Rig Spec Check Advice

[wallace101]

Greetings,

May I request a spec check please ?

The rig is going to be used for Gaming. I already have a 19" Acer Monitor.

The 2 x Raid 1 Arrays (2 pairs) are going to be Pair 1 (OS & Docs), Pair 2 (Games, MP3, Movies, etc). I'm ok with Raid 1, since I prefer the redundancy over the slight performance of Raid 0 (striped)

4GB of RAM to help Vista fly

Not sure if the RAM is the best for the mobo..would need some advice here please.

I do intend to clock after a month or so.

Other components removed from spec (since they are mostly "bling") include SATA LED cables, LED Fans, Cathode Rays ,etc)

PSU : Originally was going to be the Corsair 520/620 but then realised that it's not modular... and I like a tidy system.


£123.36 Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64 Bit OEM
£199.74 E6850 3.00GHz Energy Efficient" G0 SLA9U
£103.39 Asus P5K Intel P35 DDR2 Motherboard
£135.11 OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-8500 1066MHz Reaper HPC DDR2
£135.11 OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-8500 1066MHz Reaper HPC DDR2
£399.49 BFG GeForce 8800 GTX OC2 768MB GDDR3 (PCI-Express)
£62.26 WD Caviar SE16 500GB 5000AAKS SATA-II 16MB - Raid 1 - Disk 0
£62.26 WD Caviar SE16 500GB 5000AAKS SATA-II 16MB - Raid 1 - Disk 1
£62.26 WD Caviar SE16 500GB 5000AAKS SATA-II 16MB - Raid 1 - Disk 0
£62.26 WD Caviar SE16 500GB 5000AAKS SATA-II 16MB - Raid 1 - Disk 1
£18.21 Samsung SH-183LBEBN 18x18 DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe
£89.29 Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Pro 7.1 Soundcard - Retail
£93.99 OCZ ModXStream 780w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 PSU
£46.99 Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme (Socket AM2/LGA775) Heatsink
£32.89 Scythe Kama-Meter Multi Functional Controller

£1503.29 TOTAL (Inc Vat)

Budget is approx £1700

Many thanks !

 

[BuToNz]

Go for a Q6600 instead as quad is always better and its cheaper with a free game

Do u not need a case?

The Corsair IS modular so go for the 520w version unless u plan on running SLI

Personally id go for some G-Skill RAM as they overclock amazingly.

Look into the Gigabyte P35 DS3/DS4 motherboard as they also overclock very well.

Id also swap that HSF for the Noctua 120 and get the BFG OC version not the OC2, its not worth the extra price.

Hard drives look fine to me, but have u considered a couple of 32mb cache 1TB drives in Raid?

I also feel the 8800GTX is OVERKILL for the 19" Monitor, slip the Samsung 226 22" into that budget if u can, im sure u could squeeze it out.

 

[wallace101]

Hello and thank you ever so much for taking the time to read my post and comment.

Do u not need a case?

nope...ive got one already.

the corsair is modular so go for the 520w version unless u plan on running sli

ah yes, my mistake. just re-read their website and you are 100% correct.

though the blue led's on this are the decider for me

personally id go for some g-skill ram as they overclock amazingly.

duly noted and thank you !

look into the gigabyte p35 ds3/ds4 motherboard as they also overclock very well.

thanks...these p35's all seem much of a muchness (at least to my untrained eye)

id also swap that hsf for the noctua 120 and get the bfg oc version not the oc2, its not worth the extra price.

not so sure about the noctua's. I've not read very flattering comments about them.

As for the BFG OC, compared to the BFG OC2 there is a marginal £29 difference in price.

For £29 quid, you get a 26 MHz core improvement, 50MHz Shade Clock Speed increase and GDR memory running at 2GHz instead of 1.8 GHz. For a gaming rig on my budget (coz the Ultra's are not worth the price increase compared to performance gain), an extra £29 is, I feel, worth the price for perhaps an extra 5 fps or more.

Hard drives look fine to me, but have u considered a couple of 32mb cache 1TB drives in Raid?

I did, quite right, then I saw the prices on the 1TB 32MB cache...£217 each. And I'd need 2 for Raid 1 = £434 quid.

With the 500GB's, I get 4 drives, and more importantly can put my paging file on the non-system pair.

I also feel the 8800GTX is OVERKILL for the 19" Monitor, slip the Samsung 226 22" into that budget if u can, im sure u could squeeze it out.

Now that is a very tempting idea...yes it's overkill, but I should be able to run anything at max settings

Cheers matey !