Final rig, opinions?

jamieoliver22

jamieoliver22

jamieoliver22

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Joined
24 Jun 2007
Posts
70
Hey everyone,

I know you are probably bored of threads like these, but I just wanted to see what you thought about the rig I should be getting next Monday. Opinions are more than welcome.

At the moment, I currently have this rig:

AMD Athlon 2000+ 1.7ghz (well, less actually as it is overclocked)
MSI K4-Ultra motherboard
1gb PC-2700 DDR Ram
ATI Radeon x850XT (256mb - AGP)
2x IDE HDDs (80gb and 320gb)
2x Optical drives (DVD-ROM and DVD Rewriter)
Tagan 420w power supply
Click to expand...
And I intend to upgrade it to this rig:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6320 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Might get a better one when the prices drop
Leadtek GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2
Asus P5N-E SLi nForce 650 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
OCZ GameXStream 600w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply

EDIT: Changed rig - see below
Click to expand...
What are your opinions on this? It is going to cost me about £550 for all of this, and I hope for it to last me for a while. I intend to do some high end gaming on it and for web designing also. I will be running it with my Acer 19" Widescreen monitor (at 1440x900 res) and I will be keeping the hard drives/optical drives and the case also.

Cheers,
Jamie.
 
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My initial thoughts..

a) Get a 320mb GTS instead of a 640, as the price/performance ratio is better
b) Isn't P35 a better chipset than Nforce 650?
 
[TW]Fox said:
My initial thoughts..

a) Get a 320mb GTS instead of a 640, as the price/performance ratio is better
b) Isn't P35 a better chipset than Nforce 650?
Click to expand...
a) I was getting the one with more memory as it should help for higher textures and will allow me to max out on AA and such. Isn't 512mb the more or less standard for VRAM now anyway? And I thought it would last me a lot longer in doing so, I didn't fancy upgrading every few months.

b) I don't particularly know. The main reason I am going with that motherboard was the fact that it had two IDE slots (to enable me to use my old hard drives and optical drives). I have read through a couple of reviews about it and it seems to be a highly rated motherboard.
 
I'd agree with [TW]Fox, and go with a P35 chipset. Also get new SATA drives. The hard drive is the slowest part of a modern computer, so get the fastest you can and ditch those IDE drives (or put them in an older box as a file server).

Might be worth getting some OCuk 8500 RAM as it is practically the same price as your OCZ, but has a higher stock speed (500MHz on the FSB should be possible).
 
Well I didn't particularly want to get rid of my hard drives as I have only had one for about 18 months. I have a 80gb and a 320gb hard drive and both have quite a large amount of files on them.

If I was to get a new SATA hard drive, what would you sugest I get then? It is already costing me £550 as it is, and I don't particularly wish to pay a great deal more.

And if I was to get a P35 board, which of those would you suggest then?


EDIT: How about this drive? http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-130-WD - I have a WD drive now and it has been great quality. I don't want a Maxtor hard drive if I can help it, I have had 3 fail on me in the past.

EDIT2: Or while I am at it, I would probably be better of getting a 500gb drive instead: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-120-WD
 
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Drop the CPU to an e2160. I have a thread in CPU forum that shows overclocked there isn't much difference caused by the CPU cache.

Get the P35C DS3R motherboard from gigabyte. The Western Digital AAKS drives are amongst the fastest, Samsung Spinpoint's are good to.

Leadtek GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
(£234.99)

Gigabyte GA_P35C_DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 & DDR3 Motherboard
(£93.99)

OcUK 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel Kit
(£64.61)

Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK)
(£64.61)

Intel Core 2 Duo E2160 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail
(£58.74)

Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB 3200AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
(£54.04)
Sub Total : £485.94

Total : £582.67


A little over budget but 3GHz+ monster system you'll have there.
 
That does seem nice, but I didn't really want to overclock it. I think I will go with that system but get a 500gb drive instead and a better processor when the prices drop next week.

How about this one?

Gigabyte GA_P35C_DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 & DDR3 Motherboard
(£93.99)
Intel Core 2 Duo E6320 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
(£105.74)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 5000AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
(£65.79)
Leadtek GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
(£234.99)
Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK)
(£64.61)
OcUK 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel Kit
(£64.61)

Which comes to about £630...

Seeing as I only upgrade once every few years, I might as well pay a little bit more and get it a lot more future proof.

Any more suggestions?
Cheers
 
Fair enough, looks really good. I'd put a good cooler on that like a Tuniq Tower. Even if you're not going to overclock, it will keep it cool and quiet.
 
I have decided I am going to get the Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.33GHz (1333FSB) I think. I am going to see how the price cuts go first, but I am liking the look of that.

Is that G0 stepping or whatever that people have been talking about? Does it mean it will run cooler?

Also, I am changing the graphics card to the BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 640MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) as the Leadtek one is out of stock, and that card seems better too.
 
jamieoliver22 said:
I have decided I am going to get the Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.33GHz (1333FSB) I think. I am going to see how the price cuts go first, but I am liking the look of that.
Click to expand...

Seems like a good choice.

jamieoliver22 said:
Is that G0 stepping or whatever that people have been talking about? Does it mean it will run cooler?
Click to expand...

Yep

jamieoliver22 said:
Also, I am changing the graphics card to the BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 640MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) as the Leadtek one is out of stock, and that card seems better too.
Click to expand...

Same card, better warranty :)
 
melbourne720 said:
Unless your built like Rik Waller, it might be a tad on the big size.

G/fs look good with it as a nightie though ;)
Click to expand...

Lol, yeah - I heard it was an XXL? Built for Americans ay? :p I take a large, so an XXL will be massive :p But meh, I probably wouldn't wear it anyway. Being a geek is one thing, going out on the street showing everyone you are a geek is another :p
 
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