Is this spec ok?

[fishiee]

Hi Guys,

Not built a machine for an absolute age and technology has moved on a pace since then. I must say this forum is great for picking up loads of info on the new technology!

Anyway, I've had to build a new machine as my anciend P4 system just died on me. It needed replacing anyway so it's probably a goopd thing that it has prompted me to do something now!

I'd just appreciatre it if someone could check over the specs so I can be sure everything will work ok together, there is no glaring bottleneck in the system or if maybe someone can suggest better spec components for the same price. The machine will be used a lot for heavy phoptoshop work and some gaming. I'll have to live with my current 17" CRT until I can afford a decent wide screen CRT. I understand the 8800 should be able to connect to an old CRT with an included adaptor?

I'm sure most components are ok. The most confusing thing I've found is RAM so have had a guess at that. Dunno if it's good or bad?

I'll be running win XP initially as I don't want to move to Vista just yet. As I understand it, I wouldn't notice much performance increase, or possibly windows couldn't even utilise more than 2GB of RAM? I'll be working with big image files (100MB+ at times)where I understand the more RAM the better?

One other query is the motherboard. I may want to use Firewire at some point in the future but don't think it comes with a socket for that? Also, I am assuming the PIC-E socket would be 16x to support the 8800? I've not actually managed to find that written anywhere.

Many thanks in advance for any advice/comments.

Specs as follows:

Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 5000AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £67.99(£79.89)

Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer 7.1 Soundcard - OEM £39.99(£46.99)

OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) £87.99(£103.39)

Samsung SH-W183 18x18 DVD±RW Serial ATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99(£21.14)

Creative Gigaworks T20 2.0 Speaker System - Retail £39.99(£46.99)

Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK) £59.99(£70.49)

Akasa AK-ZEN-01-BK Zen Black Case - No PSU £24.99(£29.36)

Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £69.99(£82.24)

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £127.99(£150.39)

BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £189.99(£223.24)

Sub Total : £726.90
Shipping : £12.95
Vat : £129.47
Total : £869.32

 

[Will_3rd]

Looks fine

 

[semi-pro waster]

Welcome to the forums, it all looks basically ok the Ram is a fine choice. If you go for 4gb of Ram or over then Windows XP won't be able to access all of it, probably about 3.5gb at a guess.

I'd change the motherboard to the DS3P which is a later revision of the same board, it has firewire onboard so that sorts out the first part of the question and it costs around £5 more. Both motherboards have PCI-E 16x.

The 8800GTS should have a DVI-analogue adapter included in the box.

 

[BillytheImpaler]

I'd change the motherboard to the DS3P which is a later revision of the same board, it has firewire onboard so that sorts out the first part of the question and it costs around £5 more. Both motherboards have PCI-E 16x.

I think if it were me buying I'd get an Asus P5N-E. What would the DS3P offer for £5.87 more?

 

[semi-pro waster]

I guess that depends on whether you want the Nforce 650 chipset or the 965P, either is good but I tend to lean towards the 965P based DS3P as it is a later revision. The only notable difference is more SATA ports on the DS3P but other than that it will probably make little difference.

 

[fishiee]

Thanks for the input. Changed Motherboard to the D3SP as advised and order has been placed. Hopefully it will arrive in time for me to put it all together at the weekend!!

 

[mishima]

Good man, trustworthy suggestion that semi. I would definately choose the DS3P over the standard one because of the advantages/features it offers all for a few quid more.