Your comments on Spec

Taylor

Taylor

Taylor

Associate
Joined
6 Aug 2007
Posts
10
Hey guys,

I would be grateful if anyone could offer some assistance in helping me with my spec. I am building a machine from scratch (no over-clocking) and have set aside a budget of around £1400.

Below are the main components I've been working with so far.

CPU - £170
Intel Core 2 Duo E6850

Motherboard - £146
Asus P5K Deluxe WiFi Intel P35

RAM - £82
OcUK 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5

Graphics Card - £334
BFG GeForce 8800 GTX OC 768MB

HD - £45
WD Caviar SE16 320GB 3200AAKS SATA-II

Optical Drive - £18
NEC AD7170A 18x18 DVD±RW

Case - £70
Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate

PSU - £64
Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular

OS - £64
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32-Bit
Click to expand...

The above comes to around £993, leaving me around £407 for a TFT (22" desirable), mouse and headset.

I use my computer mainly for gaming and web browsing.

Any suggestions or improvements would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
 
Taylor said:
Is the E6850 not better in games having a higher clock speed?

Any suggestion for a monitor and mouse?
Click to expand...

You could clock one of the cheaper chips up to that speed, it is bad vfm.

All the new games coming out now (Bioshock, Crysis) and utilising multi-threading, high clock speed alone won't cut the ice anymore.

Mouse - Anything that you like from Razer or Logitech's gamer ranges, they're all pretty fantastic.

Monitor - Dell or Samsung, the bigger resolution the better :cool: With that graphics card, a Dell 2407 (or wait for the Samsung 245T) would be pretty amazing.
 
People tout Supreme Commander as an example of why you would want to get a quad-core over a dual-core, yet in the testing done as part of this article: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3038&p=8 it seems to show the e6850 has a clear 10% margin of victory.

Obviously if you can get your q6600 up to 3ghz then all that advantage would disappear, but that doesn't automatically make the e6850 a bad choice.
 
You'd be looking at going from an fsb of 266 to 333 to match the e6850. I think that is easily achievable with the hardware you're buying, but to be safe you should definitely think about buying one of the larger coolers from thermalright/tuniq/scythe/noctua.
 
the 24" looks nice but with the extra cooling for the quad it comes in about £1530. which is over my budget of £1400. is it worth the extra cash?
 
Ok hows this, on budget as well:

Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "LGA775 Kentsfield" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775)
Asus P5K Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Dual Channel Kit
BFG GeForce 8800 GTX OC 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB 3200AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
Samsung SH-183LBEBN 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM
Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU
Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case

Total : £1,399.25 :)

You will be able to overclock the Quad to 3GHZ+ pretty easily and with decent temps too.
 
Taylor said:
the 24" looks nice but with the extra cooling for the quad it comes in about £1530. which is over my budget of £1400. is it worth the extra cash?
Click to expand...


yes it is worth the extra cash (but only if you have it)

edit: but looking at stickroads spec, you will come in on budget
 
Last edited:
Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "LGA775 Kentsfield" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775)
Asus P5K Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Dual Channel Kit
BFG GeForce 8800 GTX OC 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB 3200AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
Samsung SH-183LBEBN 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM
Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU
Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case
Click to expand...

Looks like a good spec 2 questions:

> Have you included an OS?
> Will the slower RAM have an effect on performance?
 
that ram is well known for being seriously overclockable

so no, you wont notice any difference with regard to the RAM.. inface that ram has been known to perform better than some of its faster counterparts.
 
Ok bad news iv had to cut my budget to £1200 but i don’t need an OS any more so iv put this together. It’s all about the same apart from the screen.

Thermalright Ultra-120 Heatsink (Socket 754/939/940/LGA775) £27.99
(£32.89) £27.99
(£32.89)
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) £5.99
(£7.04) £5.99
(£7.04)
Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK) £54.99
(£64.61) £54.99
(£64.61)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB 3200AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £38.99
(£45.81) £38.99
(£45.81)
BFG GeForce 8800 GTX OC 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £299.99
(£352.49) £299.99
(£352.49)
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT12864AA663) £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Asus P5K Deluxe WiFi Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £124.99
(£146.86) £124.99
(£146.86)
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "LGA775 Kentsfield" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £149.99
(£176.24) £149.99
(£176.24)
Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
LG L226WTQ 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black/Silver £179.99
(£211.49) £179.99
(£211.49)
Samsung SH-S183ABEBN 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
(£21.14) £17.99
(£21.14)
Sub Total : £1,020.89

Shipping : £14.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £181.27

Total : £1,217.11

Is this the best i will get for my money?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom