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sja

sja

sja

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Hi Guys,

Been away from the hardware side of things for a few years now and just starting to get back into it again.

I'm planning a new system for the house and would really appreciate some feedback.

I've already got the following:
Antec P182
Corsair HX 620W Modular
2 x 2Gb OCZ PC2-8000 (cheap from a mate, 2nd user)
Quad Core Q8200 (also 2nd user)

Planning:
Asus P5Q Deluxe
XFX HD 4870 512Mb (possibly add a second in the future)
Asus Silent Knight II
Samsung F1 1Tb HDD
LiteOn 20x DVD+RW SATA
Windows 7 64-bit

Does this seem like a reasonable set up? I probably wouldn't have normally gone for the Q8200, and I'd likely have gone for the PC2-8500, but they were cheap and only powered up once (when he then decided to go i7).

Cheers!
Steve.
 
Sounds good, except I presume you know that Windows 7 is in beta at the moment, so you won't be able to buy the rtm version until probably later this year? Also I'd recommend going for the XFX ATI HD4870 1024MB graphics card instead of the 512MB model as there's not much price difference in it, but the 1GB card will outperform the 512 and will be better at higher resolutions for not much more money. The Q8200 is an oddity in CPU lines, but if you have one already you may aswell use it. Generally your proposed system looks good :) Good luck.
 
I'd recommend go for DFI LT UT P45 T2RS mobo (it is only 109 quid in OCUk) - IMO better than any Asus.Or if Asus go for P5Q-E - cheaper nad good as well.
Don't buy Samsung F1 1TB drive - rubbish - go for WD Balck 1TB.
Change that LiteOn for LG or Samsung ;)
 
LinktoInsanity said:
Sounds good, except I presume you know that Windows 7 is in beta at the moment, so you won't be able to buy the rtm version until probably later this year?
Click to expand...

Yep, I grabbed the 32-bit and 64-bit beta when they were available. I was running it on my laptop for a while, but the drivers were a bit shoddy, so I went back to XP. :D

LinktoInsanity said:
Also I'd recommend going for the XFX ATI HD4870 1024MB graphics card instead of the 512MB model as there's not much price difference in it, but the 1GB card will outperform the 512 and will be better at higher resolutions for not much more money.
Click to expand...

I was wondering about that - I had a look at some benchmarks and the 1gb seemed quite close to the 512Mb, so I wasn't sure if it was worth the difference or not - but I guess it's the same old story, you can never have too much RAM, be it system or GFX.

LinktoInsanity said:
The Q8200 is an oddity in CPU lines, but if you have one already you may aswell use it.
Click to expand...

Aye, I think I'd have been as well going for the Q6600, but I'm not really planning on overclocking (zero experience of doing it), so I guess the Q8200 will be cooler at stock.

LinktoInsanity said:
Generally your proposed system looks good :) Good luck.
Click to expand...

Cool, thanks. I'll get some pics up as I build it - probably later this month.
 
Blackwhite said:
I'd recommend go for DFI LT UT P45 T2RS mobo (it is only 109 quid in OCUk) - IMO better than any Asus.Or if Asus go for P5Q-E - cheaper nad good as well.
Don't buy Samsung F1 1TB drive - rubbish - go for WD Balck 1TB.
Change that LiteOn for LG or Samsung ;)
Click to expand...

Heh - I'll have a look around at those parts - cheers! :)
 
Blackwhite said:
I'd recommend go for DFI LT UT P45 T2RS mobo (it is only 109 quid in OCUk) - IMO better than any Asus.Or if Asus go for P5Q-E - cheaper nad good as well.
Don't buy Samsung F1 1TB drive - rubbish - go for WD Balck 1TB.
Change that LiteOn for LG or Samsung ;)
Click to expand...

I agree with DFI being better than Asus and maybe an LG drive would be better than LiteOn, but Don't get a Samsung optical drive. Every single Samsung CD/DVD drive I have ever owned or seen has failed more quickly than their other brand counterparts. As far as the Samsung F1 is concerned, what's so rubbish about it? WD Black are good but there's nothing wrong with the Samsung F1.
 
For the sake of 20 quid I'm not really that concerned about the optical drive, and the F1 seems to have damn good reviews - though I will now go and compare it to the WD black.

It was mainly the choice of M/B and GFX that I was quite unsure about.
 
Hmm, I'd not come across DFI before (shows how long I've been out of the scene), but that does indeed seem to be a good board - so I'll swap the Asus out for that on the proposed spec.

Can't believe how cheap OCuk have it compared to some of my other suppliers.
 
sja said:
For the sake of 20 quid I'm not really that concerned about the optical drive, and the F1 seems to have damn good reviews - though I will now go and compare it to the WD black.

It was mainly the choice of M/B and GFX that I was quite unsure about.
Click to expand...

Yeah, tbh I have a LiteOn DVDRW drive in my dad's PC. It's a little loud, but nothing wrong with reading discs. Go for the DFI motherboard as suggested by Blackwhite and take a look at the 1GB Graphics card. Although it may well be worth comparing the Samsung F1 to WD Black it is not completely necessary. Apart from the gfx and the mobo, everything else is fine. :)
 
You quite happy with your WD Black then (I've got a 2.5" one in my laptop and it's been fine, if slightly louder than the Samsung I upgraded from)?
 
Having gone back to look at the 1Gb 4870, I notice for an extra few quid there's the 4890 1gb - is that worthwhile, or is "too soon" the cry?
 
Yeh, if you have the money, the ATI HD4890 is the way to go.

There have been problems with the Samsung F1, but just like any other hard drive model. Obviously, more people com-plain if something goes wrong then say that something's working, such is the way of life. But @OP, it's completely up to you. The WD Black are good hard drives :)
 
Sorry for pulling this up again, but there's been some changes...

I've managed to sell on the Q8200 and the 4Gb of OCZ for a box I put together for a mate...

As such all I now have is the Antec P182 and the Corsair HX 620w...

So, what would you guys all recommend, not sure until next week (pay day) what exactly my budget will be, but the budget can shrink and grow depending on what can be justified.

It will be mainly a web development box, but I do play WoW and would want to have the ability to play other modern games at decent framerates.

Quad core would be useful, btw, as I do plan to do some virtualisation and I could then give a core to each virtual environment.

I'm thinking maybe Q6700, 4Gb or 8Gb DDR2, Asus P5Q-E, 4870/4890 (not sure), 1Tb WD Black

Thanks in advance!
 
How's this, can anyone suggest better?

newkit.gif
 
Gah - now I'm re-thinking my virtualisation requirements... that would mean less RAM and I could go for dual core...

newkit2.gif


I've no idea what to go for... lol
 
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