Spec me a beastlette

basmic

basmic

basmic

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Joined
10 Apr 2004
Posts
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Location
Darlington, County Durham
Ok, the time has come for Basmondo to start thinking about an upgrade for himself. That time will hopefully come in January, if all goes as planned. :cool:

Run down of my currently well used, loyal, work horse:
  • Asus P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard, S478
  • P4 3.0GHz @ ~3.4GHz
  • Thermalright SP-94 + YS Tech 92mm
  • Gainward Ultra/2400 256MB "Golden Sample" AGP
  • PCI Creative Soundblaster Audigy X-Fi Extreme Music
  • Hitachi Deskstars 400gb + 250gb SATA drives, in Cooldrive IIs running @ 7v
  • IDE Plextor PX-230A
  • IDE Pioneer A08 DVD-RW
  • Geil 3500 1gb (pair) + Corsair XMS4400 1gb (pair)
  • Enermax EG465AX-VE
  • PCI 3Com 3C905-TX network card
  • Fans here and there...
With that out the way, I suspect I'll be keeping the following:
  • PCI Creative Soundblaster Audigy X-Fi Extreme Music
  • Hitachi Deskstars 400gb + 250gb SATA drives, in Cooldrive IIs running @ 7v
  • IDE Plextor PX-230A -(?)-
  • IDE Pioneer A08 DVD-RW -(?)-
  • Enermax EG465AX-VE
  • PCI 3Com 3C905-TX network card -(?)-
  • Fans here and there...
Really, more the basic stuff. I'm not too sure if I want to keep my PCI NIC, or see how much of a CPU hog an onboard NIC would be.

As for the drives - harddrives are staying. Maybe the optical drives will stay too, but I'm looking to getting another Pioneer DVD-RW burner anyway. I may want a standalone CD burner though, purely so I can overburn CDs.

I can't see the PSU causing any compatibility problems.

So I suppose I want the following specced:
  • Motherboard -- Ideally Asus. Other than the voltage fluctuations, I've been more than happy with my current Asus - giving me faith in Asus products.
  • CPU -- I don't want the best and most powerful. It is EXTREMELY important that the next CPU I get is either of a lower or equal power consumption, of the exisiting one. I won't entertain AMD, so don't waste time trying to convert me.
  • RAM -- 2gb or more, and must support high FSB speeds. Half the reason I got my Geil RAM, was because it supported high FSB speeds so I can overclock reasonably well and not worry about memory problems.
  • GFX - I'm going to stick with Nvidia. Again, I have a sweet spot for them, and they have served me well. However - my current GFX card is a true power hog, and something I want to address by getting a more efficient card. I'm going to be playing games like Farcry, Half-Life 2 - half the reason I daren't get any new games yet, is because my GFX card already weeps at some games. :o It's going to be powering a 1680x1050 TFT monitor, so perhaps 512mb of RAM would be nice.
  • Optical drives -- Well I want a Pioneer DVD-RW, and ideally a good CD-RW drive which can provide good quality overburns.
I will set my budget in the £750 region. This doesn't mean you have to spec me a full blown power house of a machine, and tell me to spend £950. ;) Ideally I want it to be in the £600 region - £150 for a motherobard, £150 CPU, £150 gfx card, £100 for RAM. Obviously including VAT.

Once again, don't worry about stating equipment that OcUK don't sell. I'll probably be shopping from the cheapest shop I can find. If that's OcUK, then I get brownie points from Spie. :p
 
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Are you intending to keep the graphics card or not, you contradict yourself there?

Also if you are buying in January there isn't a huge amount of point going too far with a specification, the best value products will change and there might even be a couple of advances in technology that you can take advantage of. Possibly not in this price range though. :)
 
semi-pro waster said:
Are you intending to keep the graphics card or not, you contradict yourself there?

Also if you are buying in January there isn't a huge amount of point going too far with a specification, the best value products will change and there might even be a couple of advances in technology that you can take advantage of. Possibly not in this price range though. :)
Click to expand...
Removed the AGP card, oops! :o

Really I'm just wanting to see what I'll be buying, and start researching.
 
what wattage/age is the psu ?

i'd look along the lines of 6600 quad core, 8800GT, asus x38 mobo, memory wise keep an eye on the special deals and go 4gb 6400 ddr2 (2x2gb or 4x1gb depending on the price at the time).

as an example on current prices, can add pioneer dvd-rw/cd-rw of you're choice :

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - OEM £135.99 (£159.79)

Asus P5E Intel X38 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £119.99
(£140.99)

EVGA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (512-P2-E801-AR £149.99 (£176.24)

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £59.98 (£70.48)

Noctua NH-U12F CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £33.99 (£39.94)

Sub Total : £499.94
Shipping : £8.95
VAT : £89.06
Total : £597.95
 
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mp260767 said:
what wattage/age is the psu ?

i'd look along the lines of 6600 quad core, 8800GT, asus x38 mobo, memory wise keep an eye on the special deals and go 4gb 6400 ddr2 (2x2gb or 4x1gb depending on the price at the time).

as an example on current prices, can add pioneer dvd-rw/cd-rw of you're choice :

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - OEM £135.99 (£159.79)

Asus P5E Intel X38 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £119.99
(£140.99)

EVGA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (512-P2-E801-AR £149.99 (£176.24)

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £59.98 (£70.48)

Noctua NH-U12F CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £33.99 (£39.94)

Sub Total : £499.94
Shipping : £8.95
VAT : £89.06
Total : £597.95
Click to expand...

The Asus P5E X38 has issues and definately does'nt work with the Geil Ultra memory. I know because i have both. Big mistake. The board is very picky about memory. Just waiting for my Ballistix 8500 to come now to try to get some issues sorted. Among the issues are, abysmal Vdroop, 107 bios that it ships with does not support quads, Bios updates are 2mb so you need a USN stick, Only able to load windows with one stick of ram installed and some settings in the bios do not work as of yet.

Get a P35 board. ;)
 
pastymuncher said:
The Asus P5E X38 has issues and definately does'nt work with the Geil Ultra memory. I know because i have both. Big mistake. The board is very picky about memory. Just waiting for my Ballistix 8500 to come now to try to get some issues sorted. Among the issues are, abysmal Vdroop, 107 bios that it ships with does not support quads, Bios updates are 2mb so you need a USN stick, Only able to load windows with one stick of ram installed and some settings in the bios do not work as of yet.

Get a P35 board. ;)
Click to expand...

the gist of my post was come january the x38 should have settled in, and he wanted asus.

as for the memory, again it was an idea on the price at the moment.

all could be clarified when he requested the spec check etc around build time.

apologies if that wasnt made clear in the post.
 
Okay, so what people are saying is to spec me nearer the time of ordering?

Going by my current specs, does anybody think a newer build will lower or raise my energy consumption? I noticed as soon as I plugged my 6800GT in, the electric bill raised by about £5-10/month. :(
 
It is difficult to say exactly but I shouldn't imagine it will alter your bills that much, I'm rather surprised that a 6800GT would have that dramatic an effect on your bills. Was it also going into winter at the time although I suppose it depends slightly what you changed to it from.
 
basmic said:
I won't entertain AMD, so don't waste time trying to convert me.
Click to expand...


I wasn't going to recommend AMD as Intel are currently better however that's a bit of a daft attitude to have, you could be missing out.

Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK) £57.99
(£68.14)
Point of View GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - £144.99
(£170.36)
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel Vista Gold Series DDR2 (OCZ2G8004GK) £79.99
(£93.99)
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - OEM £135.99
(£159.79)
Thermalright Ultra-120A CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/LGA775) £21.99
(£25.84)
Arctic Cooling Arctic Fan 12025L 120mm Fan - 3 Pin £4.99
(£5.86)
Lian Li PC-A05B Aluminium Midi-Tower - Black £65.99
(£77.54)
Asus P5K-E WiFi Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £84.99
(£99.86)
Sub Total : £596.92
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £106.38
Total : £714.25

I have included a new PSU as it will be slightly more efficient and have a much stronger 12v rail for all your new stuff, Asus motherboard, quad core, 4GB ram and a very fast graphics card with quite low power consumption.

There is also a new case there, I don't know if you need/want one but I included it anyway.
 
basmic said:
Okay, so what people are saying is to spec me nearer the time of ordering?

Going by my current specs, does anybody think a newer build will lower or raise my energy consumption? I noticed as soon as I plugged my 6800GT in, the electric bill raised by about £5-10/month. :(
Click to expand...

yeah its the best bet, things/prices can change that much tbh.

can't see why the 6800GT should make that much difference in the bill either i'm afraid.
 
semi-pro waster said:
It is difficult to say exactly but I shouldn't imagine it will alter your bills that much, I'm rather surprised that a 6800GT would have that dramatic an effect on your bills. Was it also going into winter at the time although I suppose it depends slightly what you changed to it from.
Click to expand...
mp260767 said:
yeah its the best bet, things/prices can change that much tbh.

can't see why the 6800GT should make that much difference in the bill either i'm afraid.
Click to expand...
Well I upgraded from a Ti4200, if that makes any difference. I thought the 6xxx series were reputed for being energy hungry?

Maybe it's just the Gainward cards that are greedy?
 
If it used 100w more and was at full load 24/7 it would increase your costs by £1.68 per week based on 10p per kw/h... if you were running it like that then it's perfectly possible it would use £6-8 but that's worst case scenario.
 
Raikiri said:
If it used 100w more and was at full load 24/7 it would increase your costs by £1.68 per week based on 10p per kw/h... if you were running it like that then it's perfectly possible it would use £6-8 but that's worst case scenario.
Click to expand...
Fair enough - but the only major change in electricals/electronics in the house at the time, was the card. From then on, it has consistently been higher than before the 6800GT was installed. :confused:
 
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