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

fenderbass86 · 20 Aug 2006 at 22:32

CP-126-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-126-IN) 1
£115.95 £115.95
MB-073-MS MSI 965P NEO (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-073-MS) 1
£69.95 £69.95
MY-058-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) (MY-058-GL) 1
£124.95 £124.95
GX-004-EA EVGA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB GDDR3 HDTV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-004-EA) 1
£109.95 £109.95
Subtotal £420.80
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £8.95
VAT £75.21
Total £504.96

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?

nbkpsycho · 21 Aug 2006 at 00:23

if u can put more cash into the graphics then go for a X1800XT 256mb as they are excellent cards and much better than a 7600gt

otherwise the rest of the spec is good. Overclock cpu aswell

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

semi-pro waster · 21 Aug 2006 at 01:02

Nvidia haven't been particularly competitive on pricing recently so will cost you more for comparable power plus the next option after the 7600gt is a 7900gt which have had some reliability problems.

The 6300 will probably overclock about as well as the 6400 so I'm probably just go for whatever is in stock.

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

semi-pro waster · 21 Aug 2006 at 16:25

The problem with 2x X1800GTO cards is that you wouldn't get Crossfire support without a master card, you might be able to use them independently though but I'm not sure. I can't really vouch for the multimon support either since I am still using a 6800gt and a single monitor most of the time, sorry

Tetras · 21 Aug 2006 at 16:45

Aren't X1800 GTOs supposed to support crossfire without a master card? Doubt it would work if the cards were unlocked to 16 pipes but unsure.

What is it you need the two cards for? How many monitors?

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