Major upgrade (£3000+ build) critique? :P

OCdude

OCdude

OCdude

Soldato
Joined
24 Feb 2008
Posts
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Location
Norway
OK so i haven't upgraded in a long time and my system is dual an overhaul. (Hence the silly amount of money i'm spending!)

I'm probably going to wait a couple of months or so (hopefully the 9800GTX will be out by then), but i've put together a rough spec list - can someone take a look and suggest anything different?

Can someone also explain when the Penryns are roughly due out? + if they're going to be worth waiting for (with DDR3 etc etc) - i am to make my system as future proof as possible - i dont plan on forking out this much cash for a loooooooong time :D

Pic of my shopping cart (hope its OK to post this link!):

http://img168.imageshack.us/my.php?image=compupgradesrp5.png

[since making that pic - ive changed my mind on the case - i'll be getting an Antec P182!)

thanks! :)
 
If your getting a ddr3 motherboard then you'll need ddr3 ram.

but tbh DDR3 is not worth it atm, is the latencies are sky high compared to good DDR2 Ram.

Apart from that, it looks okay, a little OTT, maybe a Q9450?
 
Welcome to the forums. Everything there is compatible apart from the motherboard and Ram, I do also feel somewhat obligated to say that you could get about 95% of the performance for way less money though. Something like the below system ought to perform about as well and overclock similarly but you would be saving ~£500, note however that the system doesn't support DDR3 as I don't feel it offers enough of a performance benefit at the moment to justify the extra cost.

Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (0A35155) £129.99
(£152.74) £129.99
(£152.74)
Logitech G15 Rev.2 Gaming-Grade Illuminated Keyboard - Retail £46.99
(£55.21) £46.99
(£55.21)
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.66GHz 12MB-cache (1333FSB) Processor - Retail £219.99
(£258.49) £219.99
(£258.49)
Samsung SH-S203D 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
(£17.61) £14.99
(£17.61)
OcUK GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - OEM £192.99
(£226.76) £192.99
(£226.76)
Dell Ultrasharp 3008WFP 30" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey £879.00
(£1032.83) £879.00
(£1,032.83)
Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK) £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Antec P182 Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Gun Metal Black) £78.99
(£92.81) £78.99
(£92.81)
Creative GigaWorks 7.1 S750 THX Speakers £224.99
(£264.36) £224.99
(£264.36)
Logitech MX Revolution Advanced Cordless Mouse - Retail £42.99
(£50.51) £42.99
(£50.51)
Asus P5K-E WiFi Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £88.99
(£104.56) £88.99
(£104.56)
G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PQ PC2-8000C5 (2x2GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ) £69.99
(£82.24) £69.99
(£82.24)
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro 7.1 Sound Card - Retail £164.99
(£193.86) £164.99
(£193.86)
Noctua NH-U12P CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/LGA775) £35.99
(£42.29) £35.99
(£42.29)
Sub Total : £2,250.87
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £36.72
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £400.33
Total : £2,687.92

//edit I might also suggest getting a second smaller hard drive for backup purposes if you don't already have a system in mind. The soundcard and speakers are possibly overkill but I've left them in anyway.
 
spppeccgw1.jpg
 
Divide your budget by 3 and you'll still get a great system.

Get a top end graphics card, a big but not silly monitor (get a projector if you want full wall) and you'll have plenty left for wife/hookers
 
Dont waste your money on a 3k system. Those prices/spec ratio are awful, hunt around on here for other people's rigs that achieve good benchmarks - work a system around one of them. You'll save a fortune, and it's better to upgrade once new tech is old (which only takes 3/6 months...), so in essence no sysytem you build today will be future proof, just buy the best performance/£ you can find....:)
 
Ok this is what i would do, i dont really like dual card solutions so i wouldnt suggest one to someone but if you would prefer that then just add £70 to the price, as for a case my advice would be if your spending this much on a pc go elsewhere and buy a silverstone TJ0?, i would suggest the TJ07 or TJ09 they are superior to just about any case on the market that is mass produced INMO and go for around £200.
so you still save around £500 and is a cracking machine and you retain the 30" display aswell.

list.jpg


EDIT***

Forgot the DVDRW, my suggestion would be the samsung writemaster lightscribe sata drive, very reliable and fast.
 
Last edited:
If I had 3 grand to spend on your PC this is what I might get (not done THAT much research as I don't get to spend your 3 grand so might want to double check it's all 100% compatible)

CPU:

1x Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - OEM (£150.39)

1x Noctua NH-U12P CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/LGA775) (£42.29)


Motherboard:

1x Asus P5N-T Deluxe nForce 780i (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (£187.99)


Graphics & Vision:

2x OcUK GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (£270.22)

1x Dell Ultrasharp 3008WFP 30" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey (£1,032.83)

2x Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev. 2 VGA Cooler (£30.52)
2x Noctua NF-P12 120mm Silent Case Fan - 3 Pin (£28.18)


Case:

1x Antec P182 Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Gun Metal Black) (£86.94)

2x Noctua NF-S12 1200RPM 120mm Silent Case Fan - 3 Pin (£28.18)

1x MCubed BigNG fan controller (not sold on OCUK) aprox £55 inc delivery

Power:

1x Antec NeoHE 550W Modular ATX2.0 PSU (£72.84)


Hard Drives:

1x Transcend 32GB 2.5" SATA Solid State Hard Drive (TS32GSSD25S-M) (£129.24) (OS disk)

4x Samsung SpinPoint T 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD501LJ) (£267.84) (for RAID 0+1)

1x Akasa SATA-2 45cm Silver Data Cable (£4.69)


RAM:

1x OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel Vista Gold Series DDR2 (OCZ2G8004GK) (£58.74)


Sound:

1x Creative GigaWorks 7.1 S750 THX Speakers (£264.36)

1x Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer 7.1 Sound Card - Retail (£55.21)


Mouse & KB

1x Logitech G15 Rev.2 Gaming-Grade Illuminated Keyboard - Retail (£55.21)

1x Logitech MX Revolution Advanced Cordless Mouse - Retail (£50.51)


Drives:

1x Samsung SH-W163 16x SATA DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM (£15.26)

1x Scythe Card Reader & Floppy Drive - Black (£23.49)


Sub Total : £2,429.74
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £39.38
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £432.10
Total : £2,956.22 (including bigNG)
 
Yeah i should probably mention that i have no desire/knowledge/balls to overclock :P

Also the 30" monitor i want to keep, as i'll be using it for my 360 and Wii, and im not an ATi person either :D lol

any idea when the Nahalems are "due" ?
 
OCdude said:
Yeah i should probably mention that i have no desire/knowledge/balls to overclock :P

Also the 30" monitor i want to keep, as i'll be using it for my 360 and Wii, and im not an ATi person either :D lol

any idea when the Nahalems are "due" ?
Click to expand...

Ah, in that case please ignore my spec - it's an overclocker's quiet air-cooled spec.
 
Well ive spent ages looking at case reviews and the 182 seems the best in terms of accoustics and heat management :D

But yeah I do like a lot of the Lian Lis, i think i was tempted to get the PC-S80 but hmmmm
 
The Antec is a good case for definite, but you're getting this amazing spec and it would be a shame to put it all behind the slightly garish plastic door of the Antec. Plus, that case isn't great for space. The Silverstone TJ-09 is one of the best cases ever made in my opinion.
 
Just get my spec and overclock, you know you want to really! It should completely outperform your origional spec once overclocked, be near-silent (PSU and hard drives might be a bit noisy - could consider enclosures such as scythe quietdrive and passive/semi-passive cooled PSU), and be much fun in the overclocking!
 
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