New rig, spec checks please :)

[tigerboyce]

Hey guys,

Yep im buying a new rig soon and am going to be trying to stick to an £800 but will probably go over. Ill be buying a full system including monitor and OS so that takes a considerable chunk out of it. Ignore prices to be exact as ill be buying over the next month as it seems unlikely that it will all come on on one single today only , yeh ill be saving £'s hopefully by doing that. anyway heres what im thinking:



Intel Core 2 Duo E4300, Socket 775, 1.80 GHz, 800MHz FSB, Allendale Core, 2MB Cache, Retail £112.79

Gigabyte GA 965P-DS3 iP965, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £71.36 (bought £68.14)

320MB XFX 8800GTS, PCI-E (x16), Mem 1600MHz, GPU 500MHz, 96 Streams, 2x Dual Link/DVI HDTV £187.86

OCZ pc6400 800mhz 2gb Platinum RAM - £120 (OCUK) (bought £105)

250 Gb Western Digital WD2500KS Caviar SE16, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms £47.27 (bought £44.64)

Samsung SH-S182DB/BEBN Black 18x18 ±R x12 RAM Dual Layer DVDRW Writer OEM UK £18.79 (bought £19.68)

19" LG L194WT Silver/Black LCD, VGA/DVI, 1440x900, 5 ms, 2000:1, 300 cd/m2, Widescreen 16:10, VESA £130.88 (bought £115.14)

Antec Nine Hundred/Ultimate Gamer Case no PSU £70.44 (bought £64.63)

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64Bit 1Pk OEM (DVD) £69.62

520W Corsair HX Series Modular PSU, ATX, EPS12V, whisper quiet, 5 year warranty £64.99 (bought £64.99)

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro - P4 up to 4.4GHz - S775 Dual Core / Core2Duo Ready £16.44


Net Total £676.37
Carriage £16.35
V.A.T. £121.23

TOTAL £813.95 ( - £60ish from today only = £753) + £120 = £873.95 £73 over

Concerns:
*will a s-3 do intead of a DS3
*Better PSU in terms of value?
*Wont save alot by downgrading to XP so its pointless
*64bit? im thinking futureproofing
*will it OC well?
*i know the case is expensive but i love it
*dam monitors are pricy but i think this ones pretty good, any better values?

Yep i think thatl do nicely, but any other suggestions and anything i should change?

Also lowering the price would be nice and i tried lowering by overclocking but after better mobo, and cooler it works out as the same as the E6400 that i was going for, o well still good value for E6600 or more

anyway any ideas are welcomed,

Thanks guys!, Jeff

[Dark Horse]

Small point in that its probably worth getting a sata dvdrw, less cabling to worry about.

Otherwise looks good.

[mishima]

Firstly, decent spec there. Looks very good to me. I think though if you wanted to save some money stick a 550W Antec on your OcUK order or try something like an Akasa or Enermax PSU you could save some money there. 64-bit is the way to go, specially as your CPU will be 64-bit. It should overclock very well OCZ and GeIL clock great on those boards.

[mishima]

I agree with Dark Horse there, wise move!

[staffsMike]

I'd stick with the DS3 or even get an asus pb5.

I would get the 600w OCZ gamexstream from ocuk if ur getting the ram from them. its 70 odd quid...You might need the extra power if you're overclocking and using a GTS.

I wouldn't get that version of vista but thats up to you. I'm getting ultimate or business.

It will OC very well.

The monitor is very good..my dad just bought one very crisp and clear display..lovely colours etc..

[tigerboyce]

Yep im hoping it will OC well enough, as this is my forst build, let alone overclock so im just going to do the CPU no RAM or voltage changes.

well im definelty going to stick with 64-bit as going to find drivers wont be as much as a problem on a new build as ill be needing to do it anyway. also Ultimate and vista seems pointless IMHO, like xp pro is pointless for they extra money, not really worth it.

yeh the PSU is the main bit im worried about. its a great PSU but its reflected in the price. most people say dont get hiperpower PSU as they break, do they though as they are great prices. im thinking 580w modular one:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=228620 £57.58 (saves £12)

[switchmode]

Looks a great build,

I just put a new sytem with DS3, E4300, HX520 and I used generic pc6400 ram and it clocks to 3 gig hz fine. Have not tried any higher.. But running at 2.8 just to be conservative.
I'm well pleased with the Gigabyte board. I received the 3.3 revision with F10 bios and have not had any of the reported cold boot problems reported with older revisions.

The North Bridge runs Hot this may be fine but I put a small fan on it (just resting on top at the moment)

The Jmicron IDE socket is at the end away from the DVD drive in my build, a SATA Optical drive would make cabeling better.

My board looks very well made. The HX520 is a very well presented and I think well worth the extra investment (Apparently built for corsair by Seasonic) with high quality components 105 C capacitors etc.

I hope this is of help to you.

[Biscuit]

most people say go for the tagen or seasonic psu's as they are more efficiant but i honestly dont think you will have too much trouble with a hiper power or the corsair one.

Only thing i have read about the hiper is the connections can get in the way of dvd drives and stuff but this probs wont apply as the case is fairly roomy

[aidanjt]

The corsair is basically a rebranded seasonic.

I got a Hiper PSU for buttons (on sale) in PC World (gag, I know, I was just with the old man). Does the job for my server box.

[NightshadowUK]

Corsair's HX PSUs are made my Seasonic anyway so no problems there (aidanjt beat me to it).

Also, check JonnyGURU out, he does very reliable PSU reviews.

[tigerboyce]

OK changes:

replacing corsair PSU to HIPEr 580w modular type R -£12
replacing DVD to exact same but SATA model: +£2

TOTAL (£804.35) ( - £60ish from today only = £744.35) + £120 = £864.35 £64 over


any more suggested price lowerings?? i was hpoing for £800

[Clunk]

I wouldnt change from the Corsair to a Hiper. The Corsair is well priced for the quality of it. Dont scrimp on the PSU!

Personally, I would never buy another Gigabyte board. i had the DS3 and it was THE worst board I have ever used, build quality was terrible. They overclock pretty well, but more trouble than they are worth.

[tigerboyce]

Sounds pretty serious! Whats a good alternative that is around the same price if not more that i can have a look into.

[Smokey21]

Corsair's HX PSUs are made my Seasonic anyway so no problems there (aidanjt beat me to it).

Also, check JonnyGURU out, he does very reliable PSU reviews.

Thank god someone in the know. Don't swap that quality PSU you picked. As much as it pains me, totally agree with Clunk.

Build looks good id say. I hear more problems about 64-bit Vista than 32-bit? meh who knows, not a fan of Vista.

[this_is_gav]

You won't find an alternative for the same price. Hiper's are cheap(er) for a reason. Looking on another forum last alone week, 3 died.

If you really want to save the money, I'd get the Tagan 480W TG480-U01 personally. It should easily run that setup. Tagan aren't going through their best spell either, but it'll be a much more solid bet than a current Hiper. There's an Enermax for a few quid more, but the lower-grade Enermax's have really failed to deliver what the advertise in recent years.

I too agree with Clunk - Corsair or Seasonic.

[dave87]

Hipers used to be OK, but they have gone down hill recently. I've currently got a Seasonic S12-500w in my rig at home, and just for the peace of mind that its not damaging the components I spent even more on, it's worth it. Therefore, and I'm finding this a more and more common occurrence, I agree with Clunk, get the Corsair back again.

EDIT- Just seen the suggestion of the Tagan, they make good PSUs, but they tend to be noisier than Seasonics, and some of them have had questionable build quality on the connectors (sata power adapters if I remember rightly)

Other than that, it looks good.