Yet another spec thread lol

thesnowdog1971

thesnowdog1971

thesnowdog1971

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2 Sep 2008
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292
I'm pretty sure that you all must be getting fed up with them but I'd just like a few opinions on my new build. After years of AMD CPUs and Nvidia graphics cards I've decided to go for an Intel and ATI machine instead. Here's what I'm thinking of:

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 2.40GHz Guaranteed to run at 3.30GHZ (1466FSB) - Retail
Asus P5Q Deluxe Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775)
Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103UJ)
OCZ ProXStream 1000w SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply
Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail
Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT12864AL1065)
Antec Twelve Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case
2 x Sony NEC Optiarc AD-7200S 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM
Scythe Card Reader & Floppy Drive - Black


I'll be running Windows XP on it until Vista reaches SP2 at least and Microsoft resolve the many incompatibility problems with Vista and will be using it as a games machine.

I'm planning on overclocking the Q6600 to at least 3.3GHz but have heard that some people have had problems fitting the Freezer 7 Pro onto the P5Q motherboard so was wondering if I should try getting a Asus Silent Knight II instead?

I'm also seriously thinking about getting the Powercolour 1024Mb 4870 graphics card too, will it be worth getting (once it finally appears in the UK lol)?

I'm going to want to spend from £900-1000 and am looking to play the likes of Crysis at Very High settings with 8xAA given that the 4870 graphics cards excell at that level of AA. Is it possible with this setup or am I better off waiting for the 1024Mb card to become available..? :confused:

Any help and advice would be much appreciated, ta! :)

Edit: Forgot to mention I'll be using a OcUK Value L2442WD-VA 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Glossy Black at 1680x1050 resolution, bought it a month or so ago and it's nearly as big as my bloody telly lol
 
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Was thinking about a fast Dual Core but whilst there aren't any games that take advantage of a Quad available at the moment I'd be better off getting a Quad for future proofing reasons. And as I'm only going to be running XP at the moment I thought that it wasn't worth getting more memory just yet.
 
thesnowdog1971--I'll be running Windows XP on it until Vista reaches SP2 at least and Microsoft resolve the many incompatibility problems with Vista and will be using it as a games machine.
Click to expand...

Hi,
Been running Vista 64bit SP1 for one month now, have read the horror stories about people installing Vista and l,v had no problems what so ever, all l did was have all the updates for my hardware, etc. Was impressed how easy it was to install, far easier to install than my XP PRO and l must say never had problems with XP. All my software went on which includes games, except Nero 6 because it was old version, I for one will not be going back to XP.
 
Ben M said:
that psu is massive overkill.
Click to expand...

Just thought it better to be safe than sorry, have no idea about how much power everything needs so thought it best to go for a large PSU just in case. Any suggestions for a suitable alternative..?

I'm also thinking about waiting for the 1024Mb HD 4870 to come out and perhaps increasing the RAM to 4Gb. As I'm going to be using XP for now will I be better off using 4x1Gb or 2x2Gb?
 
Go with a faster dual if you want greater gaming performance. Soem games use quad granted but most dont and from the looks of it games coming out dont either.
 
get 2x2 gb of memory, it reduces your minimum framerate in games, corsair did this big document on it, and if you add another 2gigs later you'll use up all 4 slots in your mobo which can make it less stable to overclock. the PSU is MASSIVE overkill, im running a 4870 with a 520w corsair psu and thats completely fine for it, get the corsair 650w or the 750 if you really want to futureproof. don't get the guarenteed to run at Xghz cpu's, just get a normal one, they nearly all reach 3.3 anyway and its a lot cheaper.

and why will you be running the ocuk value 24" screen (which i have0 at 1680 res? its a 1920x1200 screen...
 
Drop the CPU to something like the E8400.
And drop to the P5Q-E unless you needed the extra features.
Then change PSU to the something like the Corsair 520W modular PSU.
Then definatly get 4GB of RAM something like the Geil Black Dragon 800MHz kit.
This is purly cosmetic but instead of those optical drive get the Pioneer DVR-32DBK as they pure black on the front and look better in the 1200.
Also unless the card reader and flobby disc is needed for a specfic use i would dump it.

~Slash
 
Okay, thanks for all the advice. Very much appreciated.

I've now replaced the 2Gb RAM for Geil 4Gb (2x2Gb) PC2-6400 Black Dragon, have replaced the motherboard with the P5Q-E and the CPU with the normal Quad 6600.

I'm keeping the 1000W PSU and the card reader/floppy drive because my card reader has died recently so I can't change the homebrew on my Wii lol. I'm also going to wait a few weeks for the 1024Mb Powercolor 4870 to arrive, and may decide at a later date to get another and run them in CrossfireX, hence the decision with the 1000W PSU.

I've got 2 DVD rewriters because I've had bad luck with them over the years and it'll be handy to have a spare just in case...and a plain old DVD drive isn't that much cheaper than a rewriter so what the heck.

What do you think about the Freezer 7 Pro..? Will it fit on the motherboard without a problem? And despite it having thermal paste already on it should I get some more and bung it on top?
 
If your planning on going Crossfire at a later date, get an X38 board as it will support 2 x16x PCI-Express cards, with the P45 chipset you wouldn't be able to run both cards at full speed. I'd reccomend the Asus P5e.

Also, if it's for gaming get a E8500 and overclock it to 4Ghz+ - will be faster than a quad.

The Artic Freezer Cooler will fit no probs, I'd use seperate thermal paste to what comes with the cooler though, wipe the stock stuff off and I'd personally reccomend Artic Silver 5 paste, others reccomend different brands but I've always found it to work well.
 
Okay, I've now had another think about things and have decided to take the plunge and go for Vista x64 Ultimate, 8Gb of 6400 DDR2 RAM and a bloomin great big 4870 X2 2048Mb graphics card. I'm slightly over my £1000 budget but I think it's worth doing for future proofing purposes.

I'm now looking at this setup:

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775)
Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2048MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail
Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103UJ)
OCZ ProXStream 1000w SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply
Antec Twelve Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case
Scythe Card Reader & Floppy Drive - Black
2 x Sony NEC Optiarc AD-7200S 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM
Asus P5Q-E Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
2 x OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Reaper HPC Enhanced Bandwidth Edition Dual Channel DDR2 (OCZ2RPR800C44GK)


I was just wondering if anyone can see any sort of compatibility problems with the memory and the motherboard or the graphics card and the motherboard..? The P5Q-E as someone has mentioned doesn't have full speed CrossfireX but am a bit confused as to whether it'll matter considering it's basically 2 graphics cards in 1.

8Gb may be a bit of overkill but I thought seeing as the 6400 memory is cheap as chips I might as well gets 8Gbs worth lol :D

Any alternatives/suggestions would be much appreciated as I'm going to be ordering it on Monday, cheers. :D
 
Have completely changed most things now. Although I'll be playing games on it a fair bit, I'll also be doing some work with 3DS Max and Photoshop as well as a fair bit of video file conversion. Plus it'll squeeze a few more FPS out of the likes of Crysis lol. Am still going to stick with the hard drive and optical drives but have decided to step up the CPU to a Q9550 and revert back to a single 4870...sod it, I can always get another and Crossfire them at a later date and it's knocked a fair bit off the price as well as allowed me to jump on a meatier Quad processor :)

Am now going to be getting the following:

mybasket.jpg


If any of you can see any errors I've made or have better suggestions then please feel free to help me out as it'll be much appreciated. Cheers.
 
Hello thesnowdog1971, the specification you have posted above looks fine. However, may I make a couple of suggestions.

You are looking at purchasing 8GB of memory. Now, it's worth noting that for a system to be able to address 4GB of memory, you will need to be using a fully functional 64-bit system. In other words, you will have to be using a 64-bit operating system. If you are only using a 32-bit operating system, then the amount of memory that will be addressed by the system will be in the region of 3GB, give or take.

Is their any reason for purchasing a floppy disc drive? I believe, the things you need a floppy drive for instance setting up a RAID array, a standard USB drive would be absolutely fine.

The Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 is quite expensive and not worth the extra over the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 in my opinion. If you do purchase a Q6600, I am pretty sure that you wouldn't have any problems hitting around the 3.4GHz mark.

If you are looking at overclocking, then may I suggest a slightly better cooler than the Artic Cooling Freezer 7 which is a nice cooler for the price. However, if you are looking at spending in the region on £1000, then buying a better CPU cooler such as the Noctua NH-U12P CPU Cooler would be a sensible choice.

With regards to an operating system. I would highly suggest purchasing Windows Vista 64-bit at this current time. It's a fantastic operating system and the compatibility issues that plagued it when it was first released are mostly solved now. :)
 
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Yup, am aware of needing a 64 bit operating system and have already bought Vista x64 Ultimate. Also need the floppy drive/card reader because my current card reader has died so am stuck with the Homebrew I've got on my Wii console and didn't bung the handy Homebrew Browser on it. Am stuck with the first released WIP build of the Quake port and can't upgrade to the newest build. If any of you have a Wii and the Homebrew Channel I'd wholeheartedly recommend trying Quake with the Remote and Nunchuck. It's ace :D

Am also planning on overclocking the Q9550 but even without an overclock the Q9550 with its 12Mb cache should outperform an overclocked Q6600 with just an 8Mb cache. :confused: Have made my decision on the Q9550 after seeing this review here. :D
 
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