new spec thread

davetherave2

davetherave2

davetherave2

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27 Mar 2003
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well I have almost sold my old rigs to fund a new project.

Now I am going C2D and have probably a £1000 tops to spend.

I already have a coolermaster 810 stacker packed with two antec 480W one being a trueblue and the other being a Neo (modular) psu's + 7 HDD's & 2 DVDRW's



I have got the following components in mind at the moment:

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Asus P5N32-E SLi nForce 680 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £129.99
(£152.74) £129.99
(£152.74)
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-8500 1066MHz SLI-Ready Edition Dual Channel DDR2 (OCZ2N1066SR2GK) £149.99
(£176.24) £149.99
(£176.24)
EVGA GeForce 8800 GTX ACS3 SILENT 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £349.99
(£411.24) £349.99
(£411.24)
Zalman CNPS9700-NT nVidia Tritium Super Aero Flower Cooler £41.99
(£49.34) £41.99
(£49.34)
Sub Total : £671.96
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.95
Vat : £119.16
Total : £800.07

So was wondering if there is anything else to think off. I am tempted by the Quad core but can't justify the £300+ price hike.

I have decided to go for one 8800GTX simply because I can't see the point in going dual card at this stage.

Just wondering how good the EVGA is as it's a brand I have never used before.

I do intend on clocking this so hopefully the components I have selected will give me that potential.

So what are your thoughts on this?
 
It looks good although the Ram might possibly be slightly overkill and I'd personally have the Scythe Ninja over the Zalman but then I know less about the Zalman.

What CPU are you going for? I don't see one listed but I'm assuming for the budget the 6600 is the chip of choice.

You could probably get a 650 based motherboard and not lose much in the way of performance but if you have the cash why not get the 680, I suppose.

EVGA are pretty good I believe, one of Nvidia's major partners anyway. :)
 
yeah 6600 is my chip of choice at the moment.

I have always believed that if I get the best that I can afford it will last me longer. I generally have a machine for 3/4 years so if I get a good backbone of a system then I can upgrade to the quad cores when they come down in price.

Plus for the money this memory seems to be really good value for money. It may not have the tightest timmings but it gives me that guarentee that it will work at 1066.
 
davetherave2 said:
yeah i contemplated that as well.


How noisey is the fan on this unit. I take it I can pop any fan onto this.

but it seems like the supplied fan is quite good.
Click to expand...

I replaced the fan in my Tuniq Tower, and got more cooling and less noise. It is easy to do, and only a few it seems need the fan replacing, so I'd go ahead and order as the heatsink is the best.

I'd second the comments about the RAM, if you want performance RAM to get the most out of it, go for the Cellshock, Team group (Elite or Extreme) or Crucial 10th Anniversary for overclocking. Otherwise just get the cheapest 6400 RAM, which at the moment is very cheap.
 
melbourne720 said:
I replaced the fan in my Tuniq Tower, and got more cooling and less noise. It is easy to do, and only a few it seems need the fan replacing, so I'd go ahead and order as the heatsink is the best.

I'd second the comments about the RAM, if you want performance RAM to get the most out of it, go for the Cellshock, Team group (Elite or Extreme) or Crucial 10th Anniversary for overclocking. Otherwise just get the cheapest 6400 RAM, which at the moment is very cheap.
Click to expand...


cool.

It has been a while since I have done any overclocking (so I'm sure some things have changed with this platform compared to what I am used to) so will I be able to push the 6400 ram to 1066+ speeds.

I don't want to be using a divider straight away and not getting the best performance out of my system.

Although if I were to buy two lots of the G.Skill 2GB DDR2 NQ PC2-6400 (2x1GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit that would give me 4GB of Ram and at just a little more than the 8500 sticks that I have choosen.

Oh the decisions I must make.:D
 
I thought I would just ask before I start to buy my components. I have noticed the power requirements for the 8800GTX's and in addition to the other components I have will my psu's be up to the job.

I have an Antec TrueBlue 480W and an Antec Neo 480W I currently have these connected via the little connector that you get for the coolermaster stacker 810 case. Will this be sufficient to power the componets I was thinking that I could power the mobo and drives on one and then card on the second psu. But would it have enough grunt to power a second card.
 
right here is the final spec before i go and buy at the weekend.

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) £96.99
(£113.96) £96.99
(£113.96)
Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler £29.99
(£35.24) £29.99
(£35.24)
Razer Tarantula Advanced Gaming Keyboard - Black £58.99
(£69.31) £58.99
(£69.31)
Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £167.99
(£197.39) £167.99
(£197.39)
BFG GeForce 8800 GTX OC 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £319.99
(£375.99) £319.99
(£375.99)
Asus P5N32-E SLi nForce 680 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £129.99
(£152.74) £129.99
(£152.74)
Sub Total : £803.94
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.95
Vat : £142.26
Total : £955.15

Is there anything that i may need to chnage to get a better overclock on the system.

I have added the razor keyboard as I saw it at a mates house and thought OMG thats amazing. Plus my old logitec is looking a bit long in the tooth now.
 
just another quickie is it worth getting vista as well at the moment and which version should I get. I was think of getting the ultimate edition but which would benefit me more 32bit or 64bit. I'm guessing driver support is still fairly limited so was thinking of getting vista in about 6 months time when it has matured a bit more.
 
Well have just set the system up and used my previous install of xp and it seems to be working just fine.

It is amazingly quick but I think I may need to get a new psu as the nvidia gfx monitor thing pops up everytime i shutdown or start the machine up saying that the graphics card is not getting enough power even though I have a 480W psu supplying power just for this. :(

So hopefully clockers will put a psu on sale next week.

Now all I have to do is wait for another replacement for my viewsonic vx2025 and then do a proper reinstall and see what this lot can do.

I had a thermalright xp120 and I thought that was a big heatsink but this dwarfs it.

I must only have about 2 -3 cm clearence from the side of the case where the top is and it is really quiet which is great.


And the razor keyboard is a dream. it feels so nice :D plus the glowing led's is brilliant.


Thanks for all the suggestions and I think I will have a good base of a system for several years to come.
 
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davetherave2 said:
It is amazingly quick but I think I may need to get a new psu as the nvidia gfx monitor thing pops up everytime i shutdown or start the machine up saying that the graphics card is not getting enough power even though I have a 480W psu supplying power just for this. :(
Click to expand...

you mentioned having 2 psu's have you swapped them over to see if the other one helps with the gfx card any better ?

great to see you're liking the system :D
 
That PSU should certainly do but I'd also consider the Corsair 620w(also out of stock as it happens) but it would be easily capable of powering your system and is cheaper. However if you are considering dual graphics cards at some point in the future then maybe a larger PSU initially is a good plan. :)
 
i'd get the asus 650i tbh, a lot cheaper and virtually identical unless you need sli or more than 4 sata drives. as for psu, 480w is touch and go. 600w enermax would be preferred.
 
semi-pro waster said:
That PSU should certainly do but I'd also consider the Corsair 620w(also out of stock as it happens) but it would be easily capable of powering your system and is cheaper. However if you are considering dual graphics cards at some point in the future then maybe a larger PSU initially is a good plan. :)
Click to expand...

I have always believed that I should always overspend on the psu as to future proof the system as much as possible and with the way things are going at the moment it may not be that long before we start seeing systems requiring 2kw. I do plan to go sli at some point in the future and also go quad core some point when it is more affordable.

clocka said:
i'd get the asus 650i tbh, a lot cheaper and virtually identical unless you need sli or more than 4 sata drives. as for psu, 480w is touch and go. 600w enermax would be preferred.
Click to expand...

Well I think for build quality the p5n32-e is brill and so much easier to work with than previous mobos that I've had.

Yes I do need the extra features and 6 sata ports is just not enough. I now have to purchase a sata card at some point so that I add more storage space. Plus I intend to go for SATA DVDRW's at some point so that I can get rid of IDE all together.

Plus I do have 2x480w psu's one an Antec Trueble and the other an Antec NeoPower 480w so I would have tought having just one psu (NeoPower) just used for the gfx card would have been enough.
 
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