building this

sajtion · 6 Feb 2006 at 16:35

i was planning on builiding this system

Thermaltake PurePower 600W ATX2.0
Intel Pentium 4 660 "LGA775 Prescott" 3.6GHz (800FSB) with HT Technology
Corsair 1GB DDR XMS3200XL XPERT TwinX (2x512MB)
Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X 512MB
Samsung SpinPoint P SP2004C 200GB SATA-II 8MB
Asus P5N32 SLi Deluxe nForce4 SLi X16 (Socket 775) PCI-Express

total cost £1184.05

does anyone have any comments, suggestions or any other thoughts???

Wyvern971 · 6 Feb 2006 at 16:57

Any particular reason for going with Intel?

(despite prefering Intel myself for a long time my next upgrade is most likely to be an AMD system (unless Intel can pull something really impressive out of their top hat) as the AMD chips offer far more perormance for what they cost.)

Unless you are doing heavy video encoding I'd say you'd get more perormance less heat and cheaper system with AMD

semi-pro waster · 6 Feb 2006 at 16:58

I don't know much about Intels but what you have there is compatible apart from the Ram which should be DDR2 as per Asus site

I'd also make it 2gb rather than 1gb.

Is there any reason in particular that you are going Intel? It looks like a gaming machine and for the budget you can get a more powerful A64 or X2 system.

Borden · 6 Feb 2006 at 17:09

Ok, here's an AMD rig i put together:

AMD Opteron UP 165 Dual Core San Diego 1.8GHz 2MB Cache (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-151-AM) 1
£229.95 £229.95
Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (3055) (GX-046-CO) 1
£339.95 £339.95
DFI LanParty UT RDX200CF-DR Crossfire (Socket 939) Motherboard (MB-017-DF) 1
£124.95 £124.95
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL) 1
£99.95 £99.95
Samsung SpinPoint P SP2004C 200GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-017-SA) 1
£57.95 £57.95
Enermax Noisetaker 600W EG701AX-VE(W) SFMA ATX2.0 SLI Compliant PSU (CA-021-EN) 1
£69.95 £69.95
Subtotal £922.70
VAT £161.48
Total £1,084.18

The Opteron processor is very good for overclocking, so you should be able to get quite a lot out of it, especially with the DFi motherboard which should also help with overclocking. The motherboard is also Crossfire compatible should you want to add another card in the future (not too sure whether the xt-x can be used in crossfire though). The PSU costs a little more but is a highly regarded brand and should offer stability. The 2GB of RAM will help in loading times of apps and should help with keeping games running smoothly.

When the CPU is overclocked, it should be miles faster than the Intel, especially as it's dual core. It also costs wuite a bit less

sajtion · 6 Feb 2006 at 17:15

i chose intel pentium 4 because of bigger cache size, 2mb l2 and 3.6gh over very overpriced amd 64 x2 with 2x gh and less cache.

Dirk · 6 Feb 2006 at 17:25

The reason A64 CPU's have less cache is because they don't need as much as an inefficient Intel. As for price, you get what you pay for. The advantage of choosing AMD right now is the plethora of good, cheap, overclockable CPUs like the Opterons. (Which is why someone has specced you up with one above).

BTW an AMD @ 2.6 is better for most things than an Intel @ 3.6. The numbers aren't comparable, like for like. Intels excell at certain tasks and AMD at others. If it's gaming you are primarily interested it's a no-brainer. AMD all the way.

semi-pro waster · 6 Feb 2006 at 17:28

Also just to clarify the Opteron 165 and 170s both have 2mb L2 cache which is the same as the PIV plus they clock and perform better. The PSU that mark1 specified is better as well.

The point about the Ram still stands though if you do go for the PIV, please check that out before ordering

Raikiri · 6 Feb 2006 at 19:46

sajtion said:
i chose intel pentium 4 because of bigger cache size, 2mb l2 and 3.6gh over very overpriced amd 64 x2 with 2x gh and less cache.

It is funny how misinformed some people can be.

The X2 are not at all overpriced, the lowest X2 outperforms the fastest pentium 4 dual core in about 90% of games (and some other things) and a 4400+ will beat it in everything.
This is because AMD are much more efficent, having shorter pipelines (and thus requiring less cache) and doing more work per mhz.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/08/01/dual/page8.html
Kepp in mind, the 3.2ghz pentium D 840 is about £80 more than the 3800+ and they are on even terms. Now whose overpriced?

BigDom · 6 Feb 2006 at 20:32

Oh btw the DFI is a BAD choice for a crossfire - best current choice is the Asus Crossfire. Better sound, SATA2 and overclocking options ( although there is a voltage issue with them with the more demanding CPUS - I'm guessing the 130nm ones).