Check over this spec please

Dark_Angel · 28 Dec 2006 at 13:06

Yes, the GPU sucks, cause I am waiting till feburary to save up a bit and then buy an 8800GTX, and maybe have a look at what the R600 offers... boy it will be hard using this card for a month or so though

Anyways!

E6300
DS3 mobo
2 gigs DDR2 6400 OCUK ram
DVD writter (I need a decent sata one)
PSU I have been told a 520 watt corsair should do?
GPU 6200 128MB PCI-E

Concerns:

1. I really want the best overclocking board I can get my hands on for that kind of price (100 or so) is the DS3 the best?

2. I have 2 decent EIDE hard drives, so I obviously need a sata drive (I think most Intel chipsets only have 1 EIDE now?)

3. I have a budget of around 500. so obviously am looking at the best bang for buck.

The machine will be used for Photoshop and stuff like that, but also gaming... the second I get rid of the horrible 6200 anyway. Do people think it may be better for me to get a 7300GS or something? that way I could maybe play a game like never winter nights 2? as I said the card will eventually (in feb) be turned in to just a spare, assuming I can resist the urge to stamp on it for holding my rig back when I replace it with a new 8800GTX or whatever.

semi-pro waster · 28 Dec 2006 at 13:11

The DS3 or DS4 is as good a motherboard as you are likely to get for the money (the DS4 has firewire built in and slightly better sound).

For the SATA DVDRW, I'd just buy any as they are all much of a muchness as far as I know.

The PSU will be fine, including going for an 8800GTX in future. I suspect that a 6200 or a 7300gs will offer much the same in terms of performance, neither will be great.

steve258 · 28 Dec 2006 at 13:25

The Intel chipset has NO IDE in the newest ICH8/R i.e.DS3, DS4. The only IDE channel is provided by gigabyte's own chipset.

Dark_Angel · 28 Dec 2006 at 13:32

semi-pro waster said:
The DS3 or DS4 is as good a motherboard as you are likely to get for the money (the DS4 has firewire built in and slightly better sound).

For the SATA DVDRW, I'd just buy any as they are all much of a muchness as far as I know.

The PSU will be fine, including going for an 8800GTX in future. I suspect that a 6200 or a 7300gs will offer much the same in terms of performance, neither will be great.

Which out of the DS3 or 4 would you say is better to get? I never use firewire, but is the sound improvement worth it?

Dmack · 28 Dec 2006 at 13:36

if you dont have a sound card then i would say probably yes plus the difference between the ds3 and ds4 is only like 8 pound unlike MD where it's like 14 because the ds3 is 94 there

Dark_Angel · 28 Dec 2006 at 18:39

2 more quick questions I just thought of!

1. CPU cooler, is it worth buying a 3rd party one? does the retail cooler allow for any room at all while overclocking? if a 3rd party one, which is best (air obviously).

2. OCUK ram, is it good? if not what ram would people recommend?

*EDIT*

One last thing, how will the 6200 128MB do for gaming? I understand it sucks, but will I be able to play Counter strike 1.6 and maybe Knights of the old republic 1 and stuff? obviously I will overclock the heck out of it.

It will need to last me a month or so, before I get the 8800 GT(X) ya see

semi-pro waster · 28 Dec 2006 at 19:08

If you can fit it into the budget then an aftermarket cooler is a good idea, an Arctic Freezer 7 will cost around £15 or a Tuniq Tower for around £30.

Not too sure on the Ram I'm afraid.

As said I'd go for the DS4 if you aren't buying a soundcard and it is still within budget but no great loss if you go for the DS3 I'm sure.

Since CS 1.6 isn't hugely graphically demanding and scales quite well (I've played HL2 on a Geforce 2 GTS without much of an issue) the 6200 should do for some basic gaming but the only way to be really sure is just to try it. I'm not sure about KOTOR but again some sort of gaming should be possible if you keep the details low.

Dark_Angel · 28 Dec 2006 at 19:18

Hmmm, I will probablly get the cooler. Which is the best for keeping temps nice and low?

Hmm, this is VERY amusing. I done a bit of research on the 6200, and you had better FEAR it. 50FPS in Unreal 2004 @1024 apparently lol... with some heavy overclocking I might be able to do something other than look at a slide show for a month!

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1753579,00.asp cast ya eyes on that

*EDIT*

LOL, the entertainment continues! http://www.beyond3d.com/previews/nvidia/6200/index.php?p=13 87 percent overclock!

semi-pro waster · 28 Dec 2006 at 19:22

Looks like you aren't going to have much fun for the first month then.

Probably the best coolers for socket 775 are the Tuniq Tower and the Scythe Ninja, both come in at around £30ish but the Arctic Freezer offers most of the performance at about half the price so if you don't have the budget for the others it is a good replacement.

Dark_Angel · 28 Dec 2006 at 19:24

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-017-AR So that will do nice with the above system then? (the freezer).

I dont know about not having fun, I get to play with a shiny new conroe for a month, plus I get the pleasures of trying out overclocking and getting that running great (plus reinstalling stuff!).

Plus, imagine the entertainment of trying to get every bit of performance out of the 6200

semi-pro waster · 28 Dec 2006 at 19:58

Dark_Angel said:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-017-AR So that will do nice with the above system then? (the freezer).

Yep, thats the one. I was sort-of joking about the fun part, I'm currently stuck on my laptop until I get a new copy of Windows XP for the main PC so I know all about not playing many games due to the limitations of a rubbish graphics card.