new system ideas

[Cemeterygates]

ok so after just over 2 years of my current rig i'm thinking of something with a little more poke.I'm basically looking for opinions or "stay well clear of x component as its a bag of wank!" sorta thing copy an pasted from the website.

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™2 Duo E6850 (2 X 3.00GHz) 1333MHz FSB/4MB L2 Cache

Memory (RAM)
4GB CORSAIR DOMINATOR 1066MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY (4x1GB)

Motherboard
ASUS® P5K SE: DDR2, SATAII, PCI-e x16, 2 PCI, 3 x PCI-e x1

Operating System
64 BIT WINDOWS® VISTA Home Premium (inc CD & License) (£69)

USB Options
8 x USB 2.0 PORTS (6 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
74GB WD Raptor® SATA 16MB CACHE (10000rpm)

2nd Hard Disk
250GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7200rpm)

1st CD/DVD Drive
20x Dual Layer LightScribe DVD Writer ±R/±RW/RAM

2nd CD/DVD Drive
NONE

Graphics Card
1024MB GEFORCE 8600GT PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT

2nd Graphics Card
NONE

Sound Card
8 Channel Realtek ALC883 High Definition Audio (P5K-SE)

Modem
NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND

Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT

Floppy Disk Drive
1.44MB - 3.5 INCH FLOPPY DISK DRIVE

Memory Card Reader
NONE

Case
CoolerMaster CM Stacker 831 Black Aluminium Case

Power Supply & Case Cooling
800W Quiet Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£99)

Processor Cooling
ASUS SILENT KNIGHT II PURE COPPER ULTRA COOLER (£36)

I was thinking,with the 3ghz dual core with 1333mhz FSB,4GB of fast ram an the 1GB gfx card it should be rather feckin pacey and the idea of the 2 HD's was having the 74gb mainly for OS an the 250 for storage which tbh is ample storage for me.

So what ya reckon? have i gone wrong/overkill anywhere or does it seem like a pretty solid system? thanks in advance
EDIT: from pcspecialist.co.uk btw

[Aesgir]

Well with regard to the mobo, no SLI capability is a bit of a mark against it, in terms of possible future upgrades, however for a single GPU motherboard this seems well up to the task. Asus motherboards are usually pretty solid, but i don't have any info on this board specifically. Only 2 PCI slots isn't a problem, especially if you plan to run onboard LAN. If only wanting to run 1 gfx card however your CPU/MOBO/RAM combo should be great. the E6850 easily overclocks to a 3.2ghz dual, and with the CPU fan you've selected, that'll be a breeze.

I had to check on the gfx card compatibility, but yeah with full direct-x 10 compatibility it should be more than up to the task. However with a 8xxx series gpu of that speed i'd consider some water cooling system for the case, although you maybe okay with the 120mm fan. Some further research on temperature/stability might be advised before shelling out the cash.

I won't comment on the hard drives, as you've obviously selected best for you, but i'm boycotting Western Digital over their recent DRM HD debacle. The specs for the HD's are great, the company isn't pleasing me at the mo

I'd advise looking at different sound options, i've always found Realtek sound systems to be a bit on the flaky side. I use a Creative Xi-Fi Extreme Audio, which is far superior to any realtek system i've ever heard.

[Reza]

It all looks quite nice. My initial thoughts are:

Great CPU, great drives, great gfx card (what are u driving with the card? Monitor u plan to use and resolution?)

Do u plan on much of an OC? If so i guess the most important thing is reading up on how the mobo and chipset uve choosen are performing being OCed (which i know nothing about this chipset).

Also if u dont plan much of a OC then do u really need the dominator cooling on the ram? Or will your system/ram likely bee running hot even at stock speeds? Again on the ram if u are planning OC, i guess u need to check the timings and how much loosing they need depending on the OC u plan.

The only other things that come to mind are. Check out a decent review of ur PSU to see what you really are getting and if ur happy with that.

And lastly unless things have changed over the last 8 months or so i dont remember Asus producing decent CPU coolers. But if you dont plan much of an OC and the CPU uve choosen is know to run quite cool anyway, than this probably doesnt matter at all

[Cemeterygates]

Originally Posted by Reza

It all looks quite nice. My initial thoughts are:

Great CPU, great drives, great gfx card (what are u driving with the card? Monitor u plan to use and resolution?)

Do u plan on much of an OC? If so i guess the most important thing is reading up on how the mobo and chipset uve choosen are performing being OCed (which i know nothing about this chipset).

Also if u dont plan much of a OC then do u really need the dominator cooling on the ram? Or will your system/ram likely bee running hot even at stock speeds? Again on the ram if u are planning OC, i guess u need to check the timings and how much loosing they need depending on the OC u plan.

The only other things that come to mind are. Check out a decent review of ur PSU to see what you really are getting and if ur happy with that.

And lastly unless things have changed over the last 8 months or so i dont remember Asus producing decent CPU coolers. But if you dont plan much of an OC and the CPU uve choosen is know to run quite cool anyway, than this probably doesnt matter at all

i dont intend to oveclock at all as by lookin at the components i dont see the need to,looks to me like it will go like the fuckin clappers anyway lol. maybe in the future should i need a bit more bang without ugrading i could OC a bit....but for atleast a year or 2 i think that will do me fine

[Ballard]

- Rubbish graphics card. Replace with a 8800GT 512mb or HD3870 512 mb or if you dont want to spend as much a HD3850. Even with only 256mb of texture memory the 3850 will outperform the whole 8600 family in almost all games.

- The Ram is a complete waste of money. You will not notice any difference between DDR800 and that unless you are planning on a good OC. Get 4gb of good DDR2 and you will save 50% on ram for no change in performance. Configuration should be 2x2 Gb aswell. 4 sticks is less stable and uses more power.

- PSU. 800W is overkill. Quad rails is not good, a single rail is prefered for power supplies, dont let marketing speak confuse the matter. Swap for a good single rail brand at about 600W (which still leaves some good headroom). That pc as you have speced currently would be fine on about a 400W PSU, but 600W is really the sweet spot for pricing and quality currently.


- HD: raptors are still good drives but the new 32mb cache large drives give them a run for their money and they have a far better price vs performance ratio. 300gb is pretty limited in size and will not save you that much money at all. I would recommend a good 32mb cache drive with about 500-750Gb.

I had to check on the gfx card compatibility, but yeah with full direct-x 10 compatibility it should be more than up to the task. However with a 8xxx series gpu of that speed i'd consider some water cooling system for the case, although you maybe okay with the 120mm fan. Some further research on temperature/stability might be advised before shelling out the cash.

Definetly do not consider water cooling, complete waste of money. Only required for extreme overclocking circa 4ghz +.

[Penlid]

Aye you'll be fine with air cooling.

Maybe consider the Q6600 quad core as well, and asus motherboards have excellent sound so i wouldn't bother with the extra sound card.

[Cemeterygates]

Originally Posted by Ballard

- Rubbish graphics card. Replace with a 8800GT 512mb or HD3870 512 mb or if you dont want to spend as much a HD3850. Even with only 256mb of texture memory the 3850 will outperform the whole 8600 family in almost all games.

- The Ram is a complete waste of money. You will not notice any difference between DDR800 and that unless you are planning on a good OC. Get 4gb of good DDR2 and you will save 50% on ram for no change in performance. Configuration should be 2x2 Gb aswell. 4 sticks is less stable and uses more power.

- PSU. 800W is overkill. Quad rails is not good, a single rail is prefered for power supplies, dont let marketing speak confuse the matter. Swap for a good single rail brand at about 600W (which still leaves some good headroom). That pc as you have speced currently would be fine on about a 400W PSU, but 600W is really the sweet spot for pricing and quality currently.


- HD: raptors are still good drives but the new 32mb cache large drives give them a run for their money and they have a far better price vs performance ratio. 300gb is pretty limited in size and will not save you that much money at all. I would recommend a good 32mb cache drive with about 500-750Gb.




Definetly do not consider water cooling, complete waste of money. Only required for extreme overclocking circa 4ghz +.

Tbh mate i wouldnt need that much storage so dont see any point gettin that much....ive never filled my 160GB HD on this comp lol