£800 Box

Raito

Raito

Raito

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Joined
21 Jun 2007
Posts
9
Looking for a good spec for a £800 box. Just the innards, don't need a Case(Unless there's a good deal on a case and PSU), OS or DVD drive.

Thanks in advance. :)
 
spec.jpg


Am I forgetting anything? Any better alternatives to the parts I have?

Also, I hear 4GB won't register under Vista 32-bit? Wasn't planning to run 64bit due to compatibility issues.
 
Looks pretty good, regarding the memory you'll probably see only 3.2 GB, instead of the 4 on a 32 bit os.
Any particular reason for choosing Nvidia chipset on the MB, planning to go SLI later ?
 
Gunther said:
Looks pretty good, regarding the memory you'll probably see only 3.2 GB, instead of the 4 on a 32 bit os.
Any particular reason for choosing Nvidia chipset on the MB, planning to go SLI later ?
Click to expand...

I was thinking about it, but is it really worth it to throw in another 2 years down the line to increase the life span of my machine?

If I'm not going for SLi is there a better chip set you'd recommend?
 
P35 range - Abit boards are good, running the PRO version with 4gb & overclocked Q6600 at 3.0ghz.

Or look at the X38 range they provide full 16x on both PCIE lanes when running crossfire compared to P35 which is 4 x & 16x and they are version 2 complient. (if your interested in crossfire)

(They can take single Nvidia cards without problems - wording above souded like they only accept ATI range)

Rob
 
64-bit OS has much better compatibility than most people think, the support for it now is good I've very few things that don't actually work in Vista 64-bit now... Enough of that for now, P35 chipsets are a good bet for that processor! Except I believe P35 chipsets are not compatible with SLI only ATi Crossfire.
 
Hello Raito, concerning your specification, I would look into purchasing one of the P35 chipset based motherboards since they offer great overclocking potential and are all around brilliant boards. The only reason i would choose one of the Nvidia chipset based boards is, if you are looking at going SLI in the future.

Moving onto the memory, the Crucial Ballistix is great memory however may I open a few other options up for you. If you are looking to overclock your Q6600 to around the 3.4GHz mark then may i suggest the OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2, which for the price, you cant beat it. Now even if you keep this particular memory running at its stated speed of 800MHZ, it will take your Q6600 all the way up to 3.6GHz. I am also pretty sure, this memory wont have any problems reaching the 900MHZ mark anyway.

Another memory kit that you may be interested in is the OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB) PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel Vista Gold Series DDR2, they come in the form of 2X 2GB which will allow for upgrading to 8GB in the future if need be. However that's not really the main reason for suggesting these, the main reason is the price, £82.24 inc VAT for this sort of memory is phenomenal in my opinion. Though please take into account that if you are looking to run your Q6600 above the 3.6GHz mark then do not get the above since these, very much like most of the other 2X 2GB memory kits out their, they are very limited in terms of overclocking potential.

May I also suggest, if you are looking into overclock the Q6600 then look at changing the Artic Cooling Freezer. Now their is nothing wrong with the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler, for the price, it does a great job however, it could well hold your overclock back. Have a look at either the Tuniq Tower or the Noctua NH-U12F. I have heard a number of very good reviews for the above CPU Coolers.

One final thing that I have to mention is regarding the Power Supply. Their is nothing wrong with the OCZ StealthXStream, I have read a couple of good reviews on them but even having said that, i would still be very weary of it based on the price. A Power Supply is one of the most important components that is in your machine so in my opinion, you should never look at getting a cheapish power supply unit. The power supply I would recommend would be the Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU, having heard a lot of excellent reviews on this particular power supply and having one myself, I can't praise it highly enough.
 
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Go for the Ultima-90 Thermalright cooler with an S-flex 1600rpm fan. (will cost around £30-35 altogether) It's the little brother of the Thermalright-120 Ultra Extreme and out performs the Tuniq tower 120 (albeit only just) for around the same price. If you put a 120mm fan on it it'll also help cool other mobo parts.

Regarding PSU, if you want to change from the OCZ unit you selected (which I hope is good as I have bought it to power my Q6600 system :)) I would go for the Corsair 520w unit of the same family as the 620w one you have now. The 520w is highly recommended on here from others and 620w is probably slightly overkill for what you need (will also free up cash for the better CPU cooler).

Just my opinion mind :)
 
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