Upgrade Sanity Check

[Spook]

Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - OEM £93.99 (£110.44)
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £147.99 (£173.89)
Gigabyte GA_965P_DS4 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £99.99 (£117.49)
HIS ATI Radeon X1950 Pro ICEQ 3 TURBO SILENT Heatpipe 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (H195PRQT256DD-R) £109.99(£129.24)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 775) £13.99 (£16.44)
Samsung SpinPoint T HD501LJ 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £92.99 (£109.26)
Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK) £59.99
(£70.49)

Sub Total : £618.93
Shipping : £9.95
Vat : £110.05
Total : £738.93

 

[semi-pro waster]

All the parts are compatible and offer good value for money so go for it.

 

[syke]

Not sure if im 100% right or not, but isnt the E6300 best paired with the DS3 or is the DS4 good with it too?

 

[TheNuju]

Looking good to me, the DS3 and DS4 boards are nearly identical, if the budget can afford a DS4 then all I say is go for it

Enjoy
Mike

 

[Spook]

Ok final question before I order:

The parts were obviously chosen for their price/performance ratio while trying to keep noise to an acceptable level but it actually comes in well under my maximum budget of around £1200 (not that I want to spend that much if I can get away with it). Is there a worthwhile upgrade to the above spec bearing in mind I game at 1680x1050.

Previous system before it broke
athlon 64 3500xp
Geforce 6800GT
1GB ram

Was running oblivion on "High" at 1680x1050 with 4xaa no HDR at frames that were acceptable to me (some obvious stuttering but did not mind that as I was not playing online competitively) so I do not need absolute top of the range and most likely couldnt tell the difference either.

 

[tomanders91]

up the graphcs card if you wanna game at that res imo. Maybe to a GTS, only £287

 

[syke]

The X1950Pro is the card to go for when waiting for later releases of DX10 Cards.

Save the cash towards a graphics update when DX10 cards are released (other cards).

It gives you enough as the card is definately no slouch.

With that resolution it may be needed to perhaps get the XT but most definately, if you can afford the 8800 GTS/GTX then get it.

 

[thefishdude]

as you are playing at that resolution i would at least upgrade to the his 1950pro 512mb version wich is an extra 20quid, or i would really reccomend the his 1950xt but that is an extra £65 how ever will serve you very well at your resolution and if you could afford it then get that one. there are cheaper version of the 1950xt but they have noisy coolers and you mentioned noise in yoru thread.

 

[Spook]

Well done some reading around graphics cards and have pretty much decided on the 8800GTX from BFG. The 1950 would have been a stop gap card so if im spending more than that I would rather go the whole way and not have to upgrade again for a while. Heard the coolers on these cards are pretty quiet too.

Hopefully last question - is it worth upping the PSU to the 620W version for this card?

 

[lukeharvest]

Get the Tuniq Tower 120 only £10 more and is the best Air cooler avaliable...

 

[Spook]

I considered the Tuniq Tower especially as its on this week only. It was even in my basket before the arctic cooler. In the end I decided on the arctic cooler because its a no hassle install (no backplate thermal compound already on contact) and the fact I will not be doing any serious overclocking (will most likely run the FSB at 400 for a 2.8GHz clock).

 

[Spook]

Finger is over that order button now. Basically I have 2 choices - spend a little more on premium parts for overclocking to the limit or go for modest parts and attempt a modest overclock (around 2.8GHz).

Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - OEM £93.99
Gigabyte GA_965P_DS4 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £99.99
Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-620HXUK) £84.99
Samsung SpinPoint T HD501LJ 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £92.99
BFG GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £329.99
Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler £22.99
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) £5.99
Crucial 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Tenth Anniversary Dual Channel Kit (TY2KIT12864AA663) £179.99
Sub Total : £910.92
Shipping : £9.95
Vat : £161.15
Total : £1,082.02

or remove the AS5 Tuniq Tower and Crucial ram and go with the Geil low latency stuff with the Arctic cooler. I have to admit Im edging towards the latter as I havent overclocked seriously since my Tbird days.

 

[Spook]

Your Order has been packed and is in the process of being shipped.
----------------------------------------------------------
Goods Shipped:
£84.99 x 1 - Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
£147.99 x 1 - GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC)
£329.99 x 1 - BFG GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
£13.99 x 1 - Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 775)
£84.99 x 1 - Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-620HXUK)
£54.99 x 1 - Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB 3200KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
£105.99 x 1 - Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail

Sub Total: £822.93
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri) Shipping: £9.95
Total Vat: £145.75
Total inc Vat: £978.63

A few small comprimises and had a debate with myself re getting 6300 retail or 6600 oem (as 6300 oem is out of stock)
Chose the WD HDD as Im likely to Hard mount so the extra vibration on the spinpoint most likely would have made it noisier for me.