigabyte P55-UD5 Intel Motherboard 1156
Nvidia GTX275 896Mb PCI Express
DVD-RW SATAII

With Windows 7 it comes to about $1800, so that's probably what I'm going to go with.

Reboot

Ah. Well I guess it's a matter of preference. New config looks better.

-Loki-

One burning question - I recall thermaltake stuff being good quality years ago, are they still? I don't want a dud PSU that's going to hurt it in the long run.

Reboot

I use a 650W HEC myself... Thermaltake is still a reliable brand.