Hey all, Just a quick check to see if the below is all good, only going to be using it for day to day stuff, no real gaming, but the odd light game here or there. Will be used more as a media PC than anything (already got the TV card and stuff) so needs to be quiet as possible. Ps want to future proof it as much as possible as my current PC's over 4years old (i think, P4 2.8A...). Think that the GPU might be overkill for my needs as well, but hey its the latest and hopefully will last longer. 2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12 £33.78 750 GB Western Digital WD7500AAKS Caviar SE16, SATA II, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ £90.77 Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, Kentsfield Core, Socket 775, 2.40 GHz 1066MHz 8MB Cache, OEM £145.64 Pioneer DVR-215BK 20x DVD±R, 10x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, DVD-RAM x12, SATA £18.79 Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 32Bit 1Pk OEM (DVD) £56.04 Thermalright Ultra-120A 120mm heat sink for AMD/Intel CPU (bare sink no fan) £27.01 512MB XFX 9600GT, XT, PCI-E 2.0, Mem 1900 MHz, GDDR3, GPU 680 MHz, Stream 64, 2x DL DVI-I/HDMI £119.80 Asus P5K-E/WIFI-AP, iP35, S 775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 1066/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £85.78 Zalman Super Thermal Grease ZM-STG1, 3.5 g bottle (apply with inc Cap Brush) £4.22 Highpoint Rocket 133LF 2Ch ATA133 Disk Accelerator £20.62 (for my old IDE drives) 430w Seasonic S12II-430 PSU, 12Cm fan, active PFC RoHS +80% £44.64 Looking at about £660 in total, all from Scan. Lastly, what has better Analoge audio quality, the onboard sound on the MB or my SB Audigy 1? Any changes you people would make? Thanks all
In terms of sound quality - I very much doubt that there is Vista support for your Audigy. Creative have been rubbish with their Vista support for older cards. Another 2GB of ram wouldn't hurt but 2 would suffice if you are on a tight budget.
thanks for the input, im changing the CPU to a Q9300. The following site helped me deicide on what CPU to go for, http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2quad-q9300_13.html (even though the q9300 doesn't over clock as much as the q6600, but i dont really care for that) Keeping the RAM at 2GB at the moment, think 4gb will be overkill, (but can always upgrade as and when needed). Plus i keep reading that Vista 32bit can only support 3gb max etc etc etc, really dont see it making much difference. Always keep an eye on frostytech and silentpc, but i keep hearing that the TR Ultra 120 is always a solid performer. Upgraded the GFX to the XFX XXX version (really really do not know why) but i think im done now. New specs as 750 GB Western Digital WD7500AAKS Caviar SE16, SATA II, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ £77.25 £90.77 Asus P5K-E/WIFI-AP, iP35, S 775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 1066/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £73.00 £85.78 Thermalright Ultra-120A 120mm heat sink for AMD/Intel CPU (bare sink no fan) £22.99 £27.01 430w Seasonic S12II-430 PSU, 12Cm fan, active PFC RoHS +80% £37.99 £44.64 Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 32Bit 1Pk OEM (DVD) £47.69 £56.04 Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300, Yorkfield Core, S775, 2.5 GHz, 1333MHz, 6MB L2 Cache, Retail £161.29 £189.52 Highpoint Rocket 133LF 2Ch ATA133 Disk Accelerator £17.55 £20.62 Zalman Super Thermal Grease ZM-STG1, 3.5 g bottle (apply with inc Cap Brush) £3.59 £4.22 2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12 £28.75 £33.78 Logitech 967560-0120 Media Wired Keyboard, PS2, Black £6.59 £7.74 512MB XFX 9600GT, XT, PCI-E 2.0, Mem 1900 MHz, GDDR3, GPU 680 MHz, Stream 64, 2x DL DVI-I/HDMI £101.96 £119.80 totals around £690 (not bad i think). Thanks once again
For that price, day to day useage and no oc, have you considered the E8500? I guess if you plan to keep this system for 4 years then the quad core might win out eventually, but for the short term most apps/games won't use the additional cores of the Q9300 so will be slower compared to the E8500 (2.5Ghz vs 3.16Ghz). Just a thought. Also, for a media pc I guess you'd have loads of movies etc. Have you considered a 1TB hard disk? The Western Digital Caviar RE2-GP 1TB is enterprise grade, very quiet and uses less power (at the expense of some performance) and can be had for £134 inc VAT here: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-182-WD
Hey, @ Zargon - Looked at the E8500, it was out of stock at Scan so couldnt be bothered to wait, but I'm happier with 4 cores than two. Also dropped the HDD down to 500gb, already got a NAS + a bunch of old IDE drives so really, size is not an issue. All ordered - now I gotta wait till Tuesday for it to arrive and then wait till Sunday to built the bugger. oh well... Will let you know how i get on Thanks!
Yes it will. You don't need 1kW PSUs these days. That PSU should be able to handle the load which should be around 300-350W.
It should do, but personally I'd go for a HD520W just to make sure it's 50-75% load, so quieter and at the maximum on the efficiency curve.
ah, too late now, not the end of the world. question though guys... does the asus board i brought support the q9300? just had a quick poke on the website and it didnt mention it on the supported list. doh
Looks like a good lot in all, the only thing i thought though by looking at it was the PSU, it will probably run wot uv named there JUST but if youve got extra hdd's or optical drives you really need to look at something a little bigger. EDIT: just seen that you changed the CPU, thats good from a power point of view as its a 45nm cpu, hence less power, and as a bonus to you less heat -> less noise from cooling.
I was also questioning the PSU, but i suppose it should run ok-ish. I'm running a 8800 GTS 640 and an OCed dualcore plus some other stuff on a 450w PSU myself, never had a hiccup. For a media PC though, wouldn't it be a MUCH better idea to go for a mATX form factor?
na, its not in the living room or anything like that, hence i can get away with an atx board. with regards to the psu, i really think it will be fine running it all + 4 hdds (had an old FSP 300w running 4 hdds, 2 opticals, P4 2.8 and about 3 pci cards with no problems). Will report back once its built... been lying around since wenesday at home in bits... will be starting on sunday. what a tease
how should i mount the cooler (horizontal or vertical) because, the seasonic PSU will have a 120mm fan sucking air upwards, theres a case fan at the back left (behind the CPU area) sucking air out and the one that i need to attach to the heatsink, with the heatsink being vertical im thinking this would be best... (== denotes psu, ^^ airflow, | denotes case fan, ::: denotes heatsink) . ==== . ^^^^ . |< :::< . |< :::< . |< :::<
