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Dazzy_G

Dazzy_G

Dazzy_G

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Joined
6 Jan 2005
Posts
1,337
Location
Essex
Hi Guys,
I've had a quick look around and I've come up with the following for my upgrade.

I've already got an Antec 900, all the hard drives and DVD stuff and Vista Business.

Am i barking up the wrong tree by going AMD or does the Intel/nVidia route really work out as a better option?

Feel free to post a spec for a similar priced/performance system.
It will be gaming in 1680x1050.

pcupgrade.JPG


Cheers
 
This should offer very similar performance but costs quite a bit less, the CPU is almost begging to be overclocked and none of the parts will hold you back. The PSU is easily capable but if you wanted capacity for a lot of future expansion then you could get the 620w version and still be better off.

OcUK GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - OEM £207.99
(£244.39) £207.99
(£244.39)
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £129.99
(£152.74) £129.99
(£152.74)
OcUK Value IP35 Pro Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £54.99
(£64.61) £54.99
(£64.61)
Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX (2x2GB) £64.99
(£76.36) £64.99
(£76.36)
Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £27.99
(£32.89) £27.99
(£32.89)
Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK) £57.99
(£68.14) £57.99
(£68.14)
Sub Total : £543.94
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £95.19
Total : £639.13
 
Richard Slater said:
I would agree with this wholeheartedly, virtually the same setup as my current rig except GTS rather than GTX and a ABIT mobo rather than OcUK mobo. More than happy with Crysis and CoD4 at 1680 x 1050.
Click to expand...

What ABit mobo are you using Rich?

Is the 8800 really that good to outperform 2 3870 XTs?

Would i be good going for some better RAM with an intel chip? or is the 200odd Mhz not really an issue?

Been out of the loop for sometime... heh

EDIT:
How about this?
pcupgrade2.JPG
 
Last edited:
The Ram issue is really a non-issue, I'm not sure what your knowledge level is so forgive me if I'm stating something you know.

The Core2Duo/Quads use a quad pumped FSB in effect so the Q6600 has a nominal FSB which is 1066mhz and that is created by 4x266.5mhz from the Ram (or PC4200 speeds), the CPUs internal multiplier allows it up to 9x which gives the rated speed of 2.4ghz overall. To get a simple boost to 3ghz you only need up the Ram to running at 333mhz (well within it's rated capacity) and you then get 9x333mhz giving 2997mhz and depending on the chip and the cooling you could even be lucky enough to run it at the 400mhz that the Ram is guaranteed to do which would give you a rather nice 3.6ghz or 50% overclock.

Now you would be lucky to achieve that but the parts there give you a decent chance and my main point is that the Ram will not be the limiting factor unless you have a seriously good chip and extreme cooling. This is a rather simplified description, you can find out in more depth the workings in the CPU sub-forum or the overclocking sub-forum but I'm just giving a very brief version. :)
 
Dazzy_G said:
What ABit mobo are you using Rich?

Is the 8800 really that good to outperform 2 3870 XTs?

Would i be good going for some better RAM with an intel chip? or is the 200odd Mhz not really an issue?

Been out of the loop for sometime... heh

EDIT:
How about this?
pcupgrade2.JPG
Click to expand...

Go with Semi Pro's suggestion.
 
The Noctua NH-U12F, the Thermalright U120 + 120mm fan of your choice or you could go with a Zalman CNPS9700. If you don't like the look of any of them then I'm afraid I don't know enough about the rest to advise properly. :)
 
Scythe Ninja Plus Rev.B CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775)

I would go for the Tunig myselfone of the best Aircoolers
 
Ok then my final go for the day.

And this shall have........
4x 500GB Seagate Barracudas
1x WD3200S Caviar
2x IDE DVD drives
1x PCI wifi card (linksys i think)
1x PCI USB2 - maybe depending on how much i plug back into it

all in an Antec 900

Can see any blindingly obvious mistakes? (PSU ok with that much?)

pcupgrade3.JPG
 
That looks fine now, the PSU is more than sufficient for what you are doing there but no harm in that. Both DVD drives will have to go on the same IDE cable since you only get one IDE port on the motherboard but other than that I see no issues. :)
 
Looks good, I have that board (Abit IP35 Pro) and the 520W version of that power supply, first PSU that was shipped was DOA, quite a few people said that they had had problems with DOA corsair PSUs as well as issues with the Abit IP35 boards and the Corsair HX series, that said Corsair support is superb.
 
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