New System. £1000 Budget.

Sw1ftYx

Sw1ftYx

Sw1ftYx

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Joined
10 Aug 2007
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7
Hey, I was hoping someone could help me with deciding on what i've come up with is a reasonable setup.

I have around £1000 to play with maybe a bit more when i sell off the parts from my current system.

This is what i've come up with so far:
  1. Abit IP-35 Pro, iP35 Express, S 775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX
  2. 2Gb (2X1Gb) Corsair TwinX DDR2 XMS2 Dominator, PC8500, 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered,CAS 5-5-5-15, EPP
  3. Zalman CNPS9700-NT NVIDIA Tritium Super Aero Flower Cooler
  4. 768MB EVGA 8800GTX PCI-E(x16) Mem 1800MHz GPU 575MHz 128Stream 2xDual Link DVI-I/HDTV, ACS3 Cooling
  5. 74 Gb Western Digital WD740ADFD Raptor, SATA150, 10000 rpm, 16MB Cache, 5.2 ms
  6. Intel Core 2 Quad-Core Q6600, S775, 2.40 GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 8MB Cache, Retail
  7. 620W Corsair HX Series Modular SLi PSU, ATX, EPS 12V, whisper quiet, 5 year warranty
  8. Antec P180 V2 Advanced Super Midi Tower Case, Black (no PSU)
  9. Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Professional
  10. LG 18X GSA-H62NBAL DVD+/-RW, 12X RAM SATA Black OEM

What do you think?
 
I know i've asked for your opinion but i'm really not that much of a Crucial fan, I'd like to stick to Corsair and maybe go 4GB with that but i only have 32bit Vista & XP.
 
Can the idea of the 8500 Corsairs to start with. 8500 sticks of Ram are there for people who want speed but dont overclock.

Get these instead. They will EASILY push further than the 8500 and such a big price difference.

If its 4GB you want then have a gander at these .

You will only probably see 3GB of it with 32bit versions but its gonna cost the same for the 64bit and the drivers are now getting better and faster at deployment than they were when it was just XP 64bit.
 
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Welcome to the Forums Sw1ftYx. :cool:

How much is all that coming too?

Just a few things i would consider changing:

If your overclocking (by the looks of things you will be), you dont actually need 8500 rated Memory, bit of a overkill to be honest.

The Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Dual Channel Kit overclocks very well. It can do 1000MHZ+ quite easily. Well worth getting, save quite a bit of money as well. Also noticed that you have said your not a Crucial Fan, now this isnt the way to go to be honest :) , Crucial are one of the best Memory manufacturers around, the company as a whole is very good. You should really consider them.

The 74 Gb Western Digital WD740ADFD Raptor is very expensive for such little gain to be honest. Newer Hard drives like the Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 5000AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache arnt far behind the Raptor nowadays, well worth changing.

Other than that looks good, so heres a reviised spec for you:

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "LGA775 Kentsfield" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
Zalman CNPS9700-NT nVidia Tritium Super Aero Flower Cooler
Abit IP35 Pro (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Dual Channel Kit
EVGA GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 5000AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache
Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Professional 7.1 Soundcard - Retail
Samsung SH-183LBEBN 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA Lightscribe ReWriter
Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU
Antec P182 Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU

Total : £1,148.97
 
I should have mentioned before, I already have a 300GB harddrive from this that i will put in the new one i just want it for faster boot times. I will store all my junk on the 300GB one.

I'm still not sure about the memory i've had two different mentioned the Corsair which i'd prefer by a long way and the Crucial. I will most probably be overclocking so i just have to look at the two really.

Thanks for the help so far :)
 
2 further suggestions:

1. You can never have too much hard drive :) . The 500Gb AAKS is cheaper than the 74 Gb Raptor. Create a partition on the outer edge, and stick the OS there. Hardly any difference I understand.

2. You're paying a price premium for the EVGA for a pointlessly long warranty and their 90 day upgrade policy. Unless you are going to use that upgrade (possible with the 9800's round the corner), you can save £50 by getting the OC version (1 year warranty) or £35 with the Leadtek version (2 year warranty).
 
Also if your just getting a fast drive for OS, which i dont think is a bad idea, maybe one of the smaller raptors would be as effective and a fair bit cheaper.
You can never have too much hard drive
Click to expand...
No sense in buying more hard drive space before youve used up the last one, prices and technology are improving so buying when you need it really works.

I dont see how you can be against crucial, they have great RAM, a good RMA service and are great value. The ballistix overclocks like the big ben on steroids, currently running mine at 3,3,3,8 750mhz, and im sure i could reduce the timings at that speed if i could be bothered. Its definately worth considering.
 
Sw1ftYx said:
I should have mentioned before, I already have a 300GB harddrive from this that i will put in the new one i just want it for faster boot times. I will store all my junk on the 300GB one.
Click to expand...

Like i said the Raptors are old now, when they first came ot yes they were a lot quicker than say the standard 7200 RPM drives but im afraid they are not now. They are slightly faster but not faster enough to warrant the extra cost.

Sw1ftYx said:
I'm still not sure about the memory i've had two different mentioned the Corsair which i'd prefer by a long way and the Crucial. I will most probably be overclocking so i just have to look at the two really.
Click to expand...

If your overclocking, im pretty sure that the Crucial will overclock much better than that Corsair Memory you picked out.
 
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What are you on about stickroad?

The corsair ram he chose is already guaranteed to run at 1066 and will still have some headroom left to go higher. The crucial ballistix you're speccing has certainly been known to reach 1000+, but I've also seen it only hit about 950/975 or so. If you were warning him off in on the basis of price then yes I can agree, he's probably better off getting a cheaper kit, but for overclocking ability...
 
Nullvoid said:
What are you on about stickroad?

The corsair ram he chose is already guaranteed to run at 1066 and will still have some headroom left to go higher. The crucial ballistix you're speccing has certainly been known to reach 1000+, but I've also seen it only hit about 950/975 or so. If you were warning him off in on the basis of price then yes I can agree, he's probably better off getting a cheaper kit, but for overclocking ability...
Click to expand...

You dont need 1066MHZ memory period unless your planning for uber overclocks. That just defeats the object of overclocking.

So what it is rated at 1066, dosent mean it has more overclocking potinal than something that is rated lower.

Ill be also very suprised that the Crucial capped out at 950/975, since all the kits uses the same chips. You have any links.

Nullvoid said:
What are you on about stickroad?
Click to expand...

And sort your attitude out as well please. No need to be like that at all to be honest. :)
 
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Hmm I was a bit hasty in quoting the low figures I'd seen since they don't actually specify whether that was the absolute maximum they could get or if they have just chosen to settle on that value. There is one that says 904 but I strongly suspect his other hardware was at fault. There's also 1056, 1014 and then the host of reviews here on ocuk saying they easily made 1066.

I just took issue with you making such an emphatic statement:

"If your overclocking, im telling you now that the Crucial will overclock much better than that Corsair Memory you picked out.

Your making a massive mistake if you go for the Corsair Memory over the Crucial."

Yes the Ballistix should reach such high speeds (and it's really pretty amazing that it can considering it is rated as ddr2-667), but there is a big difference between 'should be able to' and 'is guaranteed to'. It's not how I would choose to spend my money, but if the OP wants a guaranteed minimum of 1066, then there is nothing wrong with his choice of the Corsair RAM.
 
lol i guess i was a bit wrong in the way i said that. :p Edited accordinaly. :)

Anyway, you could quite honestly say that about anything for example, CPUs. Thats the risk you take though when overclocking. :)
 
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