Would you buy this system??

Associate
Joined
18 Nov 2007
Posts
121
Hi,

I'm after a gaming rig and think I'm almost decided on what to get. So would you buy this system? ->

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £142.99 (£168.01)
Asus P5N32-E SLi nForce 680 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £114.99 (£135.11)
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £29.99 (£70.48)
OCZ StealthXStream 600w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply £44.99(£52.86)
Antec P182 Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Gun Metal Black) £74.99 (£88.11)
EVGA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB Superclocked GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (512-P2-E802-AR) £164.99 (£387.72)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST3500320AS) £61.99 (£72.84)
Samsung SH-S203BEBN 20x20 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99 (£19.96)

Sub Total : £846.90
Shipping : £12.95
VAT : £150.47
Total : £1,010.32

- My only major worry is the PSU. Is it man enough for the two 8800GT's??
- Is everything up there compatiable??
 
Last edited:
The 8800GT isn't the most demanding of cards in terms of power consumption so it should be fine. I'm not entirely convinced of the benefits of SLi in general over a decent single card but it is up to you.

Also I'd consider getting an aftermarket cooler and buying the OEM version of the CPU to make overclocking easier. :)
 
As far as I know the 8800GT doesn't consume at much power as you think, less than the 8800GTS in fact. 500W should be enough but I don't think it'd leave you too much headroom for other power consumin upgrades such as cathodes and water cooling
 
Also I'd consider getting an aftermarket cooler and buying the OEM version of the CPU to make overclocking easier

How come the OEM version makes it easier?

What OS are you going for?

Haven't decided yet. I'm tempted to get a 64-bit version of XP as I do a lot of programming and I'm not sure if the Visual Studio stuff will run under Vista. Otherwise I'm keen on moving over to Vista. Does it have any features for running legacy programs?
 
the oem version doesnt make it easier...it doesnt come with a cooler and is a bit cheaper than the retail version therefore saving you a bit of money.
 
You can then buy an aftermarket HSF which has better cooling allowing you to easier overclock the CPU :)

Edit: Beat me to it :)
 
How come the OEM version makes it easier?

Apologies, wasn't the clearest way to explain things I suppose. OEM means that it is the bare CPU so you need to add your own cooler, OEM CPUs are usually cheaper and as you say a good aftermarket cooler (Tuniq Tower, Noctua NH-U12F or Arctic Freezer 7 Pro if on a budget) will frequently allow higher speeds to be reached than the retail cooler than comes with the CPU. Also going OEM means you don't have the retail cooler sitting about useless. :)
 
Apologies, wasn't the clearest way to explain things I suppose. OEM means that it is the bare CPU so you need to add your own cooler, OEM CPUs are usually cheaper and as you say a good aftermarket cooler (Tuniq Tower, Noctua NH-U12F or Arctic Freezer 7 Pro if on a budget) will frequently allow higher speeds to be reached than the retail cooler than comes with the CPU. Also going OEM means you don't have the retail cooler sitting about useless. :)

No worries! Thanks for the info, I'll probably go for one of those coolers if it means I can overclock it more.
 
Last edited:
I do know that VS2005 has issues with Vista, it complains about users not being administrators, even if they are in the administrators group, running in compatibility mode doesn't remove this either. I'm yet to actually find anything that won't work due to this error though.

VS2008 seems to be working fine, but seeing as it hasn't been released yet, you may be stuck with XP unless you have an MSDN subscription and thus have the pre-releases of 2008 to have a play with.

Also, if you use a local copy of IIS with your dev, you'll find that SQL and some aspects of VS2005 don't actually see IIS as being installed if you use vista, I'm guessing the new version of IIS just isn't supported yet.

If you do end up using XP though, I'd stick with 32-bit, as 64-bit wasn't supported nearly half as well as Vista 64-bit is.
 
Back
Top Bottom