Specs Feedback

SeK612

SeK612

SeK612

Associate
Joined
5 Aug 2007
Posts
27
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"
 
Last edited:
As with others I'm not particularly knowledgeable so am looking for a bit of feedback on the choices made for a new computer.
Click to expand...
well youve done a pretty good job on putting together a spec then, i think youll benefit from the quad core processors seeing as youve kisted multitasking as a priority. You wont benefit massively from the increased clock speed so yeh....go quad imo.

Oh, and the mb is DDR3 only, which starts at £240 for 2gb's at the moment lol
So id go for a Different gigabyte board instead.

Graphics card will cope with everything you throw at it for a while.

Memory - Crucial Ballistix 4GB
Click to expand...
this comes in 3 speeds, you want the slowest 667mhz one, having faster will make no difference as the processor is the bottleneck (as it should be).
 
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.
 
the cheaper crucial ram.

Unless your overclocking, its more than adequate for you. The quad core's arent exceptionally hot unless your overclocking either, thats when they start seeming hotter than the C2D, plus its actually pretty hard to fry a processor nowadays.

The more expensive motherboards are again mainly aimed at overclockers, with special functions in the bios, and additional heat pipes etc, to be honest you dont really need it all.

2gb would be fine, 4gb and vista 64bit would be better if you could stretch to it, but far from essential.
 
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?
 
CPU - I'd go quad core or a cheaper dual core. Expensive dual core makes no sense. Spec a decent cooler for it as well.

GFX - 640MB 8800 GTS at a minimum. That 24" Dell might also benefit from a 8800 GTX if budget allows, but the 8800 GTS 640MB should be sufficient.

RAM - Good choice, and at this price I'd go 4GB.
 
I’m thinking of a Gigabyte GA_P35C_DS3R Motherboard and am also chasing up Ram to suit.

Is Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT12864AA663) ideal when:

SeK612 said:
I'm not going to be attempting to overclock any of the components listed.
Click to expand...

I am inclined towards the GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C5 800MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400DC) which as it happens is slightly cheaper and on Gigabytes QVL.

I know it isn’t held in the same regard by overclockers but he does not anticipate overclocking.

If he were to engage in modest overclocking in the future, as I do, it will easily be achieved by utilising the higher inherent speed of the PC400 ram which will give up to 3.6 GHz with a 9 multiplier by simply manually setting its speed up to 400.

If my understanding of these issues is at fault please advise.
 
Last edited:
are you going to overclock?

if so get the thermalright ultra 120 extreme.

get the quad q6600 pro, if you arent overclocking get the cheaper crucial ram, if you are get the cellshock 2gb ddr2 800.

you sure you want the dell 24"? 22" is much better value £190 for great lg monitor, a new dell 24" is out very soon with better colour range or something, cant remember the difference, so i wouldnt get the 1 thats available now.

if you are going 22" get the 320mb 8800, if 24" get 640mb
 
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).
 
btw, the onboard sound on the ds4 is very nice using coaxial out, you dont really need the xfi, xfi vista drivers will never use the hardware properly they wont be creating drivers that are equivalent to xp ones so i wouldnt buy 1 of those tbh.

as for 22": http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-045-LG&groupid=17&catid=510&subcat=

that is a great monitor, no point spending loads on a dell 24" that will be out of date in 2 months ish.

dont buy 533 memory, get 800mhz instead: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-019-GS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=813
 
If your not overclocking at all you could get away with
this which is the lowest price 4gb set.

The panels on the dell 20" and 24" are way superior to any other 22" screens, personally im waiting for the dell 2007wfp to come back in stock, annoying that most dell ones have vanished.

As said, if your on a 24" screen you could do with getting the best GPU that you can afford, mb a budget GTX or 640mb GTS (though dont go for an "overclocked" version, waste of money).
 
That is a low price 4GB kit :eek: That would work well with a 3GHz system (with either a 9 or 10 multiplier). Paired with a e2180, e4400 or e4500 and you'd have a great 3GHz+ system.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom