My £720 spec - and Vista 32bit vs 64bit

RostokMcSpoons

RostokMcSpoons

RostokMcSpoons

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6 Oct 2005
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Well after a bit of thinking I've decided it's better to go the 'whole hog' rather than just do an upgrade, cos prices seem to have fallen quite a bit in the last couple of months.

So here's my intended spec:

OcUK GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (£170.36)
Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail (£77.54)
Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard - OEM (£58.75)
Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 NCQ 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM X 2 (£86.92)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 775) (£18.79)
LiteON DH-18A1P-018C 18x DVD±RW x12 Ram Dual Layer DVD-Writer - OEM (£17.61)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00788) (£75.19)
OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB) PC2-5400C5 Dual Channel Vista Upgrade Gold Series DDR2 (OCZ2VU6674GK) (£146.86)
Antec NSK6500 Super Midi Tower Case - 430W PSU (£69.31)

Obviously I'm intending to overclock the be-jesus out of the E4300, hopefully that ram will overclock sufficiently?

I'll be setting the two HD's into RAID 0 - can I run this mobo off a USB Key or do I need a floppy drive for the RAID setup?

And... I've read the reviews that say 4gb is deffo worth it for Vista, and if only 3gb is addressable by 32bit, then that seems like a waste of money not to go for 64bit.... right? But will I be ok with the driver situation on 64bit? My peripherals are:

Speedtouch 586 wifi modem/router (no driver req)
Canon MP150 Pixma printer
Logitech G15 keyboard
Logitech MX518 mouse

I'm also aware that the 430w is a bit tight for power, but as it's Antec it should be good enough...?

I just realised in typing this message - the mobo is 'oem' - what bits and pieces do I need to source myself that are normally included?


All in all I think I've come up with a spec that provides a lot of oomph for not much dosh - is there anything else I can improve?

All thoughts gratefully received :)
 
The Ram should be fine.

I believe that motherboard will allow you to boot off a USB key although note that the motherboard is OEM so you will probably need to buy SATA/IDE cables separately. Drivers are downloadable from the website, other than that it might be missing backing plates etc but I'm not 100% sure. If you can afford another £10 then just buy the Gigabyte S3 which is the same motherboard but without the solid capacitors, it might not last quite so long but it does come with all parts necessary.

The Antec will be fine for that system.

I'm afraid I don't know about the driver situation for Vista. :)
 
for vista its best to get 64-bit, then you have the ability to upgrade to 4GB RAM wheras you cant go over 3GB with 32-bit
 
Im on vista 64 bit atm and loving it.

Bear in mind games like crysis/quake wars will have native 64 bit versions as well.

I can imagine a lot of people with oem 32 bit vista wishing they had gotten the 64 bit version.
 
there are so few incompatibilites that ive seen so far with 64bit that it doesnt seem worth using 32bit purely for 'compatibility'. The only game i seem to have a problem with is stalker but i think thats the same in vista 32 or 64
 
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