Spec me! (based on shaffaaf27's £500 tower)

melat0nin

melat0nin

melat0nin

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Location
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Hi all

I've recently come into a little cash, and I'd like to upgrade my aging machine to something more modern.

This is my current rig:

Shuttle SN45Gv3
Athlon XP 3200
1gb Crucial PC3200
Asus GeForce 6200 AGP (recently bought when my R9800XT died :()

Obviously it's a bit long in the tooth.

I've been eyeing shaffaaf27's £500 tower over here: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11840938&postcount=3

..and I noticed a few changes this week from the one published last week. I wonder if anyone can answer these questions:

1) Why the change in cooler?
2) Why the mobo change? The Gigabyte from last time is only slightly more expensive, and gets lots of good reviews on OCUK
3) Why the Radeon 4850 change from Gainward to Powercolor? I can't see any discernible difference in specs, and IIRC Gainward is a more respected brand.
4) Is the Q6600 worth the extra cash for two extra cores?


There are a couple of points I should make about my ideal setup and my usage:

1) I will be running XP and Ubuntu (not Vista), so that might affect the amount of RAM I want/need. I don't know much about this though.
2) I don't need an optical drive cos I've got an external LG USB supermulti drive which will do absolutely fine.
3) Ideally I'd like it to be as quiet as possible, within my given budget. My machine has been stupidly loud because of its small size and the heat the PSU generates, so I'd really like relative quietness to be a part of my upgrade.
4) My budget is ~£400, up to £500 at a push.
5) My uses are general browsing, some coding (pretty low-intensity stuff) but I'd also like to get into gaming again, so all the Source games, and some more modern stuff would be cool too (would particularly like to play GTA IV when it comes out!). I read some HD 4850 reviews and it seems pretty solid for current gen games and the near future so it seems like a good bet.
6) I will be using my 19" WS LG monitor (1440x990) for the foreseeable future.

I've been out of the hardware game for a couple of years now, and things have moved on quite a long way since I kept up with it.

Any help on this would be much appreciated! :)
 
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C64 said:
His spec is best if you don't overclock.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. My guess is the increase in speed will be pretty massive, so I don't see myself overclocking for quite a while. I can't see it getting sluggish for a wee while.

Why the change in components such as the mobo tho? Is it purely a price thing or are the alternatives he's chosen actually better?
 
the Tuniq tower costs a good few more bob this week, so i tuned the cooler down, but i am running right now the Freezer 7 Pro got my E214 (1.6 stock) and got it 3.4GHz, no problems. :)

I had money left over then, so thought the best place to spend it there was really into the mobo, which IMO is a better OCer, but ofcourse if you like the P35-DS3L, then its a good OCer aswell.

the change in the 4850 was due to the cost. powercolor are a good brand, and one of ATI's favourite, just remember all the cards are refernce cards made by ATI.
 
shaffaaf27 said:
the Tuniq tower costs a good few more bob this week, so i tuned the cooler down, but i am running right now the Freezer 7 Pro got my E214 (1.6 stock) and got it 3.4GHz, no problems. :)

I had money left over then, so thought the best place to spend it there was really into the mobo, which IMO is a better OCer, but ofcourse if you like the P35-DS3L, then its a good OCer aswell.

the change in the 4850 was due to the cost. powercolor are a good brand, and one of ATI's favourite, just remember all the cards are refernce cards made by ATI.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply shaffaaf!

Is the Freezer 7 Pro quiet?

Also any thoughts on whether I really need 4gb of RAM? Would 2 or 3 gb suffice?
 
shaffaaf27 said:
4GB for vista, but for XP, 2GB is more than enough IMO.

upto about 55% fan speed the Freezer 7 Pro is quiet.
Click to expand...

Cool, is 2gb enough for games? Should I just get the equivalent GEiL 2gb part? Should it be 800MHz or 1066MHz? Man, stuff has moved on a long way since I was in the game!
 
Here's a provisional spec:

149v1u1.png


What do you guys think?

1. I've saved £10 on the hard disc (I have trouble filling a 160gb disc at the moment, which I can also put to use in the new machine.. so storage isn't a problem).

2. Is the Yate Loon necessary? It's cheap, but I was just wondering about it from a noise point of view

3. Do I need the Corsair VX? It's a very well-reviewed PSU, but is it overkill for my setup? Just wondering.

4. I've gone with the Gigabyte because it's £10 cheaper. Makes sense, I think.

5. If I save on RAM (which I will), is it worth upping the E7200 to something beefier?

6. Which 2gb RAM should I go for?

Help much appreciated :)
 
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melat0nin said:
Cool, is 2gb enough for games? Should I just get the equivalent GEiL 2gb part? Should it be 800MHz or 1066MHz? Man, stuff has moved on a long way since I was in the game!
Click to expand...

For the £16 extra I'd always advise to get the 4gb kit TBH. You only really need to go for the 1066 kit if you plan on overclocking the knuts off the CPU and don't want to be RAM limited.
 
go for this 2GB, and yes it will be good enough for games:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp... Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC)

the antec 300 doesnt come with a fan in the front, so i added that, and yes it is quiet.

the VX 450W will be perfect tbh, it is very quiet.

the GB P35-DS3L is a very good board, esp for the price, you'll be very happy.

unless you really really do not want to clock, IMO, update it to the E8400, but the E7200 will do 3Gz without breaking a sweat.
 
i'd always have at least 1 case fan, no the psu ain't over kill, personally i'd keep it how it is.. seems like a nice little setup.
 
Thanks guys! I think this is my final spec:

140hyly.png


A couple more questions:

1. Do I need any thermalpaste or is the compound included with the Freezer 7 Pro sufficient?

2. Does OCUK allow delivery to an address which doesn't match the card holder's? (I live away from home but because I was a student until recently, my card addresses are all my parents' place) - I know ****** has a policy about this for the first purchase of a new customer.
 
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shaffaaf27 said:
the freezer pro comes with a brillaint Mx-2 already applied.

and yes to the second question
Click to expand...

Cool, thankyou!

Sorry to be a pain, but I'm trying to think of ways to reduce the cost.

What about the case from your £300 tower, which includes a 380W PSU (the Antek NSK 4480B)? If that could cope with my spec then it would save a fair bit, cos it's the cost of just the Corsair VX ;)
 
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shaffaaf27 said:
the Tuniq tower costs a good few more bob this week, so i tuned the cooler down, but i am running right now the Freezer 7 Pro got my E214 (1.6 stock) and got it 3.4GHz, no problems. :)

I had money left over then, so thought the best place to spend it there was really into the mobo, which IMO is a better OCer, but ofcourse if you like the P35-DS3L, then its a good OCer aswell.

the change in the 4850 was due to the cost. powercolor are a good brand, and one of ATI's favourite, just remember all the cards are refernce cards made by ATI.
Click to expand...

Aint this that golden E2140 from members market from a year ago from the best batches ? You know many of them won't hit 3.4 without probs so please don't disappoint ppl just because you got one of the best out there possible to get ;). Anyways glad it works for you.

melat0nin said:
Cool, thankyou!

Sorry to be a pain, but I'm trying to think of ways to reduce the cost.

What about the case from your £300 tower, which includes a 380W PSU (the Antek NSK 4480B)? If that could cope with my spec then it would save a fair bit, cos it's the cost of just the Corsair VX ;)
Click to expand...

I wouldnt use 4850 with 380PSU, the corsair 450 mentioned earlier will be best budget choice imo. And definitely go for Tuniq Tower for E7200 I would say, really worth the extra over AF7Pro.

And I would go with the 4GB memory, either of these GeiLs will be good, however, I think dragons OC bit better than ULLs but thats just my experience.
 
PhoenixUK said:
Aint this that golden E2140 from members market from a year ago from the best batches ? You know many of them won't hit 3.4 without probs so please don't disappoint ppl just because you got one of the best out there possible to get ;). Anyways glad it works for you.



I wouldnt use 4850 with 380PSU, the corsair 450 mentioned earlier will be best budget choice imo. And definitely go for Tuniq Tower for E7200 I would say, really worth the extra over AF7Pro.

And I would go with the 4GB memory, either of these GeiLs will be good, however, I think dragons OC bit better than ULLs but thats just my experience.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input.

Am I right in thinking 4gb can't be fully utilised by XP? I'll be using XP for gaming, Ubuntu for everything else (for which 2gb is more than enough).
 
unless you are in vista, and/or using photoshop.

lol phoenix, i can get it to 3.45, but i dont want to ruin it that much :D

for dual cores IMO the F7P is enough, C2Qs need the TT
 
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