Buying this weekend - Need quick advice please!

EvilGrin

EvilGrin

EvilGrin

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Joined
12 Oct 2004
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1,432
Location
Aberdeen, Scotland
Hey guys, well i've settled on what I really want, but I'm overstretching my budget too much and really need to find a way to cut back.

My main aim with the system is to get a rock-solid stable overclock of 3.0-3.5 GHz that I can run 24/7 and have a generally solid budget behemoth of a gaming system. I just need to shave a few pounds off this beast and i'm good to go!

Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK) - £70.49
Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - £128.06
Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler - £34.06
Gainward BLISS GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail - £251.44
Crucial 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Tenth Anniversary Dual Channel Kit (TY2KIT12864AA663) - £199.74
Asus P5N-E SLi nForce 650 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard - £88.11
2x Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620A ATA-100 16MB Cache - £66.96

Total - £905.83 inc. VAT.

I need to make some fairly hefty compromises and cut this by £75-100. Please help!!

Any ideas where to start? Can I achieve the desired overclocks with any cheaper gear? My first place to look would be the RAM, i've looked at alternatives and it seems a few people have good results with the OCZ 2gb PC2-6400 kit that comes in at £165, that would instantly chop £35 off, which is a good start, but advisable?

If worst comes to the worst, I think I'd just chop back to 1x 320 Gb hdd and forget about storage for now, but i'd rather cut back in other areas before donig this!

Also, the tuniq tower is a bit of a giant and I might have issues fitting it into my thermaltake tsunami dream, any other alternatives that don't take up quite so much space but will allow me my 3-3.5 ghz oc on a E6300?

Thanks a lot guys!
 
1. you can start by using a cheaper ram. That alone can save you £40-50.

And getting 3.5Ghz out of a E6300 with air cooling is impossible. Even with H20 it's going to be tough. My best bet is 3Ghz and chips overclocks differently anyway, depends if you get a good stepping.

The rest of your specs have to stay.
 
Personally I'd go for SATA HDD tbh. If you don't have money for 2 SATA drives then go for 1 first.

Why not go for the cheaper E4300 with cheaper PC6400 RAM?? The E4300 is essentially E6300 but with only 800FSb and 9* multi so makes it an excellent ocer. You don't need expensive RAM to OC the 4300 too, so the OCZ you mentioned or even the OCUK value kit will suffice.

Only thing is the E4300 is not out until end of this month.
 
Just get the OcUK 800mhz DDR2 ram, the motherboard you picked doesn't need fast memory to get high a high FSB. Would also just get a single S-ata HD for now.

Lolcb said:
And getting 3.5Ghz out of a E6300 with air cooling is impossible.
Click to expand...

Since when has it been impossible? :p

I have seen e6300s doing 3.7ghz on stock cooling (obviously getting very hot), with the Tuniq Tower they would be ok for 24/7 use at 3.5 no problem as long as the motherboard is up to it.

Edit: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=8540295&postcount=95

Theres one doing 3.5ghz on that motherboard with stock cooling.
 
Raikiri said:
Just get the OcUK 800mhz DDR2 ram, the motherboard you picked doesn't need fast memory to get high a high FSB. Would also just get a single S-ata HD for now.



Since when has it been impossible? :p

I have seen e6300s doing 3.7ghz on stock cooling (obviously getting very hot), with the Tuniq Tower they would be ok for 24/7 use at 3.5 no problem as long as the motherboard is up to it.

Edit: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=8540295&postcount=95

Theres one doing 3.5ghz on that motherboard with stock cooling.
Click to expand...

Ye, but what are the chances that everyone's chip can do the same?

I did mention that it will involve what stepping he get for his cpu.
 
Thanks for all the replies!

I'm wondering, what exactly would be the benefit, if any, of having PC2-6400 over PC2-5300 ram? Presuming there isn't really any appreciable difference, these are the more budget chips i'm looking into:

Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT12864AA663) - £176.24
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-088-CR

G.Skill 2GB DDR2 LA PC2-5400 (2x1GB) CAS4 Dual Channel Kit (F2-5400) - £170.36
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-012-GS

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) - £166.84
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-058-GL

OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) - £164.49
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-072-OC

G.Skill 2GB DDR2 PK PC2-6400 (2x1GB) CAS4 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400) - £173.89
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-017-GS

Or from a competitor i've seen this stuff: OCZ (OCZ2SOE6672GK) 2GB (2x1024MB) DDR-667 PC2-5400 CL 4-4-4-8 Gold XTC *SPECIAL OPS* Edition for £168.35 is that any good?

I'd really like a good balance of performance, quality and reliability - I know crucial have a brilliant RMA service, but is there any real discernable difference between the ram above that makes them more fit for purpose than others?

As for the PSU, I really like the look of the OCZ ModStream 520w for £58.74:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-017-OC

It would look very nice in my rig as it has uv reactive coating which would look pretty in me side window! :D However, I don't really want to sacrifice performance for pretty lights, so my question is, would there be any discernable difference in performance from this PSU with the corsair with the aforementioned overclocks?

Thanks a lot for the help guys, much appreciated! :)
 
Gainward BLISS GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
£213.99
(£251.44)
Asus P5N-E SLi nForce 650 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £71.99
(£84.59)
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C5 800MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit £126.99
(£149.21)
Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler
£28.99
(£34.06)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB 3200KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £103.98
(£122.18)
Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - OEM £101.99
(£119.84)
Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK) £59.99
(£70.49)

Sub Total : £707.92

Total: £831.81 inc VAT

£75 less than your first spec with basically the same parts, ram is a little worse but the motherboard uses Async FSB/Mem speeds so it really doesn't matter.
 
Raikiri said:
£75 less than your first spec with basically the same parts, ram is a little worse but the motherboard uses Async FSB/Mem speeds so it really doesn't matter.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that, so you think this ram'll clock pretty much just as well as the more expensive kit?
 
Like I keep saying, it doesn't need to :p

The motherboard allows you to set the RAM speed and FSB speed at seperate speeds. Although it will probably do around 900mhz which is 1:1 at 3.15ghz.

The speed difference between this and the more expensive ram will be minimal, the most difference you would see would be in things like super pi which doesn't really represent actual programs.
 
Tombo said:
E4300 is out in the next couple of days ? Why not get that.
Click to expand...

Will make more of a saving from the special offer on the gainward this weekend than i would by getting a 4300... Plus I think I can get the 6300 from a competitor for the same price as ocuk's 4300 too.

Raikiri said:
Like I keep saying, it doesn't need to :p

The motherboard allows you to set the RAM speed and FSB speed at seperate speeds. Although it will probably do around 900mhz which is 1:1 at 3.15ghz.

The speed difference between this and the more expensive ram will be minimal, the most difference you would see would be in things like super pi which doesn't really represent actual programs.
Click to expand...

I see what you're saying now, and nice, thanks for that! :)
 
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