This Spec any good?

WillSpengler

WillSpengler

WillSpengler

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15 Apr 2008
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311
I'm putting together a new PC, and was just wondering if anyone would have any recommendations about parts that should be changed, parts that could be upgraded for a bit better preformance etc.

CPU :
Q6600 (also considering the Q6700 if the price drops and the Q9300 and Q9450)


Heatsink :
Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775)
+ AS5


Mobo :
Asus P5K Premium/WiFi-AP Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard


RAM :
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C4 800MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT12864AA804)
AND
Crucial Ballistix 1GB (2x512MB) DDR2 PC2-6400C4 800MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT6464AA804)


GFX :
EVGA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB KO GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (512-P3-N805-A1) (not entirely sure about this, maybe worth spending a bit more on a higher OC or something? )


HDDs :
2x Hitachi Deskstar 7K160 160GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (in Raid0)
2x Maxtor Diamondmax 22 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (STM3500320AS) (in Raid1)


Sound:
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music 7.1 Sound Card - OEM (30SB046000000)


Optical Drives:
Sony NEC Optiarc DDU1615S 16x SATA DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM
AND
Sony NEC Optiarc AD-7191S 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM


Case:
Coolermaster RC-1000 Cosmos Silent Full Tower Case
(thought I am worried about the lack of HDD cooling, is this a major major concern?)


PSU:
?
Not sure yet, not sure how much power I'll require, I know to go with a good one though, went with a cheap one, once upon a time, and it went badly :(


Additional:
TI chipset based Firewire PCI card. (But OCUK don't seem to have one)


So, anyone have any recommendations on alterations? Which CPU would be best? Will the GFX card be good enough, or is it worthwhile spending more?

This will be used for everything from browsing and word processing to games (CSS, Supreme Commander, Crysis, QW:ET etc etc) and audio recording (using a Presonus Firepod, firewire interface)

For the recording aspect, it is important that the case is pretty quiet, hence the interest in the CM case. The two 160 drives would contain just programs, the mirrored 500 Gb drives would contain mainly storage data.


This is to replace my current system, which is:

3.0Ghz P4 "Prescott" CPU
MSI motherboard (really cannot remember the model)
1 Gb DDR 400 (512Mb per channel)
ATI 9800 Pro GFX
34 Gb WD Raptor
200 Gb Maxtor
250 GB Maxtor

There should bee quite a big boost, especially on the game play and recording side of things right?

Thanks !

- Will
 
Any reason you're going for 3gb of memory ?, i'd go for 2x2gb of geil/gskill (reliase you're running xp but i'd still go with the 4gb over the 3gb setup).

disk drives i'd change for samsung or seagate, tend to run pretty quiet.

processor wise i'd go for the q6600.

gfx card may be worth paying a bit extra for the bfg version with the extra warrenty.

psu have a look at the corsair 520/620w.
 
Would leave the CPU as it is, not worth paying for a Q6700 tbh
The Tuniq Tower comes with its own paste, so AS5 might not be needed

Strange choice in RAM just get the full 4GB
Horrible choice in HDDs would recommend the AAKS, Samsung F1s or 7200.11

Always spend money on a decent PSU, anything from Corsair, Antec, Tagan gets my vote.

The rest looks OK.
 
personally i would just get 4GB of ram, windows will not detect it all, but its only £4-5 more.

for a PSU, look at corsair, seasonic, or enermax i say, you want about 500W for that system ,my first choice will be a corsair HX620 to allow more room for upgrading then a HX520 which is my second choice.

spend anymore on a 8800GT, and i say your better off looking at 8800GTS 512MB versions.
 
Right, will go with 4Gb ram. I was going for 3Gb just because of the limits with XP.

Change both disc drives? Ok, will have a look at other makers. I thought Hitachi was a good brand, and though Maxtor seem to get knocked, i've had 3 Maxtor drives with no failures, and 3 WD drives, of which two have failed (and all the Maxtor drives were much older).

The Q6700 is only an option if they reduce the price, apparently the price will be getting almost halved in the near future so they shouldnt be much more expensive than the Q6600.

Is the BFG 8800GT better than the EVGA offerings then?

I was under the impression the 8800GT was better than the 8800GTS. So, would the BFG 8800GTS OC 512Mb (most expensive GTS on OCUK), be a lot better than the EVGA 8800GT "KO" 512Mb ? It's about £35 more expensive, which isnt a problem really, just would it give a noticable improvement? (Im not too keen on the double space card size due to the cooler either, but it isnt a major problem).

Thanks for the PSU recommendations!

- Will
 
in terms of power

320mb 8800GTS (G80)
640mb 8800GTS (G80)
8800GS i think
8800GT (G92)
512MB 8800GTS (G92)
8800GTX (G80)

if you want quiet, for your recording work, i say wait for confirmation on which is the quieter cards.
 
If you ever go to Vista 4GB will be usable

Hitachi are OK I guess but speed wise the latest drives from Seagate and Samsung are very good.

About the same they have different bundles with them, just depends on how much warranty your want and money you want to pay.

The 512GTS is better the GT, but you could just get the cheapest one as there really isn't any difference between the brands part from clocks speeds (which you can do yourself) and warranty.
 
jak731 said:
in terms of power

320mb 8800GTS (G80)
640mb 8800GTS (G80)
8800GS i think
8800GT (G92)
512MB 8800GTS (G92)
8800GTX (G80)

if you want quiet, for your recording work, i say wait for confirmation on which is the quieter cards.
Click to expand...

Aye, i'll have to do a bit of reading into the volume levels of the cards, thanks for the list!

Just out of interest, how are the 9 series cards comparing? Ive heard they are a bit disappointing ATM



Will_3rd said:
If you ever go to Vista 4GB will be usable

Hitachi are OK I guess but speed wise the latest drives from Seagate and Samsung are very good.

About the same they have different bundles with them, just depends on how much warranty your want and money you want to pay.

The 512GTS is better the GT, but you could just get the cheapest one as there really isn't any difference between the brands part from clocks speeds (which you can do yourself) and warranty.
Click to expand...

I dare say that's true. What's the limit on Vista? Is it 8Gb RAM? If i get two x 2Gb sticks then it means if i do ever move to vista i could just buy another 2x 2Gb sticks for 8 gigs of ram :D (to think how much technology has advanced, I've got an old Amiga Format mag where It had an upgrade to 1Mb RAM for only 200 odd quid! )

Cheers, I didnt think there was much in it speed wise, they were all the same platter speed and the seeks times were more or less the same i thought. Will look into the other brands tho, not much in it price wise really :)

The BFG is only about £30 more than the cheaper cards, but it has a lifetime warranty, which is nice! Though hopefully will never have to use it! I thought OC-ing a GFX card typically voided the warranty? (my reasoning is that this card is pre-OC'd and has the best warranty).

Thanks!
 
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vista 32 bit has the same limit as xp 32 bit, 4GB

vista 64 bit and xpx64 has a limit higher then what you can afford for now, wiki says about 17.2 billion gigabytes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64-bit
it may be artificially limited, but is more then 8GB as i built a pc with 8GB in and a 8800GTX, xp x64 sees all the memory
 
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As far as I remember 64bit systems support up to 128gb of ram ;p.

Anyways, what's up with the ppl going for quads for just gaming. I would pick wolfdale over it anytime.

If you want silent case get antec p190, it has best noise reduction ever imo.

Just get 2gig ram for XP32 if you aint going for vista any soon, by the time you will want to go for vista you will be probably able to buy 2x 4gb sticks for the difference between 2gb and 4gb now ;).

And get spinpoint hdd.
 
jak731 said:
vista 32 bit has the same limit as xp 32 bit, 4GB

vista 64 bit and xpx64 has a limit higher then what you can afford for now, wiki says about 17.2 billion gigabytes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64-bit
it may be artificially limited, but is more then 8GB as i built a pc with 8GB in and a 8800GTX, xp x64 sees all the memory
Click to expand...

Well didnt I get that totally wrong! I thought the RAM limit on XP was 3 Gb, my bad!

And, wow, thats a lot of RAM !


PhoenixUK said:
As far as I remember 64bit systems support up to 128gb of ram ;p.

Anyways, what's up with the ppl going for quads for just gaming. I would pick wolfdale over it anytime.

If you want silent case get antec p190, it has best noise reduction ever imo.

Just get 2gig ram for XP32 if you aint going for vista any soon, by the time you will want to go for vista you will be probably able to buy 2x 4gb sticks for the difference between 2gb and 4gb now ;).

And get spinpoint hdd.
Click to expand...

Thanks, i'll look into the antec case!

I do a lot of audio recording, so the extra ram is going to be very useful, and as more and more programs are becoming multithread, quad core just makes sense. This system isn't just for gaming :) (tho thankfully, some games ie Supreme Commander actually make use of all 4 cores :D )
 
Just looked into the Antec P190.

Made the mistake of watching a video review of it before looking at the price, OUCH!

I dare say though, if the PSU's in the P190 are good, that means I wouldnt need to buy another PSU, which means that it wouldnt be too much more.

Anyone know if the PSU's in the P190 are good quality, and are they quiet?

Thanks!
 
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Hmm, may do that.

The only thing I didnt like about the P182 is that it is smaller and has fewer fans. Is it only one fan less tho? Should be better for sound dampening, and wasnt too keen on the dual PSUs of the P190.
 
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