Check My Proposed Conroe Rig

Valo · 17 Sep 2006 at 12:53

Well I've hopefully decided upon the components of my new Core2Duo Rig. What are your views? If you can suggest any improvements feel free!

CP-128-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-128-IN)
£194.99 £194.99

MB-108-AB Abit AW9D-MAX Intel 975X (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-108-AB)
£139.99 £139.99

MY-058-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) (MY-058-GL)
£169.99 £169.99

GX-047-CO Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (3056) (GX-047-CO)
£189.99 £189.99

CA-099-CM Coolermaster Mystique 631 Black (No PSU) (CA-099-CM)
£69.95 £69.95

CA-026-EN Enermax Liberty 400W ELT400AWT ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CA-026-EN)
£41.99 £41.99

CD-020-SO Sony DDU-1615 DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM (CD-020-SO)
£10.50 £10.50

CD-041-PO Pioneer DVR-111BK 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter - (Black) OEM (CD-041-PO)

£20.95 £20.95
HD-002-MI Mitsumi FA 404M 7in1 USB 2.0 Floppy & Media Drive - Black (HD-002-MI)
£11.99 £11.99

SP-000-AE Acoustic Energy Aego M 2.1 Speakers (Black) - Retail (SP-000-AE)
£69.95 £69.95

SW-004-NR Ahead Nero Premium v7 Suite - Retail (SW-004-NR)
£36.99 £36.99
Subtotal £957.28
VAT £167.53
Total £1,124.81

My only main concern is the psu, do you think it can handle all that? I'm also going to be reusing my existing RAID 0 Array of 2x 160GB SATA HD's. I also have Windows XP.

The main uses of the rig will be some light gaming WoW etc, I'm also wanting it to be able to run Vista when it finally makes an appearance.

What do you think?

Valo

ukdave · 17 Sep 2006 at 13:00

Looks good but yeh, i'd consider bumping the PSU. I think you'd get away with 400W but 460W would give some headroom.

Valo · 17 Sep 2006 at 14:42

I take it a 500watt psu would do the job?

ukdave · 17 Sep 2006 at 21:06

Yeh should do nicely providing its actual specs (amps) are better than the 400W you selected. Enermax, Seasonic, Tagan, OCZ, Antec off the top of my head - any of the big names are safe bets.

easyrider · 17 Sep 2006 at 21:13

Enermax Liberty 500 w would be a fine choice.

Munromax · 18 Sep 2006 at 10:36

Worth considering modular PSU's which allow only the necessary cables to be used and keep the rig much tidier inside. I got a Hyper 580 and it is really cool. On the wattage front its well worth considering any future requirements and trying to build them in.

hp7909 · 18 Sep 2006 at 10:44

Nice spec there. But I’d put more towards a better PSU, at-least 500W from a reputable brand like Tagan or Enermax or Seasonic or FSP (Sparkle).

Also, why the DVD-ROM drive? I ask because I had 1 & hardly ever used it

If you want two optical drives, again I suggest you stretch for 2 DVD±Writers

Sir Random · 18 Sep 2006 at 12:08

hp7909 said:
Also, why the DVD-ROM drive? I ask because I had 1 & hardly ever used it If you want two optical drives, again I suggest you stretch for 2 DVD±Writers

Why would anyone need 2 DVD±Writers?
I also have a DVD±Writer and a DVD-ROM, ideal for making backups of my DVDs and CDs. A plain DVD-ROM usually has a faster top speed than a DVD±Writer, so it's a bit quicker for installing games too.

Sem · 18 Sep 2006 at 12:33

i dont think read speed is slower on a DVD+RW drive compared to a DVD-ROM

also some are only around £20

hp7909 · 18 Sep 2006 at 13:03

Sir Random said:
{snip}A plain DVD-ROM usually has a faster top speed than a DVD±Writer, so it's a bit quicker for installing games too.

Oh really? Please do your research before you post

I still argue that its more practical to have two (2) DVD±Writers

Valo · 18 Sep 2006 at 13:13

I'm going to move the psu to the 500watt Enermax Liberty, thanks for the advice! When it comes to the optical drive side of things, I always use two drives on any machine I build. The DVD-ROM as the primary drive all cd's/dvd's are read using this and the DVD-RW is used sole purpose of writing media.

Sir Random · 18 Sep 2006 at 20:38

hp7909 said:
Oh really? Please do your research before you post

I still argue that its more practical to have two (2) DVD±Writers

If you look at the OcUK stock, you'll see that ALL DVD-ROMs have a top CD-Read speed of 48x, while a lot of the DVD±Writers have a top CD-Read speed of 40x. If I could link to other sites, I could show you plenty of DVD-ROMs with x52 CD-read speeds, but I can't find any DVD±Writers that offer that speed.

Valo said:
I always use two drives on any machine I build. The DVD-ROM as the primary drive all cd's/dvd's are read using this and the DVD-RW is used sole purpose of writing media.

I do exactly the same, it's the most practical setup to have.