PC Spec Check

[Ricki]

I have had a quick look around and come up with the following spec for a mostly new machine. I think I will be shifting away from AMD to Intel – my first in over 10yrs! I use my machine for a real mix of things, watching DVD’s (will this setup allow me to fully appreciate HD content?) and listening to music, lots of office work, AutoCAD, Solid EDGE, Photoshop, web development, Java, STAAD Pro and the odd game such as UT3, Trackmania, Dirt, Just Cause etc. Having the latest and best graphics isn’t that important to me but having good video and smoothness is. Also, I am likely to move to a 24” monitor soon and maybe even have dual with a 24” and my current 19” – is the graphics card man enough for the task? Also, is the sound good enough onboard not to worry about using a my Soundblaster Audigy (a bit old in the tooth now). And a final question, is it worth going for an extra 2GB of memory using Windows XP MCE?

To buy the following:

1x Asus GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)

1x Overclocked Bundle ** Abit IP35 Pro Motherboard / Intel Q6600 Quad Core @ 3.3Ghz / 2GB (2x1GB) OCZ PC-8500 RAM / Tuniq Tower CPU Cooler

2x Samsung SpinPoint F1 750GB SATA-II 32MB Cache

£594.44 inc VAT

Using the following I already have:

1x Antec TruePower Trio 550W PSU

1x Lian-Li PC-60 PLUS Silver Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (need to check the Tuniq will fit inside!)

1x Samsung DVD-RW

1x LG DVD-RW

 

[Ricki]

Thanks for that... I have updated to the following spec:

Tuniq Tower 120-LFB CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £31.99
(£37.59)

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £24.99
(£29.36)

Asus P5Q Pro Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £73.99
(£86.94)

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £105.99
(£124.54)

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £111.99
(£131.59)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 640GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD642JJ) x2 £99.98
(£117.48)

Total : £538.01

But now I have a couple more questions. I appreciate that due to the greater density of the 640GB vs 750GB HDD the read / write / seek times are better, however, what is the real life impact of 16mb cache rather than 32mb cache? Secondly, I have gone with slighlty different RAM - is this better, or is the other stuff better?

The spec can change and my budget for the PC is upto around £600, so there is some scope for adding or changing.