Spec check before I hit the buy button!

keogh

keogh

keogh

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Joined
22 Jun 2004
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Bangkok, Thailand (formally London)
Howdy peeps,

After plenty of milling around for the right spec, I finally come up with, what I think, is my ideal spec, but I would love you guys to take a gander at it and tell me if:

1. Anything is wrong
2. What I could do to make it better (I don't mind going up in price a bit)

First, I already have a Noctua NH-U12P CPU Cooler to bolt on to the Q9550, plus I have several other SATA drives that I will chuck in for extra storage space.

I am aware that ocuk are out of stock of the P5Q Deluxe, but I'm getting that elsewhere.

Heres the spec:

rig.jpg


Thank you for your time!

Steve
 
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jimmy29 said:
Looks good. You probably don't need an 850W PSU but I guess more power never hurts.
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Yeah I want to go 850+ cos I may in the future chuck another 4870x2 in there for some crossfire action, so the 850W will come in handy there :)
 
PwnDirect said:
Any reason for sapphire over asus? extra years warrenty for the sake of a £10
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Dunno really, the main reason is I've only ever had 1 ATi card and was back in the day (9800 pro) and it was a Sapphire... had no probs with it so opted for that really.

I've always been an nVidia person, but the 4870x2 is too good to miss out on.
 
Ram isn't needed any pc6400 that can do 500mhz will surely do ? 8.5 x 500mhz =4.2ghz
Is the p5Q deluxed needed ? you need all the extra features that offers over the pro or even vanilla ?
 
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I want PC2-8500 RAM, that ram is on offer, and with the fan as well (not even sure I'd use it) its a bargain.

I was gonna go for the P5Q-E, but I have had probs with the more entry level ASUS boards in the past, and never with the higher end ones (I've had a few ASUS boards in my time) so that's my main reason for going for the Deluxe. Also I can get the Deluxe for only a few more quid than what the P5Q-E retails for here at ocuk, so its worth the extra imo.
 
If your likely to go crossfire then go for an x38 or x48 boards as they both have 2 x 16x PCI-E lanes where as the P45 chipset doesn't.

Also, if the PC is just for gaming you may be better off with an E8600 clocked at 4.3-4.5Ghz? Not sure how well those quads clock but if they're hitting 4Ghz I suppose there wont be a lot in it.
 
What ASUS X38/X48 boards have eSata? I need an eSata port and/or a FireWire 800 (although they seem like gold dust on PCs) If I can find an ASUS board with either of those, then I'll go for a X38/48!
 
Ah only the X48 DDR3 board seems to support it so your out of luck unless you go DDR by the looks of it.

What do you need eSata for btw?
 
Fast access to my external HDD, FireWire 800 on my Mac Pro oes the job good, but eSata would be perfect. But I could compromise that, for the 2x PCI-E x16 slots.

What would be the advantage of a X48 board over a X38? I want to be as future proof as poss (without incl i7 of course) so I like the look of the Rampage Formula X48 (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-268-AS), what you recommend?
 
It depends on your budget really, I went for the X38 P5E as I wanted CF support and didn't want to spend much more than £130 on a board.

If you can afford it the Asus Rampage Formula Intel X48 would be an excellent choice, although I wouldn't say neither is more future proof as next upgrade would probably be i7!

If you want the best possible chipset with overclocking support and features go for the Asus X48. If your not going to be pushing your clocks to the max though then the Asus X38 board will do everything just aswell as the more expensive X48.

Personally I'd reccomend the Asus P5E and that's what I went for, excellent board and can't fault it.
 
Cheers VTR, I've actually found the ASUS P5E WS Professional Workstation Series X38 board elsewhee (ocuk don't seem to stock this) and this has all the features of most X38 boards, but with 2x eSata ports. Might bag one of those!
 
Shaolin Chicken said:
I would get this
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-063-PO

instead of the Samsung dvd drive you have listed, better quality and cheaper also, if you buy this week :).
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My last DVD-RW was a pioneer and was slow and had issues, and I am a big fan of Samsung, and that Sumsung drive has better speeds, so I'll go for that I think. Thanks anyway!

I'm gonna go for the ASUS Rampage Formula X48 on the mothboard front though. I will be clocking this, so want to get the best clocks I can from it!
 
Done it, went for the P5E X38 in the end, spec I bought below (got it all from ocuk in the end):

Coolermaster Real Power 850w Modular Power Supply
Asus P5E Intel X38 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Western Digital VelociRaptor 150GB 10000RPM SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD1500HLFS)
Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 Dominator PC2-8500C5 TwinX (2x2GB) Supplied with Airflow Fan (TWIN2X4096-8500C5DF)
Antec P182 Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Gun Metal Black)
Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2048MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.83GHz 12MB-cache (1333FSB) Processor - Retail
 
Roeg1 said:
Id go x38 over x48 and go for a better case. Silverstone or something like that, for such a build
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Too late, its been bought. Besides, I had my heart set on the P182, I love that case, and out of the ocuk stock none compares to it, I like the subtle look. The silverstones are too "alienware" like, don't like that.

I was very close to getting the Rampage Formula, but then I thought theres not much diff between x38 and x48, and my next upgrade will be a i7 with DDR3... so I would need a new board next time anyway.

Nearly didn't get it today, as this morning Ocuk listed no stock for the Velociraptor 150gb, and I couldnt find it anywhere else for the same price or cheaper... checked again and they had 10+ in stock. Either something dodgy going on, or ocuk got more stock in?!?!

EDIT: I think ocuk have more staff since I last ordered, I got my dispatch email already... only been 20 mins since I placed the order.
 
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keogh said:
Too late, its been bought. Besides, I had my heart set on the P182, I love that case, and out of the ocuk stock none compares to it, I like the subtle look. The silverstones are too "alienware" like, don't like that.
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Not sure what silverstone you looked at but this is mine and compared to the 182 its worlds apart.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...9B-W Aluminium Tower Case with Window - Black

I've built a few rigs using 182 brilliant cases, not a patch on my own silverstone though, for one it feels all plastic and tacky compared and then you have removable motherboard tray which is a god send.

P182 is a nice case though for the price and you should love it.
 
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