New system spec questions

[danderham]

Hi All,

People must get really bored of us lot asking if system specs are ok, but I'll ask anyway!

Right, first of all I use my PC mainly for 3DS Max / other 3D modelling packages and then secondly for gaming (although I'm moving more torwards my xbox 360 for most new games now).

I plan on buying the following:

- Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 - OEM (£119.84) £101.99

- Thermaltake Big Typhoon 4 in 1 Heatpipe CPU Cooler (£29.32) £24.95

- Gigabyte GA 965P DS3 PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (£82.24) £69.99

- Arctic Cooling T1 Pro Case (£66.96) £56.99

- GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) (£164.49) £139.99

- HIS ATI Radeon X1950 Pro ICEQ 3 TURBO SILENT Heatpipe 256MB GDDR3 (PCI-Express) - Retail (H195PRQT256DD-R) -(£126.89) £107.99

- Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00788) (£72.84) £61.99

Comes to £675.44 (inc postage & vat).


I've already got a couple of good lcd monitors, DVD Writer, 250gb SATA hard disk, etc...

I plan on overclocking to about 2.8Ghz (maybe more, although I'd prefer more relilbity than risking having a cpu which I can only use to cook eggs on). Oh, and as slient as possible is also a good thing.

£675 is really my maximum, infact less would be better but I don't really want to lose out on performance.


And here's my questions:

- Can anyone see any major problems with the setup I have choosen? (ie. heatsink not fitting in the case or something silly)

- Any suggestions to get better performance for the money?

- I've choosen the GeIL GX22GB6400UDC memory, although GX22GB6400DC is nearly £20 cheaper... would it still be possible to overclock up to 2.8Ghz on the cheaper memory or would that be a bad idea?

- Do I need to get any Thermal Compound, or is it included with this heatsink / fan?

Thanks,
Dan.

 

[furnace]

Yeah, get thermal compound - Arctic Silver 5.

Also I'd get the Tuniq Tower 120

But otherwise, it's a good setup!

 

[danderham]

Thanks for the reply. I had a look at the Tuniq Tower but the reviews say it's quite loud unless you change the fan, is this the case? Any known issues with the Thermaltake Big Typhoon and overclocking?

Also I can't find much detail on the Arctic Cooling T1 Pro Case. I'd really prefer not to pay out for a seperate case / power supply but I have a couple of worries about the Arctic combo... mainly:

- Am I going to have a problem fitting in the graphics card or heatsink/fan? Once it's all in there I won't be opening it up for a far while.

- Is the power supply going to be up to running a 1950 Pro and overclocking? It's got 2 connectors for SLI/crossfire, so I'm assuming it's going to be ok with just the one.

Cheers,
Dan.

 

[danderham]

Right, I've been having a good look over the forums, looks like a Tuniq Tower 120 has no chance of fitting in the case, and even though I think the Thermaltake Big Typhoon will fit the fan would be only a few mm from the side of the case, which can't be good. The case is only 180mm width, taking into account a bit of space for the motherboard and backplate I'm guess I'm left with about 140mm for a heatsink / fan?

I think this only leaves me one choice (which doesn't involve spending more) which is to get the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro, some Arctic Silver 5 and taking my chances. It's seems like it's a 50 / 50 chance of getting a good one of these.

Does anyone else have a Arctic Cooling T1 Pro case and are overclocking? and if so which heatsink / fan are you using? Any other suggestions? I'm planning on ordering the system tomorrow night.

Dan.