Please analyse/modify this spec

N9ne

N9ne

N9ne

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Joined
28 Sep 2003
Posts
632
Hello all, new build - need everything besides the monitor :-/.

Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-620HXUK)
(£88.11) £74.99
(£88.11)
Asus P5K Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
(£74.01) £62.99
(£74.01)
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
(£149.21) £126.99
(£149.21)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST3500320AS)
(£64.61) £54.99
(£64.61)
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Reaper HPC Enhanced Bandwidth Edition Dual Channel DDR2 (OCZ2RPR800C44GK)
(£76.36) £64.99
(£76.36)
PNY GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
(£133.94) £113.99
(£133.94)
Samsung SH-S203PRSMN 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter (Beige/Black/Silver) - Retail
(£23.49) £19.99
(£23.49)
Asus Xonar D2 7.1 PCI Sound Card - Retail
(£93.99) £79.99
(£93.99)
Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop 1000 Black - Retail (BV3-00007)
(£25.84) £21.99
(£25.84)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-02059) £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Sub Total : £740.89
Shipping cost based on delivery to Credit/debit card billing address, CV24BW with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.95
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £131.92
Total : £885.76


I don't game often but I would like to be able to play games like Crysis in moderate quality.

Question: will the PCI Sound Card work on the mobo? The PCI-E version is like £25 more expensive and I figured if there's a PCI slot on the mobo I'll use it.

Is the RAM good/necessary? I'm getting Vista so it may well be but I picked the 4GB RAM because it was cheap.

Is there any way to bring the cost down a bit (£50-100ish) without compromising (too much)?

Thanks in advance!
 
Last edited:
I'd change Vista to the 64bit version, particularly as you are buying 4gb Ram.

You could change the Ram to either G.Skill or Corsair and not lose much if any performance but you'd save a bit of cash.

The PSU could be changed to the 520w version easily to free up some more cash and it would still be more than sufficient.
 
G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PQ PC2-6400C5 (2x2GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ) G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PQ PC2-6400C5 (2x2GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ) £49.99
(£58.74) £49.99
(£58.74)
Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK) Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK) £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-01939) Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-01939) £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Asus P5K Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard Asus P5K Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £62.99
(£74.01) £62.99
(£74.01)
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £126.99
(£149.21) £126.99
(£149.21)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST3500320AS) Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST3500320AS) £54.99
(£64.61) £54.99
(£64.61)
PNY GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail PNY GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £113.99
(£133.94) £113.99
(£133.94)
Samsung SH-S203PRSMN 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter (Beige/Black/Silver) - Retail Samsung SH-S203PRSMN 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter (Beige/Black/Silver) - Retail £19.99
(£23.49) £19.99
(£23.49)
Asus Xonar D2 7.1 PCI Sound Card - Retail Asus Xonar D2 7.1 PCI Sound Card - Retail £79.99
(£93.99) £79.99
(£93.99)
Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop 1000 Black - Retail (BV3-00007) Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop 1000 Black - Retail (BV3-00007) £21.99
(£25.84) £21.99
(£25.84)
Sub Total : £710.89
Shipping cost based on delivery to Credit/debit card billing address, CV24BW with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.95
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £126.67
Total : £850.51

That's trimmed £35ish off.

Any ideas on the sound card - will it work on the mobo?

Also, I can't find anywhere how many SATA ports the mobo has. I will have 2 SATA HDDs (initially, perhaps more later), and at least one SATA optical drive...
 
N9ne said:
Also, I can't find anywhere how many SATA ports the mobo has. I will have 2 SATA HDDs (initially, perhaps more later), and at least one SATA optical drive...
Click to expand...

Straight from the horses mouth, it has 6 SATA II ports. You may want to keep a note of that site in case any of the drivers need updated. :)

I don't see why the soundcard wouldn't work with the motherboard since it should be standard PCI but I'm afraid I don't know for certain.
 
Excellent, thanks. I couldn't find that information on the Asus website - although I really do hate their website.

Since the mobo has 2 PCI ports it probably will work just fine. I'll make a thread in the sound city forum to be sure.

Do you have any more suggestions as to what can be improved/what isn't quite right/compatibility? As far as I know from my research, it's all compatible.

What do you think about the Quad Processor I've chosen? There seems to be a debate about Core 2 Duo vs. Quad - they're similarly priced so I don't know what I should be going for?
 
If you aren't likely to upgrade often or use software that can take advantage of quad core then I'd go for it but if you just want pure speed an E8400 might be a better option and they do seem to reach 4ghz quite frequently (you probably need better cooling though which adds expense).

Sorry, I was a numpty about the motherboards SATA ports, for some reason I could swear I read it was the OcUK (J&W) IP35 Pro. For the Asus actually has 5 SATA ports and 1 eSATA, my apologies. However a useful tip is to go to the Global site rather than the UK one, it is still abominably slow but infinitely quicker than the UK site - the full motherboard specification is here.

Everything is compatible, most changes would simply come down to personal preference. :)
 
- I won't be upgrading often (every 3 years ish!)
- I don't think I'll be using software which takes advantage.

If I get the E8400, what cooling do you suggest?
 
Ah yes I do like a blue glow. In my first build I had blue glowing IDE cables (heh, so sad), in my second build I got the TrueBlue PSU! The third one will need something blue too!
 
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