PC Build - Some Advice please

[1druid1]

Hi All

Well its time to build a new computer as I have had my old one for 4 years and its now struggling bigtime, games like SupremeCommander and Oblivion just dont run very well on it.. I want this PC to be powerfull but I need it to be as quiet as possible without shutting down because of heat issues. I have put together a basic spec below but with new technologies and such am not sure what am doing, so please advise if what I have below is overkill, reducing prices would be great.. Or if anything I have is crap could you advise a different solution.

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Samsung SpinPoint T HD501LJ 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £52.99
(£62.26) £105.98
(£124.52)
Western Digital Raptor X 150GB WD1500AHFD 10,000RPM SATA 16MB Cache - OEM £127.99
(£150.39) £127.99
(£150.39)
LG L226WTQ 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black/Silver £184.99
(£217.36) £184.99
(£217.36)
Thermaltake VE1000SWA Mozart TX Aluminium Entertainment Tower Case - Silver £116.99
(£137.46) £116.99
(£137.46)
Enermax Galaxy 1000W EGX1000EWL ATX2.2 Modular PSU £184.99
(£217.36) £184.99
(£217.36)
Leadtek GeForce 8800 Ultra Leviathan ***Water-Cooled*** 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £389.99
(£458.24) £389.99
(£458.24)
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2 Dominator PC2-6400C4D TwinX (2x1GB) £99.99
(£117.49) £199.98
(£234.98)
Asus Blitz Formula Special Edition Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £149.99
(£176.24) £149.99
(£176.24)
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £155.99
(£183.29) £155.99
(£183.29)
Sub Total : £1,616.89
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £54.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £292.57
Total : £1,964.41

As you can see I have not included any cooling as I am not sure what to do, as I want a queit system but also a cool stable one, lol.. Also I really didnt want to spend as much as the above..

Cheers

Dougie

 

[LeoPheonix]

Looks like you have gone for a similar base system as me with the Q6600 G0 and the Asus Blitz.

• Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient 95W Edition" 2.40GHz
• Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775)
• Asus Blitz Formula Special Edition Intel P35
• Crucial Ballistix 2GB (4x1GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel Kit
• BFG GeForce 8800 GTX OC2 768MB GDDR3
• Samsung SpinPoint T HD501LJ 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
• Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP-HC 24"
• Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM

You can see others comments here: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=9978661#post9978661

I have not gone for the watercooled graphics card as the next gen nvidia will be out at the end of the year and I will probably just upgrade the graphics card after that.

I am not sure that you need such a hefty card for a 22" screen anyway?

 

[truebluecfc]

Samsung SpinPoint T HD501LJ 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £52.99
(£62.26) £105.98
(£124.52)

I personally prefere the WD's AAKS as their extremely quick, reliable and almost silent although you wont go wrong with the samsung, more personal preference
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 5000AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
£63.99
£75.19 inc VAT

Western Digital Raptor X 150GB WD1500AHFD 10,000RPM SATA 16MB Cache - OEM £127.99
(£150.39) £127.99
(£150.39)

A waste of money I'm afraid, nothing wrong with them but for the amount your paying for a Raptor, you don't get the expected performance increase, like i said WD's AAKS range ain't far of the speeds of the raptor and a lot less money.
You could get for the same amount of money a 750GB AAKS which is almost as fast as a raptor and gaining an extra 500GB for the same price
Western Digital Caviar SE16 750GB 7500AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
£119.99
£140.99 inc VAT

Thermaltake VE1000SWA Mozart TX Aluminium Entertainment Tower Case - Silver £116.99
(£137.46) £116.99
(£137.46)

I don't know all that much about this case, apart from a lot of money and of a cube designed which supports dual motherboards etc which to me is a waste of money unless you need to support dual motherboard?

Much cheaper but still extremely good cases are:-

Antec P182 Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Gun Metal Black)
£69.99
£82.24 inc VAT

Akasa Mirage 62 Aluminium Case - No PSU
£84.99
£99.86 inc VAT

And theirs plenty less expensive ones.

Enermax Galaxy 1000W EGX1000EWL ATX2.2 Modular PSU £184.99
(£217.36) £184.99
(£217.36)

Seriously overkill and again a waste of money, the Corsair 620W will power your rig and more comfortably

Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-620HXUK)
£77.99
£91.64 inc VAT

Another choice could be

Enermax Infiniti 720W EIN720AWT ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU
£109.99
£129.24 inc VAT

Leadtek GeForce 8800 Ultra Leviathan ***Water-Cooled*** 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £389.99
(£458.24) £389.99
(£458.24)

Wayyyyy expensive and overkill and generally a waste of money plus your needa watercooling system to go with it.

A similar performing card is a

OcUK GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - OEM
£249.99
£293.74 inc VAT

Or if you want something with more warranty then a

BFG GeForce 8800 GTX OC 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
£294.99
£346.61 inc VAT

You could save over £100 if you get the OCuK 8800 GTX ...

Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2 Dominator PC2-6400C4D TwinX (2x1GB) £99.99
(£117.49) £199.98
(£234.98)

Rather expensive for 4GB of RAM which note: your gonna need a 64Bit OS.
You get a 4GB (2x2GB) RAM kit for much less, disadvantage being less overclocking potential, advantages being you can add another 4GB of RAM later on.

For less money but practically same performance you could get

OcUK 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-5300C5 667MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Vista Approved Kit
£99.99
£117.49 inc VAT

^ you could 2 of those making a whooping 8GB and still cheaper than the RAM you chose.

G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PQ PC2-6400C5 (2x2GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ)
£149.99
£176.24 inc VAT

Asus Blitz Formula Special Edition Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £149.99
(£176.24) £149.99
(£176.24)

To me its a lot of money considering you can get P35 Motherboards for half the price but nothing wrong it but maybe check out a few of the cheaper P35Motherboards.

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £155.99
(£183.29) £155.99
(£183.29)

Good choice, cant go wrong for the price of these Quads, although I'd suggest getting an aftermarket cpu cooler such as a

Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775)
£26.99
£31.71 inc VAT

Noctua NH-U12F (Socket LGA775/754/939/940/AM2) Heatsink
£33.99
£39.94 inc VAT

Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme Heatsink (Socket AM2/LGA775)
£41.99
£49.34 inc VAT

^ with a 120mm fan of your choice probably the best Air cooling solution you can get.

 

[truebluecfc]

Also with all my money saving suggestions you could easily squeeze in a decent sound card which will be a huge improvement over on board sound.

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music 7.1 Soundcard - OEM
£42.99
£50.51 inc VAT

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty 7.1 Champion Series Soundcard - Retail
£99.99
£117.49 inc VAT

 

[1mm3]

Snip

Seconded, Excellent advice

 

[stickroad]

I think you can do slightly better for your money, hows this:

Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme Heatsink (Socket AM2/LGA775)
Noctua NF-S12 1200RPM 120mm Silent Case Fan - 3 Pin
Abit IP35 Pro (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PQ PC2-6400C5 (2x2GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit
BFG GeForce 8800 GTX OC 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 5000AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM X2
Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Professional 7.1 Soundcard - Retail
Asus DRW-1814BLT 18x18 DVD±RW Serial ATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - Retail
Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU
Akasa Eclipse 62 Aluminium Case - No PSU

Total : £1,661.26

When spending as much as you are, a 24inch screen is a must. The Dell Monitor is a fantastic screen, looks the buisness and image quality is superb.

Ok, you should be able to overclock the Quad to 3GHZ+ and with good temps. Dont worry about if you havent ovclocked before, its fairly stright forward, just read a few guides before hand. Their are also people on here that are willing to help you if you get stuck.

The Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme Heatsink is one of the best air coolers around and at the price that it is going for now, it is a steel. Since it dosent come with a fan i have just added the Noctua NF-S12 which will do the job perfectly.

The Abit IP35 Pro is a fantastic P35 chipset board, very reliable, solid and great overclocking potinal. It also fully supports Intels upcoming 45nm processors (Penryn). Them Blitz boards offer nothing over a board like the Abit p35 Pro. Your paying for the name and the gimmicks like the LCD screen.

The G.Skill 4GB DDR2 is very reliable memory and you wont have any problems with it.

The 8800GTX is a fantastic card, very powerful and pretty quite too. No need to go for SLI since many games out their are not optimized for a SLI configuration. The Leadtek GeForce 8800 Ultra Leviathan is not needed at all, waste of money.

The Western Digital Hard Drives are very reliable and quite. Raptors are a waste of money to be honest. When they first came out they were quite a head of the standard 7200RPM drives. Now that the standard 7200RPM drives have advanced they are not far behind the Raptors.

If your spending that amount of money a Soundcard is a must. The diffrence between hearing sound from the onboard sound controller and a deicated sound card is huge. So the Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Professional 7.1 will be fantastic.

The ASUS DVD Drive connectos to your motherboard via SATA connection, this means you can cancel the onboard IDE controllerwhich will help with boot times. Also you can get rid of them ugly IDE cables.

The Corsair PSU is one of the best power supplys around, very reliable and very quite. You dont need 1000 wattage of power.

The Akasa case is amazing, brilliant build quality and cooling is of a very high standard too.

Now i have also added Vista Home Premium for you, i know that you may not want to move to Vista now but i highly recomend dual booting along with XP, its a great way to experinace Vista fully but if you do come across any problems you can still use XP. You will also be able to ultlize all 4GB of Memory that i have put in for you.