Quick Check on new computer

[Nassarm]

hello, i just need a very quick final check on my computer components before i buy them here. I'm pretty set on the components im getting, i just need people to confirm that they will actually work together :P (only thing im not 100% sure on is the power supply, would 550Watts run the whole system?). Im getting the stuff off dabs.com while the delivery is free, here is a link to everything im getting.

My budget is £900.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 S775 2.66ghz 4mb Cache 1333FSB (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4MMC)

Motherboard: Asustek S775 Intel P35 PCI-E ATX (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4LLR)

Memory: Corsair Memory 4GBKIT (2X2GB) 800MHZ NON ECC CL5 (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4PDL)

Graphics: Dabs Value GeForce 8800GT 512MB DDR3 PCIE DUAL DVI 600/1800 (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4S89)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar 250GB S300 16MB 7200RPM (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4BMT)

Optical Drive: Samsung 20x DVD-RW SATA BULK BLACK (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4MTT&CategorySelectedId=11259)

Case: Thermaltake Soprano SECC Black, Window (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=3R0Y&SearchType=1&SearchTerms=soprano+black&PageMode=3&SearchKey=All&SearchMode=All)

PSU: Corsair Memory 550W VX PSU (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4Q0T&CategorySelectedId=11137&PageMode=1)

O.S.: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit OEM DVD (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4DF8)

Keyboard: Saitek Eclipse II laser-cut lettering (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4B44)

Mouse: Trust High Performance Optical Gamer Mouse GM-4600 (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4FHN&CategorySelectedId=11137&PageMode=1)

Monitor: Iiyama 20" Wide PLE2001WSV 5MS TFT (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4NXX)

Speakers: Logitech X210 2.1 Speakers (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=3XF8&CategorySelectedId=11122)


PS: Feel free to suggest improvements i could make, although i dont want to spend much more on it.

*edit* changed speakers and optical drive

[Nassarm]

Infact i thought i'd treat myself to a proper sound system for £50 more considering ill also us it for some home recording.

Speakers: Creative Inspire T7900 7.1 Speakers - OEM (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=3V90&CategorySelectedId=11122)

[8igdave]

Whats your total budget?

Also i presume your not overclocking? in which case you can save money on the motherboard and spend more on a faster cpu. Its a shame as you can buy the cheap cpus and they will overclock to faster speeds then that expensive one is running at stock.

The speakers arnt bad they are what i have.

The western digital AAKS is what everyone buys not the YS. The YS is more of a gimmic then anythign else for a few extra pounds. Its ment to be built for raid when it truth there is no need. Im using the AAKS at the moment.

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4SDB&CategorySelectedId=11154&NavigationKey=11154,351070000,50473

If your not overclocking then the memory is fine. The graphics card you coudl get some nice free performancne out of. I showed a guy in another thread how to overclock his GPU he found it very easy indeed and now is runnig on a faster GPU.

I prefer the samsung and pioneer optical drives. They are cheaper and quieter i thinks.

The case is fine with good ventelation. Not my personal choise in looks but what ever floats your boat.

The psu has more then enough power. But remeber its not a modular psu which means all the cables it comes with are permently attached to it. It makes puttign the pc together a bit harder and means there are cables everywhere,which disrupt air flow.

I have the orginal eclipse keyboard and like it alot so good pick there. And personaly would really recomend the Razor death adder mouse. Its amazing i have it. Its so light and responsive. Took a few days to get used to but really great stuff! Id never go back to the cheaper mice now and hate using my friends ones.

Ive heard heard some good things about that monitor, although dont quote me o it. I think puttingm ore money into a 22" would be nice though :)

[Nassarm]

Whats your total budget?

Also i presume your not overclocking? in which case you can save money on the motherboard and spend more on a faster cpu. Its a shame as you can buy the cheap cpus and they will overclock to faster speeds then that expensive one is running at stock.

The speakers arnt bad they are what i have.

The western digital AAKS is what everyone buys not the YS. The YS is more of a gimmic then anythign else for a few extra pounds. Its ment to be built for raid when it truth there is no need. Im using the AAKS at the moment.

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4SDB&CategorySelectedId=11154&NavigationKey=11154,351070000,50473

If your not overclocking then the memory is fine. The graphics card you coudl get some nice free performancne out of. I showed a guy in another thread how to overclock his GPU he found it very easy indeed and now is runnig on a faster GPU.

I prefer the samsung and pioneer optical drives. They are cheaper and quieter i thinks.

The case is fine with good ventelation. Not my personal choise in looks but what ever floats your boat.

The psu has more then enough power. But remeber its not a modular psu which means all the cables it comes with are permently attached to it. It makes puttign the pc together a bit harder and means there are cables everywhere,which disrupt air flow.

I have the orginal eclipse keyboard and like it alot so good pick there. And personaly would really recomend the Razor death adder mouse. Its amazing i have it. Its so light and responsive. Took a few days to get used to but really great stuff! Id never go back to the cheaper mice now and hate using my friends ones.

Ive heard heard some good things about that monitor, although dont quote me o it. I think puttingm ore money into a 22" would be nice though :)

Hey, i followed your advice and changed the Optical drive to the Samsung 20x DVD-RW SATA BULK BLACK (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4MTT&CategorySelectedId=11122).

I changed the speakers again to Logitech X210 2.1 Speakers (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=3XF8&CategorySelectedId=11122) which are £40 cheaper.

About the hard drive, what is the real advantage of getting the AAKS over the YS?

My brother has the black version of that Thermaltake case and it works well for him but i dont want to get the same case lol :P (Thermaltake Tsunami Aluminium Black Case with Window - No PSU (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=3FCH&CategorySelectedId=11145&NavigationKey=11145,42080000,351080000,50080))

Also i was looking into getting this case a while ago X-CLIO BLACK SUPER TOWER WITH WINDOW 2X25CM FANS NO PSU (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4SBB&CategorySelectedId=11145&NavigationKey=11145,42080000,351080000). Although i read reviews online saying the front fan was practically useless because of a stupid design flaw where it just blows through a few wee small holes which are blocked by the drive trays anyway. What do you think of it?

P.S. My total budget is £900

[8igdave]

any reason for downgrading your speakers? CSS + 7.1 = practicaly cheating lol. I used to play it in alot of tornaments and with 7.1 i could hear where people where when they were walking as i had the sound up quite loud. So when in the house in italy i knew exacly where they were :p

Id stick with the thermalright. I dont know anything about the other case and i think it looks butt ugly lol.

The difference between the YSS and AAKS is that the YSS is "raid edition" which id imagine is moer hype then actuall benefit. And seens as your not using raid i dontn see any reason to buy it anyway.

[Hund]

Thats basically what I was planning on for my upgrade as well. With some minor brand, and minor changes.

Are you planning on a after market heatsink? I was planning on the V1 from thermal, I purchased one for a friends computer and it was great. Just be careful, its very sharp. I happened to drop it on my bare foot and had to go to the doctor to get around 100 stitches. But thats another story lol.

I was going for the modular 3 rail 520w corsair psu.

I found it ironic that you also picked the p5k-e motherboard. Same with above, I bought this board for that friend and hes had no problems so I figured I would stick with it.

I was going to go with some OCZ ram. It was probably I just got some bad shipments of corsair but Ive yet to have any problems with ocz so Ill probably stick with them.

Same with bigdave, where I think the case is more personal preference then anything. I will probably be reusing my old antec one.

I was also going to reuse my original Eclipse keyboard. I will probably buy another razor copperhead though. Ive had multiple razor mice before and the copperhead is just personal preference on the feel of the 4-7 buttons. Although their latest one has the same buttons, but with the extra 8-9 buttons on the top I would probably fat finger them alot in fps games. So would probably be a waste with my style.

I have yet to decide on a monitor. But my current one is fairly old now so I was thinking of upgrading to a 24" widescreen. Right now I have a 7 or 8 year old 19" its served me well with never having any dead pixels and what not but it might become my second screen.

The other items I have multiple of laying around. I think I have a few sata optical drives sitting around.

Personally I am a headset gamer, so I don't really use speakers, but my current set up has the array mic that came with an asus mobo and some basic 2.1 speakers. I might stick with it as long as the neighbors don't mind the extra noise heh.


Forgive my lack of understanding, but is the £ sign for the pound? or euro? My list of what I was getting is around $1700usd with all the shipping costs. I was browsing different sites to check out the deals so its like 6 or 7 different shipping charges. But that also was including a 24" I was looking at that was around $580. As well as another copy of Vista which is like $250 I dont want to spend lol. Also a lian-li case which was like $340 if you count the shipping.

[Nassarm]

I downgraded the speakers because they are like £40 cheaper, although if i do get the billpayer's permission i'll get the surround sound ones lol.

Can you please explain RAID 0 and RAID 1 to me, because im not too sure lol. are they optional or something? what do they even do? and how do u get them?

Oh and in reply to Hund above, i'm currently not getting any accessories because i'm not planning on overclocking. Although i do have thermalpaste + a heatsink lying around here somewhere if i ever need them.
Are there any other accessories i do need?

P.S. '£' is a Pound symbol.

[8igdave]

Thats basically what I was planning on for my upgrade as well. With some minor brand, and minor changes.

Are you planning on a after market heatsink? I was planning on the V1 from thermal, I purchased one for a friends computer and it was great. Just be careful, its very sharp. I happened to drop it on my bare foot and had to go to the doctor to get around 100 stitches. But thats another story lol.

I was going for the modular 3 rail 520w corsair psu.

I found it ironic that you also picked the p5k-e motherboard. Same with above, I bought this board for that friend and hes had no problems so I figured I would stick with it.

I was going to go with some OCZ ram. It was probably I just got some bad shipments of corsair but Ive yet to have any problems with ocz so Ill probably stick with them.

Same with bigdave, where I think the case is more personal preference then anything. I will probably be reusing my old antec one.

I was also going to reuse my original Eclipse keyboard. I will probably buy another razor copperhead though. Ive had multiple razor mice before and the copperhead is just personal preference on the feel of the 4-7 buttons. Although their latest one has the same buttons, but with the extra 8-9 buttons on the top I would probably fat finger them alot in fps games. So would probably be a waste with my style.

I have yet to decide on a monitor. But my current one is fairly old now so I was thinking of upgrading to a 24" widescreen. Right now I have a 7 or 8 year old 19" its served me well with never having any dead pixels and what not but it might become my second screen.

The other items I have multiple of laying around. I think I have a few sata optical drives sitting around.

Personally I am a headset gamer, so I don't really use speakers, but my current set up has the array mic that came with an asus mobo and some basic 2.1 speakers. I might stick with it as long as the neighbors don't mind the extra noise heh.


Forgive my lack of understanding, but is the £ sign for the pound? or euro? My list of what I was getting is around $1700usd with all the shipping costs. I was browsing different sites to check out the deals so its like 6 or 7 different shipping charges. But that also was including a 24" I was looking at that was around $580. As well as another copy of Vista which is like $250 I dont want to spend lol. Also a lian-li case which was like $340 if you count the shipping.

I to have a lian-li cases. Probably the best cases around. Great style and cooling.

As for the asus board. Its not actually a very good overclocking board. IT has bad v-drop and is all that stable. The abit and gigabyte boards are superior by far.

The OCZ ram is good as well i ahve 4x1gb sticks of it. I also would suggest the 520w corsair as it is in my view one of the bset psu's going for price to value wize. However i have the seasonic 600w M12 as i like to have the bset of everything :)

Monitor wize and runnig off the last point. Im going to be getting the Benq FP241w. Probably the best 24" around for the money. Suggest you look into it if your budget will strech that far.



I downgraded because they are like £40 cheaper, although if i get the billpayer's permission i'll get the surround sound ones lol.

can you please explain RAID 0 and RAID 1 to me, because im not too sure lol. are they optional or something? what do they even do? and how do u get them?

Oh and in reply to Hund above, '£' is a Pound symbol.


raid 0 takes 2 or more hard drives and allows you to split the data up between them. This means the read and write times are decreases because you ahve the info spread over 2 hard drives instead of 1. But if 1 of the hard drives dies then you lose all the data because you cannot read it without the other half. RAID 0 is only useful if you are moving big files, it also doubles your chances of a hard drive failure and shows very little bonus in gaming and geneneral use.

Raid 1 does a copy of everything on 1 hard drive to another. its pritty much a back up using 2 or more hard drives.

Raid 5 is raid 0+1. it requires 3 or more hard drives where 2 or more are in raid 0 and another is backing it up onto a single disk. That way you ahve the speed of raid 0 and the safty of raid 1.

Like i said though, raid 0 is likely to be useless for you.




Its a sad day when americans dont recognize the pound symbol or know what sterling is :( Some of my american friends dont either.

[Nassarm]

lol, hmm, could you mayby quickly suggest another motherboard off the same site (dabs.com) which is decent?

[8igdave]

you going to be overclocking then? Its worth while. If not then it doesn't make a differnce and you migth as well get a cheaper motherboard like the DS3L. It still has overclocking potential, as they all do. But its just saving you money.

If you wana get the best overclocking the Abit-IP35 Pro is the one for pushign them to their max.

The Gigabyte DS3L and DSR are good overclockers as well and cheap.

[Nerror]

Change the CPU to the E8400 dual core (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4YCZ&SearchType=1&SearchTerms=E8400&PageMode=3&SearchKey=All&SearchMode=All&NavigationKey=0). Almost same price but much better performance and lower heat and power use (http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/intel-wolfdale.html).

The PSU has plenty of power, and Corsair is an excellent choice. I'll also ditto the bit about the ABIT board being a good overclocker.

[Nassarm]

hmm, the description on dabs for the E8400 put me off a bit because i wasnt sure if it was designed for laptops or desktops (does it run on both?). sorry im a bit of a nub with some stuff lol.

Hmm, i'm looking at mobos, how's this one sound Gigabyte S775 Intel P35 ATX Audio Lan DDRII FSB1333 (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4Q0K&CategorySelectedId=11143&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11143,405070000,4294953870,429495907 1) ?

[Nassarm]

OK, so here's the final system i have. Can someone please doublecheck that everything is compatible?
I was looking at the graphics card there and now i'm not sure if it will actually work with the motherboard. Could someone please clear this up for me?

CPU:Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.00GHz 6M Cache S775 1333MHZ (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4YCZ&CategorySelectedId=11137&PageMode=1)

Motherboard:Gigabyte S775 Intel P35 ATX Audio Lan DDRII FSB1333 (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4Q0K)

Memory:Corsair Memory 4GBKIT (2X2GB) 800MHZ NON ECC CL5 (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4PDL)

Graphics: XFX GeForce 8800GT 512MB DDR3 PCIE Dual DVI Alpha Dog XT Edition (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4S83&CategorySelectedId=11137&PageMode=1)

Storage:Western Digital Caviar 250GB S300 16MB 7200RPM (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4BMT)

Optical Drive: Samsung 20x DVD-RW SATA BULK BLACK (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4MTT&CategorySelectedId=11122)

Case:Thermaltake Soprano SECC Black, Window (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=3R0Y&SearchType=1&SearchTerms=soprano+black&PageMode=3&SearchKey=All&SearchMode=All)

PSU:Corsair Memory 520 Watt, ATX, EPS12V, PS/2, Modular Power Supply (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4B0M&CategorySelectedId=11137&PageMode=1)

O.S.: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit OEM DVD (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4DF8)

Keyboard: Saitek Eclipse II laser-cut lettering (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4B44)

Mouse: Trust High Performance Optical Gamer Mouse GM-4600 (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4FHN&CategorySelectedId=11137&PageMode=1)

Monitor: Iiyama 20" Wide PLE2001WSV 5MS TFT (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4NXX)

Speakers: Logitech X210 2.1 Speakers (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=3XF8&CategorySelectedId=11122)

the changes from the first list i posted are the CPU, Motherboard, Graphics Card, PSU and Speakers. =P

*EDIT*

[oakae]

I would get the e8400 CPU instead. It's better for almost the same price.

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4YCZ&SearchType=1&SearchTerms=e8400&PageMode=3&SearchKey=All&SearchMode=All&NavigationKey=0

[Nassarm]

lol sorry, i posted the old list :D silly me, i've edited it now.

Yes i am getting the E8400, only prob is that it's been sold out for ages on dabs.com =(

[Rik Riorik]

If the E8400 arrives when the last update I had from my online retailer says it will then I will have waited a little over one month for it.

[oakae]

Everything on your list will work fine together.

[Nassarm]

The availability of the e8400s is so bad! It's the only reason why i'm severely considering getting the E6750 because i cant wait for a month to build this.

PS: Thanks oakae!

[8igdave]

If you are overclocking that E8400,. Whioch is what they are made for as they overclock to 4ghz with little effort. Then you really need faster ram and to not get 2gb sticks.

You also should spend more on the motherboard as you want one caperble of high FBS speeds.

[Nerror]

If you are overclocking that E8400,. Whioch is what they are made for as they overclock to 4ghz with little effort. Then you really need faster ram and to not get 2gb sticks.

You also should spend more on the motherboard as you want one caperble of high FBS speeds.

What he said about faster ram and mobo, but...

G.Skill are launching some 2x2Gb PC8500 (1066Mhz) sticks (http://www.techmessenger.com/G-Skill-unveils-4GB-memory-kit-in-DDR2-1066-CL5-5-5-15-080130003.html). They should do the trick just fine. I plan on getting them.

As for the mobo, if you get a E8400, then you might want to consider getting an X38 or X48 chipset based one, unless you need SLI in the future. I will most likely get the GIGABYTE X48-DQ6 (http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1271/gigabyte_x48_dq6_mobo_des_arrives/index.html) myself. You won't be able to stay within that budget though.

EDIT: Just thought of something else: The mobo might not recognise the E8400 without a bios update. You can't flash the bios without a CPU, so you might have to temporarily put in an older CPU to flash the bios in order to use the E8400. I just sent a mail to Gigabyte support asking them if the X48-DQ6 ships with a bios capable of recognising the new 45nm CPUs from the get go. I'll post any reply here.

[8igdave]

What he said about faster ram and mobo, but...

G.Skill are launching some 2x2Gb PC8500 (1066Mhz) sticks (http://www.techmessenger.com/G-Skill-unveils-4GB-memory-kit-in-DDR2-1066-CL5-5-5-15-080130003.html). They should do the trick just fine. I plan on getting them.

As for the mobo, if you get a E8400, then you might want to consider getting an X38 or X48 chipset based one, unless you need SLI in the future. I will most likely get the GIGABYTE X48-DQ6 (http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1271/gigabyte_x48_dq6_mobo_des_arrives/index.html) myself. You won't be able to stay within that budget though.

EDIT: Just thought of something else: The mobo might not recognise the E8400 without a bios update. You can't flash the bios without a CPU, so you might have to temporarily put in an older CPU to flash the bios in order to use the E8400. I just sent a mail to Gigabyte support asking them if the X48-DQ6 ships with a bios capable of recognising the new 45nm CPUs from the get go. I'll post any reply here.

The DQ6 isn;t ment to be as good as teh Quad GT and the best of all the MAximus. I decided to go for the Quad GT because i know Abit do the best bios's. But i got it when there was little info on either and i relise ti was a mistake and that the maximus was the better board, but not by far.

Get the non watercooling one though.


Also 4x1gb sticks of Blastics ram would be good if you wana overclock a E8400. Blastics ram have the D9 chip in them. It means they overclock like hell (take them to far and they have a high fatality rate). The 677mhz (PC5300) overclock to 1200mhz. But they die every 3 months it seems. Get the 8400+ set. Can get 4 sticks for 120 wuid. bargin as they will still overclock right up to 1200mhz and beyond if you need it.

Although running them that afst i suggest you put a fan on them as you ahve to put 2.1v into it to do so and thats what can cause them to die easly. But they also run at 1000mhz on like 1.9v at 4-4-4-12. Which i think is pritty good.

[Nassarm]

For the moment i'm sticking to everything on that list because of budget. Down the line i'll upgrade my RAM if i really need to, although i doubt i'll need too.

I'm worried when yous say that the mobo might not work with the E8400 because i dont have any other old intel processors in the house =S

[8igdave]

For the moment i'm sticking to everything on that list because of budget. Down the line i'll upgrade my RAM if i really need to, although i doubt i'll need too.

I'm worried when yous say that the mobo might not work with the E8400 because i dont have any other old intel processors in the house =S

youd need to buy an old celron etc. They raelly cheap.

[Nerror]

Ok got a reply from Gigabyte regarding the E8xxx series on the X48-DQ6:

Hi,
Since the GA-X48-DQ6 won't be released until march we don't have all details on this motherboard on our website. Info will be available in time for the release.

The motherboard should have no problem recognizing the E8xxx CPUs since they have been out awhile now.

Best regards,

As for the Asus vs Gigabyte vs Abit debate, they all make good, overclockable mobos. The Asus P5E3 Premium and the Abit IX48-MAX both require DDR3 RAM though, so just based on that they are out. Good DDR2 is fast enough, and much cheaper. The quad-triple (12) power phases on the DQ6 appeal to me as well, because it means cooler runnings.

As a general rule, 4 RAM sticks means lower max stable overclock too, compared to just 2. Some boards and RAM do it better than others though.

For the OP, the Abit IX38 Quad GT is indeed a good choice in mobos: Xtremesystems.org has a long thread (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=165004) about it.