Advice needed please...

[Areku]

Ok so I have been using my current system (not the one in my sig) for some time now and have decided that an upgrade is needed. Now I plan to do this in the next month or so once I can get the funds together. I have put this together so far from our good friends at scan.

As you can see here


Is there anything you guys can suggest that I change? My budget is about £1000 but any cheaper would be great.

Looking forward to what anyone can come up with.

[kalniel]

I'd go with a core 2 duo (say the E6300) and corresponding motherboard instead - you save money and get better performance

[FInalD]

If you really want to go AMD then drop the mobo down to the M2N32 SLi as the crosshair seems to be a gimmick to be honest, that'll save you about £30.
I'd also say you should go for the Seagate that is £0.40 (pre VAT) more than the WD as WDs tend to be noisy and the Seagate is regarded as one of the better drives now.

Scan have recently put their prices up on RAM, they did have a set of 6400 4-4-4-12 RAM for £144 (pre VAT) but now it's £175 which is a shame as it would have been a good accompanyment to the rest if your bits. - I got some at the cheaper price

I'd also say drop that PSU! £100 for one is far too much, especially one that's made by a company that doesn't specialise in them. Go for a Tagan or an Enermax. Also 600W is a little on the overkill, but admitidly it is better to be safe than sorry.

Also I'm not so sure getting the 7950GT is worth it, in a few months the real DX10 cards will be out (G80 on nVidia and R600 on ATi). If I were you I'd get a mid spec card so you can save some money and get a bigger one later on, even if you still get the 7950 at that point it'll have gone down a lot in price.

Hope that helps Areku

FinalD

[Areku]

Final that was a very helpful post. ill have a look around to see what I can change then post back here to see what everyone thinks again. thanks again guys.

also what modular PSU would be recommended? I have a Hiper Type R in my current system but I think for a new build I should get something with a bit more juice?

[notsobig]

Scan have recently put their prices up on RAM, they did have a set of 6400 4-4-4-12 RAM for £144 (pre VAT) but now it's £175 which is a shame as it would have been a good accompanyment to the rest if your bits. - I got some at the cheaper price

Yeah ram prices are climbing up again recently not only at scan but at everywhere else. I should've bought 2x 1G sticks earlier now they cost lot more.bah!

[Areku]

So I have been looking around the forums and everyone is a big fan of the E6600 and I can see why with such good OC potential. However the E6600 is a bit out of my price range so im thinking the E6400 would be better suited to me. Are these as good as the E6600?

Also which motherboard is good for these chips?

Thanks

[Areku]

Ok so here is a new spec I ran out. I decided to go for the 6600 as I could just about budget that. The GFX though is a temp until the G80's come out. I believe that the card in the screen shot should do the jobby for now.

Can you guys give me a few more pointers on this build, let me know what you think/needs to be changed.




Many Thanks

[DanceswithUnix]

Looks nice if a little physically large for my taste

580W is great if you intend going SLI, otherwise frankly a bit wasteful. Running a 600W supply at 100W idle isn't normally that good for efficiency. For how much you need running flat out, try the PSU calculator but you need some hefty overclocking and a monster graphics card to blow 400W.

I would drop some power supply and up the graphics to the new 7900GS with the difference. That takes you from 12 pipes to 20 and from 128 bit memory interface to 256 for another ~25 quid.

I also notice you have 15 quid carriage on there, I presume you know about the free shipping for Hexus members but just hadn't logged in on Scan?

[Merlin4458]

yeh wit hthat rig it really is worth trying to get a higher end card, like the 7900GS or better, u wont regret it even if it means going slightly over

[Areku]

Thanks for the guidance Dances. As for the psu I do plan on running SLI at some stage which is why I chose that psu. Do you still think i should change it then?

As for the gfx I wasnt too sure how low on that I should go because I only intend on using it until G80 cards are rolled out. But then again if it isnt much of a price difference i might go for it.

I didnt log in to take the screenie. will get the free carriage woo hoo

[Areku]

Cheers for the extra boost there Merlin. Changed to the 7900gs. But do you guys think that it is a bit pointless putting a somewhat high end card in here even if i only plan on using it for a few months?

[mallett]

possibly but you’ve spec'd a high end rig there so it will be worth it, and for the dx10 cards, it could be worth waiting a little after they come out so any problems with drivers and software will be solved. also dx10 will only be available on vista, there will be no support on win xp and you dont want to go for the first releases of vista as they will be riddled with problems

my advise would be to go for the 7900GS now and wait till vista is stable enough and the prices of dx10 have come down before you make the swap

[DanceswithUnix]

If you intend getting an SLI setup with the next gen G80, then keep the 580W as by the sounds of things you will need it!

My worry with the 7600GT is that if the G80 turns out to be the new fx5000 series (which came out hot, slow and nothing supported it for ages) then you will be peeved you didn't spend a little more. 7900gs looks a nice card, should allow you to put off upgrading until at least the G80 driver bugs are ironed out!

[Areku]

Ok thanks fellas for all the tips. In which case if the G80 is going to be so picky about what it needs to be run with in conjunction of when its going to come out. Would it not be best to just get one of todays high end card and not worry about the G80 for some time?

[mallett]

...Would it not be best to just get one of todays high end card and not worry about the G80 for some time?

well in short yes

[DanceswithUnix]

At this point you are into guesswork. The only thing we really know about G80 is the power consumption is going up.