• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Buying a new powerful computer, need help

S

SmoothCorn

n00b
Joined
Nov 8, 2004
Messages
37
I am putting together a new system. It will be mostly used for Photoshop, 3D studio Max, word documents, internet browsing, and a little games.

Here is what I am going to put in it, tell me what you think:

CPU: Q6600

Motherboard: Asus P5K-VM Socket 775 Intel G33 ICH9 Chipset (good idea?)

RAM: 2 of: Kingston ValueRAM 2GB (1GB x 2) 667MHz DDR2 Non-ECC CL5 DIMM
This will make total amount of ram 4 GB

Video Card: EVGA e-GeForce 8600GTS 512MB (512-P2-N773-AR) nVidia GeForce 8600GTS Chipset (512Mhz) (2000Mhz) 512MB GDDR3 Dual DVI
Seems like a good choice since I will not be playing games much.

Monitors: 2 x LG L245WP
I want as much room as possible

PSU: Enermax NoiseTaker II EG701AX-VE SFMA 2.2 All In One Series 600 Watt ATX Power Supply SLi ready w/ Dual Fan, Smart Fan, Easy Plug Molex , SATA (ROHS)
Seems like a good choice for me.

Case: Antec P182 Advanced Super Mid Tower Case- Gun Metal Black
Looks like a good case, check it out http://canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=013501&cid=CS.664

Cooling: Zalman CNPS-9700LED CPU Cooler

Please tell me if there are any mistakes in this set up.

Thanks in advance :)
 
truly your not gonna get much out of the 8600gts running 2x24"
try getting a 8800gts or gtx

personaly i think zalman fans don't do much and are only there to look good. but if you like a nice looking HSF then you might want to buy it.

your ram would be better to get 2x4gig sticks and you would be better of to go with 64bit vista as well to get the most out of it.

mobos only really matter when you start OC . if your don't mind that much a new intel P35(which are FSB locked) would be just fine with your Q6600

your psu i have no experience with and wouldn't know what its like but it look ok from the box ;p

have fun~
 
Good choice of CPU & Case. I would go with an ABIT IP35 Pro motherboard and some of this ram. Go with the Corsair 620HX PSU.
 
Thanks for the replies, that ABIT motherboard is not available in the store where I am planning to buy www.canadacomputers.com. ABIT is not sold there at all. Are there any other good ASUS, Gigabyte or MSI alternatives that would be cost efficeint? I really dont want to go and look for another place to buy in Canada unless its really necessary.

I like the Corsair 620HX PSU, so I am proabably going to go with it.

About the cpu cooler. Do you think that it would be acceptable to use the stock cooler?

How about I get this RAM: OCZ (OCZ2P8004GK) DDR2 PC2-6400 Vista Performance Platinum 4GB (2x2048) Kit Dual Channel http://canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=014638&cid=RAM.835

Or this RAM: OCZ (OCZ2G8004GK) DDR2 PC-6400 800MHz Vista Performance Gold XTC Edition 4GB (2x2048MB) Dual Channel Kit
http://canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=013423&cid=RAM.835

I do not really understand the difference between them, but I would like to have 2 sticks instead of 4 because I hear that

About the video card, since you are saying that 8600 is not fast enough for my monitor size, do you think that it would be a good idea to get this video card:
Asus EN8800GTS/HTDP/320M nVidia 8800GTS 320MB GDDR3 Dual DVI PCI-Express Graphics
http://canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=013078&cid=999.243.390
Do you think that it might be loud?

Thanks :)
 
What's your budget?
Do you need RAID?
Do you need Firewire?
Can you buy from ncix.com, too? or does it all have to be from canadacomputers?

Check out the Asus P5K, Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L or DS3R, or Asus P5K-E.

The Corsair 620W is a good choice, but all you need is the 520W.

The stock Intel cooler is fine if you're not OC'ing, but you really should OC and pickup a Tuniq Tower or Ultra 120 eXtreme instead.

Either of those RAM kits will work. The difference is lower latency for the Plats. Lower latency is a good thing, but don't pay a huge price premium for it. They're actually cheaper than the higher latency, so thats a plus, lol.

To game on a 24" LCD, I'd suggest at LEAST an 8800GTX. If you're not that hardcore of a gamer, then the 8800GTS 640MB would be fine. If you don't want to game at native resolutoin, then the 8600GTS will game on a tiny portion of your screen, hehe.
 
There are two versions of the motherboard, Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R and Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R. I cannot figure out what the difference is.

I will probably go with this patriot ram if OCZ is not very good http://canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=013919&cid=RAM.835

Do you think that it is worth to upgrade to 640MB version of 8800GTS? It is an extra 90 bux.

One more thing, about the hard drives. Seagate has two kinds of 500 GB hard drives, one is called Seagate Barracuda (ST3500630NS) ES 500GB SATA Hard Drive (OEM), the other is called Seagate Barracuda (ST3500630AS) 7200.10 SATA NCQ 3.0Gb/s 500GB 16MB Cache. http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProdList&cmd=pl&id=HD.443.877

The ES version is more expensive, which one should I buy?

Thanks.
 
The difference between the P35-DS3R and P35C-DS3R is DDR3 support, which you don't need, so don't bother with it.

If you're a hardcore gamer, I think its worth it to upgrade to the GTX.

Don't bother with the ES version, get the 7200.10 instead.

What's your budget?
Do you need RAID?
Do you need Firewire?
Can you buy from ncix.com, too? or does it all have to be from canadacomputers?
 
Im not really a hardcore gamer, I just play occasionally. It is way too expensive to upgrade to 8800GTX, so I will just go with 8800GTS 320MB. The price difference is like 200+ dollars.

To answer your questions:
My budget is around $1500 CAD, but it is flexible.
I do not need raid.
I do not need firewire, but I may need it in the future, when I buy myself a camcorder or something.
I would prefer to buy from canadacomputers. I would buy from ncix is it was really necessary though.

About the RAM. Is it worth getting the P35C version and DDR3 ram? Is DDR3 ram better? (sounds newer lol :D)

Anyways, thanks for your replies guys.
 
SmoothCorn said:
About the RAM. Is it worth getting the P35C version and DDR3 ram? Is DDR3 ram better? (sounds newer lol :D)
Click to expand...

enginurd said:
The difference between the P35-DS3R and P35C-DS3R is DDR3 support, which you don't need, so don't bother with it.
Click to expand...

You don't need DDR3 support because DDR3 has no performance advantage over DDR2 right now. DDR3 won't be mainstream until 2009, according to Intel. No, its not worth buying the P35C-DS3R nor DDR3 right now. By the time DDR3 outperforms DDR2, there will be new motherboards/CPUs that will take better advantage of it.
 
Buy a 2900PRO, overclock it to XT frequencies, then softmod it to a FireGL. This will benefit you greatly when running 3DS Max.
Are you overclocking?
 
SmoothCorn said:
About the RAM. Is it worth getting the P35C version and DDR3 ram? Is DDR3 ram better? (sounds newer lol :D)

Anyways, thanks for your replies guys.
Click to expand...


Not worth the price now. It will become mainstream in about 2 years so you can upgrade then. Right now, DDR2 800 should be more than enough. As for the Patriot, you can find the LLK kit with looser timings (4-4-4-12). The Ram you linked to in an above post has timings of 5-5-5-15.
 
PC_User said:
As for the Patriot, you can find the LLK kit with looser timings (4-4-4-12). The Ram you linked to in an above post has timings of 5-5-5-15.
Click to expand...

Opposite wording... looser means higher timings. Lower latency means tighter timings. So, you can find LLK kit with tighter timings.
 
What difference do ram timings make? I thought it was all about the mhz?

Also if I do find ram with better timings, will I notice any difference, and if so then in what applications?

Thanks.
 
SmoothCorn said:
Also if I do find ram with better timings, will I notice any difference, and if so then in what applications?
Click to expand...

No, in my opinion, you wouldn't notice the difference enough to warrant a price premium. You would notice the tighter timings mostly in benchmarks -- also in apps that do a lot of number crunching.
 
enginurd said:
Opposite wording... looser means higher timings. Lower latency means tighter timings. So, you can find LLK kit with tighter timings.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's what I meant. It was probably late when I wrote this... :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top