Yet another "advise my spec" thread :)

fross

fross

fross

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Hi all,

I've read through several of the existing threads on here about building a new system, and while my requirements are similar to others, I have some specifics that may need some consideration :) What I'm looking for is:

- Solid, reliable and fast
- I primarily play games on it, but also write music (Sequencers, VSTs, etc). I primarily play WoW right now and HL2/TF2, of which the former is ok on this system and the latter is a bit too slow.
- Not interested in overclocking (sorry! It messes with my sound hardware though)
- Future-proof for the next 2-3 years.

My current system is about 3 years old, and consists of:

Athlon 3000 XP
Abit motherboard (forget which, nForce2 I think)
2G DDR 400 ram
256M AGP Geforce 6800 GS
2 x 350G SATA II HD (going to keep these)

As you can see I need an upgrade ;) I was thinking of going for:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (1066Mhz FSB)
EVGA nForce 680i motherboard
2 x 1G 1066Mhz RAM (probably Geil)
512M Geforce 8800 GT (probably BFG, or EVGA)
600W PSU (probably OCZ)

My questions/considerations are:

Intel vs AMD. Intel has seemed to have the edge with Core 2 for a while, but what about Phenom, etc?
Dual core vs Quad core. Quad core may work better for my music applications (eg Cubase), but how is gaming going toward supporting them? They seem to be about the same speed for the same price, whether dual or quad core...
Some of the dual cores are 1333Mhz FSB. Is it worth trying to get 1333Mhz ram? Or for that matter, is it worth waiting for DDR3?
I'm obviously planning to go the SLi route, hence the expensive motherboard. Is 680i the only viable option for SLi on Intel?
Found a guide online that said that PSU would be enough for dual 8800 GTs, but open to more suggestions.
And when are there likely to be 512M 8800 GT cards in circulation, they seem all sold out!

Thanks in advance for your help, and have fun tinkering with the build :)

David
 
Welcome to the forums, the system looks basically good although I wouldn't bother with 680i based motherboard, SLi is generally a waste of time unless you have a large monitor.

The Ram is overkill when PC6400 would do equally well and save you an awful lot of money.

If quad core doesn't cost you much more (and it doesn't at the upper end) then you might as well go for it, while games might not support it the additional cores won't do any harm.

Don't bother with 1333mhz Ram and DDR3 offers no compelling benefits at the moment.
 
Are you going to keep your current case, hard disks, and optical drives? If so, be aware that PATA is on its way out and most mobos come with only one PATA port, for a total of two devices. If you like I can spec you a rig with whatever parts you need.

I agree with all of semi-pro's points. :)
 
Thanks for the reply! That really helps clear up a few things.

My monitor is 22" widescreen, running at 1680x1050. I won't be doing SLi now, but I plan to buy a second 8800GT in 12-18 months to put in SLi to get an extra year's worth out of the upgrade - to save myself having to spend 700-800 pounds again ;) Does this make sense, or do you think it's not particularly future-proof?

I think RAM speed is confusing me - doesn't it need to meet or exceed the FSB bus speed set by the CPU? eg if I got the Q6600 which has a FSB of 1066Mhz, but used PC6400 (800Mhz), wouldn't it slow the whole thing down?

I think I will go for the Quad, thanks for the info :)
 
Hi Billy,

I have one PATA device (DVD-rw), my two HDs are SATA II already. I upgraded those a year ago, making sure I got the interface right so I wouldn't have a problem upgrading now! :)
 
I don't particularly think adding another card is all that future proof since the payoff is frequently so much less than the return. When you want to upgrade sell your GT and buy a fast new card.

The FSB is quad pumped, the quoted number is four times the actual frequency. 1066 MHz chips run on a 266 MHz FSB. RAM numbers are doubled due to it being Double Data Rate RAM. PC2-6400 runs at 400 MHz which, obviously, is a lot faster than 266 MHz. If you run the RAM at the same speed as the CPU you'd have to overclock a Q6600 to 3.6 GHz before you even met the stock speed of PC2-6400 RAM.

How about your case, do you need a new one?
EDIT: If so, do you like flashy "gaming" cases or do you prefer a more subdued look? I've built a spec for you and I want to know what to include. :)
 
Here is my current shopping list:

Akasa AK-925 Revo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/LGA775)
OCZ StealthXStream 600w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply
EVGA nForce 680i SLi (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (122-CK-NF68-A1)
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - OEM
Edit: GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC)
BFG GeForce 8800 GT OC2 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

Now at 650 pounds!

The Silent knight CPU cooler looks awesome but the akasa one gets great reviews.
I'm concerned about the BFG being noisy as it's overclocked too, any thoughts on that?
 
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Billy,

aaaaah now that explains a lot! Thank you for explaining the RAM issue. I'll definitely get 6400 instead of 8500 now - as I'm not into overclocking, that should still be future proof for the CPU socket.

I don't need a new case, as I have a huge old grey monolith I'm happy to keep, it's stuck under the desk anyway. I'm very curious to see what you've got on your list though, post away! And thanks for making the effort :)
 
Same performance, less money:
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I haven't heard a GT yet myself but I reckon they're pretty quiet. This CPU cooler and PSU are wicked quiet though. The PSU here is more than powerful enough, especially with the trend as it is leading to lower power consumption.

EDIT: I've included the LED version of the Tuniq because the normal one is out of stock. Both should give the same performance.
 
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4G ram and no motherboard? ;)

Would you recommend the Tuniq over the Akasa cooler that's on offer this week?
 
damn! twice the ram, and 50 quid cheaper... that's a hard bargain... thank you so much :)

i do use xp, so am i correct in thinking it would only see 3G of that ram, at least for now?

how come you went for the more expensive less wattage corsair psu, over the OCZ one?
 
Try to pick up a used copy of XP-64 so you can address all your RAM. Otherwise you'll be seeing about 3.5 GiB of it.

I chose the Corsair because I know that it's
  • quiet
  • powerful
  • nicely matched to your spec
  • modular
  • good looking
That's pretty much everything I seek in a PSU. :)
 
I think you have persuaded me, by the argument of cold, hard cash :) That memory is just so cheap it's a crime to not go for 4G of it.

I may get the BFG card yet, and going to look further into P35 chipsets as I hadn't looked into them much, but I think you just saved me £100. Cheers!
 
I've got the bits and the system is now working! I went for a couple of replacements - BFG OC2 8800GT instead of the EVGA (as they were having such stock woes), and as the order took so long I upgraded back to the ASUS P5N32-E SLi motherboard... which thankfully after a BIOS update is doing fine.

The Tuniq Tower is massive, I don't think I can put the side of my case back on! I'll take pics this weekend when I put the drives back in their normal place :)
 
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