PC Spec - need some guidance!

Noob101

Noob101

Noob101

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Joined
25 Apr 2008
Posts
18
Hi,

I've been researching for what feels like an eternity to find a suitable PC spec for me. I have to admit that the more diggin the more I was able to refine what i am after. But now I seem to have come to a wall in terms of smaller details. Hopefully someone can help with pointers/advice.

Heres the spec:
mo'bo: Asus Maximus Formula or Gigabyte GA-EX38-DQ6
cpu: Q6600 2.4ghz SLACR
gfx: BFG 8800GTS 320mb
ram: OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Reaper HPC Enhanced
psu: Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-620HXUK)
cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro or Tuniq Tower 120-LFB CPU Cooler

Originally I just wanted to create a budget machine to keep me ticking over til next year when I'll probably go MacBook Pro and Paralells but as I found out - it would cost just as much to try spec up my ageing Athlon 1.2ghz!

The usage: I'm not really a gamer or an overclocker - but i'd like to have those options available to use down the line. Primarily this setup is for design work so photoshop, illustrator, web appz, video, after effects and 3d modelling.

Now I see some people pushing 900w PSUs - am I ok with a 620W? Went with the above as silence is important cos I might be rendering while I sleep.

I don't really get the latency numbers with RAM - but this 6400 ram is supposed to be good...will i notice perfomance diference between brands (i.e . cheaper vs the above)?

I bought the gfx card second hand - hoping that it should cater for my real time navigation through 3d scenes and gaming at 1280x1024 but i know this is the older G80 version board? Will it still cut it?

Motherboard is an issue - i dont want to spend loads of money on features i dont need but equally i want to (dreaded word alert) future proof as much as is possible - hence going with an x38 board for PCIe 2. Which board is better for money?

Cooling - as I'm going to be running stock speeds until i really try and understand how to overclock properly I'm wondering whether I need after market cooling? I do want a cool machine - but it doenst have to be uber low temps. Just so its running sweet. Hence I got two option - my choice is leaning towards cost and performance ratio to each other.

Sorry that this is a long post but I just think it'll be helpful to get info specific to the rig i'm looking at. I patiently waited for the Q6600 20th april drop and am now eager to get this thing sorted.

OS by the way. I guess I need to upgrade to Vista to use the 4gb? is there an XP that I can use instead. I'm only buying 4gb as I can get it now and I also want to use less ram slots to account for future ram buying.

Thanks just for getting through the post! but I'd be even more thankful if you guys can impart some knowledge!

ta
noob101
 
May I say Claimed? And welcome to the forum.

I have a similar spec to you, which runs all the latest games very well indeed. I cant comment on the mobos, I have P5nesli which does the trick, though you may want to look into a board which is 2*16 PCIe or even 3*. Use Vista 64 for your 4 gb ram and also for quality and performance.
 
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Welcome to the forums, the good news is that it is all compatible. What case do you have currently? If it is an old one then you might want/need to consider a new one so that it has better airflow/more room for components.

Either motherboard should perform about the same, I'm not yet convinced of the need for PCI-E 2.0 compliance but if you think you'll stick with the system for a while and upgrade the graphics card then it is quite possibly worthwhile. Judging by the fact that you have been running an Athlon 1.2ghz then you don't seem to be a frequent upgrader.

If you aren't going to be overclocking then you don't need aftermarket cooling initially but remember you need to buy a retail version of the CPU to get a cooler included.

If you have a spare copy of XP that you can legitimately use then you could do that, however as a 32bit OS you would only be able to use about 3.6gb of the Ram due to the 4gb total Ram address limit which includes your graphics card. If not then just go for Vista 64 straight away, no point messing about otherwise. :)
 
Hi

thanks for the welcomes and quick responses.

Yeah - the case was gonna be from an old Mesh machine (trying to budget and it has quite nice pull out trays on it). Its a mid-size case I think. So I'm hoping it'll fit everything as standard.

Same goes for CD/DVD RW and HDDs to be ported over.

Upgrading once in a blue moon - that'd be about right! :D It's just a money issue that's all!

I heard lots of issues with vista - so I'm guessin these have been ironed out?
Also I got another PC on my home network - so would one XP and one Vista cause a network conflict?

Nice to hear the spec is up to scratch. Would be interesting to hear of anyone else who use their machine for similar stuff.

Lots of things on here about Q6700 vs Q6600 - would I be better off going with the Q6700 in the long run (now that the price has dropped)?

muchas gracias!

edit - in regards to ram - am I looking along the right lines on my spec?
 
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The Q6700 is better value now but I don't think .26ghz is enough to justify an extra £30 really, up to you though.

Vista does have issues, Microsoft have admitted as much but it is still a pretty good OS and will only get better. You might want to check that there are drivers for all your parts but since most of it is being bought new (and optical/hard drives don't really require drivers as such) I can't see it being a problem. As far as I am aware Vista and XP can happily co-exist on the same network.

The Ram is fine.
 
wow - just looked at my spec and i've almost stuck to it (despite going round the houses)

i've ordered an arctic freezer 7 and am a bit worried about the space issues. anyone got this with this: OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Reaper HPC Enhanced

woried the big cooler thingys on the ram will get in the way.

also - if i see numbers 4-4-4-15 or 4-4-4-12 which one is better.

i did a bit of reading on latency on ram but am unsure whether the last one is better if higher or lower. (basically; for example ballistix tracer reds run the latter and are the same price on ocuk)
 
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