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Checking My Spec

L

Lucio

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 20, 2007
Messages
190
Woot! After nearly 11 months of waiting to get my cash back, I can finally order a new PC at the weekend from Scan. Just want to check over the items I want to order to make sure I've not missed anything important

All of this is going into a Lian Li PC-A05 case, which has additional cooling fans on the side above the GPU and CPU sections (probably both gonna be set to intakes as it's a back to front airflow)

LN20684 Abit iX38 Quad-GT£147.33
LN19488 Intel Core 2 Quad-Core Q6600 G0 SLACR £159.79
LN20748 512MB PowerColor HD3870 £150.40
LN20647 500GB Seagate ST3500320NS BarracudaES.2 £86.59
LN13344 Silverstone SST-FP53B Black Hard Disk Cooler for all 3.5" Hard Disk Drives £16.57
LN15215 620W Corsair HX Series Modular £85.65
LN17166 Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64Bit 1Pk OEM (DVD) £64.93
LN16381 Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition SP2b (Release 2) OEM - Single Pack £51.50
LN19302 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800) £114.73
LN14016 Zalman Super Thermal Grease ZM-STG1 £4.22
LN20271 20" Samsung SM206BW Black Widescreen LCD, 1680x1050 £179.18
LN16428 Creative Inspire Black T3100 2.1 Speaker System £26.43

All told £1,102.19, excluding whatever I can get on Today Only at the weekend


Getting two Operating systems because I'm not 100% sure on Vista, but I do need to get some experience in for when my computers at work start coming with it (it'll happen sooner or later).

I could swap out the motherboard for a 680i + 8800GT but I do really like the X38 Quad GT layout, especially in an inverted case setup.

Another option is to spend another £100 and get a cheap P35 board and an 8800GTX but to be honest, I'm not sure whether it's worth it. I mostly play WoW though I do want to run Oblivion, STALKER and FEAR at reasonable frame rates with most of the details on.


Any input then for me?
 
Well I'm guessing by the lack of replies, there's virtually nothing sensible to change :)
 
LN14016 Zalman Super Thermal Grease ZM-STG1 £4.22

Artic silver is my only reccomendation. Rest is opinion and preference (such as the PSU and switch that ATi for an 8800GT ;) ).
 
I wouldn't get an X38-based motherboard yet; the chipset has recently been released and is not yet mature. Stick with a P35-based board like the Gigabyte GA-P35 series or the Abit IP35 series. (I can't really offer prices and locations to obtain stuff for you since I live in the US. I'm not at all familiar with British/European stores.)

You don't need SLI (or a 680i-based motherboard) -- the HD 3870 that you've chosen is capable of providing excellent frame rates for your monitor. (The 8800GT is the better performer out of the two video cards, but it is more expensive, and it may be harder to find right now.)

And keep in mind that you won't be able to utilize all 4GB of memory while you use Windows XP Pro (but don't get the 64-bit version -- I've heard stories, though YMMV, that it doesn't work very well due to lack of available drivers for various hardware).

I don't really have any other suggestions. You rig, as a whole, looks fine.
 
I must admit, part of wanting the X38 comes down to Crossfire. I'm expecting to free up a bit of cash in a few months so at that point I can grab another HD3870 for about £100 and save the hassle of having to sell my current card and put the money towards whatever mid range product is out at the time. Sure, it's not a guarentee but it gives me an option at least.

The other reason is a bit more practical, the layout is really nice on the board for an interveted case, it should make it really easy to run the cables neatly from the PSU.
 
Well unfortunately one of the major caveats of Crossfire is whether or not the game supports it. Some games actually perform worse under Crossfire than with it disabled. The only games that I know of that actually supports Crossfire are:
TF2
UT3
Oblivion
Prey
 
Get 2 250gb drives for RAID0 and get some G.Skill memory instead. or possibly a 8800GT?
 
Lucio said:
I must admit, part of wanting the X38 comes down to Crossfire. I'm expecting to free up a bit of cash in a few months so at that point I can grab another HD3870 for about £100 and save the hassle of having to sell my current card and put the money towards whatever mid range product is out at the time. Sure, it's not a guarentee but it gives me an option at least.

The other reason is a bit more practical, the layout is really nice on the board for an interveted case, it should make it really easy to run the cables neatly from the PSU.
Click to expand...

Again, the X38 is not worth it. And SLI/CrossFire is unnecessary since you have a 1680x1050 resolution monitor. If getting excellent frame rates while gaming's your main concern, you'll be better off getting a better card (like, an 8800GTX). And if you're getting an X38-based board for future-proofing (PCI Express 2.0, DDR3, 1333 FSB), by the time hardware components start utilizing those features properly it would be time to get a new board. (And no, I don't think that you should spend more money on a board that makes things "really easy to run the cables neatly from the PSU.")
 
tiraides said:
Again, the X38 is not worth it. And SLI/CrossFire is unnecessary since you have a 1680x1050 resolution monitor. If getting excellent frame rates while gaming's your main concern, you'll be better off getting a better card (like, an 8800GTX). And if you're getting an X38-based board for future-proofing (PCI Express 2.0, DDR3, 1333 FSB), by the time hardware components start utilizing those features properly it would be time to get a new board. (And no, I don't think that you should spend more money on a board that makes things "really easy to run the cables neatly from the PSU.")
Click to expand...

quoted... for... truth.
 
Ok, I caved!

Replaced the motherboard with an aBit IP-35 and upgraded the card to an XFX 8800GT Alpha Dog (heaven help me if I need to RMA it, but it was actually in stock!). Also swapped the ram for 4 x 1GB sticks to save a little cash.
 
Lucio said:
Ok, I caved!

Replaced the motherboard with an aBit IP-35 and upgraded the card to an XFX 8800GT Alpha Dog (heaven help me if I need to RMA it, but it was actually in stock!). Also swapped the ram for 4 x 1GB sticks to save a little cash.
Click to expand...

Why? :confused:

Keep the 2x2GB set; that way, should you decide to upgrade later, you can purchase another 2x2GB set and max out the RAM at 8GB (but I really doubt you need more than 4GB of memory).

If you really need to save money, drop the Windows XP Pro. Vista x64 is stable enough to stand on its own now.
 
I'm aiming for a mild overclock on the chip, the cooler I bought (not on that list) was a Thermaltake Big Typhoon so it should be sufficiant for th ejob.

Swapped on the RAM because it was a £40 (~$70) price tag difference and I need Windows XP for work, I have a couple of apps that definately aren't XP compatable and I can't just leave my work PC on all the time. Infact, if anything I would be considering dropping Vista, but I really wanted to take the time to get to grips with it and get a feel for what it's like before I start encountering it at work.
 
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