£1000 Budget - Some Spec Help Required

Slogan

Slogan

Slogan

Soldato
Joined
27 Jun 2006
Posts
6,333
Hello. :)

I've been meaning to get this sytem sorted out for the past while - and as weeks have passed, I haven't bothered my backside to do so - so I thought I would post the whole lot in here so it could get sorted once and for all.

This is the system I have in mind so far, missing two slightly important components - which I'm hoping I can get a bit of help in regards to sorting out.

Processor:
Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-128-IN)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Intel_Pentium_Core_Duo2.html
£257.57

Motherboard
NONE YET

Memory
NONE YET

Graphics Card
XFX GeForce 7900GT 256MB DDR3 PCIE Dual DVI
£176.25

Storage
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB ST3250620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-079-SE)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Seagate_SATA.html
£61.69

Opticals
Samsung SH-S182D 18x18 DVD±RW ReWriter (Black) (CD-078-SA)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/DVDRW_Drives.html
£25.79

Sony CRX320EE CDRW/DVD Combi Drive (Black) - OEM (CD-025-SO)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Combo_Drives.html
£19.92

Case
Thermaltake VA8000BWS Armour Super Tower - Black (CA-007-TT)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Thermaltake_Cases.html
£93.94

Other
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) (AC-000-AC)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Thermal_Materials.html
£6.99

Thermaltake Big Typhoon 4 in 1 Heatpipe (Socket 939/754/775/478) CPU Cooler (CL-P0114) (HS-007-TT)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Thermaltake_CPU_Coolers.html
£29.32

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk (N09-01528) (OS-001-MS)
£61.04
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Operating_Systems.html

Total – £732.51

Out of a £1000 budget, that leaves the guts of £300 to play with in regards to sorting out the motherboard and RAM - or £267.49. I don't want to push the limit completely up to £1000 as I'm hoping I can squeeze delivery and maybe a few other small bits and pieces in as well.

I already have a power supply (Hiper Type R 480), monitor and all the other periphals needed - so I don't think there is anything else to worry about. I will continue to shop around and try and shave off a few precious pounds - but I would very much appreciate some (or any) guidance in the motherboard and ram side of things.

I would like 2GB DDR2 Ram - but after that I'm completely lost on the RAM front, if i'm honest.

Motherboard-wise is a bit more complicated - as I understand that flashing bios' and so on may have to take place with the non-ready Conroe-ready motherboards.

So long as it's overclockable and supports the hardware above (SATA, 2xIDE, PCI-E), supports 4GB DDR2 RAM (4 slots) - then I'm not too bothered.

I understand there are a lot of different settings and so on with the motherboards - but as I understand there are only a handful available at the moment for the Conroe - so I'm not sure how specific I can actually be.

I was advised to wait a while until the Conroe was out - so I could weigh up what worked best for people and what didn't - before buying. But I'm not sure I won't explode if I don't purchase it and get it sorted, in this week.

I definitely wouldn't be able to flash the bios - so I would need a motherboard that just works out of the box. I'm not sure how the situation has changed lately in regards to this - but I'm hoping that it has.

I would be using my computer for a bit of everything really - Gaming (COD2, CounterStrike, hoping to get BF:2 and games like F.E.A.R and so on), Photoshop, Director, Fireworks - and I will be doing a lot of video encoding work next year for college. Not sure if that helps in regards to RAM selection, but thought I could continue to bore you to tears.

One more question and I'll end the pain.

Would it be adviseable to get a floppy disc drive with this rig?

Appreciate any help. Thanks.
 
Slogan said:
I was advised to wait a while until the Conroe was out - so I could weigh up what worked best for people and what didn't - before buying. But I'm not sure I won't explode if I don't purchase it and get it sorted, in this week.
Click to expand...

That's the exact same position I'm in. My two previous posts (particularly the most recent one - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17602339) are looking at a similar spec to you.

After much searching, review readings and comments from friends offline and the ever-present helpfuls on here, I've decided on a Gigabyte mobo. The DS3 (the budget version, on OCUK it's about £95 before VAT) seems to overclock well and has more than enough features for me. That would leave you enough for some decent RAM too (GSkill seems to the most popular in spec-advice on here!).
 
31 views and 1 reply.

Damn I'm popular. :cool:

Cheers by the way - very similar setup indeed!

In regards to the motherboard, are you sort of taking a gamble in regards to whether it works from boxed or not?

GSkill seems to be the only RAM that people go for on here - but I'll give it a look-sy.

About RAM Clock speeds - just how important are they? That's the only real stumbling block I have with them.
 
Slogan said:
In regards to the motherboard, are you sort of taking a gamble in regards to whether it works from boxed or not?

About RAM Clock speeds - just how important are they? That's the only real stumbling block I have with them.
Click to expand...

I don't think so. The only board I've heard about having a problem was an Asus one PW5H Deluxe or something (it's all over the motherboard forum ;)) but the other boards I've seen reviews on all seemed to be ok. It's also the only board (that I've seen) with a warning on the actual OCUK page. I've not heard of any problems with the Gigabyte boards - at least not the one I mentioned.

And RAM timings.....hehe....errrr.....can someone help me out here? I recall someone made a lovely graph about the best RAM to choose depending on which Conroe you want, but I tried to find it the other night and failed, so hopefully someone can point you in the right direction......from the top of my head, the RAM you want for an E6600 is this stuff:
G.Skill 2GB DDR2 NR PC2-6400
alhough I would wait for someone else to confirm ;)
 
I'll bear that in mind SM. Getting a cheapish board that simply does what I need as opposed to want - may pave the way for better RAM and a few other little things as well. If it works out of box then that's a huge extra bonus as well.

I haven't worked with SATA before, are the pin sets still the same (as the IDE's) or do they even use pin sets?

I'll have a look out for that graph as well. If I find it, I'll post it in. :cool:

I'd genuinely love to get it sorted this week - as it's something that I've been thinking about, leaving, then coming back to, over the last month or so.
 
Skidmark said:
Found it, here it is:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=7156818&postcount=147

Pretty colours...
Click to expand...

I think I'll opt for the:

G.Skill 2GB DDR2 NR PC2-6400 (2x1GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400PHU2-2GBNR) (MY-014-GS)

Offer on it this week as well - which is very good.

And possibly the DS4.

In regards to the "UDA ATA" connection - do the motherboard providers supply this cable or will I have to go buy it? I will have to run two IDE devices (opticals) off the one IDE "port" on the motherboard - and I assume this 'UDA ATA' is the cable that goes into the motherboard and offers two IDE endings for slave and primary devices? (damn I feel new trying to explain that :D )

Have you ordered yours yet?

Just gonna send Gigabyte an e-mail to confirm if the mb will work from boxed - don't wanna be stuck with it possibly not working.

Thanks for your help by the way.
 
The budget has grown £100 in size and I've put this together, assuming the motherboard is fully working from boxed:

Processor:
Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-128-IN)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Intel_Pentium_Core_Duo2.html
£257.57

Motherboard
Gigabyte GA_965P_DS4 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-062-GI)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Gigabyte_179.html
£129.19

Memory
G.Skill 2GB DDR2 NR PC2-6400 (2x1GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400PHU2-2GBNR) (MY-014-GS)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/GSkill_Memory.html
£124.49

Graphics Card
XFX GeForce 7900GT 256MB DDR3 PCIE Dual DVI
£176.25

Storage
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB ST3250620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-079-SE)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Seagate_SATA.html
£61.69

Opticals
Samsung SH-S182D 18x18 DVD±RW ReWriter (Black) (CD-078-SA)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/DVDRW_Drives.html
£25.79

Sony CRX320EE CDRW/DVD Combi Drive (Black) - OEM (CD-025-SO)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Combo_Drives.html
£19.92

Case
Thermaltake VA8000BWS Armour Super Tower - Black (CA-007-TT)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Thermaltake_Cases.html
£93.94

Other
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) (AC-000-AC)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Thermal_Materials.html
£6.99

Thermaltake Big Typhoon 4 in 1 Heatpipe (Socket 939/754/775/478) CPU Cooler (CL-P0114) (HS-007-TT)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Thermaltake_CPU_Coolers.html
£29.32

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk (N09-01528) (OS-001-MS)
£61.04
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Operating_Systems.html

Sub- Total – £986.19

Then I thought I would add in a 80GB Samsung Spinpoint for £30.49 and use it to run the operating system off.

Sub-Total - £1016.68

--

Can anyone confirm if the above is all compatiable and suggest some goodies for me to buy with the remaining £40 - (want to keep a good bit for delivery)

I was thinking of getting a temperature unit so I could keep a quick eye on how things are - but I'm not really sure I need one and I think the novelty of having one is winning that over.

The alternative is to spend the rest on a floppy drive (if anyone would kindly suggest whether I need one or not, I'm not really sure) and spend the rest on bits and pieces, cables, stuff to tidy cables up - maybe buy a couple of fans and fan filters.

In regards to connections for fans - what should I be checking for? My current case runs three fans and no more, but it has been a long time since I ventured into there so I've sort of forgotten how they are connected. :o

Lastly (I think) - what is the best thing to take stock compound off a CPU and is it 100% necessary when using a foreign product (never done it before, so I have little idea)

Think that's the height of my questions - if someone could sort me out then I promise I'll stop annoying everyone and talking to myself in threads.

Cheers.
 
Slogan said:
Have you ordered yours yet?

Thanks for your help by the way.
Click to expand...

Not quite sure on most of your questions, so I'll let someone else answer them! I've not ordered mine just yet - I'm waiting for the weekend, or maybe midway through the week to put through my final order.

Would be pleased to hear what Gigabyte have to say to you...

...and you're welcome :)
 
I don't want to rock the boat too much, but there have been endless tales and fuss of the 7900GT's failing a lot recently. There's a higher than normal chance of having to RMA it if you get one. The X1800XT is cheaper, a bit faster, and much less likely to be dead on arrival.

Having said that, the 7900GT is still quick and you might be alright. But be warned, have a quick search for this issue in the graphics card forum and you'll see a slightly disturbing number of threads talking about dead 7900's. :( Just something to consider.
 
Skidmark said:
Would be pleased to hear what Gigabyte have to say to you...
Click to expand...

"Hi,

Sorry but the Intel Core 2 Duo (E6600) still under testing and we have no definate answer this BIOS Flash."

Fantastic... :(

HicRic said:
I don't want to rock the boat too much,
Click to expand...

Nah, not at all. Appreciate the shout infact!

Had a look in the forums and it's quite unbelievable how many seem to have gone pear-shaped.

If you reckon the X1800XT will do a similar or better job - then I'll stick that in. I have no real idea when it comes to graphics cards in particular - and even the 7900GT was a recommendation from elsewhere.

Might also consider running it as stock - although the big typhoon might be a sensible purchase, as my room isn't quite the coolest.

Decisions, decisions...
 
Just a quickie - If I do go down the route of buying a Cely to flash the bios - will it definitely work? (i.e. Will the Conroe run?)

I don't really want to - but I'm fast running out of patience as the excitement builds.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom