System Comments

[Smudger]

Hi, I'm still looking to upgrade my system to PCI-E, and haven't taken the plunge yet.

Anyone got any comments on this lot?

I've gone mainly for stuff that's in Scan's 'Today Only' bin...

Intel Core 2 Duo E4300, Socket 775, 1.80 GHz, 800MHz FSB, Allendale Core, 2MB Cache, Retail £58.95 £69.27

2GB (2x1GB) CorsairTwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-12 £49.99 £58.74

Abit AB9 i965, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £56.50 £66.39

512Mb Power Color RX1950 XT Arctic Cooling PCI-E(x16) Mem 1400MHz GDDR3 GPU 625MHz 48pipes CrossFire £116.50 £136.89

Akasa PCI Express 4 Pin to 6 Pin Power cable adaptor (AK-CB4-6) £1.79 £2.10

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro - P4 up to 4.4GHz - S775 Dual Core / Core2Duo Ready £13.59 £15.97


I'll be looking to overclock the CPU to a certain extent, probably to about 3ghz...

[staffsMike]

How about DX10 and support for 1333mhz chips?

If they aren't important then that looks pretty good.. you only need pc5300 at stock settings to get an e4300 to 3.0ghz though

[s_kinton]

Looks good to me.

What PSU are you running it on?
Whats your budget?

[NightshadowUK]

Yeah PC5300 memory and an E4300 will get to 3GHz but personally I'd get an E4400 just to be on the safe side.

[Smudger]

Not too worried about DX10 at the mo, I'm not going to go to Vista until SP1 is out, which will be next year at the earliest, by the looks of it.
Budget is £350-ish and PSU is an AKASA PAXPower 400w thing. I've checked on one of those power calculators and it seems to be enough, but am open to conflicting advice...

*edit* thought my current spec was still on the left. Currently got 2x200gb HDDs on SATA, generic case and 1xDVD ROM and 1xDVD-RW. I think that's all I'm going to keep...

[Nemz0r]

If you can afford £50 more on the graphics card, I think a 8800 GTS 320Mb would be a nice investment, you say you don't want DX10 just yet, but even so that card is blazing fast in DX9 too .

[Smudger]

Hmm, it's a possiblity, but I think for the games I've got (HL2, CoD & Far Cry), and the screen i've got (19"), an 8800 might be a bit overkill...
Anyone know if the 22nd July price cuts will affect the 4x00 series?

[Merlin4458]

well then why dont u get the 1950xt going for 104 at ebuyer at the moment? save urself 30 odd quid?

[Smudger]

I didn't realise there was a 1950xt going at ebuyer... Is it any good? Is it the 512mb one?

[DratUK]

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/119441

No it is the 256mb and there are 120 in stock.

For the monitor size it wouldnt be an issue @ 256 mb.

For the money and if you are truly not bothered about DX10/Vista then this is a good investment. I have run one AGP version and its brilliant. Noisy though when the fan ramps up but a headset soon overcomes that

Can you check the 12+ Volts for your Akasa just to be on the safe side, the 1950xt like power.

ebuyer also have the AB9 @ £61.88 save a few quid.
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/124961