Help me to build a new PC

[Suka]

I want to buy and build a new PC but am not really sure what to buy. Thought I could use the massive knowledge base here to help me.
Firstly I have a budget of £400, and that really is the upper limit so if I can come in under that it would be great. I don't need to spend money on hard drives because I have 3 SATA ones I will use. I also have a Dual layer DVD burner and a decent sound card to use.
I want to use the PC for a little bit of gaming (rFactor, LFS, GTR2...etc) and the 3D modelling I will be doing for my course.
Ideally I would like this PC to still be half decent in a few years so I like the idea of Quad core and have been looking at the nVidia 9800 series of cards. I also really like the CoolerMaster Elite 330 case but if that's actually rubbish...guide me! Apart from that, I am not really sure what to choose!

[Suka]

Ok, had another look through CCL Online where I do all my computer shopping and got this so far. Anyone see how I could cut costs further?

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Dual Core CPU - £128.60
Sparkle GeForce 9800GT 512MB - £76.45
2GB CCL Choice 800MHz DDR2 Memory Stick x2 - £16.82
Asus P5K WS Motherboard - £89.38
CoolerMaster Elite 330 - Black / Silver - £29.99
Total - £365.41 (Delivered)

I figured a really good Dual Core would beat a rubbish Quad. I don't actually know what PSU I would need so I could still do with a little help there. Is this spec good? Is there anything anyone would change? Can anyone offer cheaper alternatives? Have I got anything unnecessaraly powerful? I know nothing about motherboards, should I get a different one. All I know is that I need at least 3 SATA ports.

[Roentgen]

A friend of mine recently bought a new computer. I don't know much about it, but I do know it has these:

Intel i7 Extreme
6 GB Ram
1 GB Vram

All this for $1500 NZDs. That gentlemen, is incredible value, even if all the other parts are trash.

[whiteballz]

careful with that sparkle video card, my boss and I had a batch of three fail on us.

[Suka]

A friend of mine recently bought a new computer. I don't know much about it, but I do know it has these:

Intel i7 Extreme
6 GB Ram
1 GB Vram

All this for $1500 NZDs. That gentlemen, is incredible value, even if all the other parts are trash.

I can't even get close to being able to afford that...

careful with that sparkle video card, my boss and I had a batch of three fail on us.

I just would like decent performance but on a budget. Anyone recommend anything else?

[whiteballz]

Im not saying dont get it, Its a fine card, its got a warrenty so it doesnt matter if it craps out - Just keep the recipt and you'll do fine.

[Roentgen]

I can't even get close to being able to afford that...

I'm not saying get that, I'm just saying use this as a benchmark for price.

I believe you won't need i7, so maybe a Core 2 Duo/Quad? And you won't need 6 gigs of ram, so maybe 2-3? 4 is probably too much too, depending on how you use it. Also, unless you're a gamer, which my friend and I are, you definitely won't need a 1 gig video card. Maybe 256mb - 512mb?

All this means significant saving on that 1.5k NZDs. In fact, below 1k, so that's around £300?

[pimento]

If you're doing 3D modelling, will you be doing rendering? I'd say 4GB of RAM is best, a quad core may assist with the grunt for rendering things but I'm not sure on that part. If they still do the Q6600, it's a great quad core processor that can be easily overclocked on the stock cooling.. apparently. I've not tried with mine, but a friend has with his. PSU wise, check the specs for the graphics card but I'd say a 500 or 600 watt will easily power that no worries.

[Suka]

If you're doing 3D modelling, will you be doing rendering? I'd say 4GB of RAM is best, a quad core may assist with the grunt for rendering things but I'm not sure on that part. If they still do the Q6600, it's a great quad core processor that can be easily overclocked on the stock cooling.. apparently. I've not tried with mine, but a friend has with his. PSU wise, check the specs for the graphics card but I'd say a 500 or 600 watt will easily power that no worries.

I have looked at the Q6600 and it's out of my price range. So is a decent Quad Core, that's why I have gone for the top Dual Core.

[S.O.S]

What's wrong with a AMD Quad core ?.

[Suka]

What's wrong with a AMD Quad core ?.

The numbers from the AMD Quad Core processors don't come close to the Dual Core Intel one I selected.

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400

[Suka]

A few alterations to the list...

Instead of the nVidia card I am going for a Sapphire Radeon HD 4830 HDMI 512MB because it gives me a tiny performance increase for £10 less. Also I have added a 550W PSU. So the PC stands at £401.55 delivered. I would quite like to bring that down.

[matek]

When you use hypershot or alias to render they are not limited by by cores, so i would advise quad over dual.

The phenom 940 BE is the same as the 955 and the 965. They have proven to have no cold bug so overclock well and keep stable. So from the comparison tables the 940 might not look powerful but do overclock reasnably well, they could save you money and provide you with the required processing power.

Graphics don't really come into play for rendering but they do for modelling. Depending on the program i would check out the website from the manufacturer to see their suggestions. Both Nvidia and ATI are doing multi gpu's so you could buy a card that may save you money and later on buy another one.

Ram is proportional to how big your models will be and how many you will have open and wanting to have available steps to undo.

The I7 is an imense processor but very expensive from what i have found in my searches, but the 920 will push to 3.5Ghz + even on air cooling so a nice zalman cooling unit would keep it under control.

good luck

[Suka]

I can't really justify a Quad Core processor. At least not right now!
The Dual Core I have selected out performs the very popular Q6600 in many areas, most notably the multi tasking tests conducted by custompc.co.uk.
Right now I can't afford to get a Quad Core that could out perform the Dual Core E8400 but the Asus WorkStation MoBo I have gone for should present a decent platform for future upgrades.

I think...

I've also gone for a 460W PSU rather than the 550W since it's cheaper and the AMD site suggests a PSU of 450W or greater. Is it wise to run that close to the threshold?

Edit: I just used http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine to calculate the PSU I should use and am much happier now. Based on my components and having most things set to worst case scenario I should need 291W on general use. So even under load this wont come close to my 460W.

[whiteballz]

You don't want to cheapen out on PSU, so still give yourself a CLEAR margin.