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New Spec, Any ideas?

ChAIn3D

ChAIn3D

ChAIn3D

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Joined
5 Jun 2005
Posts
121
Hey,

Looking at building a totally new system, maybe a few bits and pieces from my current system. Would like some advice...

CPU:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 "LGA775 Conroe" 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "LGA775 Kentsfield" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6700 "LGA775 Kentsfield" 2.66GHz (1066FSB) - Retail

Motherboard (Depending On Ram):

Asus P5K3 Deluxe WiFi Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
Asus P5K64 WS Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
Asus P5KC Combo Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 & DDR3 Motherboard

Ram (2GB-4GB):

Corsair 2GB DDR3 DHX 1333C9DHX TwinX (2x1GB)
Corsair 2GB DDR3 XMS3-1066C7 TwinX (2x1GB)
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2 Dominator PC2-9136C5 TwinX (2x1GB)

Graphics Card:

Asus GeForce 8800 Ultra HTDP 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

Hard Drive (SATA):

Seagate, Western Digital, Samsung or Hitachi - 2x500GB+ (Maxtor 1x 200GB - Already Got!)

Optical Drive (DVDRW-SATA):

Samsung SH-S203BEBN 20x20 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA ReWriter (Black)

Sound Card:

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional Series 7.1 Sound Card - Retail
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer 7.1 Sound Card - Retail


These are the areas I'm looking at upgrading, more than less... the entire system but haven't kept intouch in hardware for quite some time now so would like some advice if possible.

Looking for a gaming machine, if the parts I've selected aren't good enough, what would you improve with. The Motherboard depends on DDR2 or DDR3 Ram, and of course the cost. Would there be any use just to pay 2GB for DDR3 or just get DDR2 with 4GB?

Hope something can help! :)
 
DDR3 isn't ready for the limelight just yet as it's still too expensive. Until the OEMs start to move toward it and reduce costs as manufacturing processes produce better yields DDR2 is the way ahead IMO.

To address the options:
Q6600
Asus P5K Deluxe (or Abit IP35-Pro)
Any PC2-5300C3 or PC2-6400C4 (that quad has a relatively high multiplier so stupidly fast RAM would be a waste.)
Any 8800 GTX (The Ultra is overkill. 3 minutes of overclocking makes your GTX into an Ultra.)
Western Digital AAKS
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
 
This would be an excellent full spec. It'd easily do 3.2-3.4 Ghz and score in excess of 10k in 3DMark06.
uberxr3.gif
 
Nice.

I don't need all of that, but looking at around 1k in total. Good system.

Missing the Sound Card tho, which I thought the Gamer edition would slightly better or does it cause many problems?

Are WD sata HDDs best at the moment, or just good for value for money? Do you think getting the 2.66Ghz cpu, isn't value for money, for the extra £100 for the extra .26mhz?
 
The Music and Gamer cards are quite similar but the Music costs less and delivers just about the same performance.

Paying £100 for what 5 minutes in the BIOS could give you is silly. ;)

The WDs are the best indeed. They're second only to the Raptors which are ridiculously priced.
 
I went and priced up a system again, thought what the outcome would be. I'm still not sure on the ram, I would like some fast ram but like BillytheImpaler said, its probably not worth it and its either the 2GB Corsair PC2-9136C5 ram or the 4GB ram with the slower speed.

I thought the gfx would be between Ultra/GTX, as I'm not a overclocking kind of guy, I included the Ultra for now. I was confused with the pricing difference for the HDD, what are the main differences between the SE16 and RE2? By the looks of it, seems to be the warranty length and the Average Read Seek Time?

Don't need a case, fans and power supply for now.

Updated Systen:

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer 7.1 Sound Card - Retail £49.99 (£58.74)

Asus GeForce 8800 Ultra HTDP 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £349.99 (£411.24)

Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2 Dominator PC2-9136C5 TwinX (2x1GB) £199.99 (£234.99)

Samsung SH-S203BEBN 20x20 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99 (£19.96)

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "LGA775 Kentsfield" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £146.99 (£172.71)

(2x) Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 5000AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £63.99 (£75.19)

Asus P5K Deluxe WiFi Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £134.99 (£158.61)

Sub Total : £1,026.92
Shipping : £8.95
VAT : £181.28
Total : £1,217.15

What you think? or still needs work? :)
 
Go with the XtremeMusic, I have one and they're Ace for gaming and music. Stick with a 8800GTX, There is no point paying extra for such a small difference, you may not be a "overclocking guy" but the ultra isn't worth it.
 
Ah, okay.

I've normally gone for Corsair, so using other memory I'm a bit worried about. I've got a few options now, I would like 4GB of memory. Would like to see how Bioshock looks! :)
 
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