Spec thread (complicated!)

[icecold]

Ok...

At the moment I have 1 PC with:
Viewsonic VX2025wm 20" Widescreen LCD
E6600
ASUS P5W DH
2x 1GB Geil 6400
1900xtx
2x 250GB satas (seagate 7200.10 and a WD something)

...and powersupply, optical drive etc.

Planning on having a second PC for mostly office/internet/media/some gaming.

So I will end up with 2 PC's, one based on the spec listed above with a couple of upgrades, and one new with mostly new bits and a few hand-me-downs from my current pc. Confused yet?

In the hope that it will make things as clear as possible I'm going to write the spec for both rigs, highlighting where new parts are needed and my questions for that part.


PC #1
Case - Needed - Antec 900 needs to be fairly quiet with good cooling
MB - p5w dh
CPU - e6600
CPU cooler - needed - Noctua NH-U12F or Tuniq Tower?
Memory - 2GB Geil 6400
Graphics card - needed - 8800gts 320?? will that be enough to drive my lcd resolution for the reasonable future (i.e. a year-ish?)
LCD - VX2025wm (1680x1050)
Hard Drive - 2x 250GB
Power supply - needed - Akasa Ultra Quiet 500W Paxpower Active PFC ATX2.2 PSU it needs to be quiet, but is this powerful enough?
Optical drive, mouse, kb, speakers not needed

PC #2
Case - from current PC
MB - needed - Asrock 4CoreDual-VSTA (Socket 775) PCI-Express/AGP DDR2 Motherboard will not be overclocking, nothing fancy needed here. Could I reasonably go cheaper/better for the same price?
CPU - needed - Intel Core 2 DUO E4300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.80GHz (800FSB) worth stretching to e6300?
CPU cooler - stock is fine
Memory - needed - GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C5 800MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400DC) any other suggestions?
Graphics card - 1900xtx
LCD - needed - OcUK Value Hanns-G HW191D 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Silver lcd doesn't need to be amazing, but is this ****?! reviews seem to indicate that its ok.
Hard drive - needed - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB ST3250620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
Optical drive - needed - Sony AW-G170AB2 18x DVD±RW x12 Ram Dual Layer DVD-Writer - (Black) OEM
Power supply - from current pc (650W, but isn't very quiet)
Mouse, kb and speakers I can sort out.

Budget is about £900.

Current basket looks like this:

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00788) £63.99
(£75.19) £63.99
(£75.19)
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C5 800MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400DC) £79.99
(£93.99) £79.99
(£93.99)
Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case £55.99
(£65.79) £55.99
(£65.79)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB ST3250620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £42.99
(£50.51) £42.99
(£50.51)
Intel Core 2 DUO E4300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail £93.99
(£110.44) £93.99
(£110.44)
Noctua NH-U12F (Socket LGA775/754/939/940/AM2) Heatsink £30.99
(£36.41) £30.99
(£36.41)
Logitech Deluxe Keyboard (Black) - OEM £5.49
(£6.45) £5.49
(£6.45)
Akasa Ultra Quiet 500W Paxpower Active PFC ATX2.2 PSU - Black Nickel £46.99
(£55.21) £46.99
(£55.21)
OcUK Value Hanns-G HW191D 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Silver £94.99
(£111.61) £94.99
(£111.61)
BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £189.99
(£223.24) £189.99
(£223.24)
Sony AW-G170AB2 18x DVD±RW x12 Ram Dual Layer DVD-Writer - (Black) OEM £14.99
(£17.61) £14.99
(£17.61)
Asrock 4CoreDual-VSTA (Socket 775) PCI-Express/AGP DDR2 Motherboard £39.99
(£46.99) £39.99
(£46.99)
Sub Total : £760.38
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £14.95
Vat : £135.68
Total : £911.01

I'm contemplating waiting a couple of weeks before I buy the graphics card to see what AMD/ATI's new grapics cards can do, and also because of the possible price drops.

Advice? Decent specs?

Thanks guys.

 

[semi-pro waster]

Welcome to the forums. It all looks good although I'd probably change the DVDRW for a SATA model.

I'd go with the Noctua but you really can't lose with either of the coolers.

The 8800GTS ought to be more than sufficient for the next year or so at 1650x1080.

The PSU is fine and a good solid unit.

I don't think you will find anything too much cheaper than the ASRock so I'd stick with it.

I don't think there is much difference between the 4300 and 6300 in speed terms at stock.

Ram-wise you could perhaps go for OcUK PC6400 if it is cheaper since it will do the same job as the Geil.

No clue about the monitor but it is a big seller I believe so it can't be all bad, maybe take a look in the monitors sub-forum for more opinions on it.

 

[Trigger]

Well to start with, the Asrock board you have specced does not work with the E4300. I would consider changing the PSU in the first rig to the Corsair 520W. I'd be interested to know the make and model of the PSU from your old rig which you will be using in your new second rig- sounds badly like a Q-Tec Cooler wise I would go with the Noctua. I'd also change the optical drive to an NEC AD7170

 

[icecold]

Thanks for the responces guys

Trigger, the extra 20W will really make a difference? The corsair is out of stock at the moment also, any alternatives that don't make the credit card cry? Current PSU is Atrix (??!), came with current rig pre-built (lesson learnt).

So the general consensus is that 320MB won't hurt me at 1680x1050 for a while? Or should I be thinking of stretching to the 640MB version...?

 

[Trigger]

The 320mb will be fine The extra 20W will have pretty much no difference at all however you will see the difference in the quality. Been as though the Corsair is out of stock, I would go for an Antec TruePower Trio 550W PSU which is £5 cheaper or the Enermax Liberty 500W which is the same price Also, get a decent PSU for your second rig- maybe look at the FSP 400W which will be fine for that setup

 

[icecold]

hovering over the buy button...

going for the enermax psu and the ocuk ram.

Just want to emphasise that rig #1 (e6600, p5w dh, 8800gts etc) is for quite heavy gaming and will be overclocked. It would make me and my wallet cry if it turned out that the 320mb gts limited me drastically when future games come out - I'm not expecting max dx10 performance from the card though obviously. Considering going EVGA for the step-up...

Thanks again guys, you've been really helpful.

 

[Trigger]

You did change the motherboard in pc #2 like I said didn't you- the Asrock board you specced does not work with the E4300