Mini Spec Check Please For An Old Friend!

asonicboom · 10 Jul 2007 at 21:20

Evening gents,

I'm an old timer who has fallen out of the loop due to other commitments :mad:

Was very knowledgable years ago back when the A64 came out but in computing years thats like centuries! I've read up over the course of this morning but built my last pc a good few years ago. So I need your assurances on the following spec from our very own OcUK. My trigger finger is itchy to order asap!

I've gone for the best value but fast (will be overclocking of course

) on a budget of £400, and I needed only the components listed below:

OcUK shop said:
Processor
Intel Core 2 Duo E2160 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail
£61.09

Motherboard
Abit IP35-E (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
£76.36

Memory
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C5 800MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400DC)
£52.86

Cooler
Thermalright Ultra-120 (Socket 754/939/940/LGA775) Heatsink
£35.24

Graphics Card
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO SILENT 256MB DDR2 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (11109-01-10R)
£37.59

Hard Drives
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB ST3500630AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
£66.96
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
£52.86

Total: £393.48 with shipping

Got fans, case all the other gubbins and OS.
I valued cpu, memory and HD over graphics, don't play taxing games.

So can anyone see any glaring mistakes or incompatibilites? Are the parts all respectable?

I was hoping to overclock the C2D to say 3ghz (9 x 333) at least and put the memory at 667mhz with tighter timings. Does that sound about achievable?

Thank you so so much for any advice. Even just an A-okay will do me fine

Cheers peeps

semi-pro waster · 10 Jul 2007 at 21:34

I don't know anything much about that motherboard but it is based on a good chipset so should be ok.

Do you have a 120mm fan for the CPU heatsink? It doesn't come with one. Other than that it looks fine although I might change the graphics card to a 7300GT.

Topitoff · 10 Jul 2007 at 21:42

Just a thought, as everything looks reasonable, is your PSU up to the job? does it have the right connectors?

I would suggest at least a decent 400w with dual 12v rails

asonicboom · 10 Jul 2007 at 21:48

Thanks so much gents.

semi-pro waster said:
I don't know anything much about that motherboard but it is based on a good chipset so should be ok.

Do you have a 120mm fan for the CPU heatsink? It doesn't come with one. Other than that it looks fine although I might change the graphics card to a 7300GT.

I do indeed have an AcoustiFan 120mm lying here waiting to be plugged in.

About the graphics card, don't think I can stretch the budget to the 7300GT i'm afraid to say. Should I consider the 7300GS over the HD2400 ?

Topitoff said:
Just a thought, as everything looks reasonable, is your PSU up to the job? does it have the right connectors?

I would suggest at least a decent 400w with dual 12v rails

Your right I completely forgot to mention the PSU! I've got lying here an Seasonic S12 430W. Is that up to the task?

Thanks again all

Topitoff · 10 Jul 2007 at 21:50

asonicboom said:
Your right I completely forgot to mention the PSU! I've got lying here an Seasonic S12 430W. Is that up to the task?

That'll do nicely

semi-pro waster · 10 Jul 2007 at 22:16

asonicboom said:
About the graphics card, don't think I can stretch the budget to the 7300GT i'm afraid to say. Should I consider the 7300GS over the HD2400 ?

Sorry I posted without looking at the current prices, I'd forgotten that the OcUK 7300GT for £35 was a limited deal. I think both cards will be much of a muchness so pick whichever.

It should be a nice PC, hope the build goes smoothly.

asonicboom · 10 Jul 2007 at 22:35

Gotcha, i think i'll stick with the ATi then, it's what i'm used to i guess.

Thanks again guys

I'm ordering tomorrow morning so if anyone else has got stuff to add then i'm all ears.

stickroad · 10 Jul 2007 at 22:38

Why the one 500GB Hard Drive and then one 320GB Hard Drive?

asonicboom · 10 Jul 2007 at 22:55

I know it's an odd one that, I worked out I require

320gb - OS, programs, games, temp work
500gb - music, videos, photos

Had two 320gbs down originally but considering the 500gb is cheaper than the 400gb (!?) I figured that at those prices you'd be silly to miss out on one of them!

Future proofing and all that

stickroad · 10 Jul 2007 at 23:00

Well personally i would swap the E2160 to a E2140 then with the money you have saved change the Memory to this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-088-CR&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=144

Will hit 800MHZ 3-3-3-12 even 1000MHZ 4-4-4-12.

asonicboom · 11 Jul 2007 at 11:34

Thanks for the advice stickroad.

I think I'm gonna stick with the E2160 due to it's 9x multiplier, I value cpu overclocking much much greater than memory overclocking

Plus like I say, I'm on a very tight budget :mad: