Check My Spec Please

Coln · 31 May 2006 at 23:30

Hey all,

Not built a new system for a year and a half so thought it was time for a change.

Will be using a few of bits from my old rig just to save money, but they are good bits

Case - Lian Li PC-65
Enermax Niosetaker 470W
W Digital 250GB Sata

Here's also what i'm looking to buy new, but i am quite flexible on spec, etc provided the replacements aren't grossly expensive. The PC will be used mostly for gaming, net, etc:-

AMD 64 X2 4200
ASUS A8N-E Nforce4 PCI-E (not really bothered about SLI)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro
Leadtek 7900GT Extreme 256
Geil Value PC3200 2x1GB
Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme Music + Headset
W Digital 320GB Sata

I'll also be on the lookout for a new TFT monitor too. Probably around a 20" widescreen. Any recommendations there??

Many thanks to all who look and reply.

Cheers,

xirokx · 31 May 2006 at 23:41

will you be overclocking?

whats your budget?

AMD 64 X2 4200

a lot of ppl either go for the X2 3800 or the X2 4400 because you can overclock the X2 3800 to faster speeds than the X2 4200 or if you dont want to overclock they settle for the X2 4400...

Probably around a 20" widescreen

if you are gaming using a res any higher than 1280 x 1024 you require a gfx card with 512mb.....if you purchase a gfx card with 256mb you will have to lower the res which means why fork out a lot of money for a 20" widescreen when you cant use it to its potential becuz of your gfx card...

Coln · 31 May 2006 at 23:49

Cheers for the quick reply m8.

will you be overclocking?

Maybe some mild overclocking, nothing too extreme though as i've not got a lot of experience with these things.

whats your budget?

Budget is a tricky one. Selling some bits and bobs i have on Ebay which should go for around £1000, maybe more

a lot of ppl either go for the X2 3800 or the X2 4400 because you can overclock the X2 3800 to faster speeds than the X2 4200 or if you dont want to overclock they settle for the X2 4400...

X2 4200 seemed to be a nice step up from the AMD 64 3200 i have at the moment. The 4400 is a wee bit of a step up in price but i could probably stretch that far if needed.

if you are gaming using a res any higher than 1280 x 1024 you require a gfx card with 512mb.....if you purchase a gfx card with 256mb you will have to lower the res which means why fork out a lot of money for a 20" widescreen when you cant use it to its potential becuz of your gfx card...

Gaming at the moment is limited to 1024x768 because of my old 9800 pro, but would be looking for a bit more with the new rig i suppose. Again a bit of a price rise from a 256mb card, but maybe able to stretch that far.

Looking to future proof as much as possible without going too mad if you know what i mean?

Cheers again

quadboi · 31 May 2006 at 23:53

Get the 4400, as others have said in this forum, go for the 3800 or the 4400 , the others aren't worth the cash.

xirokx · 1 Jun 2006 at 01:46

HS-017-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 775) (HS-017-AR)
£15.95 £15.95
MY-034-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB5300DC) (MY-034-GL)
£109.95 £109.95
CP-116-IN Intel Pentium 4 805 Dual Core "LGA775 Smithfield" 2.66GHz (533FSB) - Retail (CP-116-IN)
£71.95 £71.95
MB-116-AS Asus P5ND2 SLi nForce4 SLi (LGA775) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-116-AS)
£59.95 £59.95
CA-040-AN Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU (CA-040-AN)
£56.95 £56.95
HD-018-SA Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-018-SA)
£45.95 £45.95
GX-027-BG BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 6200 LE Turbo Cache 256MB DDR TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-027-BG)
£19.95 £19.95
Subtotal £380.65
VAT £66.62
Total £447.27

You can change the gfx card for a better one if you like however this is a great system although its intel if you overclock it you can get it running at 4.3ghz

ACESHIGH · 1 Jun 2006 at 02:34

xirokx said:
HS-017-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 775) (HS-017-AR)
£15.95 £15.95
MY-034-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB5300DC) (MY-034-GL)
£109.95 £109.95
CP-116-IN Intel Pentium 4 805 Dual Core "LGA775 Smithfield" 2.66GHz (533FSB) - Retail (CP-116-IN)
£71.95 £71.95
MB-116-AS Asus P5ND2 SLi nForce4 SLi (LGA775) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-116-AS)
£59.95 £59.95
CA-040-AN Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU (CA-040-AN)
£56.95 £56.95
HD-018-SA Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-018-SA)
£45.95 £45.95
GX-027-BG BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 6200 LE Turbo Cache 256MB DDR TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-027-BG)
£19.95 £19.95
Subtotal £380.65
VAT £66.62
Total £447.27

You can change the gfx card for a better one if you like however this is a great system although its intel if you overclock it you can get it running at 4.3ghz

No offence but thats a pretty useless sytem. He said he wont overclock much & the 805 Dual Core is only worth it if overclocking heaps. But then you generate lots of heat, & spend lots of money on the extra electricity bill.
The graphics card is very poor.

ACESHIGH · 1 Jun 2006 at 02:40

Coln said:
AMD 64 X2 4200
ASUS A8N-E Nforce4 PCI-E (not really bothered about SLI)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro
Leadtek 7900GT Extreme 256
Geil Value PC3200 2x1GB
Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme Music + Headset
W Digital 320GB Sata

CPU is good if mild overclocking only. Otherwise X2 4400+.
Mobo is fine for moderate overclocks.
Cooler is very nice.
Graphics card is fine but if you want a 512MB card as said above for the large TFT then you should get the Sapphire ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB - just as fast, but double the ram & cheaper at only £223.19 Including VAT - This Week Only.
Ram, HDD & soundcard are all fine, imo.

Click to expand...

Coln · 1 Jun 2006 at 17:47

Ok guys s here's the updated spec i've made because of all your nice recommendations:-

The ** means parts i'm using from my other computer which i'll reuse.

**Lian Li-PC65 Brushed Aluminium with window and UV

**Enermax Noisetaker 460W

CP-127-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA4400CDBOX) (CP-127-AM)
£264.95 £264.95

MB-088-AS Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS)
£53.95 £53.95

FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£14.95 £14.95

MY-034-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB5300DC) (MY-034-GL)
£114.95 £114.95

GX-038-OK OcUK GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-038-OK)
£254.95 £254.95

SC-034-CL Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music - Retail (SC-034-CL)
£64.95 £64.95

HD-070-WD Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB 3200KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-070-WD)
£64.95 £64.95

**Western Digital Caviar 250GB SATA-II 16MB CACHE

**Lite-On (JLMS) HD165H DVD-Rom

**Pioneer 110 DVD-RW

Subtotal £833.65
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £8.95
VAT £147.46

Total £990.06

Couple of quick q's:-

1. Is there any benefits in getting a newer SLI mobo other than SLI capabilities??

2. The Enermax 460W PSU will be enough to power this little lot won't it??

Many thanks again to all

ACESHIGH · 2 Jun 2006 at 05:31

Yes the mobo is very good.
PSU should handle all the gear nicely.
Note you have a s939 mobo & CPU... the ram you chose wont work as s939 uses DDR ram not DDR2 ram.

Get something like this ...
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL)
GeIL Value offers outstanding performance levels at a very low price point, is compatible with all systems and backed up by a lifetime warranty. GeIL Value also has good overclocking ability.

- 184pin, Non-ECC, Un-buffered, high performance DDR memory modules
- GeIL 5ns 32x8 Density DDR Chip
- 6 Layers Ultra Low Noises Shielded PCB
- Optimized SPD for Dual Channel DDR motherboards
- Blue Aluminum Heat Spreader
- CAS 3.0 8-4-4 @ DDR400 PC3200
- 2.55V-2.95V
- Lifetime return to manufacturer warranty

Full Specification

Price: £114.95 (£135.07 Including VAT at 17.5%)

fenderbass86 · 2 Jun 2006 at 05:44

Also DDR2 isn't compatible with 939 AMD systems.

*Doh, didn't read properly, it's too early for this!*

Coln · 2 Jun 2006 at 11:31

Ah crap that's my fault

Someone replied above saying to use it, but that was in an Intel rig.

I've already got 1GB Geil Value PC3200 in this machine and it looks good and has always performed fine, so no worries there then

Many thanks again guys.

Coln · 2 Jun 2006 at 12:54

Ok then, just to throw another queestion in here while we're at it.

Would using an AM2 4200 be a sensible option instead of the s939??

I know it means changing mobo and no Arctic Freezer yet though, but it does mean DDR2 memory.

Any thoughts on that change??

ACESHIGH · 2 Jun 2006 at 16:15

I think this is apt...

Explicit said:
- Decent low-latency DDR2 RAM costs well over £300.
- AM2 CPUs are not in stock yet.
- There is only one aftermarket heatsink for AM2 at the moment which is also not in stock.
- Motherbaords lack variety (e.g. no DFI overclocking boards) and of the ones that are available, there is hardly any feedback on the forums.
- Motherboards also appear to be buggy, look here for example.
- Also bare in mind that the performance difference between Socket 939 and AM2 is negligible.
- Socket 939 is a mature, reliable and proven system - it's also much cheaper too!
- On the otherhand, AM2 is more future proof and seems to have a better upgrade path, AFAIK AMD will be releasing their new 65nm processors on socket AM2.

I wouldn't want to be an £850 guinea pig tester for new gear. But someone has to take the plunge into the AM2 pool, and if BloodWolf chooses to be one of them, then Semi-Pro has given a good AM2 spec above.

I'm not saying Socket 939 is better than AM2, I'm just giving the OP some points to consider when deciding whether to choose 939 or AM2 from the perspective of how things stand today.