Just about to order - please check

[Nick F]

Chaps, I'm just about to order my new system. Budget was £800 and have gone slighlty over finishing up on £843

Can I just take your views on thesy system, anything I need to change? etc etc

Thanks to Scan for their great today only offers

[Clunk]

Looks good to me, although the ram @ £149 is looking a touch expensive for the specs at the moment.

SATA dvd drives can be had for peanuts now, I picked up a samsung one from scan the other day and it works perfectly, about 21 quid, and no fugly, bulky ide cable (and using a sata burner will let you disable the awful jmicron controller in the bios and speed things up a touch).

[silentphoenix]

I second clunks view on the RAM - it does seem a bit on the steep side, and a SATA CD drive would bee cool too.

Im also pretty cheap and would probably replace the gfx with the 320MB Leadtek (1600\500) for £188inc and OC it if you need the extra speed.

I would also be very tempted to replace the HSF with a Noctua cooler or the cheaper Zalman 7700 (assuming if it has better perf/noise).

Some other things you may not have but might need:
Zalman Super Thermal Grease ZM-STG1, 3.5 g bottle (apply with inc Cap Brush)
DVI cable?
Replacing Antec fans with sharkoon golf balls?
One of those cheap uber cool lighters scan sell?
A present for me ?

[Nick F]

I second clunks view on the RAM - it does seem a bit on the steep side, and a SATA CD drive would bee cool too.

What do you mean by the Ram being a bit of a side step. Is it too expensive for what it is or should I spend a bit more money on it?

[Marcvs]

well you have midrange components and quite expensive ram - if you arent overclocking then get 533 ram for £89

[Nick F]

Changed to SATA drive and reduced the RAM speed and saved £40. Also dropped a hard drive. Total price is now - £792



Anymore ideas?

[Metier9]

Someone correct me if im wrong.. but if you dont have min 667 ram you will create a bottle neck?

[Clunk]

Nick, he said "on the steep side" not "side step" Should have gone to specsavers!

Anyway, what I was meaning was, you can still pick up some decent, branded pc2-6400 for around 30-40 less than £149. Or, if you were to chuck another 35 at it, you could have pc2-8500, which would allow for a large overclock if you decide to go that route.

P.S. the ram that you have gone for now, looks even less value for money, mainly because it wont allow much of an overclock at all. I would suggest having a look round at different suppliers, for different brands, as there are some real bargains to be had. maybe something like OCZ? if they go wrong, the support is excellent.

[doddsy]

I think they were meaning that other places (don't dare mention them on this forum) have similar speeds and timings of RAM for about £110.

Edit: Yeah what clunk said.

[Nick F]

I see, just found OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 800MHz for £113.

I think I'll get this from the other retailer and drop the current ram from Scan

Would this new Ram be handle a simple overclock on my processor?

[Steve B]

yes it would

[doddsy]

I see, just found OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 800MHz for £113.

Exactly the ones I was thinking about.

[Clunk]

Yes, that should give you up to (and hopefully a bit beyond) 3.2ghz if the rest of your stuff allows it

[nickaal]

Why taking an E6400? You could save nearly £40 buying a E4300 which is easier to overclock. Also no need for expensive ram with that. Finally I don't agree with your graphics card choice... This is just a marketing thing to have an overclocked card out of the box, you can do it yourself and save a few more £££.

[Nick F]

I always heard that you can't overclockt he E4300 as much as you can the E6400 hence the choice.

I could have gone for a slighly cheaper gfx card that isn't overclocked but it's only £6 cheaper and I don't like messing around with gfx card that much.

[dave87]

Admittedly Clunk has water cooling, but did you see some of the speeds he got out of his e4300?