Core 2 Duo or AM2?

[BorisTheSpider]

by the way, i reckon if there's 2 front intakes its unlikely to be 120mm, probably 80mm

Yeah I think you're right, I can't find much info on the case but I found a site which said it come with 2x80mm fans. So much for my use of a ruler .

[BorisTheSpider]

i wouldn't be scared off, its a piece of piss. You do invalidate the warranty unfortunately though, so best to get one with a decent hsf installed. There's a HIS x1900xt on overclockers' this week only section at the mo, and they come with quiet coolers installed, for £223. Ocuk have a pretty bad rep but i have no bad experiences with them

That seems like a good deal, might be the one to go for then if it's still on next week. I've ordered from OcUK before, didn't have any probs with them, but then I didn't need to send anything back.

[BorisTheSpider]

Ok, does anyone have a Tagan 480W PSU? Just wondering what they're like for tidyness, the Thermaltake 480W I'm using just now is very untidy, cables everywhere which bugs me a bit. I take it Tagan are reliable as well, they don't have a tendancy of exploding or shutting down the PC(like one of my previous PSUs), lol.

[chazt]

if tidiness and reliability are priorities, then a modular psu from someone like tagan or enermax would be ideal. If you're budget is a bit tighter, look at the hiper type-r or the xclio at scan.

[chuckskull]

Personally I'd go for the hiper. Looks the nicest and is good enough to run most systems.

[SuicidaL]

I guess I could drop the X-Fi then, also is 2gig of ram absolutely essential for this kind of machine? What if I just bought 1gig, would that cause problems? I just noticed I forgot to add an HDD to the spec, so that'll be an extra £40(if I go for the 160GB Samsung Spinpoint).

Ok, I've taken away the X-Fi Card and the X1800GT and replaced them with a 160gb Samsung Spinpoint and this GFX card:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=443252

Any good?

All together it now costs £644.23, a bit over budget but I guess I could make that. I don't want to spend more than £700, that's my absolute max now .

was gonna go c2d route, but with the probs still ongoing regarding bios,memory etc etc decided down the am2/x2 route

msi k9n 570 sli platinum
am2 4200 x2
arctic freezer pro 64
geil 1gb (2x512) dual channel pc6400 ddr2 800
ati radeon x1800xt
consumeables

all for a smidge ove £500

was looking at that gigabyte 7900gt card, but scan couldn't give me a stock date, and couldn't justify the price of an x1900xt, so got an x1800xt.....for now although still a capable card

[BorisTheSpider]

Yeah the C2D mobos are worrying me a bit with the BIOS probs, I'm still not sure if I'm maybe spending too much as well. Could downgrade the GFX card to something like the x1800XT, would save around £80. Of course I want something where I don't need to upgrade much within the next couple years, I skimped on the graphics, ram and PSU with my current PC which resulted in me having to upgrade them all within a year or so of owning the PC. I don't want to face the same problem again.

Still not sure what to do, I want to make sure the parts are ok before I order, of course.

[randomJ]

Core2Duo absolutley. Im sure almost all of the bios issues will have been solved by the beginning of september. The only issues (with the gigabytes anyway) were people buying ram that only operated at (say 2.2v) and because the gigabytes boot voltage is 1.8v, the ram wouldnt boot = no post. But other than that there doesnt seem to be much problems, as far as im aware of anyway.

[BorisTheSpider]

So will it still be worth buying a mobo next week? I take it the problem will be fixed by downloading a BIOS update from the manufacturers website?

Is Gigabyte the best choice then, or should I go with Asus or something?

[charleski]

Are those 120mm ones the cheapest I'd get? Just they'll all add up to over £20 which seems quite a bit for fans

It is. You can get good-quality 120mm fans for under a pound each.

I take it the problem will be fixed by downloading a BIOS update from the manufacturers website?

Not necessarily. What BIOS problem are you talking about? I think you might be confusing different boards.

[BorisTheSpider]

No it's just some people seem to be complaining about problems with some of the C2D mobos. I'm not necessarily saying that the mobo I'm looking at buying has any problems(I don't know if it has known problems or not, I don't know much about the lower Gigabyte), it's just that the Gigabyte DS3(model up from the S3) seems to have problems with the RAM and a few other boards seem to have been getting some complaints from people about not working properly. Though saying that, not everyone is having problems, so I guess I've to take a chance. I had problems with my current Asus A7N8X Deluxe mobo(crackling sound etc.) which still isn't fully fixed, though some other people didn't experience the problem.

What's the x1800XT like noise wise, does it still use the same fan as the the x1900XT(non HIS versions)? If it's gonna be noisey then I'll probably just go for the HIS x1900XT.

Also is this PSU any good?

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=241232

For some reason it's the same price as the 480W version .

Thanks.

[randomJ]

No it's just some people seem to be complaining about problems with some of the C2D mobos. I'm not necessarily saying that the mobo I'm looking at buying has any problems(I don't know if it has known problems or not, I don't know much about the lower Gigabyte), it's just that the Gigabyte DS3(model up from the S3) seems to have problems with the RAM

The only problem with ram was...
The ram they purchased operated at ~2.0v (for example)
When the Gigabytes boot ram at 1.8v.

Resulting in no post, because the motherboard default voltage gives only 1.8 making it not boot the ram. The solution to this is either buy new ram, or get 256 cheap ddr2 go into bios, change vdimm to 2.0v. turn off take out the cheap ram and put the other set back in.

[BorisTheSpider]

Ok thanks for explaining.

I've changed/added a few things to the spec, will this be ok?

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 S775, 1.86Ghz, 1066Mhz FSB, Conroe Core, 2M Cache OEM (w/o Heat Sink Fan) - £123.54

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro - P4 up to 4.4GHz - S775 Dual Core Ready - £15.08

Gigabyte GA 965P-S3 i965, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533 / 667 / 800, SATA II, ATX - £86.35

2Gb (2X1Gb) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC5400 (667), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12 - £124.55

250 Gb Samsung Spinpoint P SP2504C, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, 9.0 ms, NCQ - £48.15

Pioneer DVR-111DSV Silver 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer DVD Writer (Reduced Length) OEM - £23.96

530w Tagan EasyCon - TG530-U15 - 2Force Silent Modular PSU - £65.67

Silverstone FN81 80mmx25mm Low Noise Case Fan 2050rpm - £5.78(for 3)

Scan 3 Ports USB2 Ports + 2 Ports Firewire 1394a Combo PCI Card - £9.62

Total = £516 Inc. Vat and Delivery

And

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/cgi-bi...aGX_2d057_2dHT

Including the graphics card it would come to £668 + Delivery cost from OcUK.

Will there be a big difference between the 256MB x1900GT and the 512MB x1900XT? If you reckon the 512MB x1900XT is worth the step up then I'll just go for it, I'll not bother changing my mind again, lol.

Not sure what the case fans will be like either.

[chuckskull]

The 512mb is only used on a couple of games (quake 4 engine has an option for extra large textures with 512 cards). If you can afford it get it. If not, the 256 is still one of the fastest cards about.

[BorisTheSpider]

Hard one to decide on, I'm tempted to go for the 512MB x1900XT, 512MB seems like it'll be much more future proofed. Depend on if it's still worth the extra £70 though, then again if I can get an extra 6 months or so out of it compared to the 256MB then it seems like a better option in the long term. I'm wanting something to last 2-3 years without any major upgrades unlike my current PC which needed some upgrading(like the GFX card and PSU) within a year of owning it.

[chazt]

the x1900gt is outperformed by its direct nvidia rival, the 7900gt, according to this month's custompc mag, so i'd opt for one of those if i were you. However, the x1800xt is still better than the 7900gt, and the x1900xt better still, so the choice is gonna be quite difficult for you. I guess it depends how rich you're feeling!