Oh dear, a Spec me thread

Killajaz · 29 Sep 2011 at 09:20

Have not posted for quite some time due to work, family, travel and just generally constrained for time. Unfortunately it has put me so far behind with hardware it is embarassing. I still use an old knock of spare parts at home.

It is staggering kit of PC!
AMD Opteron 64 from 2.0ghz to a whopping 2.6ghz.
An Arctic Cooler of sorts.
Lanboy motherboard which was the jet set of boards back in 2004, or something.
2gb of DDR 400mhz. Now that is fast!
ATI 4350 for silence and stunning graphics.

2 decent 500gb 16mb cache HD's.
A 10 pound case, left over from local PC store...
PSU from a HTPC case which does not fit properly.

And you know what, it does the job admirably. (Never mind that most software used is 6 years old...)

However, it sounds like a vacuum cleaner. It heats up the room nicely also.
With a budget of about 500GBP, what could be achieved. I'll keep the HD's for storage but would not mind a small SSD for ownage load speeds.

ATI fanboy. The 6870 seems a good card?
AMD or Intel does not matter anymore. I doubt I will be overclocking unless it is very easy. Don't have the time to tinkle for hours these days.

I think we can narrow it down to:
CPU
RAM
MoBo
GFX
PSU
Cooling
Case

ATI furevor!

stulid · 29 Sep 2011 at 09:47

Are the HDD's a SATA or IDE connection? same for the optical drive?

AMD or Intel does not matter anymore.

Intel Sandybridge is where its at, cheaper/faster/less power hungry etc.

Is there a budget?

Do you need a operating system?

King Damager · 29 Sep 2011 at 09:48

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £161.99
1 x Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE DIRT3 & Deus Ex PC Games £133.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68A-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £72.98
1 x OCZ ZS Series 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £56.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi Gaming Case - Black £49.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £45.59
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
Total : £570.44 (includes shipping : £19.10).

I know it's slightly over budget... But you might be able to recoup some of the cost with free shipping, and by selling off the games with the 6870 if you chose to. Oh you could also cut the RAM down to 4GB from 8GB to save £20

You could also save a couple of quid by going down to a slightly worse PSU, however this one has the room to XFire in future nicely

(Power consumption figures for XFIRE 6870 - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/301)

Intel are demolishing AMD atm, and the 2500k is the processor for gaming

Also yes it really really is that easy to overclock

kd

stulid · 29 Sep 2011 at 09:51

Yo King, small point,

That Z68 board above doesnt have Lucid or Quicksync, this is the cheapest board that does - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-364-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

But neither of them do symmetrical 8X/8X crossfire.

For that this is the cheapest Z68 - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-368-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

Killajaz · 29 Sep 2011 at 09:53

The HDS are both sata 2. Optical is IDE. Sorry.

stulid · 29 Sep 2011 at 09:55

Did you need an OS? and the budget?

Killajaz · 29 Sep 2011 at 10:19

I thought I posted the budget, around 500GBP. Lets start without the OS.

stulid · 29 Sep 2011 at 10:26

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £161.99
(£134.99) £161.99
(£134.99)
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE DIRT3 & Deus Ex PC Games £133.99
(£111.66) £133.99
(£111.66)
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £85.98
(£71.65) £85.98
(£71.65)
OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £47.99
(£39.99) £47.99
(£39.99)
BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
(£27.49) £32.99
(£27.49)
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1155/1156/1366) £23.99
(£19.99) £23.99
(£19.99)
Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £23.99
(£19.99) £23.99
(£19.99)
LG GH22NS70 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
(£14.99) £17.99
(£14.99)
Corsair 120mm Fan - Black £1.99
(£1.66) £1.99
(£1.66)
Sub Total : £442.41
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £20.10
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £92.50
Total : £555.01

This uses this board - http://www.kitguru.net/components/m...-z68ap-d3-z68-review-bargain-buy-of-the-year/

So overclocks well for such a budget board which is why I also included a aftermarket cooler, but the stock intel one supplied is good for 4GHZ± if you want to keep costs down. It has all the Z68 features also.

The case only comes with a single rear 120mm fan, so included another to fit to the front.

Killajaz · 29 Sep 2011 at 13:00

I should add, silence is important

Thanks for those specs.

stulid · 29 Sep 2011 at 13:08

Both specs have quiet aftermarket coolers and graphics cards with custom coolers and fan,

The PSU's are a bit loud according to tests.

King Damager · 29 Sep 2011 at 14:35

Ah yeah, should probably amend spec to one with 8x8x xFire, however really don't think the other z68 benefits are as necessary...

kd