Check the spec!

Ole · 1 Feb 2006 at 18:54

Hey guys,

You may remember a while ago i posted about getting a PC built and some of you helped me come up with a spec. Here is the thread:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17519883

Well my exams are finally over, at last! So it's time to get this built. Basically here is the spec i was listed back then:

MB-111-AS Asus A8N-SLi Premium nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-111-AS) 1
£109.95 £109.95
HD-017-SA Samsung SpinPoint P SP2004C 200GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-017-SA) 1
£59.75 £59.75
GX-056-XF XFX GeForce 6800 GS Extreme XXX Edition 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-056-XF) 1
£149.95 £149.95
CD-024-NE NEC ND4550 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-024-NE) 1
£26.50 £26.50
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR) 1
£9.95 £9.95
HS-009-AR Arctic Cooling nVidia 5 (6800 Series) VGA Silencer (HS-009-AR) 1
£11.95 £11.95
CP-127-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA4400CDBOX) (CP-127-AM) 1
£304.95 £304.95
CA-040-AN Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU (CA-040-AN) 1
£65.50 £65.50
Subtotal £738.50
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £10.95
VAT £131.16
Total £880.61

Remembering that i already have 2gb of RAM, so we don't need that, and i wanted it to be nice and quiet (hence the case) would make any changes to this spec? Any good offers on at the moment?

Budget £900 - looking forward to seeing your responses, thanks!

kbc · 1 Feb 2006 at 19:08

From the existing spec you posted above, it looks fine to me. The ASUS A8N Premium will go nicely with the X2 4400+. I'm sure you know why.

(see sig).

Good choice.

Ole · 1 Feb 2006 at 19:12

Just thought, can you include any cables i am going to need as well, i want to buy absolutely everything in one go.

Ole · 1 Feb 2006 at 19:15

Yeah really looking forward to it, my current system is starting to show its age.

kbc · 1 Feb 2006 at 19:49

Ole said:
Just thought, can you include any cables i am going to need as well, i want to buy absolutely everything in one go.

You won't need any IDE or SATA cables, because it will all be provided within the ASUS A8N Premium box.

StarShock · 1 Feb 2006 at 20:11

looks pretty good to me

saying that, you may want to go for the :
Zalman VF700-CU Quiet Copper VGA Cooler (HS-013-ZA)
£19.95

rather than the AC I've heard good things about it and its in stock

Ole said:
... i want to buy absolutely everything in one go.

also don't forget to get an operating system

p4radox · 1 Feb 2006 at 20:38

I'd get the Zalman Vf700 over the Arctic Cooling VGA silencer - the Zalman is of a much higher quality and is silent at 5V.
I'd also get a Radeon X850XT instead of the 6800GS, but it's personal preference really, the Radeon has more grunt but the GS has SM3 support.

Ole · 1 Feb 2006 at 20:50

p4radox said:
I'd get the Zalman Vf700 over the Arctic Cooling VGA silencer - the Zalman is of a much higher quality and is silent at 5V.
I'd also get a Radeon X850XT instead of the 6800GS, but it's personal preference really, the Radeon has more grunt but the GS has SM3 support.

Thanks, what's everyone else's advice on this? Tough choice.

p4radox · 1 Feb 2006 at 21:02

Ole said:
Thanks, what's everyone else's advice on this? Tough choice.

Check the Graphics Cards sections. There's been lots and lots of discussion on this topic.

StarShock · 1 Feb 2006 at 21:21

you may aswell flip a coin, neither will disappoint, if you get the x850xt you get to go "ooo look at the high FPS!" and if you get the 6800 you get "ooo look at the pretty lights!"

Ole · 1 Feb 2006 at 21:35

That tight then eh? lol

I think i'll definitely go for the Zalman as well, nice and quiet

Ole · 2 Feb 2006 at 21:47

Just seen the Windows XP Professional 64 version, is it worth it?

StarShock · 2 Feb 2006 at 21:59

Ole said:
Just seen the Windows XP Professional 64 version, is it worth it?

honestly I would say no, while you would see some small benefits to it with regards memory and processor usage, for 99% of the time you're likley to be running programs in 32bit mode anyway, and apparently it can cause problems with hardware drivers and older software

Ole · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:40

StarShock said:
honestly I would say no, while you would see some small benefits to it with regards memory and processor usage, for 99% of the time you're likley to be running programs in 32bit mode anyway, and apparently it can cause problems with hardware drivers and older software

Ok thanks