Please help me get this systems specs bang on :-)

Brook · 5 Jan 2007 at 04:30

I was hoping you guys could help me get my next system all spec'd up and sorted :-)

Apologies for this being long, but I've tried to include all the bits of info I think you might need in order to help me.

The spec below is over my original budget (but I blame you all for that lol) and I thought I would hold on till the end of this month before ordering as Vista should be out by then, hence its in the list below. One question re vista tho... will I be able to run my current programs on it? Perhaps thro some kind of emulation (if so will it be crap? Main programs are photoshop and dreamweaver - both latest versions).

There are a few things I am not too sure about, in particular; which ram to get (a few choices listed below... I can't tell which is best) and whether or not to spend an extra £80 now and go for the e6600 C2D or stick with the e6300 for a year and then get a better CPU next year. I imagine the 6600 will prob not cost much more than the £80 I'd have to spend now (or is that wishful thinking?). How much better is the 6600? Should I just take a deep breath and go for it? If so do I need to reconsider my Motherboard? How overclockable is it? (the 6600)

Here's what I have listed... have I missed anything? Is it a good set-up?

The main thing you guys are going to want to know is, what will the system be used for...

It will be used mainly for photoshop work, along with occasional video editing... and general work use - which is web design. I will need to have multple programs open such as photoshop, dreamweaver, IE, O Express, etc etc

Will I play games on it? Tbh, prob not, but I may do once in a blue moon, and I may give it a go and get carried away, hence I have kept my options open and put in a 1950pro, but in all honesty I may never play a game on it (sorry I know that doesn't help much!).

Anyway here's the gear:

(They are from different shops as none of the shops stock every single item at the best possible price - plus I have some gift vouchers from amazon which I need to use up (shop 3). However if overclockers.co.uk is willing to price match I am more than willing to order from them :-)

).

Shop 1:

ASUS P5B DLX/WIFI-AP Pentium 4/Celeron/Pentium D/PentiumEE/65nm dual-core/Core2Duo/Core2EE
£124.94

Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86ghz - Skt775 Fsb1066 2mb Cache Boxed In
£120.01

Sapphire X1950Pro 256MB 256bit GDDR3 Dual DVI TVO PCI-E
£116.99

Antec SLK3000B Black Super Mid Tower Case - No PSU
£29.98

Hiper 580W Type-R Modular PSU SLI/CrossFire Certified - Blue
£57.58

Seagate ST3250624AS 250GB SATAII 7200RPM 16MB Cache
£55.19

SHOP 1 TOTAL: £504.69

SHOP 2:

Thermaltake Big Typhoon 4 in 1 Heatpipe (Socket 939/754/775/478) CPU Cooler
£29.32

Microsoft Windows Vista Business 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk
£93.99

Pioneer DVR-111BK 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer
£21.56

-----------------------
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK)
800MHz RAM Speed, CAS 4-4-4-15 Timings, 1.8-2.1v VDIMM
£166.84

OR

Geil® Ultra DDR2 2.0GB PC6400 Dual Channel Kit (2 x 1GB) 800MHz (4-4-4-12) with Aluminium heat spreader
£ 169.19

OR

G.Skill 2GB DDR2 PK PC2-6400 (2x1GB) CAS4 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400
800MHz RAM Speed, CAS 4-4-4-12 Timings, 1.9-2.1v VDIMM
£176.24
------------------------

Shop 2 max total: £321.11

Shop 3

Samsung SM205BW 20 inch WSXGA+ TFT LCD Monitor 700:1 300cd/m2 1680 x 1050 6ms DVI
£199.99

GRAND TOTAL:
£1025.79

OMG!! Didn't want to spend that much but got carried away lol

If I add another £80 to get the e6600 instead my grand total becomes £1105.79

The other option is for an extra £25 I could get the 512MB version of the ATI 1950pro

I don't need to get the monitor right now, so may wait on that, especially as they seem to be dropping down in price faster than last year. I could get two 19" widescreens for roughly the same price (Belinea 1925S1W) although the res isn't as high as the Samsungs 1680 x 1050 (Belinea is 1440 X 900) but of course I benefit from two reasonably sized screens instead of one :-)

I'm very interested in what you guys think, you know far more about this stuff than I do.

Thanks in advance for any help.

DeeJay-Mo · 5 Jan 2007 at 04:52

I say spend the extra £25 and get the 512MB version. It should improve gaming performance, should you decide to play a bit later.

steve258 · 5 Jan 2007 at 09:55

Are you going to overclock??

If yes then stick to the E6300 it will oc very well on the P5B Deluxe.

Avoid Hiper at all cost!! I know lots of people are using them with no problems but there were enough Hipers blew up around here already to convince you getting a better PSU.

In high resolution gaming 512Mb video RAM will help but I don't think the 1950pro
can handle the latest games with everything maxed out at 1680*1050 anyway.

With RAM I will probably go for either Geil or G.Skill.

Have you thought about getting the Home Premium Vista Instead which is a little bit cheaper?? You can find the differences between different versions here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/editions/default.mspx

Brook · 6 Jan 2007 at 04:17

Thanks both.

Steve - yes I am going to overclock, I am however a newbie to it all (although I did OC my current system, but as it was my first attempt only used cheap fans etc so it was nothing to shout about). This time I want to get as much out of the system as possible without too much risk.

I will prob get the Asus Commando now instead of the P5B DLX as I heard its due out here next week, and may also consider Corsair Dominator ram which is £195 to go with it

2GB (2x1GB) CorsairTwinX XMS2 Dominator,DDR2 PC2-6400,240 Pins, NonECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12, EPP

If you think it's worth spending an extra £30 that is.

I am also seriously considering the e6600 (extra £80) and the extra £25 on the 512 MB graphics card. And then putting off getting a new monitor until later in the year as my CRT is ok for now.

What do you think? I think I'm mad! But it's infectious after reading everyone elses threads!

steve258 · 6 Jan 2007 at 10:58

If you are spending 200 on RAM may I suggest you getting the Crucial 10th Anniversary, it is rated PC5300 Cas 3 but they OC like mad:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17662100

Never heard of ASUS Commando :confused:

can't find it in OCUK too??

The E6300 will OC very well, will reach 3Ghz+ with good mobo and RAM. E6600 OCs well too but you probably don't need that good RAM since a standard PC6400 DDR2 800 will take an E6600 to 3.6Ghz. But by all mean if you can afford go E6600.

However I think you really need a better PSU than that Hiper, I'd go for the Corsair HX520 for 70 or the HX620 for 90.

1337z0r · 6 Jan 2007 at 11:18

Go for the 620W definatley enough juice for upgrades too

.

stickroad · 6 Jan 2007 at 13:05

Ill say stick with the E6600 personally because if your buying the E6300 and your update it in about a years time the next processor your going to go with to get any boost at all will be the Quad and will you need all that power.

But if you go for the E6600 it will probably last you a lot longer and you wont be changing your cpu every 5 mins.

I would say stick with the Corsair Ram 6400, why get the Crucial yeah it overclocks like mad but i bet the Corsair can clock a bit higher because its rated at 800mhz to start of with and that Corsair is a quality product.

And about upgrading to a 512 mb not worth it, with your 20inc screen 256 mb is plenty you wouldn't use 512mb on a screen of that size.

Thats my view anyway

Brook · 6 Jan 2007 at 16:35

Thanks again all :-)

steve258 said:
standard PC6400 DDR2 800 will take an E6600 to 3.6Ghz. But by all mean if you can afford go E6600.

That's interesting (told you I was a nube!). That's good too so I can save some money on ram then :-)

Prob about 40 quid as Geil/gskill do some good uns at £160

Here's the info about Commando: http://zeus.asus.com/hq/products4.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=1480&l1=3&l2=117&l3=0 some people who have already tested it say its the best 965 OC'ing board they have used (better than the P5B DLX) it's meant to be out next week and is pre-order on some other sites.

I will look into a better PSU... although I did like the look of the hiper one, looked like a quality build.

Re the graphics ram - would more ram on the GPU be better for photoshop work?

If the e6600 will last me longer, I will prob go for that, as i don't really want to have to upgrade if I don't have too in the future (apart from the monitor).

stickroad · 6 Jan 2007 at 16:39

I think when people say will this system be future proof thats completely wrong.

No system you buy today will be future proof because of the way technology works and how fast it grows.

You can say will it last me a good 2.3 years yeah thats true but future proof i don't think so.

That board looks nice but this board looks even better

http://zeus.asus.com/hq/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=117&l3=0&model=1439&modelmenu=2

2bullish · 6 Jan 2007 at 17:11

stickroad said:
I think when people say will this system be future proof thats completely wrong.

No system you buy today will be future proof because of the way technology works and how fast it grows.

You can say will it last me a good 2.3 years yeah thats true but future proof i don't think so.

That board looks nice but this board looks even better

http://zeus.asus.com/hq/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=117&l3=0&model=1439&modelmenu=2

I think when people say future proof on computer bulletin boards they generally mean 2-3 years as a rule.

The striker looks great but as it uses the same capacitors as the board I have, has added an excellent on board audio (which nobody will use) and still uses the pretend copper heatpipes, which are useless, why pay £100 more? Hardly futureproof.

stickroad · 6 Jan 2007 at 17:23

Ah i see now about future Proof lol, misunderstanding

Just been looking at the New 650 Boards seem pretty good and is this the new generation of technology or is it just another series with nothing that new?

Because Abit will be releasing a new 680 Board soon Abit IN9 32X-MAX nForce

and then Asus are releasing the 650 Boards seems if it is all new technology Abit are behind a bit?

And with the Gigabyte DQ6 Board it has some cracking new designs, quad bios, 12 phase cooling why arnt the other motherboard manufactures looking to incorporate that idea into their new boards?

I cant wait for these replies it will clear so much up for me. So thank you very much if you do Reply to my questions?

Brook · 6 Jan 2007 at 17:38

The striker has been a flop - overpriced and people still awaiting better bios updates.

This is what Tony from xtremesystems said about the Commando:

Asus have released what i feel is the ultimate i965 board. Part of the ROG line of boards this has to be the best ram overclocker i have tested to date. 1300+ DDR is quite possible with this board with good memory and 1100+ with 4x1gb flex from OCZ was fully 24hr prime stable.

Stickroad - there are a few boards that are coming out that people are commenting on... but we could wait forever if we kept holding on.. the commando sounds like it will be one of the best and is due out next week in the UK :-)