Sorry guys another new build spec

TONY · 20 Jul 2007 at 17:44

I just cannot decide what to buy (2 cores 4 cores, sli or not) so I thought i'd see what you guys come up with.

I don't need the following

Case/Speakers/Keyboard/Mouse/Mouse matt.

I also have A swiftech Apex Watercooling kit for the CPU and won't be using water for the graphics/northbridge/ram etc, I am using the watercooling on a socket 939 chip atm which uses a storm water block is this ok for the new intel chips? if not I will need to change that aswell.

I have £2200 to spend and would want that to include a 24" monitor and 4GB of ram and OS.

stickroad · 20 Jul 2007 at 17:55

What do you mainly use your pc for?

stickroad · 20 Jul 2007 at 18:04

Here you go:

Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "LGA775 Kentsfield" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
Abit IP35 Pro (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
G.Skill 2GB DDR2 HZ PC2-6400C4 (2x1GB) CAS4 Dual Channel Kit X2
BFG GeForce 8800 GTX OC 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
Western Digital Caviar SE16 400GB 4000AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM X2
Samsung SH-183LBEBN 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA Lightscribe
Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU

Total : £1,632.47

I specced a Quad Core since you will be able to clock it to 3GHZ and above especially since your using water cooling.

I have also chosen 2 x 2x1GB memory modules since the 2GB Modules don't normally clock to well and theirs a chance they could hold your overclock back.

SLI is completely worthless at the moment, unless you game on a 30inch + screen. Not enough games take advantage of a SLI configuration. Even the ones that currently do (thats very few) is certainly not worth the cost of buying that second card versus the performance gain you actually get from it.

TONY · 20 Jul 2007 at 21:01

I will mainly use it for gaming and web browsing, I like the look of the above spec but would rather take a chance and have the extra ram and sacrafice a few MHZ on the overclock, I need to be sure a game like Crysis will run max detail at 1920x1200 res on the 24" Dell will this system cut it or would another 8800 gtx be worth having?

I maybe able to get 3 ghz out of the Q6600 but if I used say a E6850 I should be able to do atleast 3.6 ghz so which do I go for with games like Crysis in mind?

stickroad · 20 Jul 2007 at 22:19

TONY said:
I will mainly use it for gaming and web browsing, I like the look of the above spec but would rather take a chance and have the extra ram and sacrafice a few MHZ on the overclock,

What do you mean by the extra Memory? Theirs already 4GB in that spec.

Hence the times 2.

TONY said:
I need to be sure a game like Crysis will run max detail at 1920x1200 res on the 24" Dell will this system cut it or would another 8800 gtx be worth having?

Well the GTX is the best card out at the moment, well the Ultra is really but it only gains a couple of extra FPS over the GTX and its certainly not worth the extra, price wise. Like i said in the first post, SLI is worthless at the moment unless you game on a 30inch+ screen.

TONY said:
I maybe able to get 3 ghz out of the Q6600 but if I used say a E6850 I should be able to do atleast 3.6 ghz so which do I go for with games like Crysis in mind?

Crysis will warrant from a high speed processor and multiple cores i believe.
Anything above 3.2GHZ is plenty fast enough to be honest. The Quad will almost certainly hit that speed and above especially with water cooling. So Quad is the best choice. If your willing to take your time and overclock it that is.

TONY · 20 Jul 2007 at 22:39

Sorry mate didn't see the x2 next to the ram, If I wanted to spend atleast £2000 on my pc what else would you suggest or maybe change?

stickroad · 20 Jul 2007 at 22:42

TONY said:
Sorry mate didn't see the x2 next to the ram, If I wanted to spend atleast £2000 on my pc what else would you suggest or maybe change?

Nothing. Theirs a point where spending above a certain amount reals no advantages other than just trying to fill the budget up if you see what i mean.

TONY · 20 Jul 2007 at 22:49

Ok mate I will have to buy something none pc related with the rest of the money burning a hole in my pocket, although I did see Dells 27" monitor and was wandering if it might be a bit OTT when sitting 3 feet from the screen, I think I will stick with the 24" but I could change my mind when ordering :confused:

Edit: Forgot to thank you for taking the time to do me a spec that I will be happy to order, will have to wait until the midle of the week when I am off work to receive it before I can order it will be a very long next few days.

Nullvoid · 20 Jul 2007 at 23:21

You could flesh out the rest of that budget by upgrading the 2407wfp to a 3007wfp-hc

The extra size would be great for watching movies and/or general pc use, and you could choose to game at 1920x1200 if you wanted to maintain the same frame-rates as if you were using the smaller screen (although a single GTX would 'cope' with the native res of 2560x1600).

TONY · 21 Jul 2007 at 00:31

I think the 30" might be a bit big for everyday internet browsing, although I do have my current pc connected to a 46" 1920x1080 hd tv through the second output on my gpu which I switch to sometimes when watching videos etc but find it too big for everyday use.

TONY · 24 Jul 2007 at 15:56

Well here's what I ordered in the end.

Abit IP35 Pro (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "LGA775 Kentsfield" 2.40GHz
G.Skill 2GB DDR2 HK PC2-6400C4 (2x1GB) CAS4 Dual Channel Kit (X2)
BFG GeForce 8800 Ultra OC 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB (I already have a spare 74gb raptor to use as a boot drive)
Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU
Sony DDU-1615 DVD-ROM (Black)
Samsung SH-183LBEBN 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black)
BenQ FP241W 24" Widescreen HDMI/HDCP LCD HD Monitor - Silver/Black
Zalman Anti-Corrosion Coolant - Blue (500ml)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM

Total= £1,588.46 inc VAT

I stuck with most of Stickroad's suggestions but felt a bit flush and decided to pay the extra for the BFG Ultra around £50 more than the OC2, it won't give much of a performance boost over the OC2 just more memory bandwidth but I wanted it anyway, I will be putting my water cooling on the Q6600 when I get it and hopefully taking it to somewhere between 3.0-3.6 Ghz and then I will be happy with it.

TONY · 28 Jul 2007 at 00:22

Just rerceived this kit and my waterblock has no chance of fitting on the motherboard what do I need to get? I have a storm water block and this motherboard comes with 4 holes that an intel heatsink just push fits onto so there isn't even a back plate at the back of the board.

Edit: Just found some bits that should allow me to fit the storm water block, I will have to use nuts behind the board to srew into by the looks of it, would have been nice to have a proper back plate.