Spec Check

[bornslippy]

Hi,

It's taken me a while of research but I am pretty much there regarding my upgrade to C2D. I only need the motherboard, ram, CPU and graphics, and have come up with this spec.

Plan to overclock, and a balance between gaming, and graphic design use is needed.

Asus P5K-E WiFi Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.66GHz (1333FSB) - Retail

Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C4 800MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT12864AA804)

BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail


Couple of things though:

1) I like the look of this board, but am still undecided between these 3: Asus P5K IP35-E (above), the Abit IP35 Pro, and the Gigabyte GAP35 DS4. Seems much of a muchness to me really, so any thoughts would be helpful. I know there is a bit of a price difference, but I don't mind spending a bit more.

2) Would I need to upgrade my cooler or would my XP120 fit (as in the sig). If an upgrade is best, which cooler would people recommend?

3) Would my PSU be sufficient with this platform (see sig). I don't really want to have to upgrade this again if I can help it - at least for now.

4) Was and still am tempted to get a x1950pro, as they are significantly cheaper than the card chosen here. The idea being to tide me over for 6 months until the next GPU chipsets come out. Any thoughts on this?

I'm sure when I checked last night, the Balistix RAM above was £90! Seems like a real bargain now.

Thanks

Bornslippy

 

[SGWills]

whats your over all budget ? might be able to get you a better spec for money etc

SG

 

[bornslippy]

I've budgeted for around £500 - but can go a little more if necessary.

 

[semi-pro waster]

The motherboards probably are much of a muchness unless you either need Wifi or are heavily overclocking.

Your XP120 should fit provided you still have the mounting hardware.

Your PSU should have no problems whatsoever.

If you aren't a heavy gamer for the next 6 months or so then the X1950pro would be more than adequate but for some games you obviously won't get all the higher detail levels open to you that you would with the 8800GTS.

 

[bornslippy]

Thanks for the input. I don't particularly need wifi, as I have a separate card anyway. I read somewhere that there can be problems updating the bios with Asus boards, so I may swing towards the gigabyte or abit now.

Bornslippy