My first spec check

Morte · 26 Jul 2008 at 15:37

Hi Guys, could you cast your knowing eyes over my shopping basket and see what you think please.

I already have a monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, DVD-RW and a CM Cosmos.

I also added Vista Home Premium 64 to the basket.

Many thanks.

Dreaded_Cheese · 26 Jul 2008 at 15:45

Looks good, but why are you getting a p45? Why not an x38 or x48 so you could eventually crossfire the 4870?

Chimerical · 26 Jul 2008 at 15:48

Swap that X-Fi for an Asus Xonar DX (£50) especially seeing as you'll be using Vista.

Morte · 26 Jul 2008 at 15:54

Dreaded_Cheese said:
Looks good, but why are you getting a p45? Why not an x38 or x48 so you could eventually crossfire the 4870?

Ok, sounds like a plan. Any recommendations for a particular board? I'd like to keep as near to the spec of the original as possible, but with the possibility of crossfire.

Chimerical said:
Swap that X-Fi for an Asus Xonar DX (£50) especially seeing as you'll be using Vista.

Thanks for the feedback, can I ask why you suggest Asus over Creative?

lamboman · 26 Jul 2008 at 16:16

Looks alright, but i would make a few changes. Don't go for the guaranteed clock Q6600s. Basically all G0s are going to run at at least 3.3GHz, and there isn't a way to make sure that they will run at a certain clock unless you overclock them to test. Why go for a TB drive, then 2 500GB drives on top? There is no point at all. Change the power supply to a Corsair T750, or a HX620 if you want something modular. Finally, how big is your display? You might not need Crossfire in the future if you have a pretty small display. Generally, I would only recommend going with a multi-card setup if you ahve a 30 inch monitor, and very rarely, a 24/27. You may as well just upgrade to a new card. So, drop the motherboard to an Asus P5Q Pro. Also, go with the Asus sound card, as the others have said. The Xonar cards are all excellent.

Pilky01 · 26 Jul 2008 at 17:07

Morte said:
Thanks for the feedback, can I ask why you suggest Asus over Creative?

Because Creative sound cards don't work with Vista. At all.

Also swap the ram for a set of 2x2gb 6400 stuff.

If you have no plans on crossfire then get a p45 not an x38/48

The led version of the tuniq tower is 7 quid cheaper.

As above get rid of the guaranteed to run at chip.

Im a bit confused about whats going on with the hdd's aswell.

platinum87 · 26 Jul 2008 at 17:18

1st, thanks for putting a picture i hate people who just use text...

1) get the Q6600 Non guarenteed version but retail not OEM (for longer warranty)

2) Xfi-Xtreme Music OEM some people would say is better, or the Xonar 50 pound 1 if your on vista

3) certainly get 4GB ram, and if you get vista get the 64bit version

everything else is nice,

Morte · 26 Jul 2008 at 22:19

Thanks for the replies. I plan on using the HDDs as follows:

2x 500Gb in RAID 1 for storage of important files, windows install, apps.
1 x 1Tb for installing games on / stuff that can be installed from disc.

edit> current display is 19" I think, but will be the next upgrade as a little bug has died behind the screen more or less dead centre.