Overhaul spec!

BlackEyedAngel · 24 Jun 2007 at 18:47

Hello! It's been a couple of years, but it's time for an upgrade, either now or very soon anyway. I have a full rig set up (see my signature), so I guess I'll replace mobo/ram/cpu, cooler, and graphics. Plus I'm looking to move up to Vista at the same time.

Here's my spec so far:

Any comments?

No disrespect to OcUK, but I am slightly sceptical about the "own brand" graphics card... anyone have experience or opinions?

I'll be stealing the 120mm fan off my old 939 Thermalright cooler btw, to put on the new one.

Flenser · 24 Jun 2007 at 19:03

Good choice on the PSU, that's on my shopping list too.

stickroad · 24 Jun 2007 at 19:07

Ignore that.

supernova9 · 24 Jun 2007 at 19:11

Instead of the bundle I'd get:

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

Gigabyte GA_P35C_DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 & DDR3 Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail

It's an extra £25 or so, but the motherboard is superior, the P5B is a previous-gen motherboard.

The graphics card will be fine, they all use the same reference boards from NVidia.

Alex UK · 24 Jun 2007 at 19:32

This is what I'd go for...

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
(£150.39) £127.99

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00715)
(£70.49) £59.99

Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK)
(£72.84) £61.99

Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme (Socket AM2/LGA775) Heatsink
(£38.76) £32.99

OcUK GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - OEM
(£328.99) £279.99

Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT12864AA663) C
(£64.61) £54.99

Gigabyte GA_P35_DS3P (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
(£103.39) £87.99

Sub Total : £705.93
Shipping : £8.95
VAT : £125.10
Total : £839.98

This is a much better option. The motherboard is based on the P35 chipset, and so will be compatible with the upcoming Penryn CPU's. The Ballistix RAM is probably the best around at the moment, it is cheap and highly overclockable. The PSU is more than enough, the 620W version is only really necessary if your running more than one GPU. Good choice of CPU and HSF, both brilliant. As said above, the OcUK 8800GTX is just the same as any other, they're all made in the same factory be Nvidia.

BlackEyedAngel · 25 Jun 2007 at 23:00

This might be a stupid question (man I feel so out of touch), but you've suggested RAM with 800Mhz and 667Mhz descriptions... don't they have to match the FSB of the processor/mobo?

What's the default FSB on a Core Duo system?

Both RAM figures seem low compared with the maximum 1333Mhz quoted on the Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R.

BlackEyedAngel · 25 Jun 2007 at 23:08

Also, could you point me in the direction of some sources regarding power supply demands?

I currently have a 470W Enermax, but per the 8800GTX product page, it says minimum 500W, recommended 600W+.

I'd love to know how true that is. Is 600W actually needed? Is 520W enough? Is 470W even enough?

Note that I have no intention of going for 2 graphics cards.

semi-pro waster · 25 Jun 2007 at 23:25

BlackEyedAngel said:
This might be a stupid question (man I feel so out of touch), but you've suggested RAM with 800Mhz and 667Mhz descriptions... don't they have to match the FSB of the processor/mobo?

What's the default FSB on a Core Duo system?

Either Ram would work fine, although the Crucial Ballistix is rated at a lower speed it apparantly uses (or perhaps that is used to use) the same chips as in the PC8500 Ballistix so it overclocked very nicely.

The default FSB for the CPU you have selected (E6600) is 1066mhz which is created by quad-pumping the minimum Ram speed e.g. 4x266.5mhz which means that even PC4200 is enough to run the system at stock speeds. I wouldn't recommend it but it is certainly possible and Core2Duos are less fussy about matching Ram to FSB speeds than A64s were.

BlackEyedAngel said:
Both RAM figures seem low compared with the maximum 1333Mhz quoted on the Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R.

The 1333mhz is for quad core CPUs really so you just need to know that either good PC5300 or PC6400 is more than sufficient to run that CPU properly and overclock well.

The OcUK graphics card will be OEM from a big manufacturer, I'm not sure who it is at the moment but in the past many of OcUK 'branded' cards have come with all the documentation etc from a major manufacturer.

The PSU requirements are exaggerated because not all PSUs are created equal, if you think of a generic 500w it probably produces around 350w stable but a good PSU will work to its rated capacity. 500w is bobbins to put it simply, there have been a few people on here (james.miller is one I can remember) tested their systems with power meters and their full systems didn't use anywhere near that level of power. However the reason for stating that 500w is a minimum is because of cheap and nasty PSUs as I mentioned, a component manufacturer can't guarantee that everyone will use a quality PSU so in the absence of that they boost the minimum requirements as a sort of substitute.