New PC spec check and advice

[staffsMike]

Nehalem will probably be expensive in the beggining but given your budget it might be worth waiting for it.

[MarcLister]

Nehalem will probably be expensive in the beggining but given your budget it might be worth waiting for it.

Any idea when Nehalem is out? And how long to wait until prices stabilise? Or perhaps any links I can check out?

[staffsMike]

First chips are Q4 this year I believe. It's reffered to as core i7 (stupid name I know) if you want to have a google around for the latest.

[MarcLister]

Yeah my Wiki searching mentioned i7. I agree seems a stupid name. i7 sounds like some kind of road in the US of A.

[richieuk]

Unless your minted and want some possibly flawed, overpriced rig that doesn't support everything straight away, then dont bother with Nehalem just yet, wait til Q1/2 09, or alternatley, get a PC now and dont worry about Nehalem for a couple of years til its truly utilised by Windows 7 and a few games (Crysis 3 anyone?).

[staffsMike]

I would think (want) a Q9550 based system will last 2 - 3 years minimum so nehalem really won't (or shouldn't lol) be on your mind for a long time.

If you think you will want i7 early on then I suggest you get a cheap mobo, pentium dual core and 2GB of RAM now for about £100-£120.

[MarcLister]

Unless your minted and want some possibly flawed, overpriced rig that doesn't support everything straight away, then dont bother with Nehalem just yet, wait til Q1/2 09, or alternatley, get a PC now and dont worry about Nehalem for a couple of years til its truly utilised by Windows 7 and a few games (Crysis 3 anyone?).

I would think (want) a Q9550 based system will last 2 - 3 years minimum so nehalem really won't (or shouldn't lol) be on your mind for a long time.

If you think you will want i7 early on then I suggest you get a cheap mobo, pentium dual core and 2GB of RAM now for about £100-£120.

Think you both just made my mind up for me. If I wait for Nehalam I could be waiting until next summer and I think that is too long. I could get the money for a Q9550 system much sooner and use that for 2-3 years until Nehalem has matured.

[MarcLister]

Stupid question time but is 8Gb with Vista x64 worth it or stick with 4Gb for the moment?

And would I really be OK with 5-5-5-18 or seeing as I can afford it is the 4-4-4-12 OK?

[staffsMike]

I doubt you will see a huge benefit from it but it can all be addressed by x64.

[richieuk]

6-8GB is considered by Corsair a saturation point, get to 8GB, and you'll never really see much difference, so 4GB should be ok for now. The 4.4.4.12 timings ram would be fine though if you can afford it, as its not really a budget build and will help a little, just make sure the heat-dissipator isn't so big it'll clash with your heatsink. If this is the case, the standard latency ram should be smaller (especially in Corsairs case)

Btw, thank you for the thank you.

[richieuk]

Ok, thought I'd forgot to post the post above and re-wrote it. Ooops

What I wrote again though

8GB is considered by Corsair as a saturation point. Its just too much to see a real difference 95% of the time. (In comparison to the difference between 2GB/4GB)

The Black Dragon memory should be small enough to fit under the fan on the Xigmatek heatsink (I recieved my Xiigmatek heatsink today and its HUUUUGEEEE) so the low latency sticks would be fine If it was corsair however, you may have to check dimensions. You wont see alot of difference, infact, if you don't test them side by side, you might never notice it, but for the price difference, its not the worst investment you could make by treating yourself to low latency RAM.

[MarcLister]

I doubt you will see a huge benefit from it but it can all be addressed by x64.

Yeah I might stick with 4Gb for the moment. Will be more than enough.

6-8GB is considered by Corsair a saturation point, get to 8GB, and you'll never really see much difference, so 4GB should be ok for now. The 4.4.4.12 timings ram would be fine though if you can afford it, as its not really a budget build and will help a little, just make sure the heat-dissipator isn't so big it'll clash with your heatsink. If this is the case, the standard latency ram should be smaller (especially in Corsairs case)

I won't be overclocking much, if at all, so I don't think I need memory heatsinks. I'm set on the Geil stuff which doesn't have RAM heatsinks.

Btw, thank you for the thank you.

No probs. Thanks for helping.

Ok, thought I'd forgot to post the post above and re-wrote it. Ooops

What I wrote again though

[MarcLister]

BUMP!

Possibly able to buy to buy today or tomorrow. Just wanted to do a final spec check and see what people say/think.

My spec:

• CPU - Q9550 (not bothered if I get E0 or not really.)

• Motherboard - Asus P5Q-E

• RAM - 4Gb DDR2 OCZ 6400 4-4-4-15 (have specced 8Gb. Is that silly? Silly enough to not bother?)

• HDD - WD 640Gb

• HDD - Samsung 1Tb

• DVD - Pioneer DVR-216BK (Model that can read/write DVD-RAM, worth it for just a little extra I think. Going to get two of these, anything to suggest about that? I like to have FM cd in permanently so I "need" another optical drive for other discs. )

• Graphics card - ATI 4870 1Gb

• Case - Akasa Omega

• PSU - Corsair HX 620W

• Case fans - Six Sharkoon 2000 120mm

• Sound card - Asus Xonar D2

• CPU heatsink - Noctua NH-U12P

• Heatsink fan - Noctua NF-P12 (extra fan so I can have two on the above heatsink in a push/pull config. Read some reviews that suggest I can get a few degrees off temps with the Noctua HS and two fans.

• OS - Vista Home Premium x64 OEM

• Monitor - Yuraku 24'' YV24WBH1

• Fan filter - Three 120mm aluminium fan filters (for the three intake fans I'll have on case)

And some other bits and pieces such as Arctic Silver 5 paste and some CAT6 cables so I can network my two PCs at Gigabit speeds. Also need to buy a DVI-D cable as monitor won't have one included.

So have I missed anything out? Or overlooked a better choice for a component?

[staffsMike]

I would think the sharkoon 2000's are quite noisey, unless you are planning to undervolt them. I would probably get some scythe slipstreams or nexus/yate loons.

You would get away quite happily with the 520W HX as well.

Looks like a really nice build though

[MarcLister]

So change it to six Scythe Slipstreams or Yate Loons? Ironically the Sharkoon 1000s are more expensive than the 2000s on Scan.

Scythes like this? Getting into Noctua range really in terms of price. Found a Yate Loon which moves as much air as the Noctua but is louder.

Might just go for Sharkoon 1000s instead. Increases budget a bit but not that much

And 520W HX will be enough? Didn't realise that.

[staffsMike]

I wouldn't get 6, not to begin with anyway. I know it takes that many but you won't see much of an advantage with all 6 I think.

4 would be good I think, one at the front, back, side and top

I'd get the fans here, those scythe's aren't the right ones on scan. These have scythe and yate loons.
http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop/...me.php?cat=885