Budget Increase - what to upgrade?

ChrisGeorge

ChrisGeorge

ChrisGeorge

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21 Aug 2008
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9
I posted in the official spec me thread with a budget of £700 and shaffaaf27 gave me a very good spec.

As I said in the other thread this is my first build so if you could possibly explain your choice's that would be great and tips on overclocking would be grand.

So the budget is still around £700 (+- £50~) but this time I don't need a monitor. I'm building this for gaming that will hopefully last me along time as i'm hoping I can upgrade as needed as I go along.

Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 2.53GHz - £71.99
Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) OEM - £12.99
Corsair VX 450W ATX PSU (CMPSU-450VXUK) - £39.99
Samsung Spinpoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - £29.99
Antec Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - £29.99
Gainward ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - £99.99
GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 - £41.99
Vista Home Premium 64-bit - £52.99
Microsoft Comfort Curve Keyboard - £11.99
Asus P5Q Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard - £65.99
Yate Loon D12SL-12 120mm Case Fan - £3.99

Asus 20" Monitor - £119.99 - No Longer needed!

Parts Total = £581.88
Shipping = £14.95
VAT @ 17.5% = £104.45

Total = £701.28

Thanks in advance.

(Prices might have changed on those parts as its been over a week)
 
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Hi ChrisGeorge

First of all, swap the 48450 for a 4870. That will have the biggest impact on games.

Secondly (assuming you still have some money left) I would get a second hard drive. Put your data and virtual memory on the second drive, with windows install and programs on the first, that will have the biggest effect on windows performance.

Thirdly, you haven't listed an aftermarket cooler, I would look at a Freezer 7 Pro at the very least.

If you STILL have some money left over, then you could swap that DVDrw drive for a LG Blu ray/HD DVD drive, and play some hi def content.

Thats what I would do, hope that helps.
 
Thanks for your help so far and i've got an external HD to keep all my media on so I think i'll be alright with just one.

I've made a few changes and i'm pretty happy with the results aslong as i've got everything right (fingers crossed)! I was hoping someone could give it a once over and make sure I haven't made any mistakes.

** Overclocked Bundle ** Abit IP35 Pro Motherboard / Intel Q6600 Quad Core @ 3.3Ghz / 2GB (2x1GB) OCZ PC-8500 RAM / Tuniq Tower CPU Cooler
£262.94 (£308.95)

OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz SLI-Ready Edition Dual Channel DDR2 (OCZ2N1066SR2GK)
£33.99 (£39.94)

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail
£169.99 (£199.74)

Antec Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case
£29.99 (£35.24)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322HJ)
£29.99 (£35.24)

Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM
£12.99 (£15.26)

Corsair TX 650W ATX2.2 SLi Compliant PSU
£54.99 (£64.61)

Yate Loon D12SL-12 120mm Case Fan - 3 Pin
£3.99 (£4.69)

Total (VAT + Shipping) = £718.89

**edit** What effect will the extra RAM have on the Overclocked bundle and Vista Home Premium 64Bit OS
 
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I would add the parts seperate mate and go for 2x2GB of the OCZ 8500 RAM. Price works out the same (few pence diff) and I would rather 2x2Gb than 4x1GB.
 
if your just using it for games you may want to consider an e8x00 chip as games wont really use the quad core, and they oc v well
 
I'd stick with the motherboard in the original spec (as it is newer and better), but otherwise it looks good.

Quads will need a tuniq tower, duals (e7200, e8x00 range) will be fine with AC Freezer 7 Pro.

With the Q6600, you won't need RAM that goes much above 400MHz (i.e. PC6400) as it has a 9x multi, which will max out first (on air at least). It doesn't really matter if you get faster RAM (its all so cheap these days) but I didn't like OCZ SLi range all that much (there standard stuff is very good though).

New PSU - good.
Fans/HD/Optical drive/GFX - all good.
 
Thanks for all your help, i've made some changes and I think i'm pretty much set!

The only reason I wanted to go for bundle was that it came with a guide to overclocking specific to the spec that came with it. Which would've made a first timers job much easier but I guess i'll have to do it the hard way!!

Anway New Spec:

Yate Loon D12SL-12 120mm Case Fan - 3 Pin
£3.99 (£4.69)

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (66I-01939)
£52.99 (£62.26)

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail
£169.99 (£199.74)

Antec Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case
£29.99 (£35.24)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322HJ)
£29.99 (£35.24)

Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM
£12.99 (£15.26)

Corsair TX 650W ATX2.2 SLi Compliant PSU
£54.99 (£64.61)

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g)
£3.99 (£4.69)

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775)
£14.99 (£17.61)

Asus P5Q Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
£74.99 (£88.11)

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail
£96.99 (£113.96)

GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz Black Dragon DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GB24GB6400C5DC)
£44.99 (£52.86)

Total = £709.50 (Inc Shipping + VAT)

comments would be appreciated. Once again thank you all !
 
Looks great.

With that RAM at stock, you'll have a maximum clock on the e8400 of 9 x 400 = 3.6GHz. if you want faster than that, then you need to (a) overclock the RAM or (b) buy faster RAM, such as this:-

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-114-OC

And I know you don't want to, but I'd still get a second hard drive for virtual memory, or even RAID 0. During normal windows operation it is the bottleneck of your PC.
 
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So by buying the faster RAM I could potentially overclock to 9 * 533 = 4.(7/8)GHz?

Also i've just been looking at the motherboards and the Asus P5Q Pro Intel P45 is about £5 more expensive than the non-pro and I wasn't too sure on the difference's between them would this be a worthy upgrade?

If i went for two Hard Drive's would you recommend the same one again? Also I'm not to sure about what RAID 0/1 are or how to set it up?

note with those upgrades (RAM, 2nd HDD and Pro MB) my total comes too: £768.24 (inc VAT - Shipping)

what would you do if it was you :p?

**Edit: Also the Antec 300 case has 3 more optional fan slots - shall I get 3 fans and will they be supported?**
 
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i'd go with the changes that take the cost to £768.

dont bother with the fans at the moment, more fans = more noise, see how the temps go once you've got it all setup then maybe consider extra fans etc.
 
ChrisGeorge said:
So by buying the faster RAM I could potentially overclock to 9 * 533 = 4.(7/8)GHz?
Click to expand...

In theory, yes, insofar as the RAM will no longer be the limiting factor in the overclock. But of course, something else (most likely the CPU) will have it's limits, so I doubt you've been getting 4.7Ghz, but at least you'll reach the CPU limit without worry over the RAM being overclocked and limiting you.
 
ChrisGeorge said:
So by buying the faster RAM I could potentially overclock to 9 * 533 = 4.(7/8)GHz?

Also i've just been looking at the motherboards and the Asus P5Q Pro Intel P45 is about £5 more expensive than the non-pro and I wasn't too sure on the difference's between them would this be a worthy upgrade?
Click to expand...

For £5 you might as well.

ChrisGeorge said:
If i went for two Hard Drive's would you recommend the same one again?
Click to expand...

Yep

ChrisGeorge said:
Also I'm not to sure about what RAID 0/1 are or how to set it up?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't worry about it then. You're not missing much at the moment, but you might look into it in the future.

ChrisGeorge said:
note with those upgrades (RAM, 2nd HDD and Pro MB) my total comes too: £768.24 (inc VAT - Shipping)

what would you do if it was you :p?
Click to expand...

Hit the 'Go to Checkout button' :) Seriously, it looks a really good build, I'm sure you'll be happy with it.


ChrisGeorge said:
**Edit: Also the Antec 300 case has 3 more optional fan slots - shall I get 3 fans and will they be supported?**
Click to expand...

As above, see how you go.

Namistai said:
In theory, yes, insofar as the RAM will no longer be the limiting factor in the overclock. But of course, something else (most likely the CPU) will have it's limits, so I doubt you've been getting 4.7Ghz, but at least you'll reach the CPU limit without worry over the RAM being overclocked and limiting you.
Click to expand...

Couldn't put it better.
 
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