Completely out of touch, spec check please?!

Clowny666 · 13 Nov 2006 at 15:50

Hello guys, right, I've finally decided to upgrade the shuttle that has been (dis)gracing my desk for months(almost years) now. But, I'm completely out of touch in the old PC component market at the moment and I'm hoping I can pick your collective brains. I've thrown a quick spec together below for you to pull to pieces and advise me hopefully!

It's going to be used for mainly gaming (@1600x1200) and image processing, so I think I've chosen wisely?

CP-128-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-128-IN) £194.99 £194.99
GX-135-SP Sapphire ATI Radeon X1950 XT 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-135-SP) £159.99 £159.99
MB-061-GI Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-061-GI) £89.99 £89.99
MY-058-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) (MY-058-GL) £169.99 £169.99
HS-017-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 775) (HS-017-AR) £14.99 £14.99
CA-009-HP Hiper HPU-4M580 Type R 580W ATX2.2 PSU - Black (CA-009-HP) £44.99 £44.99
CA-054-LL Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Black Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (No PSU) (CA-054-LL) £48.99 £48.99
Subtotal £723.93

To be honest anything would be an upgrade over my XP3200

trojan698 · 13 Nov 2006 at 16:21

Looks very nice, you've been checking out my sig right?

Seriiously though it'll all work a treat, although I'd swap the X1950 for one of the 512mb x1900xt's in the clearance section @ £205.

Whats your max budget btw?

Snow-Munki · 13 Nov 2006 at 16:26

just so you know a few people have been saying hiper aren't that good.

personally i have one and find it perfectly fine, just thought i'd let you know incase the more recently ones aren't as good ?

1mm3 · 13 Nov 2006 at 16:32

Snow-Munki said:
just so you know a few people have been saying hiper aren't that good.

personally i have one and find it perfectly fine, just thought i'd let you know incase the more recently ones aren't as good ?

Lots of people here have had problems with their hipers going bust - not recommended

Also: @trojan698
Which of the x1900xt's would be the best buy or can you forward me somewhere that compares them? I am well aware some of them can be OC'd to xtx speeds but which provide the best value for money? (most are all priced the same at £205.63)

trojan698 · 13 Nov 2006 at 22:25

They're all the same to be honest. HIS do a version with a fancy heatpipe cooler but that comes at a price - the one in the clearance section isn't the one I'm on about btw

hyper_piper45 · 13 Nov 2006 at 22:40

Looks a good spec.

Although i would consider changing the graphics card to a x1900xt if you can afford it and also swapping the mobo for the ds4.

Clowny666 · 13 Nov 2006 at 22:52

Thanks for the reply guys, I'm looking at the 512MB 1900XT's now. One question is: are there any substantial benefits to the DS4 over the DS3?

V|per · 13 Nov 2006 at 22:56

only if you are overclocking, the ds4 seems to perform better on the conroe cpus, the ds3 on the allendales... apparently...

Clowny666 · 13 Nov 2006 at 22:59

Well, I'd like to have a go to see how far the combination can be pushed so maybe it's a DS4 then. Looking at the Hiper now, and I'm leaning towards getting another make instead, what's currently flavour of the month?

1mm3 · 14 Nov 2006 at 00:52

Clowny666 said:
Well, I'd like to have a go to see how far the combination can be pushed so maybe it's a DS4 then. Looking at the Hiper now, and I'm leaning towards getting another make instead, what's currently flavour of the month?

Will you be overclocking this rig? (It would be a shame not to IMO)

Since i think you should future proof your PSU, so next time you need to upgrade for gaming just whack an 8800/ r600 in there rather than have to replace both PSU and graphics card.

Enermax, tagan, seasonic are the ones to go for atm