New Spec

adamph

adamph

adamph

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Joined
24 May 2007
Posts
611
Location
Tunbridge Wells
Hi just specced up this, was wondering if there was any obvious errors in this spec. Don't want to order it and find it doesn't work.. My only concern is the motherboard / processor Bus speeds.

Intel Core 2 Quadro Extreme QX6850 3.00GHz processor

Asus Striker Extreme nForce 680 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

CZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-8500 1066MHz Reaper HPC Edition Dual Channel DDR2 (OCZ2RPR10662GK

BFG GeForce 8800 GTX OC 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case

Enermax Galaxy 1000W EGX1000EWL ATX2.2 Modular PSU

Maxtor Diamondmax 21 320GB STM3320820AS SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM 1
 
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It will all work fine together but there are some slightly questionable choices in there. As mk17 says you could save yourself a lot buy following that advice, you almost certainly will find the PSU and Ram to be overkill. The hard drive is partly a matter of personal preference but Maxtor had a bit of a shaky spell where it seemed like more than usual numbers were failing although that may be sorted now. :)

//edit this should perform as well as the above but cost a fair bit less.

Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 5000AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £63.99
(£75.19) £63.99
(£75.19)
OcUK GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - OEM £254.99
(£299.61) £254.99
(£299.61)
Gigabyte GA_P35C_DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 & DDR3 Motherboard £71.99
(£84.59) £71.99
(£84.59)
Noctua NH-U12F CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £33.99
(£39.94) £33.99
(£39.94)
OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB) PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel Vista Gold Series DDR2 (OCZ2G8004GK) £149.99
(£176.24) £149.99
(£176.24)
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) £5.99
(£7.04) £5.99
(£7.04)
Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-620HXUK) £79.99
(£93.99) £79.99
(£93.99)
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £151.99
(£178.59) £151.99
(£178.59)
Sub Total : £812.92
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £144.00
Total : £966.87
 
Abit IP35 Pro and the Q6600 G0. I'd also say your PSU is a bit over-the-top for your system, get something like a Corsair 620W PSU which is more than enough and one of the best PSU's around. The money saved from that CPU + PSU would get you 2GB more RAM, and if you want too an upgrade from the GTX to an Ultra.
 
lol only picks a motherboard and a cpu didnt know it was a full spec. semi pro spec is a lot better value for money than the OP. still got a quad core CPU, a 8800GTX graphics card, plenty of storage space and you got more memory than your original post. just get a 64bit OS to get full use out of the 4 gig thou :)
 
Yeah I am definately looking at a new Processor/ PSU / Mobo combo now after your comments! The saving is huge, I think I will stick with the same graphics card, and look into 2gigs more ram! I noticed the motherboard semi-pro specced has only 1x pci express, I hope to eventually upgrade to dual graphics cards so will have to shop around for another decent / cost effective one!
 
What size of monitor do you have? SLi with high end cards is only really necessary with 24" (1920x1200) and above monitors. Even then you might be better to just upgrade to the fastest single graphics card available at the time. :)
 
adamph said:
Can you reccommend any decent ones that would work with the above setup?
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Go with semi-pro and flibby for the win, my own vote is for semi's spec with flibby's Abit IP35 Pro and the Corsair 620. Best of luck mate. :)

[edit]

SGWills said:
...
just get a 64bit OS to get full use out of the 4 gig thou :)
Click to expand...

definitely, have a go on Vista 64-bit Ultimate.

[/edit]
 
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Helium_Junkie said:
Maybe right now, but think about future proofing. In a years time it would be nice if this system can be bought back up to speed by simply doubling the graphics card.
Click to expand...

Or you simply sell off the existing card and buy the new fastest card out there. SLi doesn't lead to a doubling of performance in most games and adds an extra layer of complications that is unnecessary for most. In limited circumstances it can be worthwhile I'd agree but not in the majority of cases I'd say. :)
 
like semi pro said, the performance increase from having graphics cards in SLI, even top cards, is not that vast. for the performance over money cost it would make more sense to sell the older card and get a faster single card.

plus factors such as the increase in system temps because your running two cards, bigger psu to power the extra card.

imo what size monitor would you need to have two GTX's to get the full power, it would have to be a massive screen and then think of your electric bill :p

SG
 
semi-pro waster said:
Or you simply sell off the existing card and buy the new fastest card out there. SLi doesn't lead to a doubling of performance in most games
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I did have a question about that, and sorry to the OP for going a little off topic. I always assumed the lack of doubling the speed was due to motherboards not being able to have two 16x PCI-E slots on the boards (we are only recently seeing this on motherboards) as some are one 16x and one 4x, or two 8x... obviously dropping the card from a 16x pci-e to a 4x pci-e is a huge reduction.

Is this the reason for the lack of the doubled speed, or another?
 
SGWills said:
like semi pro said, the performance increase from having graphics cards in SLI, even top cards, is not that vast. for the performance over money cost it would make more sense to sell the older card and get a faster single card.

plus factors such as the increase in system temps because your running two cards, bigger psu to power the extra card.

imo what size monitor would you need to have two GTX's to get the full power, it would have to be a massive screen and then think of your electric bill :p

SG
Click to expand...

Thats why I originally specced with the other PSU as I intend to run a dual card later. I have a 19in monitor at the moment, gonna upgrade to a 22-24in soon though
 
reason for the SLI is not only the motherboards but software that supports SLI functions, hence why in theory wo cards = twice the power but in the real world the gain is not worth it.

a single GTX would be enough to run a 24" monitor no problems, unless you want a monster monitor setup, dual 30" dell monitors then theres no reason why a single GTX or an ultra wouldnt be suitable

SG
 
flibby said:
I did have a question about that, and sorry to the OP for going a little off topic. I always assumed the lack of doubling the speed was due to motherboards not being able to have two 16x PCI-E slots on the boards (we are only recently seeing this on motherboards) as some are one 16x and one 4x, or two 8x... obviously dropping the card from a 16x pci-e to a 4x pci-e is a huge reduction.

Is this the reason for the lack of the doubled speed, or another?
Click to expand...

There have been motherboards from socket 939 onwards (when SLi was introduced) that have had two full 16x slots but even with 16x and 4x it isn't as big a problem as you would think. The AGP 8x bandwidth was only starting to get saturated at the point of the 7800series cards if memory serves and even then only occasionally so considering PCI-Es much higher theoretical throughput it made little enough difference.

The main problems with SLi are the increased cost, heat, power, need for driver profiles etc but it is true you won't get a doubling of speed because it isn't that efficient. Two basic modes here AFR (Alternate Frame Rendering) and SFR (Split Frame Rendering) - fairly self explanatory but if not - AFR is where one GPU renders one frame and the second GPU renders the next on an alternating basis, SFR means that the screen is divided into segments and each GPU is given a portion to render. To do either of these modes requires the GPUs to get the work divided amongst them which will require more processing than simply allowing one graphics card to do so and more use of the bus. You also need driver profiles for maximum performance still I believe and that is an added complication.

This is all just to the best of my knowledge so I could be wrong on some aspects but the basic premise is right I think. :)
 
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