Spec request.

Colin The Grey · 3 Oct 2008 at 16:07

Got a budget of around £750, looking for a good Motherboard/Processor and Ram combo.

Currently running a Q6600 with 4*1Gb Crucial DDR2 -1066 on an Asus PK5Deluxe, passing this down to a relative.

No need for SLI or crossfire, am running a single 280GTX.

Not kept up to date with latest motherboards and would like an idea of what to get.

OS is currently Vista 32.

Pc is used mainly for gaming.

Thanks in advance for any replies

Colin The Grey · 3 Oct 2008 at 16:33

Thanks Chimerical,

Is there any real benefit going to DDR3, except in benchmarks?

And would putting a Q9650 in the ddr2 spec be better than a Q9550 with ddr3?

Colin The Grey · 3 Oct 2008 at 23:25

Case is a Cosmos S.

Currently using an Akasa AK-925 Revo for cpu cooling, and reasonably pleased with it. Got this cooler mainly because of problems fitting some of the larger ones in the cosmos s case.

OS is Vista 32 Ultimate.

Based on your advice I will prob go for:

Q9550 CPU.
Asus Rampage Formula DDR2 M/B
Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 Dominator PC2-8500C5 TwinX.

Might go for 8Gb and install Vista 64 - but not decided about that yet.

Colin The Grey · 6 Oct 2008 at 22:47

After much reading and checking of various reviews and qvl lists I ended up purchasing the following.

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 3.0GHz 12MB-cache (1333FSB) Processor - Retail
Asus Maximus II Formula Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Black Dragon EVO ONE DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GE24GB1066C5DC)

Went for the Geil memory as it is on the QVL for the Maximus II, and decided to get the Q9650 as it was still within my budget.

Thanks to flinco, Chimerical and PwnDirect for your feedback and advice.