Specs Feedback

SeK612 · 6 Aug 2007 at 09:15

As with others I'm not particularly knowledgeable so am looking for a bit of feedback on the choices made for a new computer.

As things stand the specs are as follows. I'm looking for things which might be incompatible with each other and sources of possible bottlenecks.

From looking around things I'm still unsure about are the processor (you can get a quad core one for a similar price as the E6850) and the graphics card (it seems a decent solution though).

The primary use of the system is just for web stuff and document work (it needs to be able to handle a heavy firefox session whilst things like photoshop and dreamweaver are open). I would like it to be able to have a decent stab at recent games though - say F.E.A.R and Half Life 2).

Another concern is just making sure it has enough grunt to handle the monitor.

I'm not going to be attempting to overclock any of the components listed.

Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo E6850
Sound Card - Creative X-Fi Extreme
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA_P35_DQ6 (Socket 775)
Graphics Card - GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB GDDR3
Hard Drive - Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 NCQ 500GB SATA-II
Memory - Crucial Ballistix 2GB
Monitor - Dell 24"

SeK612 · 6 Aug 2007 at 09:51

My only concern about the Quad core is that it seems it may run hotter that the other intels. I've had bad experiences with frying CPU's before (I'm not 100% on heatsinks and thermal paste which was the problem I think) so I'm wary of getting a hot cpu.

Is the price drop to the other motherboard ok? (there's a £50 ish price difference between mine and the one you suggested which suggests there's some gap between them) - this version of my board seems to be DDR2 compatible?

Could you post a link to suggested memory? I've updated the first posts specs as general feedback it was suggested I drop down to just two GB (is this correct?). The memory I was looking at is here and £93 for 2GB didn't seem too unreasonable.

SeK612 · 6 Aug 2007 at 12:16

The PSU come with the case. The heatsink I was aiming for was the Asus Silent Square Pro.

The updated specs now look as follows:

Processor - Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600
Sound Card - Creative X-Fi Extreme
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA_P35_DS4 (Socket 775)
Graphics Card - GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB GDDR3
Hard Drive - Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 NCQ 500GB SATA-II
Memory - Crucial Ballistix 2GB (DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz)
Monitor - Dell 24"

A few remaining questions. Is this enough to power the Dell 24" monitor (and a few games at high resolution on this monitor)? As the memory is cheaper now (£68.14) I could stretch to 4GB, is this benificial or should I just save the money? Also I've a network card on the purchase list but it was suggested that this may not be needed for some motherboards, is this the case for the Gigabyte GA_P35_DS4?

Also of how much value is it to have a strong soundcard. The one I've chosen is £90. I have a set of £80-90 Altec Lansing speakers which I got a while back, would having the £90 sound card make a noticeable difference or could this be scaled down a little too?

SeK612 · 6 Aug 2007 at 13:46

Final specs?

Processor - Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600
Sound Card - Creative X-Fi Extreme
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA_P35_DS4 (Socket 775)
Graphics Card - OcUK GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3
Hard Drive - Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 NCQ 500GB SATA-II
Memory - x 4 Crucial Ballistix 2GB (DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz)
Monitor - Dell 24"

I know the Dell is expensive, however I was aiming for 2 Dell 22" monitors which would have totalled the same amount. As the 22" monitors are out of stock I was settling on the 24" (it's not a necessity, however I'm trying to build as comprehensive a machine as possible).