Another System Spec Thread for you to Peruse and Criticise

[Gerrard]

I’ve decided it’s upgrade time. Can just about justify the cost now, and certainly can in 9 months time (thanks Scan finance!). Besides, selling my laptop should cover most of the costs. I plan to overclock, not necessary heavily, just enough to get my moneys worth. Anyway, onto the list: -

CPU: Intel Core2Duo E6400. Was considering the E6300, but liked the higher multiplier for overclocking.
MB: Abit AB9 QuadGT. Debated between this and the P5B Deluxe, but now with the BIOS and uGuru updates have decided on the Abit.
RAM: 2Gb Corsair TwinX XMS Dominator PC2-6400. Probably overkill, but didn’t seem too unreasonably priced and will hopefully be able to largely ignore it when I overclock.
Graphics: 320Mb XFX 8800GTS. Yeah, DX10 won’t be used for some time, but this still seems reasonable value for DX9 games and will still hopefully be good at DX10 games when they do turn up.
Case: Antec P180 (Silver). I liked the understated appearance, quietness and good airflow. It’s a bit bigger than I would have liked, but have decided to prioritise on quietness and style.
Hard Drives: 2x 320Gb Seagate Barracuda 7200. I’ve used Seagates before and have no complaints about them. Thinking of RAID 1 (Mirroring).
HSF: Noctua NH-U12F. Appears to be quiet and effective. Says it’s compatible with the MB, not too sure about the case. 155mm height looks like a tight fit possibly.
PSU: Currently have an Antec 430W NeoHE. Don’t think it’s quite up to the job and doesn’t have the 8 pin dual core MB connector either. So I’m thinking of replacing it with the Zalman ZM600-HP. Again, from what I’ve read, it’s quiet and effective.

So there you go. Also included in this purchase is a SATA DVD drive, since people seem to have problems with IDE controllers. Less cabling as well. Also thinking of including a fan controller (like the Scythe Kama-Meter) so I can turn the fans down whilst downloading/working and increase them while gaming.

[Clunk]

CPU is ok, but consider the E4300 as well.
Mobo, you have made your mind up on.
Ram - you can save about £60-£70 and get any other decent branded pc2-6400 ram. You are paying the premium for the heatsink, the dominators are vastly overpriced.
Graphics - ok
Hard drives - ok
Heatsink - I know a few people that say these are great.
PSU - I havent used a zalman, but also consider the corsair 520/620, and the Seasonic offerings.

The sata dvd drive is a good idea, ide is pointless really now on a new build, unless you absolutely need it.

[shaithis]

Unless you need virtualisation, I would go for the E4300. 9x multiplier and a nice low FSB to start from. With PC6400 RAM you can reach a 100% overclock before your RAM hits it limit, thats if the CPU can handle it ofc....and some can

[Gerrard]

Ram - you can save about £60-£70 and get any other decent branded pc2-6400 ram. You are paying the premium for the heatsink, the dominators are vastly overpriced.

Fair enough point. The cheapest PC2-6400 2Gb set was only £35 cheaper with looser timings, so it didn't seem too bad. However, I can go for the 2Gb Geil for £50 cheaper elsewhere. Of course, I could go for PC5300 and try overclocking that.

[shaithis]

If you go with PC5300, you will need to get an E4300, else your overclock will probably be tiny.

[Gerrard]

Forgot the E4300 had a larger multiplier. But don't you need to flash the BIOS for it to work though, or do you think they would have started shipping the MBs with newer BIOSes by now? Either way, I'll take it into consideration.

[Flewis]

Some good choices, the heatsink should easily fit in the case as it is roughly 200mm wide giving 4.5cm to play with.

[Gibbo]

Noctua NH-U12F. Appears to be quiet and effective. Says it’s compatible with the MB, not too sure about the case. 155mm height looks like a tight fit possibly.

I just fitted one of these in an Antec TX1050B http://www.antec.com/uk/productDetails.php?ProdID=11051 which is 1mm wider than the P180 with a similar internal chassis[apart from the seperate PSU chamber of the P180]. I had to remove the side mounted 92mm fan duct but have plenty of clearance inside and am even going to fit an Acoustipak lining in the case:http://www.acoustiproducts.com/en/mu..._materials.asp and believe there's enough clearance for this in there too so you should be fine.

[shaithis]

I've used an E4300 in a couple of boards with old BIOSes (Asus P5W DH Deluxe and Asrock Conroe945-DVI) and it worked fine.

Of course, YMMV.

[Clunk]

Not sure about the E4300 and the GT bios wise, Buff is probably your man for that.

Edit: There are a few places (there were the other day anyway) selling pc2-6400 ram for 100-110 quid with the same timings as the dominator.

[DecomposingStar]

I quite like the look of the Corsair HX620w power supply.
I have just got 2gb OCZ DDR2-6400 ram and it's great at £123 inc vat on Overclockers.co.uk at the moment.

I know Noctua have alot of silent fans and heatsinks, and although i don't like their colour scheme, it's probably a good choice.

The case got a bad review on Hexus, not sure why, but i know the Antec 900 is a nice case. I'm very pleased with mine. I trust Antec to have good build quality.

[Flewis]

The P180 is quality, there are plenty of good reviews. Its a good choice.

[DecomposingStar]

The P180 is quality, there are plenty of good reviews. Its a good choice.

Yeah i didn't understand why it got such a horrible review on Hexus and not anywhere else.

[Gerrard]

Thanks for the information guys. Good to know the Noctua will fit. I am not too bothered about how it looks since the case doesn't have a window. Although, I did find one at KustomPC for £150, which was a bit expensive and probably removed most of the sound proofing!

I looked at the Corsair PSU and can't really see the point for an extra £30 over the Zalman for what I need. However, at least it's in stock at the moment!

Having looked through the E4300 overclocking thread, I have decided to go for it and hope that it boots with the MB out fo the box, otherwise I might have to ask someone to lend me a CPU . With regards to the RAM, I can see now that I probably won't be going above 400MHz FSB anyway, so it doesn't need to overclock, just have respectable timings.

[Flewis]

Post back with details of how ur build goes and whether the 4300 boots straight out the box cos im sure a lot of people would find the information useful.

[Gerrard]

I've placed the order, mainly as halve the stuff I wanted happened to be on TodayOnly! Should be here about Wednesday, so I'll let you know how it went. Went for the OCZ RAM from Overclockers. Hopefully won't have any compatibility issues and have to face RMAing it...