New build, help with spec please.

[Daveyboyuk]

Hi everyone,

It's been a while since I have built a PC, a few years. I am reading up on the current specs and getting to grips with the advances in technology. Anyway I am looking to build a new PC for gaming/general usage, I need everything including a keyboard/mouse. Any input greatly appreciated. I was thinking of something. Budget is about 800£

Intel dual core, 2gb ram, 2 x 250g RAID 0, 8800GT, 19" wide screen.

Thanks in advance
Daveyboy

 

[BillytheImpaler]

Will you be overclocking?

 

[Daveyboyuk]

Yup

 

[danman2k]

hows this for you

not included OS though as not sure if ya needed it

allthough i would just just buy 1 500 gig HDD and save some cash and get a better cooler so you could get a better overclock

 

[Daveyboyuk]

Thanks danman2k, that is very similar to what I just came up with!

Wouldn't 2 x 250gb in RAID0 be better than a single 500gb hard drive, in terms of performance?
What is a good overclooking cooler? Not watercooled or anything like that.
Would 4GB of RAM be worth the extra cash.

 

[danman2k]

4 gig of ram is only good if you have a 64 bit OS (vista or XP)

2 HDDs in raid will give better performance

and for coolers the best air coolers are the tuniq tower, noctua NH-U12F

personally i would go for the tuniq tower

 

[Daveyboyuk]

Excellent thank you. I thought 32-bit processors could address 4gb of ram, 32^2 = ~4gb. Or does it depend on the OS?

 

[BillytheImpaler]

Technically speaking they can address exactly 4 GiB RAM, but the way mobos implement such addressing means that some of that potential memory space is allocated for other things, such as the memory in a video card. With a 32-bit OS you'll see a little over 3 GiB depending on your mobo and graphics card.

 

[Daveyboyuk]

Technically speaking they can address exactly 4 GiB RAM, but the way mobos implement such addressing means that some of that potential memory space is allocated for other things, such as the memory in a video card. With a 32-bit OS you'll see a little over 3 GiB depending on your mobo and graphics card.

Ah that makes sense. So if I had a 512mb graphic card, that would be subtracted from my 4gb of address of memory, giving me only 3.5gb?