New Rig - Any Suggestions/Alterations

coneypark · 2 Jan 2007 at 13:55

Hi,

I will be building a new rig for myself but due to finances I will be buying the parts over three months. I am planing on leaving the motherboard,CPU and memory to last but was wondering what people thought of the following parts that i have specced within my budget.

I will be overclocking the CPU and transfering my current graphics card ATI X1900XTX. The machine will be used for games and general PC stuff. I want a machine which isn't very noisy. The reason I am going with the Akasa Eclipse is simply due to the fact that I need a case without a door of any kind on the front due to where the case sits on my desk.

Budget is a max of £840

Current Spec I am Looking at is:-

Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - OEM

Abit AW9D SKT 775 7.1 Channel Audio PCI-E

AKASA Eclipse-62 Black Mid-Tower Case - No PSU

Corsair HX Series 520W Modular PSU - ATX12V v2.2 APFC

ADATA 2GB DDR2 1000 DUAL CHANNEL EXTREME EDITION

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB ST3250620A ATA-100 16MB Cache x 2

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

Scythe S-FLEX 1600RPM Ultra Quiet 120mm Fan - 3/4 pin x 2

Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler

Anything in there you think I could do better with? I have specced the Abit board due to having one at present which I have been very happy with and I like the Uguru stuff-especially the fan control part.

Cheers and thanks for having a look.

dr_shoe · 2 Jan 2007 at 13:59

hey, i'm sure pretty soon people will be flocking in suggesting DS3/4 and P5B mother boards.

I personally went for a P5W DH, looks mint so far, (remote is very nifty

although havent booted it, they sent me the wrong hard drive (competitor, not OCUK), prolly teach me to order everything from OCUK next time as oppose to 70% just to save 10 quid.

Also, not sure the RAM is the best option

Anyways, have a second think about the motherboard, otherwise its looking good

coneypark · 2 Jan 2007 at 14:05

Hi Dr Shoe,

I have speced the Adata ram due to it getting a very good review in Custom PC but mostly due to the fact that I can get it for £204 which is a bargain. I am prepared to be swayed by people personal experience of motherboard/ram combinations that have clocked well

I am really not sure about all this DDR2 stuff and just want to make sure that the RAM i get doesn't hold back any overclock.

Cheers

semi-pro waster · 2 Jan 2007 at 14:13

The reason that people suggest a DS3, DS4 or P5B normally for a 6300 or 6400 is that they are better for overclocking, to get the best out of one of the 'lower' Conroes in the range you need something that can reach high FSB speeds, motherboards based on the 965 chipset (as opposed to the 975 chipset of the AW9D) are better in this area.

If you just want to run it at stock speed or you will be upgrading to a 6600 or above soon and then overclocking then it will likely make no difference at all but this is just to explain the reasoning behind the suggestions.

The rest should be fine.

coneypark · 2 Jan 2007 at 14:27

Hi semi-pro,

Thanks for the info - it was something I had previously read about but didn't really take it in. I had been considering going for the E6600 to be honest and had originally specced it and then changed my mind and went for the 6300.

As the CPU will be one of the last things I buy, praying for some drop in prices, I may end up with the E6600 but I appreciate what your saying and gives me something to think about before I press the buy button.

Cheers

coneypark · 2 Jan 2007 at 16:09

I have changed my mind over motherboard and am now going to go with the Asus P5W DH Deluxe WiFi (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard.

Still not sure whether to stay with the E6300 or just go for the E6600. If I am understanding things correctly then it is easier to overclock the E6600 as the memory doesn't need to be overclocked as much.

Think I am starting to get confused now

semi-pro waster · 2 Jan 2007 at 16:24

The P5W DH is a good motherboard but based on the 975 chipset so a 6600 would probably be easier to overclock with as it has a higher multiplier and it also has 4mb L2 cache rather than 2mb (not that the cache makes any difference in overclocking terms really).

I don't know how much all the rest comes to but if you can stretch to the 6600 then there is no harm in it, if not then go for the 6300 or 6400 and see how far you can get it to go.

thefishdude · 2 Jan 2007 at 17:21

yeah the e6600 has a 9x multipyer compare to 7x on the 6300.. soo to reach the higher speeds the e6600 doesnt require such high fsb

eg 2.8ghz on e6300 requires 400fsb
2.8ghz on e6600 requires 310fsb

and there for such a high ram speed. how ever the ram you have specced is capable of 1000mhz wich is very fast high end ram. so in theory you wouldnt have to worry about ram overclocking as you wont be overclocking it at all. it will still be with in spec.