Spec Check + Some questions?

[BlakeT]

Hey,

I'm just about to buy the bits for a new PC - the first one I'll have built, so I was hoping somebody could take a look over them and check if I've missed anything, or can suggest better alternatives.

Antec P182
Corsair HX Series 520W Modular PSU - ATX12V v2.2 APFC
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 G0 - Retail
768MB ScanFX 8800GTX
ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP AiLifestyle Series P35
2x Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB SATA II 7200RPM 16MB Cache - OEM
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel Vista Gold Series DDR2 (OCZ2G8004GK)
LG 18x GSA-H66NBAL SATA, Black, OEM

The total of that comes to £820 delivered... but I'm slightly unsure on a few bits:

Graphics card: The old GTX and new 8800 GTS (512MB) are very close in price now (£10-20 difference) is the GTX the better choice again now? At the moment I'm only gaming at 1680x1050 but intend to upgrade to a 24" 1920x1200 later next year.

RAM: Would I be better off going for that OCZ 4GB (2x2GB), or for the exact same price some other stuff, I.e. 2x(2x1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12. I really have no idea?

CPU Cooler: I'm hoping for this PC to be _very_ quiet so I'm a little confused on which cooler to go for because obviously everyone has different ideas of what is quiet, I'm fussy about noise... but at the same time I don't want something that's going to be too difficult to fit since it's my first build. Most people have said the 'Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme' needs lapping to get decent temps which I'm not really comfortable doing. I was thinking possibly the Tuniq Tower 120.


If anyone has any suggestions on what to change/add I'd appreciate it, I just need it to be quiet... will this be quiet in your opinion?

Thanks!

Edit: Oh and also, I hope to overclock the Q6600 to 3.0GHz minimum so hopefully nothing will hold me back being able to do that?

[Hunain]

Well...ill try to give you the best advice, but im certainly not the expert around here ...but still lets see...your casing would be fine....your power supply would be fine, but im not sure that with the q6600 overclocked and 4GB ram, with the 768 GTX..520 would be barely sufficient or will still have some room for other things....get a second opinion, keep it in mind though....

As for the 768 GTX....yea from what i know it is still better than the 8800GTS...specially if you are going to be gaming on the 24".....

The ASUS motherboard would be fine, ive got the VM, it overclocks pretty good, dont think your board will be much different....mine does have a vdrop problem though....

As for the HDD...its your choice if you need the 2, 500GB disks...though I do think 11,000 rpm disks are available....check up if you want....

I dont know about OCZ ram....but I have heard the Corsairs overclock pretty well...get a second opinion on them as well...

You like the LG DVD-RW?...personally I have no experience with LG...I use ASUS and Lite-on...i find Lite-on more realiable though...I always have tray problems with ASUS...anyways again you can check up....

Coming to the Q6600...everyone seems to want one, today specifically...anyways like i told them...if you can, wait some more....new yorkfield quad cores are arriving soon...they are faster and cooler most of all....secondly, even if you dont want to get those, q6600 would also drop prices....

As for a cooler....you are right about thermalite 120....I personally have ASUS silent knight...its pretty silent for me...ASUS have silent knight II now, which is for quad cores, check it out....I have experience with Silent knight only, its quiet enough for me...

Hope to have satisfied you somewhat....ask more if you want....

[staffsMike]

I wouldn't bother with the Tuniq Tower personally.
Go for something like the scythe ninja. Inside the P182 it is completly silent as I have one running in my silent pc It's easy to fit as long as the motherboard is out and you aren't scared to push the pins in properly lol

From everything you have picked (which looks very good, pretty much my shortlist of components lol) only the GTX will make some noise.

As far as ram goes the 2x2gb would potentially overclock better but since you won't be able to get the quad passed 3.6ghz overclocking the RAM won't come into it (read clunks guide if you need further elaboration on that) so I would go with the cheaper tighter latency 4x1gb stick

Those hard disks are totally (scarily) silent in the P182 so they are perfect.

Power supply is good.

I've always found LG dvd writers nosiey but I'm not sure about the new ones. The samsung I have in mine is very good but they have changed the model since.

I'm a big fan of the Abit IP-35 range so I would go with one of those but thats a nice board from asus and you can't go far wrong with it.

As has beeen suggested you may want to wait for the new Quad core's to arrive but if you want the PC now there is certainly nothing wrong with the Q6600.

[BlakeT]

Thanks for the replies. I'll take a look into all those suggestions.

Just a few more things:

only the GTX will make some noise.

Do you think it's worth buying a "Thermalright HR-03-PLUS for nVidia 8800GTX" plus a quiet 92mm (or 120mm custom fit) fan? I am pretty fussy about noise - I'm just not sure if it would fit and/or be easy to fit, it looks massive in the pictures I've seen.


And... about waiting for the newer processors, is there actually a set release date yet? I've seen January 08 which I assume is correct but does anyone know is it towards the beginning or end of the month? I can wait a few weeks but not much longer.

thanks again.

[Mossy]

Personally I would opt for the

Abit IP35 Pro
Corsair TwinX PC8500 Dominator

But other than that a good setup

[jjcave]

I have a very similar set up to that, and I can recommend the Scythe Ninja as a great and quiet cooler.

[cptwhite_uk]

A vote for a samsung DVD/R here. Always used them in my builds and find them incredibly cquiet and quick to spin-up compared to other models.

[staffsMike]

Give the GTX a try with its stock cooler first.

I've not actually got a GTX but the GTS makes a gentle but noticeable hum in my pc.