First build in a long while - does this kit go togetherok?

Diss

Diss

Diss

Associate
Joined
28 Oct 2002
Posts
1,510
Hi
Its been about 3 years since i last built a PC and am probably a bit behind with the tech now.

Am looking for comments on whether the following is OK and/or alternate suggestions.

Things to note:
* it will be dual boot linux/XP
* Overclocking not essential but i will probably look to do some moderate OC in the future (but still with the retail heatsink - is that OK?
* i have graphics card (old 8900GT) but looking to upgrade in the future
* i do play the odd 3D game - but not so much these days, so not vital

Heres what i have picked out so far:

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Asus P5Q-E Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £84.99
(£99.86)

G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PK PC2-8500C5 (2x2GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK) £79.99
(£93.99)

Antec P182 Super Midi Tower Case (Gun Metal Black) / Antec True Power 650W PSU £142.98
(£168.00)

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.50GHz 6MB-cache (1333FSB) Processor - Retail £154.99
(£182.11)

Pioneer DVR-215DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
(£17.61)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103UJ) Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103UJ) £75.99
(£89.29)

thanks for your help

Diss
 
Diss said:
you mean this?

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "LGA775 Kentsfield" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail

why would you recommend this over the other one - isn't the 9300 newer?

thanks

Diss
Click to expand...

Anyways you didnt mention the most important thing which is the purpose of this build.

The Q6600 OCes a bit higher than Q9300 and is a lot cheaper as well.
However if you are doing any encoding/ graphic /sound work then Q9300 wins due to larger cache .

You could do with a lot cheaper mobo if you don't plan to overclock much.
Also I will be looking at 8gb of ram for rendering/encoding rig.


Please tell us the purpose of this PC and what are you expecting from it,
maybe you dont need to spend that kind of money and there is no need in paying lets say 500GBP for PC if 300GBP one will do the job just as well (ie. no point selling someone 700quid laptop for web surfing ).
 
Diss said:
you mean this?

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "LGA775 Kentsfield" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail

why would you recommend this over the other one - isn't the 9300 newer?

thanks

Diss
Click to expand...

the Q6600 is far cheaper and overall its better (more cache) but mainly the price, the Q9300 would be good at 80 pounds.. not 180

PhoenixUK said:
Anyways you didnt mention the most important thing which is the purpose of this build.

The Q6600 OCes a bit higher than Q9300 and is a lot cheaper as well.
However if you are doing any encoding/ graphic /sound work then Q9300 wins due to larger cache .
Click to expand...

the Q6600 has more cache 8mb, rather than a Q9300 with only 6MB. HALF that of the others in the Q9 family

and dont get 8GB ram unless your certain atleast one app will use it... aside from server stuff i dont know of a program that uses 8gb of ram
 
Last edited:
thanks guys

i see what you mean about the cpu now

i chose the mobo cos it seemed to be the cheapest with external SATA (not that i have any external sata kit at the moment) - what the main difference between the one i chose and this one:
Asus P5Q Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard @ £76.36

apart from external sata is it just the ability to overclock?

i take the point about knowing the purpose - as i assume the component choice is affected, and need to be 'in balance' - its pretty much general purpose but surfing, downloading (bittottent), watching (not encoding) TV/movies and quite a bit of gaming CIV4, Hearts of Iron and sometimes Half Life (and in linux running XP in a virtual machine, so multitasking is important) - however i do like to play around with it and try a bit of overclocking (would consider a better cooler but wouldn't go as far as water cooling)

is the retail cooler ok for moderate overclocking? can you say what i might be able to get it up to and still stay pretty cool

moneywise i am in the lucky positon of having a gift of £550 that i have to spend (i can't take the cash), so am happy to pay a little bit extra for good kit if it gives me extra potential

thanks

diss
 
Be aware that, for now at least, that board (P5Q) has issues in Linux. The onboard LAN uses an Atheros chip that doesn't have drivers in the kernel yet, although you can manually compile and install them yourself if you grab the drivers from Atheros' site.

Also there are reports that no known current Linux kernel will boot when the BIOS' sata mode is set to IDE, you have to switch it when booting Linux, and back again for Windows. That's what I've read this week anyway, as I was set on this board but I too use Linux a lot as well as Windows. Does anyone else know about this?
 
thanks rainmaker

gonna have to put this purchase on hold

hopefully someone will pop in with some more info

do you have any other recommendations : abit/gigabyte etc?

cheers

diss
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom