Quick check of a spec please

[Renegade6k]

hello all, here's the spec i've drawn up...

CA-010-TT Thermaltake VA3000BWA Tsunami Dream SuperMidi Aluminium Tower - Black (CA-010-TT) 1
£63.95 £63.95

GX-053-HT HIS ATI Radeon X1900 XT ICEQ 3 SILENT Heatpipe 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-053-HT) 1
£199.99 £199.99

MB-075-MS MSI K9A Platinum Crossfire (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-075-MS) 1
£79.95 £79.95

CP-170-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4600+ 2.40GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail (CP-170-AM) 1
£144.99 £144.99

MY-058-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) (MY-058-GL) 1
£124.95 £124.95

HD-079-SE Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB ST3250620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-079-SE) 2
£49.95 £99.90

CA-005-HP Hiper HPU-4K580-MK Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU - Black UV (CA-005-HP) 1
£54.99 £54.99

Subtotal £768.72

VAT £134.53

Total £903.25



Looking for it to be a good system for all current games at the top level, with a bit of future proofing by having the option to up the system to crossfire at later stage maybe.

people've said i'd be better going core2duo though, but not having any experience in overclocking it seems that i'd have to pay quite a bit more to get the equivalent processor, or am i wrong there?

cheers

 

[semi-pro waster]

If you haven't got any particular brand loyalty then I'd recommend Conroe, even the cheapest Conroe(the 6300) offers performance not too far of the X2 5000(if memory serves) at stock speeds and most overclock brilliantly.

I'd probably change the PSU to something else, maybe a Tagan, an Enermax or similar. The Hiper is ok but I think there are better.

 

[Renegade6k]

i can swap to the E6400 for the same price as the 4600+ so that'd produce a better performance would you say? the E6600 seems like a huge step in price that i'd rather not make as i'm guessing it wouldn't be hugely necessary.

main extra cost seems to be to get a decent motherboard for conroe and crossfire - seems the Asus P5W DH Deluxe would be the best option, and that doubles the bill for the motherboard, so i guess the question is whether the gain in performance is worth the extra £80 on the m'board?

 

[MattJones2k6]

i can swap to the E6400 for the same price as the 4600+ so that'd produce a better performance would you say? the E6600 seems like a huge step in price that i'd rather not make as i'm guessing it wouldn't be hugely necessary.

main extra cost seems to be to get a decent motherboard for conroe and crossfire - seems the Asus P5W DH Deluxe would be the best option, and that doubles the bill for the motherboard, so i guess the question is whether the gain in performance is worth the extra £80 on the m'board?

Yes it is. There is nothing wrong with the hiper PSU at all.