New rig - would you change my spec?

mcgriffo

mcgriffo

mcgriffo

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5 Dec 2006
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376
Hello to one and all - after AGES of deliberation this is what I've come up with:

CPU Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £197.39

TFT Viewsonic TFT 20" VX2025wm (8 ms) £253.40

HD1 (o/s and apps) (Western Digital Raptor 150GB WD1500ADFD 10,000RPM SATA 16MB Cache - OEM £148.04

HD2 (storgae) Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 5000AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £93.99

GFX BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 640MB GDDR3 £264.36

Cooling Swiftech H20-220 Apex Ultra+ Watercooling Kit £202.09

Case Lian-Li PC V2000b PLUS Black Aluminium Full-Tower £162.14

PSU Enermax Infiniti 720W EIN720AWT ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU £150.39

MOBO Asus P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP £123.73

RAM Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Dual Channel Kit £129.24

DVDRW Samsung SH-W183 18x18 DVD±RW Serial ATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £22.31

Total £1,747.08


The water cooling and LCD screen are already bought so they have to stay, but everything else is still up for grabs!!! I originally set out with a budget of no more than 2k so I've saved a bit, but if you think MASSIVE improvements could be made for another £200 let me know.

I also already have a keyboard/mouse and speakers so that isn't a problem.

As this is my first build, I also don't know if I've left anything out (esp. any extra fans for the w/c) so that advice would be great.

(I'm going to use this to high-end game, want it to be future proofed, and also hope to really "get into" overclocking)

How's it looking?
 
Would it not make more sense to get 2 drives in RAID and partition them rather than have the raptor? I've not seen performance comparisons though.
 
Thanks for that - I've now updated my list, it also means I can get the MOBO from o/c which is where the majority of the gear is coming from so it'll keep delivery costs down.

So now it's the perfect spec for what I want for the price?

I know there are probably alternatives which are just as good, but have I included anything inferior that I could get for a similar price? Or wrong? Or forgotten something?

Still a bit worried about anything else I need for the cooling.... will that Swiftech kit do it ALL (with the help of the fans that come from the Lian Li?)
 
I rather have another WD AAKS than the raptor as its cheaper, just as fast in everyday working/playing and has over 3x the storage space. You can choose whether to use RAID on it or not.
 
I'm sure the Raptor issue is debatable, but surely water cooling's value is based very much on the level of overclocking in conjunction with quietness?

I think it's proven that you can't overclock at the same level with air and achieve the same low noise level.
 
watercooling is more for quietening these days as you can get very good air coolers now. i paid £280 for my custom watercooling a few weeks ago, its really quiet, got everything overclocked loads, so im not complaining:) i have a raptor too bth, but the hitachi 500gb sata is about same performance as it has a higher disk density per platter which about equals out the extra rpm the 10k rpm raptor has. you would obv have loads of room for storage too:).

ive got 2 * 500gb hitachi + 74gb raptor + 250gb maxtor. i download a lot lol!
 
if you still want overcooling dont buy a kit, they are crap, spend an extra £80 ish and buy parts seperately like me.
 
Ok, thanks to a bit of assistance I've made a couple of changes....

...does this pass the test??

Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £197.39

Viewsonic TFT 20" VX2025wm (8 ms) £253.40

Western Digital Raptor 74GB WD740ADFD 10,000RPM SATA 16MB Cache - OEM £104.56

Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 5000AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £93.99

BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 640MB GDDR3 £264.36

Swiftech H20-220 Apex Ultra+ Watercooling Kit £202.09

Lian-Li PC V2000b PLUS Black Aluminium Full-Tower £162.14

Enermax Infiniti 720W EIN720AWT ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU £150.39

Asus P5N32-E SLi nForce 680 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £152.74

Team Xtreem 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C4 800MHz £193.86

Samsung SH-W183 18x18 DVD±RW Serial ATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £22.31

Total = £1,797.23
 
Personally I'd wait until there is new stock of the corsair 620w, but otherwise, it looks great
 
Agreed, or the Seasonic M12 600W.

Also, you might want to swap the WD hard disk for the Seagate equivalent. Much quieter apparently. I also have the Hitachi T7K500 and that is fast and quiet too.

As you're water-cooling it would be a shame to spoil it with all that WD noise!
 
My WD SE sounds like a hamster is running around in my case, I was contemplating getting rid of it at one point to get something different like a Seagate or Samsung!
 
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