Yet another spec me thread! Yippee!

Llamaman

Llamaman

Llamaman

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7 Mar 2005
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Guys (and gals)

I could do with some help getting an order together to build this weekend :)

I'm a very lazy upgrader (haven't touched my s939 rig since I built it 4 years ago), so I'm looking to get something that should require minimal upgrading to keep me going for a while. As a result, I don't expect to get best bang/bung right now.

My current thoughts are;

Quad 9550
Asus P5Q Pro
Arctic Cooler Freezer 7
Arctic Silver 5 (or does the freezer come with compound?)
Samsung SH-S223F DVD-RW
Antec 300 case
OCZ 2x2Gb x2 = 8Gb PC8500C5
Asus GTX280 1024MB
Vista 64bit Home Premium
Netgear wireless ethernet card

PSU:
Thinking of getting a modular PSU, since the Antec 300 isn't huge. Either of these good?
Corsair HX620W
Tagan Piperock TG700-BZ
If I don't go modular, I can just reuse my Thermaltake 750W from my current rig.

HDD;
I've got a storage drive in my current rig, but I need a new HDD for my new OS (and games).
Which should I get;
Samsung F1 640Gb (16Mb cache)
WD Caviar Green 500Gb (16)
WD Caviar Green 640Gb (16)
Seagate barracuda 7200.11 500Gb (32)
They're all in the £50-£60 price range.

I'll also grab 3 extra case fans to keep it cool (and therefore, hopefully, quieter). Some quiet 120mm fan recommendations also then please - preferably ones that the m/b can throttle (PWM required?).

The whole lot comes to about £1200-£1250. If you can spec me something completely different but better for the money, please do :D

PS: I went for the Antec 300 as I like the size and it not looking too flashy. Was put off the P182 by the fiddly fan filters and the door.

Edit: Forgot to mention; currently using a 21" CRT, so not tied to a particular resolution. When I eventually change to a TFT, it'll be either 22" or 24". I went for the GTX280 rather than a 4870X2 since the 4870 only seems to excel at very high resolutions and I've heard it produces a lot of heat, even whilst idling.

Many thanks!
 
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Well if you don't want to upgrade for a while then i would say invest in i7.

However;

RE PSU: The Corsair HX series is well recommended, I have it myself, and is a very good modular psu.

RE HDD: The Samsung F1 640 is the current HDD of choice at the moment.

RE Artic Silver 5: The cooler comes with some compound, but its generally advised to apply more/your own if you have it - i.e. do buy it :)
 
I don't understand - surely the only reason to buy i7 now is if you intend to upgrade the processor at some point?

Right now, AFAIK the i7 chips don't offer better performance in games than Core2 - they just cost more (including the more expensive m/b and RAM). By the time I come to upgrade in 3/4 years, i7 and DDr3 might be old hat and I'd have wasted my money. Maybe even AMD will have caught up!

Please correct me if I'm wrong!
 
Personally i would change the cooler to something more highend to like one of these: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/produ...1&catid=57&sortby=priceAsc&subid=821&mfrid=35 and you need to add a fan to it.

or http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...=Noctua NH-U12P CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/LGA775)

or http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...zer CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/LGA775)

or this http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...tpipe CPU Cooler (AM2/AM2+/939/LGA775/LGA1366) (this kinda looks like a reproduction of the fairly well known Xigmatek HDT-S1283)
 
The Thermalright True looks good (I'm using a Thermalright on my s939), plus somoene has confirmed it fits the Antec 300. :) Presumably if you use two fans, you connect one to the m/b "CPU" header, and one to the "chassis" header?

Is it really worth cleaning off the thermal paste just to apply a different one? I might do some light overclocking, but nothing too uber? I'd rather spend my time gaming than faffing around with TIM cleaner ;) (I told you I was lazy...)
 
In 3/4 years your core 2 system will definitely be old hat, i7 is just out, so yeah prices are a bit on the high side, but it is the newest tech and would last you the longest. Again it probably won't show a huge improvement over a core 2 especially with gaming, but at your budget you can get a decent i7 setup. People who already own a decent core 2 setup just now, I wouldn't recommend moving to i7, not at the moment anyway, for the price they won't see an improvement. But someone like yourself, moving from an aging 939 system, and with a budget the size of yours, I'd give some thought to an i7 setup. If you get a core 2 setup just now, and like you said if in 3 years time intel or amd come out with something new, you'll still have to replace your system, as it will more than likely be a new socket.

The Q9550 is only £4 cheaper than the i7 920, it's the motherboard and ram that will be the more expensive options. You could drop the gtx280 for the gtx260 216, this overclocked is a good match for a 280 and about £100 cheaper, leaving you money for your i7 setup ;)
 
OK, now I understand!

In fact, OCUK do a nice pre-overclocked i7 system, with a choice of GFX card...
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-025-OE&groupid=43&catid=1300&subcat=&name="Ultima%20OC%20Rage"%20Intel%20Core%20i7%20920%203.33GHz%20Nehalem%20Quad%20Core%20DDR3%20System


With a 260 and 6Gb of RAM, it comes to £1532.05 inc VAT. A bit more than I was intending to spend, but having a prebuilt is tempting to the lazy man...
I'll need to check if that 260 is the maxcore 260-216 though. I suspect it may not be!
 
OK, have priced up a similar i7 spec;

Asus P6T Deluxe
i7 920
G.Skill 6Gb PC3-10666C9
Akasa Nero Direct (only cooler I could find!)
BFG 260-216 OCX Maxcore

Same case (as first post), PSU, HDD, Vista, Arctic 5

Comes to £1,381 incl.VAT (plus the ethernet card that I forgot)

Equivalent Core2 system (spec as first post, but with 260 not 280 - about £1150)

So essentially, I have the choice of paying an extra £250 now for no performance benefit but to have the possibility of upgrading the CPU later. I'm not liking that deal.

Although I haven't considered the power savings, to be fair.
 
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It's your call mate, you can still get an amazing core 2 setup for less money and it will last you. I only put down the i7 as a thought, it's what I'd do with that budget, but then again I'm already on a decent core 2 setup, so it's the next step for me.

You'll see a huge difference between the one you spec'd at the start of the thread against your 939 system, I know I did and I only have an E8400 and 4850 :p

The i7 is expensive, and probably over the next 6 months will drop in price and become more accessible, but such is life in the world of computers, you buy an amazing system and a week later it's outdated (well I've taken that a bit far :p, but my point being that something new and faster is just round the corner)

The core 2 setup should last you a good 2-3 years, I just thought I'd thrown in the idea of i7. If you prefer the idea of the core 2 then that's what I'd go for, it's a lot of money, so make the purchase based on what you'll be most comfortable with.

Also I don't think the power savings will equal £250 between the 2 systems, even over the space of 2-3 years.
 
Your point was a good one - most enthusiaists seem to upgrade their components regularly, so for them getting a cheap i7 board and then gradually upgrading makes sense. I think if you're going to buy a system and not touch it for 2-3 years, Core 2 still edges it (as my costed comparison indicates), but this will change in the near future as i7 falls in price (in particular, the DDR3 RAM).

I'm sure if I were to redo the calculation next Spring, i7 would look like a better bet for me. But I want the system now :) (X:TC, GTAIV, FM2009...)
 
What are you going to be doing with your new system?

Do you even need to go as high spec as you're proposing?

Why not drop the spec slightly and save another £300-500 and still have something that'll blow you away after your current system and run most things well for the foreseeable future?
 
Will be used for gaming (plus surfing, etc, but even my phone can do that!).

I think I've pretty much decided on a Core2Quad 9550, a GTX260-216 and 4GB of RAM (was going to go OCZ but need to check if my choice of m/b will like it). Might go to 8Gb, but there doesn't seem much point at present, other than to guarantee that you've got matching sets...

The 260 is probably more than I need right now (or even after I get a TFT), but will save me having to upgrade for a good while.
 
Whatever final specs you go for, based on ^^^^^ it will be a great system!
 
I might just go for a 4870 1024Mb. It's £60 cheaper than the 260 (there's a Powercolor one on special offer this week), and it leaves me the option of Xfire later.

Does anyone know if GFX cards come with DVI to VGA adaptors, or do I need to buy one seperately? OCUK don't seem to sell them...
 
The 4870 is a great card, if you can get the 1024mb version for that price then go for it. I'm pretty sure that it will come with an adapter, but it might just be dvi-hdmi, I think that's what came with my powercolor 4850.
 
At last!

OK, final check!

Does this all look OK? Have a forgotten anything?


Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.83GHz 12MB-cache (1333FSB) Processor - Retail £222.99
(£262.01) £222.99
(£262.01)
Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £179.99
(£211.49) £179.99
(£211.49)
Asus P5Q Pro Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £94.99
(£111.61) £94.99
(£111.61)
Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-620HXUK) £81.99
(£96.34) £81.99
(£96.34)
Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD10EACS) £65.99
(£77.54) £65.99
(£77.54)
G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PK PC2-8500C5 (2x2GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK) £61.99
(£72.84) £123.98
(£145.68)
Samsung SpinPoint F1 640GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD642JJ) £41.99
(£49.34) £41.99
(£49.34)
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case £36.99
(£43.46) £36.99
(£43.46)
Thermalright TRUE Black 120 CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/LGA775) £33.99
(£39.94) £33.99
(£39.94)
Netgear WG311 54Mbps Wireless Desktop PCI Network Adapter £19.99
(£23.49) £19.99
(£23.49)
Scythe Kama PWM 120mm Fan - 4-Pin PWM £7.99
(£9.39) £15.98
(£18.78)
Akasa AK-191-SM Smoke Ultra Quiet 120mm Fan - 3 pin £4.99
(£5.86) £14.97
(£17.58)

Total: £1,110.18 (incl. VAT and delivery)

The two PWM fans are for the CPU cooler, the 3 Akasa fans are for the case.
 
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