Pick the faults on this rig please....(if any!)

[moggsy]

Hi all

I've satisfied the 1st of my 2 objectives a couple of days ago, and ordered my laptop after consulting the oracle - otherwise known as OcUK Forum

Now for part 2 - my new desktop PC.

I was gonna buy a pre-built jobby, but decided to build my own again....my needs are NOT games orientated - more video encoding, large winrar files (packing and un-packing),mp3 encoding and Photoshop stuff....

Most of the pre-built stuff seems to match a powerful CPU with a powerful GPU...logical I s'pose - but I don't play games myself so I just want a bog-standard, vista capable card (but it must have dual output - one for the monitor and one for an adjacent LCD TV that we watch films off the PC on....)

I've literally chucked a few things into the basket using gear that I've heard mentioned on here a few times. To me it all seems pretty OK but I'm sure someone will advise me otherwise.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts....my budget is 5-600 pounds (hoping for nearer the 500 though.....)

Thanks a lot if you can chip in with your opinion.....

BTW - I'll be dabbling a little bit with OC-ing - depending on my success - hence a decent cooler.... I'll be leaving it run for the rest of it's days at it's stable OC'd speed, so wont be pushing to extremes....

Anyway, here's what I've got so far..... http://img157.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=72509_520_rig_122_1068lo.jpg

Thanks.....

 

[moggsy]

DavidB
If you say that's better RAM - that'll do for me....I haven't got a clue really with ram....I've never OC'd before.....thanks.
I'd like to get 4gig if poss and scrimp somewhere else, but I need a fast cpu.....
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will that gfx card support the lcd tv smoothly? would have thought it would lag at those resolutions when doing dual?

Hmmm... im thinking no and yes.
Support Lcd tv smoothly - maybe?
Lag whilst in Dual - yes?

As for the GFX - We only watch the TV on it's own....at the mo, a Radeon 9600 AGP is great, so nothing ultra needed there.
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Ak!ta
Gigabyte GA_P35C_DS3R is 1333Mhz Fsb, whilst the Q6600 IS 1066 Mhz Fsb....
What dya mean by this ???
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BillytheImpaler
The first thing I see is that you've spec'd a PATA DVD drive. While this is OK PATA is a dying tech. You'd do yourself a service to get an SATA drive so you can rid yourself of those nasty, hard-to-route PATA cables.

I've used Pioneer burners for years and had no probs whatsoever so far, and as I don't think there's any significant advantage of sata burner drives over pata, I think I'll live with the one flat ribbon cable I think, but a good point though if I was short on space....
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Thanks for all the comments so far - already got me thinking.
I'm pleased that the mobo's had no negative comments so far (coz if I do go the dual core route - I CAN upgrade to quad later on if need be....)

My thoughts so far.....

Glad DavidB brought up the ram as I've no idea what's good and what's poor with ram, so any sort of pointer is very welcome.

Was expecting a nudge or two on the PSU/case combo, but I don't need anything hyper.....just capable. My current rig is noisy so anything is gonna be quieter than what I've got at the mo I'd have thought....

Keep em coming lads and THANKS again for all your input

 

[moggsy]

One point regarding the 4gb of ram.....I've read somewhere....Crucial I think it was...that the 32bit version of XP will only recognise 3-3.5gb ram and the 64bit version or Vista is needed to see the full 4gb - is this true?

I've only got the 32bit version of XP

DavidB
Thanks again for that pointer to that memory (sheesh, there are SO many different types of ram aren't there?).....seems a REALLY nice price and despite what you mentioned about it's overclockability(?) - the reviews say they have it running @8-900mhz!! As I mentioned earlier, I will be leaving my machine running (usually 24/7) at a medium o'clocked speed - nowhere near the max - so that memory might be OK for me.

Thanks for all the comments - really helpful.