Spec Advice.

McDaniel · 20 Aug 2006 at 22:23

Got Around £4-500 to spend.

Need, Mobo/CPU/Ram/GFX

Pref a Conroe system, will be used for a lot of multitasking and also some gaming, so GFX to be relatively good but not £400 amazing.

GFX also pref to be nVidia (will be running a 2nd PCI nvidia card to power other screens) and Dual DVI.

i was thinking

conroe 6400
MSI Mobo (i like MSI

)
2GB g.SKill ram
7600GT

Would like to at least run source @ 1680x1050 and look good with no FPS drop - i have a xbox 360 so most gaming is done on that.

Also looking to order this week so must be in stock

Thanks

McDaniel · 20 Aug 2006 at 22:36

is the 1.86GHz a good buy or should i get the 6400 instead?

and although im partial to the MSI brand are they good conroe boards?

and the 7600GT's are they good?

I've been out of the hardware loop for a while

McDaniel · 21 Aug 2006 at 00:19

anyone else?

McDaniel · 21 Aug 2006 at 00:53

i dont want ATI though, i run 4 monitors and ATI multimon support is awful in past experience, hence keeping with nVidia - im not worried about SLi though really, and i do have a PCI FX5200 to power 2 of the mons.

I could maybe boost a little more cash for GFX but like i say, nVidia only

McDaniel · 21 Aug 2006 at 07:25

Just say i was to increase my budget a bit and go ATI instead, and went Crossfire, how is ATI multimon support these days my last ATI was a 9800 Pro and back then it wasnt great, has it been improved?

This new spec..

MY-014-GS G.Skill 2GB DDR2 NR PC2-6400 (2x1GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400PHU2-2GBNR) (MY-014-GS)
£119.95 £119.95
MB-072-MS MSI 975X Platinum PowerUP Edition (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-072-MS)
£124.95 £124.95
CP-126-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-126-IN)
£115.95 £115.95
GX-054-HT HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X1800 GTO TURBO ICEQ3 SILENT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-054-HT)
£117.95 £235.90
Subtotal £596.75
VAT £104.44
Total £701.19

(Reason for 2 X1800 is due to no ATI PCI dual DVI Card)

/edit

Or the more budget..

MY-014-GS G.Skill 2GB DDR2 NR PC2-6400 (2x1GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400PHU2-2GBNR) (MY-014-GS)
£119.95 £119.95
CP-137-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6400 "LGA775 Allendale" 2.13GHz (1066FSB) - OEM (CP-137-IN)
£136.95 £136.95
HS-020-ZA Zalman CNPS9500-AT Aero Flower (Socket 775) CPU Cooler (HS-020-ZA)
£28.95 £28.95
GX-083-LT Leadtek GeForce 7600 GT Extreme 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-083-LT)
£99.95 £99.95
MB-073-MS MSI 965P NEO (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-073-MS)
£69.95 £69.95
Subtotal £455.75
VAT £79.76
Total £535.51

McDaniel · 21 Aug 2006 at 19:16

4 Monitors.

I think im gonna stick with the budgeted option though with a 7600GT as long as it runs CSS ok its the only thing im likely to play for a while