Rate my future PC

Moonpie2

Moonpie2

Moonpie2

Soldato
Joined
23 Dec 2002
Posts
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Location
Shiny Shanghai
Hello there.

After much soul searching I have decided to upgrade my PC (its currently full of 2 year old components)

I am looking at doing this for about £440

Core 2 Duo E4400 2.0ghz
Nforce 650i Ultra Mobo
2x1gb Corsair PC2-6400 mem
X1650 gfx card
600w PSU
Asus Silent Knight CPU cooler
500gb Seagate HDD
Windows Vista Home Premium

What do you think ?
Any changes you'd make ?
Yes I know the gfx card is not exactly great but I hardly EVER do gaming !!

Cheers
 
Moonpie2 said:
What do you think ?
Any changes you'd make ?
Yes I know the gfx card is not exactly great but I hardly EVER do gaming !!

Cheers
Click to expand...

What do I think?

1. I would get the newer P35 chipset on the motherboard - maybe a DS3R.
2. I would get 2gb of the PC5300 Ballistix because it overclocks to 1100MHz.
3. I would downgrade the PSU to 430W-500W because 600W is overkill and saves you money.
4. I would upgrade the GPU to a X1950 with money saved on the things mentioned above and below OR as you said you don't game so maybe bump up the RAM to 4GB considering you are using Vista.
5. I would upgrade the CPU cooler to a Tuniq Tower because they are superb!

Any changes I would make?

1. See above
 
Moonpie2 said:
Hello there.

After much soul searching I have decided to upgrade my PC (its currently full of 2 year old components)

I am looking at doing this for about £440

Core 2 Duo E4400 2.0ghz
Nforce 650i Ultra Mobo
2x1gb Corsair PC2-6400 mem
X1650 gfx card
600w PSU
Asus Silent Knight CPU cooler
500gb Seagate HDD
Windows Vista Home Premium

What do you think ?
Any changes you'd make ?
Yes I know the gfx card is not exactly great but I hardly EVER do gaming !!

Cheers
Click to expand...

Can we safely assume you plan to overclock? If not, use the stock cooler.
 
Well to answer ih8modem, yes, I plan to try to squeeze the E4400 up to at least 2.6ghz. And I'm pretty stuck on the CPU cooler option. I always like them to look funky so I'll stick with the Silent Knight :D
(It has pretty good reviews)

I guess I chose the 650i ultra mobo because someone on here said they'd overclocked an E4400 pretty well with it.
Can anyone tell me another dead cert mobo to use that deffinately will overclock well with an E4400 ?

As for the PSU, yeah, I think I went overkill, and will look for a 450w :)

Is Vista THAT bonkers that is might need 4gig of memory ?
And should I be looking at 4 gig PC5300 rather than 2 gig PC6400 ?
 
Moonpie2 said:
Is Vista THAT bonkers that is might need 4gig of memory ?
And should I be looking at 4 gig PC5300 rather than 2 gig PC6400 ?
Click to expand...

Ignore people that say thinks like that. :)

Vista handles Memory so much diffrently to XP.

Memory is their to be used and thats exactly what Vista does, it takes advantage of it.

2GB is fine for Vista.

I would personally change the E4400 to a E2140 or E2160.
 
Yeh i have my 4300 overclocked to 3.2hgz on a 650i but i didnt have the 2140 and p35 chipset to take advantage of as these werent out when i bought.
 
So I could get a 4400 to 3.2 with the right cooling and memory on a 650i ?
COOL
Click to expand...

With that same cooling you could get a E2140 to ~3ghz and save yourself a fair amount, there very good value.

Other peoples suggestions are good too.
 
Why choose 650i over P35? A P35 mobo will overclock higher and features an improved memory controller. It seems like a better choice, especially if the machine is intended to last a few years more.
 
-Drop the CPU down to the e2160, as said. :) This will overclock fine to at least 3hz.
- You really would do yourself a lot of good changing the CPU cooler to a tuniq tower or thermalright ultra.
- 2GB of crucial ballistix 5300 would do fine, clocks very well.
- upping the graphics to an x1950 or maybe 8600gt would be good.
- Get yourself the corsair 520w PSU. Widely recognised as the best PSU in it's range, along with its bigger brother.
- 500gb seagate 7200.10 is a good HDD, but the western digital AAKS is said to be faster.
- Make sure you get yourself a good case.
- Getting a P35 board would be the way to go. the gigabyte, asus andabit boards are all great. Would gt further clocks and a lot more futureproof then a 650i. Why do you want this board so much ?
 
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Moonpie2 said:
So I could get a 4400 to 3.2 with the right cooling and memory on a 650i ?
COOL :D
Click to expand...

Get the P35 over the 650i, a lot more stable and is a better overclocker, the 2140 is also your best bet and will save you £35.

You should be looking at something like this as a spec.


Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Dual Channel Kit
(£68.14)

Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK)
(£64.61)

Sapphire ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
(£93.99)

Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 5000AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
(£66.96)

Intel Core 2 Duo E2140 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.60GHz (800FSB) - Retail
(£46.99)

Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775)
(£31.71)

Gigabyte GA_P35_DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
(£91.64)

Sub Total : £392.93
Total : £473.38

This is probably the best value for money if your overclocking and dont have a huge amount of money, i would'nt worry about the 1950pro not been true DX10, it will still run Aero in vista and everything but to be fair that is your best card to get if your not an extreme gamer. Its cheap and still an excellent card.

......I still cant get my head round how much components are compared to 6 months ago, that is a quality machine for only £470!!
 
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Soooooooooo...........

What would be betterer is.....
Core 2 Duo E2140 = £47
Asus PK5 SE Mobo = £82
2x1gb Balistix PC5300 = £86
X1650 gfx card = £50
520w Corsair PSU = £64
Asus Silent Knight CPU cooler = £37 (the only other I'd consider is the CoolerMaster Eclipse ;))
500gb Seagate HDD = £67
Windows Vista Home Premium = £64

Total = £497 :(
That's about £50 more than my original design

(ohhhh you made a list at the same time I did :D)
 
So, Thermaltake, yours comes to £537 with Vista.

Would it make an incredible ammount of difference if I replaced your P35 mobo suggestion with my P35 mobo suggestion, and we also swapped GFX cards ?

Then I could get yours down to £484 :D
 
Depends on the level of gaming you are going to be doing, the 1950 pro is superb value for money, the 1650 are'nt very good. So really depends on what games you are going to be playing. The motherboard i picked is the best motherboard in the £80/£90 price range, if i were you, i would spend that extra tenner.
 
My PC gaming needs would be best described as almost non existant :)

But it would still need what oomf you need to get Vista running nicely.
 
One last thing

Is the P35 or P35C better ?
(As the C is on offer )
Click to expand...

There pretty similar, just with slightly different spec's the "C" version has added ddr3 facilities though which make it a little more future proof.
You'd be fine with either though.
 
DavidB said:
There pretty similar, just with slightly different spec's the "C" version has added ddr3 facilities though which make it a little more future proof.
You'd be fine with either though.
Click to expand...

Dont worry about the DDR2 + DDR3 motherboards, by the time DDR3 Memory comes worthwhile to get you will more than likely have 4GB of DDR2 Memory and will you honestly change 4GB of DDR2 Memory for 2GB of DDR3 Memory, how ever fast they are?

Unless its cheaper of course which it is, so go for it. :p :)
 
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