Newbie System Advice Please!

robwalks

robwalks

robwalks

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Hi guys, first post so go easy! ;)

I've been looking at the review sections on OCUK and picked up some great tips; which has helped me narrow down some options! I was wondering if you could advise me on the following pls?

I'm putting a new system together, mainly for gaming and hopefully watching blu-ray movies. I had to get a couple of interim bits for my old existing (Pentium D) system so I've already purchased:

- Gigabyte EP45C-DS3R
- Corsair TX650W
- Coolmaster case, not sure of model #
- Acer 19" monitor (don't think the £500 will cover a new one)

I've got a max £500 left to spend, these are my thoughts:

- CPU: Q6600 or possibly Q9550 with Artic Freezer 7 Pro
- Graphics: torn between 4850 and 9800GTX+
- RAM: thinking 4 gigs of 1066mhz DDR2, not sure what make..
- HDD: 1TB Spinpoint F1, seems well rated & good value for money
- Optical: LG Blu-Ray HL20 (I've already got a cheap ASUS SATA DVD-RW as well)

I've never overclocked before, but would be tempted if the system could definitely handle it.

Any comments / advice would be very much appreciated!

Cheers
 
if you're going to get 4gb of ram a 64bit operating system would be recommended otherwise only 2.5-3.0gb of the ram will be available, also if you're clocking I would buy 1333mhz ram if you can stretch to it
the q6600 is a great chip and can easily be clocked to 3.0ghz (334mhz FSB, this is why you need 1333mhz ram & X9 multiplier) on air with stock volts
 
CaseyChaos said:
if you're going to get 4gb of ram a 64bit operating system would be recommended otherwise only 2.5-3.0gb of the ram will be available, also if you're clocking I would buy 1333mhz ram if you can stretch to it
the q6600 is a great chip and can easily be clocked to 3.0ghz (334mhz FSB, this is why you need 1333mhz ram & X9 multiplier) on air with stock volts
Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick response Casey, forgot to mention I'll be running Vista 64bit probably home premium or ultimate.

How does the Q9550 compare to the Q6600? If I went for the Q6600 option I might be able to squeeze in a 4870 card, would that be an improvement over the Q9550 and 4850 do you think? From the reviews both the ATi cards and the Nvidia ones look well rated..
 
the q9550 is better at stock levels but these q6600 go so easily above 3.0ghz that when playing games your gfx card will be the limiting factor, you would save £100 and like you say that could go on a better gfx card like the 4870, but if you're spending £200~ i would personally look at the nvidia GTX 260 range and push to £220 if you can, that's all just my opinion, lots of people will tell you to go for the 4870 tho, both are cracking cards so there's no wrong choice really.
 
Cheers Casey, much appreciated. Can I just check, by 1333mhz do you mean DDR3?

I've not overclocked before so don't really understand the multiplier bit!
 
no it's still DDR2, just rated at a faster speed.

the multiplier is what your FSB is times to get your overall clock speed, so if you clock your FSB to 334mhz the multiplier (x9) means that you have a overall CPU clock speed of 3006mhz, or 3ghz.

once you buy it all there is a very good guide in the overclocking section
 
CaseyChaos said:
no it's still DDR2, just rated at a faster speed.

the multiplier is what your FSB is times to get your overall clock speed, so if you clock your FSB to 334mhz the multiplier (x9) means that you have a overall CPU clock speed of 3006mhz, or 3ghz.

once you buy it all there is a very good guide in the overclocking section
Click to expand...

Right Casey, taking your advice, I've just priced up the following:

- Q6600 with Arctic Pro 7 cooler (intending to OC to 3.0mhz)
- GTX 260 896MB
- 4GB DDR3 OCZ Reaper RAM
- 1TB Spinpoint HDD
- LG Blu-Ray Drive

I can get these for £580 which is more than I wanted to spend!

Question is, are these components pretty well matched?
 
no i think i must have worded it wrong, you dont need that speed mem, 334mhz FSB means you need 667mhz ram, it's doubled because ddr always is
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz ReaperX HPC Enhanced Bandwidth Edition Dual Channel DDR2 is more than plenty for what you need and will bring you down on your budget its £63.24 inc VAT
also add in some arctic silver 5 thermal compound for £5 because the stuff you get in the retail cpu is rubbish.
other than that i think you're fine, im sure someone will correct me if i'm wrong anywhere
 
CaseyChaos said:
no i think i must have worded it wrong, you dont need that speed mem, 334mhz FSB means you need 667mhz ram, it's doubled because ddr always is
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz ReaperX HPC Enhanced Bandwidth Edition Dual Channel DDR2 is more than plenty for what you need and will bring you down on your budget its £63.24 inc VAT
also add in some arctic silver 5 thermal compound for £5 because the stuff you get in the retail cpu is rubbish.
other than that i think you're fine, im sure someone will correct me if i'm wrong anywhere
Click to expand...

Oh ok, I started off considering 1066mhz DDR2 RAM - wouldn't it be a backwards step going to 800Mhz or would 1066 be a waste of time?

I'd like this system to last me a couple of years so want to make sure I get everything spot on.
 
i see you're point about making it last. sorry i had you all confused earlier, wasn't quite with it lol. If you want to get the 1066mhz ram then you can. so with the GTX260 added to you list instead of the 4850 and the q6600 you should be fine and have a very good set-up for a couple of years or more
 
CaseyChaos said:
i see you're point about making it last. sorry i had you all confused earlier, wasn't quite with it lol. If you want to get the 1066mhz ram then you can. so with the GTX260 added to you list instead of the 4850 and the q6600 you should be fine and have a very good set-up for a couple of years or more
Click to expand...

Cheers Casey, your comments are much appreciated! Now comes the task of breaking it to the missus! ha ha
 
If you want gaming it is better buy Core 2 Duo instead Quad CPU.
It is only few games using poewr of 4 cores, and after OC you will get better performance on C2D than on Quad.
 
Blackwhite said:
If you want gaming it is better buy Core 2 Duo instead Quad CPU.
It is only few games using poewr of 4 cores, and after OC you will get better performance on C2D than on Quad.
Click to expand...

I hadn't really considered Core 2 Duos. What's the best one for overclocking then? Will that outperform the Q6600?

Cheers
 
E8500 E0 revision and E8600 - second one is better for OC but not everyone ;) The best batch (E8600) to OC is Q822A435 and then Q820A405.
But easy you can overclock each of this CPU's to 4 GHz 24/7
 
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Blackwhite said:
If you want gaming it is better buy Core 2 Duo instead Quad CPU.
It is only few games using poewr of 4 cores, and after OC you will get better performance on C2D than on Quad.
Click to expand...

the games he will most likely play will be limited by his gfx card before his cpu, since he said he wanted to keep all this for a few years i thought a slightly lower clocked quad would be the answer, i cant think of any game that requires more than 3ghz on a dual core so why not have four cores and escape the upgrade slightly longer
 
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