Is this spec any good for an all rounder?

aeropars

aeropars

aeropars

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Location
Leicester , UK
HI Guys,

Not been in to hardward for a while and my new found interest comes as part of a new PC!

Here is what i have earmarked for the guts of a system. I am on a budgit!

Abit IP35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard - £85.76
Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (0A33435) - £50.51
OcUK GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail - £76.36
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) - £35.24
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail - £205.61

Hows that look? eEverything compatable?

Also, are these new wolfdale chips worth shelling out the extra for over their Conroe counterparts?

Your help is much apreciated!

Lee
 
I'm not fussed about overclocking to be honest. I'm not confident i could do it without melting the whole thing down! :)

I do want to play some games on it though. I'm not a heavy gamer but i'd like to have the odd go on half life 2 and some of the newser games.
 
I forgot to add, I will be doing video editing on this using Ulead Video Studo so i presume i need a fair amount of processor beef!
 
If your on a budget and want to experience newer games, I would personally switch out the CPU for a Q6600 and the motherboard for the OCUK IP35 Pro, then spend the saved money on a 512MB 8800GT.
 
What impact woudl that have on processing power? Its not as essential to play games that got get good video editing performance you see.

Is there really that muck duifference between them 2 graphics cards?

Also, i dont appear to get much savings from them changes? I see the processor is a quad core and only really saved me £30. Please correct me if i'm wrong.
 
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Having thought about it I think I'd prefer the newer processor.

Does anyone know if there would be any problems with my chosen motherboard and the new wolfdale CPU's?
 
My mate just got that mobo and CPU and just text me saying he had to flash the bios to the beta bios, and is now installing vista.
 
I'd say the Quad core over the E8400 at that price, I think with some tinkering and standard overclocking have yourself a great system that will be able to take advantage of any changes in Ulead to utilise the quad cores that are around.
 
hmmm I would go for

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-161-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=793
£170.36 inc VAT

OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-072-OC&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=813
£27.01 inc VAT

PowerColor ATI Radeon HD 3870 XT Extreme 512MB GDDR4 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-079-PC&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=416
£129.24 inc VAT

Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-120-WD&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=940
£60.50 inc VAT

And why would I go for these you ask?

Well the q6600 is better for the money although ocuk is a little overpriced for cpus tbh...

the 38x0 range is great for the money and p*sses all over the 8600gts, if you can't aford the 3870 i picked out atleast go for the cheepest 3850, but that card is worth it. I have one. I would recomend going with ati as intel suport CrossFire (not the motherboard you picked though!!)

500bg hdds are at the best price point ratio at the moment and those WD drives are good drives.

The ocz ram is cheeper and it has great timings. It's worth thinking about getting 2 kits I think for 4gb total, regardless of what OS you have, 32/64 etc

Also as for your mobo. I cant really advise you as I'm a bit out of it in regards to ATX mobos but crossfire support is a bonus and you can get a board with Xfire for less than the one you marked.

Just my thoughs anyway :)
 
I would go with this:

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Intel P35 £65.79
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) - £35.24
PowerColor ATI Radeon HD 3870 XT Extreme 512MB GDDR4 £129.24
Q6600(oem) £162.14
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM £76.36


total= £467

seems ok to me :D
 
Thanks for the reply guys.

I've never really concidered an ATI card as i thought they were inferiour to the Nvidia ones. I hear that they dont support DX10, is this true?

Incidentally, don't nvidia do the same as crossfire with their SLI technologies?
 
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aeropars said:
Thanks for the reply guys.

I've never really concidered an ATI card as i thought they were inferiour to the Nvidia ones. I hear that they dont support DX10, is this true?
Click to expand...

Depends what you are buying obviously. All 8 series cards support DX10, and I think all 37/38 cards from ATI also support DX10.
There may be more cards that support it, but Im not sure at the moment, maybe someone else could clarify :)

And as for being 'inferiour' to nVidia - Personally I wouldnt buy an ATI, but only because I dont have enough experience with them to want to change. The only reason I have heard from other users not to go ATI is the drivers arent very good.

But at the end if you dont prefer either company more, go by the benchmarks and what you can afford :)
 
You would be absolutely mad to pay the rip-off prices for the Wolfdale cpu's on here. If you want a dual and don't really want to overclock then get the E6750 or get a Q6600 quad if you want sheer processing power for photo editing and stuff like that.
 
I admit i have seen the wolfdale chips for £70 cheaper elsewhere but overclockers come out on top for pretty much everything else that i want to get, expecially the monitor.

Price aside, is it worth getting the wolfdale over the conroe? I'm a little confused as to how much better a quad core at a slower speed would be over a duel core at 3ghz. Am i right in thinking that not many apps can take advantage of quad core technologies?
 
aeropars said:
I admit i have seen the wolfdale chips for £70 cheaper elsewhere but overclockers come out on top for pretty much everything else that i want to get, expecially the monitor.

Price aside, is it worth getting the wolfdale over the conroe? I'm a little confused as to how much better a quad core at a slower speed would be over a duel core at 3ghz. Am i right in thinking that not many apps can take advantage of quad core technologies?
Click to expand...

If you do image editing etc then the quad is a more sensible choice. The Wolfdales are not worth the premium. I had a E8500 (not from here!!!) and i got rid of it after a week. Nothing reads the temperatures correctly, you need high voltages for a decent clock and they are hard to get stable when clocked. If you only want a dual core then save yourself a lot of money and get the E6750. Even better, get a 2180 and clock it to 3Ghz which is very easy to do.
 
What cooling would i need to getif i was to go for the overcloking option? I am intrigued by it all but i'm so scared of blowing up my new hardware! What kind of motherboard would i need to overclock it?

I'm all for saving money :) Thanks for your input to this so far. I think the fog in my mind is clearing!
 
aeropars said:
What cooling would i need to getif i was to go for the overcloking option? I am intrigued by it all but i'm so scared of blowing up my new hardware! What kind of motherboard would i need to overclock it?

I'm all for saving money :) Thanks for your input to this so far. I think the fog in my mind is clearing!
Click to expand...

For clocking/cooling/price, I would go with the OCUK IP35 Pro with an Arctic Freezer 7 :)
 
aeropars said:
What cooling would i need to getif i was to go for the overcloking option? I am intrigued by it all but i'm so scared of blowing up my new hardware! What kind of motherboard would i need to overclock it?

I'm all for saving money :) Thanks for your input to this so far. I think the fog in my mind is clearing!
Click to expand...

Which route are we talking? The 2180 or the 6750? The 2180 is by far the best bang for buck and overclocking is relatively safe these days. There's also loads of good info on here and people to help out. Here is the basis of a good clocking rig that should easily get you to 3Ghz.

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total

Coolermaster Hyper TX 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £6.99 (£8.21)

OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) £22.99 (£27.01)

Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail £45.99
(£54.04)

Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L Intel P31 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £44.99 (£52.86)

Samsung SpinPoint T 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD321KJ) £43.99
(£51.69)

Leadtek GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £124.99 (£146.86)

Sub Total : £289.94
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £52.31
Total : £351.20

That's a cracking budget rig with loads of potential. CutomPC magazine used that motherboard and a 2140 and a Freezer 7 Pro to get to 3Ghz in this months edition. That cooler is almost as good as the Freezer 7 Pro but almost half the price.
 
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