Hello all (I'm just posting this for my brother so these are his words)
After 5 years I've decided to finally upgrade and after reading various forums and reviews I've put together this list of components, but I still need some help in making the final decision.
I would greatly appreciate any help, advice, comments or criticism you might have about these parts.
I'll try to keep this post as short as possible, so below I will put my main uses and needs of the new system and below that, the components. So please, read on and help me make the right choice!
- £1,100 maximum budget
- Overclocking - I'll be overclocking the Q6600, hoping to go as far as possible, but at least 3.6GHz. Most likely the RAM too.
- Windows XP 64 Bit or XP Professional, Not going Vista for a long time.
- Needs to be as quiet as possible - I also do audio recording and can't isolate the PC out of the studio, so it needs to be as quiet as possible so I have less to muffle.
- Mainly used for playing games and watching movies, audio editing as mentioned above, and dabbling in video editing. (I think some critique of the choice of monitor is in order).
If you need anything else from me, or I've left anything out, let me know and I'll post ASAP.
CPU: Intel Core2Quad Q6600 G0 Stepping 175.66
Motherboard: Asus P5K Deluxe (Best rated) 152.74
OR Asus P5KC (Cheaper, has DDR2 & 3 Support) 89.17
OR Gigabyte GA P35C-DS3R (Has DDR2 & 3 Support) 72.49
OR Gigabyte GA P35-DQ6 (Has Heatpipe - Better for Overclocking?) 117.25
RAM: 2x1GB CorsairTwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (CAS 4-4-4-12) 58
Graphics Card: XFX 8800GTS 320MB 172.73
Hard Drive: Samsung HD501LJ Spinpoint T 500Gb 58
Monitor: 22" LG L226WTQ LCD 199.69
DVD Drive: LG GSA-H50LBRL DVD-RW Drive (Lightscribe) 20.27
OR Samsung SH-S183L (Lightscribe) 18.21
OR Samsung SH-S203 (No Lightscribe) 18.79 19.96
Soundcard: Auzentech HDA X-Plosion 7.1 DTS Connect Sound Card (BGI-HDAXP-D) 61.75
OR Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Sound Card UK Retail 52.75
Case: Coolermaster Centurion 534 Silver (2 120mm Fans included) 38.76
OR CoolerMaster Centurion 5 Silver/Black 37.01
OR Antec NSK6500 (Comes with 430W PSU) 61.09
OR Antec NSK6000 (As above, no PSU) 37.55
OR Antec NSK4400 (Comes with 380W PSU) 45.83
OR Antec Solo Quiet (1 x 120mm Fan included) 54.86
PSU: 380w Seasonic S12II-380 PSU 46.99
OR 430w Seasonic S12II-430 PSU 50.51
OR 430w Tagan EasyCon - TG430-U15 50.4
CPU Heatsink: Thermalright Ultra-120 Heatsink 35.24
OR Thermalright SI-128 CPU Cooler 29.36
OR Zalman CNPS8700-LED 32.89
Keyboard: Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 31.71
Mouse: Logitech 931352-0914, MX518 32.89
OR Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 23.49
(All-in-all this will total to between £975 and £1100, which is really the maximum I want to spend.)
Thank you