Major System Upgrade

Hi! Right, I've finally decided it's time to retire my beloved rig (as listed in sig). I'm planning to radically upgrade it, it'll be basically an entirely new machine!

I want it to be pretty powerful in Vista Ultimate, I hate having to wait ages when I've got lots of windows open, gaming performance is important and the odd bit of CAD happens as well.

Case: Gigabyte Aurora (From Old System)
PSU: 620W Corsair HX Modular - £85.41
Motherboard: Asus P45 Deluxe - £122.21
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 - £134.76
RAM: 8gb Corsair TwinX PC2-6400 - £114.30
HDD, DVD, Soundcard, TV Card: All from old system

I did think about waiting for the new Nehalem chips to come out, but that's not going to be till next year and they look to be pretty pricey. I'll wait on getting a graphics card until the next line of nVidia cards launch and snap up one of those, my trusty 6600GT will do fine in the mean time!

Any thoughts on component choices? Can anyone suggest a quiet but efficient CPU cooler that isn't too pricey? I can't move my Zalman 9500 over. I'd like to hit 3Ghz, has this RAM got enough headroom for that?

I wouldn't go for 8GB of RAM at the moment, you will only use it when you are doing ridiculous amounts of multitasking (was an article on it but cant seem to find it, sorry). Save the cash and then you can upgrade it if you ever start to feel the slowdown of 4GB.

Not too sure about the heatsinks but if you are looking for both efficiency and quietness you could decide on an efficient cooler (which im sure others will readily be able to suggest) such as thermalright ultra-120 extreme (that is very pricey though) and then buy a nice and quiet 120mm fan to go on it. This might be a more pricey way to do it but you should get exactly what you want.

The RAM has enough space for that, you probably wont even overclock it at 3.0GHz.

The ram speed is fine for up to 3.6GHz and i agree 4GB is plenty. I wouldnt get vista ultimate though unless there are features you really want. Home premium does everything a home user requires and does it pretty well. Look at a comparison to ultimate and decide whether you really want to spend the extra.

For a cheap cooler the arctic Freezer 7 Pro should get you to 3GHz or either of the Xigmatek coolers on scan are very good. Personally I would go with this:

Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

Ok, firstly where are you buying this from?

I'm gonna offer you some better alternative to some of the parts you have there:

PSU: Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

Motherboard: If you plan to use more than one graphics card the one you have chosen is fine. But, if you only want to use one You can pay almost half as much! Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

CPU: This is a good choice in the current Market

RAM: You may find 8 Gigs of Ram is overkill. Unless your trying to run several apps using large amounts of RAM then you won't notice the difference. For the same money you could go with these. Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK
Only 4Gig there but the frequency is higher than the one you have chosen.

Cooler: I use the previously mentioned thermalright ultra-120 extreme in some of my rigs and it is IMO he best cooler on the market. However as always you get what you pay for so it costs £50 if you buy with a quality fan Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

I agree that the 8GB is overkill, not like you're going to host a server or that sort.
Why don't you go for the Asus P5K Wifi-AP?
I hear it's got some amazing reviews and the price is going down quick now :D
Well get that if you're going to overclock anyway.
Heh if you wanted a cheap hdd just for the hell of it,
i'd really recommend the Samsung Spinpoint F1 500GB it's only £44

Thanks for the fast response!

ikix: Thanks for that, I do some CAD and Fluid Analysis stuff every now and then so monster RAM does help, I'll try it with 4gb and see how it runs! I've looked at the Thermalright, sounds pretty solid, I don't mind splashing out if it does the job!

Flewis: I already have Ultimate, Microsoft gave me a full retail copy free :D I'll look for some reviews of that cooler, though I may just get a Thermalright.

Fifthfreedom: I'd be getting it all from Scan. I've used Corsair's before and I've always been really impressed, I can't see the justification of going for the enermax. On the motherboard front... I don't think I'll use more than one card, is there much advantage to the newer P45 chipset as opposed to the P35? What fan do you reccommend with the Thermalright 120 extreme?

rej156: I'll keep an eye on the Asus, but as I said above, the newer P45 chipset is attractive! I'll keep the HDD in mind, can't have too much storage!

For a fan this one is quite quiet and has quite a good airflow aswell Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RavenNight

Thanks for the fast response!

ikix: Thanks for that, I do some CAD and Fluid Analysis stuff every now and then so monster RAM does help, I'll try it with 4gb and see how it runs! I've looked at the Thermalright, sounds pretty solid, I don't mind splashing out if it does the job!

Flewis: I already have Ultimate, Microsoft gave me a full retail copy free :D I'll look for some reviews of that cooler, though I may just get a Thermalright.

Fifthfreedom: I'd be getting it all from Scan. I've used Corsair's before and I've always been really impressed, I can't see the justification of going for the enermax. On the motherboard front... I don't think I'll use more than one card, is there much advantage to the newer P45 chipset as opposed to the P35? What fan do you reccommend with the Thermalright 120 extreme?

rej156: I'll keep an eye on the Asus, but as I said above, the newer P45 chipset is attractive! I'll keep the HDD in mind, can't have too much storage!

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:O Microsoft giving £170 for free?
That's something new, you lucky boy! xD
I suppose P45 is attractive but don't bother with SLI/CrossFire.
Since none of the drivers have been updated to good use for like 349659466 months,
that's just a waste.

P45 give 1600MHz FSB (waste of time)
PCIe 2.0 (debatebly a waste of time as nothing can use the bandwidth thus far)
Stupid chip set cooling (which just looks stupid)

The dark raider above is a good board but watch out for the PRO on scan, reguarly there at £80 and it's a nicer board and great value at that price :)

I probably wouldn't get the 620W corsair unit, 520W will be more than enough for that. I built a system with the older more power hungry Q6600 and older 8800GTS 640mb on the 520W and fan still never kicks up lol

If you are trying to keep things quiet then look at the scythe slipstream fans. The only place I know sells them is 120mm Quiet Case Fans |Specialtech.co.uk -, very quiet though. That's not to say the old S-FLex aren't quite too though (available at scan).

You could also go for something like the scythe ninja which is still a great cooler and comes with a decent quiet fan, it's also cheaper than the extreme. :)

Agree with the others that the P45 is not really worth the extra. My recommended motherboard is this: Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

I have the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme and am using it with this fan> Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK its silent, effective and best of all cheap :D

Other than that everything looks good for your upgrade :)

ikix: Thanks, I'll look at the specs compared to the other fans

rej156: Yeah, it's very nice, special launch box and everything!

staffsMike: Ah, excellent, thanks for clearing up what P45 adds. I'll drop down to the lower power corsair.

ExHail: I'm not a huge fan of gigabyte, but I've used a few Abit and Asus boards!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RavenNight

ExHail: I'm not a huge fan of gigabyte, but I've used a few Abit and Asus boards!

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That's cool everyone has there own preference, mine obviously being Gigabyte :D