*****THE OFFICIAL "SPEC ME" THREAD*****

Sideman said:
I've just seen this...Paul
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I'm struggling with this spec.

It sounds like you need a Quad Core CPU, 8GB RAM (preferably) S-PVA/S-IPS monitor for photo editing & possibly a 4870X2 for gaming. But its, what seems to me, pointless things like a £62 copy of XP Home and a £135 Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty (with the front bay) that are needlessly pushing the price up coupled with the other expensive components.

Do you really need XP Home? Wouldn't a £50 Xonar be enough?
 
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Chimerical said:
I'm struggling with this spec.

It sounds like you need a Quad Core CPU, 8GB RAM (preferably) S-PVA/S-IPS monitor for photo editing & possibly a 4870X2 for gaming. But its, what seem to me, pointless things like a £62 copy of XP Home and a £135 Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty (with the front bay) that are needlessly pushing the price up coupled with the other expensive components.

Do you really need XP Home? Wouldn't a £50 Xonar be enough?
Click to expand...

Aplogies if my desired spec has caused problems and thanks for your reply! :o

I guess I need not have mentioned the photo editing, as frankly, it's something done now and again (managed it o.k on my current system with old Iiyama S702GT), and therefore not critical.

But what is critical is to be able to get the best out of FSX as best I can with the buget, if of course that's possible, so quad core is a must!

As for the sound card, I really need a front bay with a good selection of connectors (like my old Soundblaster Audigy) as I need to be able to plug in mini disc players, tape decks etc. without fiddling around at the back of the PC. It seems that the Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro is my only option if I'm to buy do this, even though it's a lot more than I would like to spend on a sound card.

Might have to look at some other sound card makers to see if they do a front bay that meets my requirements.

As for XP, I just remembered I have an OEM copy lying around somewhere that I installed in an old machine. As I don't need that PC anymore, I guess I should be able to use that.

Cheers

Paul
 
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Sideman said:
As for XP, I just remembered I have an OEM copy lying around somewhere that I installed in an old machine. As I don't need that PC anymore, I guess I should be able to use that.
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Cool :)

Yeah, re-using OEM XP is easy. Just freephone with the supplied number when it comes to re-activating it, and a machine generates a code for you (if Internet activation doesn't work, that is).

I'll see about putting a spec together.
 
Sideman said:
Paul
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Right, I'm sure someone will come along a do a better spec than this but anyway.

Firstly, 8GB of RAM isn't essential, but in a £2,000 spec, its warranted and it sounds like you will make use of it via video editing, etc.

The Q9550 Quad Core is perfect for performance & price. The motherboard is excellent, but unfortunately, its no good for Crossfire (if you ever slot in another 4870X2 in the future). The X48 chipset is great for that, but costs more and I couldn't fit one in.

The screen is the best available. Its an S-IPS panel and offers excellent image quality and is appropriate for a spec of this cost. However, the cheaper (TN panel) Acer G24 is good enough for games & video and you could easily downgrade to that if needed (budget-wise). Also, if you do buy the Hazro, make sure to research it first (on these forums) as some are prone to shipping with faults.

The soundcard looks to have a front bay, and is cheaper & newer than the Elite Pro. However, be wary that Creative's Drivers are reputedly bad in Vista.

The Akasa Omega case looks like it fits within your parameters (its has a 460mm height) but do fit extra fans to the side and top panel grills for better cooling.

I don't know how good the 4870X2 is for FSX as it uses Crossfire and I don't know whether FSX benefits from that (you'll need to research it). The only alternative is the Nvidia 280GTX.

Hazro.jpg


Alternative Spec:

Benq.jpg
 
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Thanks for that Chimerical.

Much appreciated and gives me a good starting point! :)

As far as I know, FSX does not support crossfire.

Actually my next port of call was to check over on some FSX forums to see what's considered the best cards for FSX.

I do recall though a while back that Phil Taylor from the FSX graphics team said to get the card with the highest memory size, max memory bandwith, and the highest core clock speed that you can afford if you want to get the most out of it.

Cheers

Paul
 
Chimerical said:
The soundcard looks to have a front bay, and is cheaper & newer than the Elite Pro. However, be wary that Creative's Drivers are reputedly bad in Vista.
Click to expand...

Just checked the Creative site, and it seems that they still supporting the Audigy series of cards, and have both 32 & 64 bit drivers available. :)

The only thing is, as you mentioned, their reliabilty under Vista. :confused:

But I could keep it and get a more up to date & cheaper one to use as the main card. (Having said that, I could just use the Audigy under XP only).

Anyway, still studying your spec, and might have a go at submitting my own.

Cheers

Paul
 
BUDGET: £350 tops

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo £90 worth?
Motherboard: Yes - with onboard sound if possible, or I'll retain my SBLive Value
Memory: Yes - want 4gb
Graphics Card(s): Yes,
TV Card: No
Hard Drive(s): Yes, 300gb+
Optical Drive(s): No, will retain current IDE DVD rewriter
Cooling: Stock intel fan?
Water Cooling:
Cable(s):
Sound Card: Onboard sound will be fine
Controller Card(s):
Case: I'm assuming my near 5 year old Antec 3700BQE tower casewill still fit current motherboards?
Power Supply: 400W - quiet if possible

Keyboard: no
Mouse: no
Headset: no
Speakers: no
Monitor(s): no - happy with by Dell 2007WFP
Operating System: no, will be using Ubuntu.

Uses: Linux photo editing, panoramic stitching, 3d graphics
Overclocking: Not planning to.

I had originally thought about going small form factor, but I reckon I'd get more bang for my buck by keeping my current case and putting what I'd spend on SFF case to a faster cpu / graphics card.

What I've currently specced:

pcspec2.jpg


good enough? oh, just noticed the board I specced above, Abit IP43 doesn't do IDE so I'd need a SATA dvd rewriter or a motherboard which also has ide.
 
Ben B said:
BUDGET : £750 including VAT - I can claim VAT back ;)

Processor: Yes
Motherboard: Yes
Memory: Yes, 4GB :)
Graphics Card(s): Yes, best I can afford with budget
TV Card: No
Hard Drive(s): 500GB+
Optical Drive(s): Nothing special, just DVD/CD Burner
Cooling: Yes
Water Cooling: No
Cable(s): ... Yes?
Sound Card: Not necessary if MOBO is good enough ;)
Controller Card(s): ???
Case: I have the NZXT Tempest
Power Supply: Corsair 650W, or any other suitable for ^^^ I have this now :)

Keyboard: Wireless,
Mouse: Wireless, rechargeable
Headset: Nope.
Speakers: Nope.
Monitor(s): 24" HD
Operating System: 64 bit, to use 4GB Ram

** Also, can you include some way of connecting to my wireless router?

Uses: Gaming, Web Surfing, iTunes/Music, Movies
Overclocking: Maybe at some stage ;)

Any help would be much appreciated :D

Ben
Click to expand...

Please :)

And I already have the NZXT Tempest, and Corsair 650W Psu ;)
 
Sideman said:
O.K, here's my tweaked version:

Advice/input welcome, and I'll probably do some more tweaking later.

Cheers

Paul
Click to expand...

Yeah, the 1TB as a boot drive won't be a good idea. Something like a 640GB or 320GB would be faster. 1TB is only good for separate storage.

If FSX doesn't support Crossfire, then switch to 280GTX as that 4870X2 will be no good then.

That case fits your height specs, but it will be terrible at keeping a Quad Core, high-end GPU setup cool. The Omega is slightly better, but I guess, unfortunately, due to your restrictions, this can't be helped.
 
Chimerical said:
Yeah, the 1TB as a boot drive won't be a good idea. Something like a 640GB or 320GB would be faster. 1TB is only good for separate storage.

If FSX doesn't support Crossfire, then switch to 280GTX as that 4870X2 will be no good then.

That case fits your height specs, but it will be terrible at keeping a Quad Core, high-end GPU setup cool. The Omega is slightly better, but I guess, unfortunately, due to your restrictions, this can't be helped.
Click to expand...

Thanks again for your input.

I've played around with the list a bit more, and now added a Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB SATA-II 32MB Cache HDD as my boot drive, and changed the monitor to the Acer G24, which as you say, should be good enough for my needs (it seems to have good reviews) even though it is a TN panel.

I've changed the GFX card too to the BFG GeForce GTX 280 H2OC 1024MB, which although pricey, seems to be the best bet for FSX (I could be wrong). I've also changed the case back to the Akasa Omega. Btw, on that note, would it be worth considering the NZXT Hush Classic? I checked their site and it seems to fit my bill of a case that's not to big, although will it be to small internally?

As for the OS, I could probably do without Vista Ulimate retail, but the OCUK shop doesn't sell the retail version of Home Premium, and I'd rather pay a bit extra for a retail version and know that if I decide to upgrade the Motherboard, I won't have to worry.

I might make a few more tweaks, and also make more enquiries to see what's considered the best CPU/MB/GFX combo to run FSX best, as this is very important!

Cheers

Paul
 
Sideman said:
I've also changed the case back to the Akasa Omega. Btw, on that note, would it be worth considering the NZXT Hush Classic? I checked their site and it seems to fit my bill of a case that's not to big, although will it be to small internally?
Click to expand...

The Hush is a pretty standard size, but isn't great for cooling.

The Omega has extra mounts on the top and side for fans, whereas the Hush doesn't.

With a 280GTX, you'd need fans on the side panel providing direct cooling to it.
 
Chimerical said:
:eek: Whatever you do, don't buy that BFG H2OC, it requires watercooling to work. :p

Get a normal air-cooled 280GTX instead.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the warning!

Should read the specs more carefully nextime!

Couldn't help but notice this one in the shop to pre order.

It's air cooled, has a faster core clock (important for FSX) and is only a bit more expensive than the Point of View GeForce GTX 280 that you recommended.

Any thoughts?

As for the case, I think I'll stick with the Omega in view of what you've said about cooling.

Btw, is it worth me considering one of the OCUK bundled CPU/RAM/MB/Cooler combos?

Cheers

Paul
 
Sideman said:
Thanks for the warning!

Should read the specs more carefully nextime!

Couldn't help but notice this one in the shop to pre order.

It's air cooled, has a faster core clock (important for FSX) and is only a bit more expensive than the Point of View GeForce GTX 280 that you recommended.

Any thoughts?

As for the case, I think I'll stick with the Omega in view of what you've said about cooling.

Btw, is it worth me considering one of the OCUK bundled CPU/RAM/MB/Cooler combos?
Click to expand...

The bundles are good. Just stick with the 4/8GB RAM/Quad CPU/Decent motherboard combo. Anything with a P45/X48/X38 chipset in it is good & is made by Asus, DFI or Abit preferably.

That graphics card looks great; BFG offer solid warranties too. Just make sure to check about FSX not using Crossfire (in case I haven't already mentioned) as it might do. You're gonna spend £350+ on a GPU, so might as well check.

Something like this: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...C4 800MHz / Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler Bundle
 
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Hey guys, thinking of parting with the cash for something like the below - was wondering if you would recommend any changes?

Thanks

HIS ATI Radeon HD 4870 (£176.24)
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (£123.36)
Antec Sonata III (£91.64)
Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3 (£88.11)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB (£44.64)
Noctua NH-U12P (£42.29)
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel Vista Gold Series DDR2 (£37.59)

Sub Total : £513.93
Shipping : £10.95
VAT : £91.85

Total : £616.73
 
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