Building a pc - any opinions on this spec?

[nigel1210]

Building a pc for a friend, he doesn't play games but uses it for office/web design/photoshop etc. I've got this spec together and was wondering if anybody could suggest any tweaks or if there will be any compatibilty problems?

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600, Socket 775, 2.4 GHz, 1066MHz FSB, Conroe Core, 4MB Cache, Retail

2Gb (2X1Gb) CorsairTwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-12

Gigabyte GA 965P-DS4 iP965, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX

Coolmaster CMStacker Silver Trim (STC-T01-UW1) ATX/BTX , x11 Bays! Tower

500 Gb Seagate ST3500630AS Barracuda 7200.10, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.5 ms

150 Gb Western Digital WD1500AHFD Raptor X, SATA150, 10000 rpm, 16MB Cache, 4.6 ms, NCQ

Pioneer DVR-111 Black 16x16 x5 RAM DVD±RW Dual Layer DVD Writer (Reduced Length) OEM

520W Corsair HX Series Modular PSU, ATX, EPS12V, whisper quiet, 5 year warranty

256Mb XFX 7600GS, PCI-E (x16), Mem 700MHz, GPU 400MHz, 12 Pipes, Dual DVI-I/HDTV

[fishboy25uk]

Some good kit there, but doesn't it seem a little bit of overkill just for web design/photoshop? Depends on your friend's budget of course, but you could easily shave £200 off that setup and I doubt he would notice any difference.

For example, is there any reason why he needs a Raptor? Or even 6400 RAM? PC5300 would be fine.

[htid]

Agreed with fishboy, he doesn't need such fast ram unless he's going to overclock a lot. I think if you buy the 6400 ram you could get a 6300 and o/c it saving money on the cpu.

[mpd1981]

agreed, the raptor is really not worth it in this case.

also consider looking at the Asus P5B - clicky

Unless you intend to run dual cards at some point, in which case the DS4 or deluxe version of the P5B would be ideal.

Unsure what to recomend as a CPU, the E6600 may be worth the price difference over the E6300 for photoshop, but nothing else.

Also consider the Antec Nine Hundred Case - clicky

[Noni]

Macbook?

If not drop the big case, a bit impratical no?

What about a Silverstone Sugo, or maybe Lian Li V600?

If not a Antec Superlanboy or a Antec Solo

[b0redom]

Why not a SFF Shuttle setup? If he's not after SLi or whatever, that's probably a better fit. I reckon I'll do that next time I upgrade....

Tom

[nigel1210]

thanks for the feedback

say if i changed the memory for 2Gb (2X1Gb) Corsair Value Select, DDR2 PC5300 (667) would there be much of a drop in performance??

Also thinking about going for the Lian-Li PC-60 PLUS which is smaller and i like the metal finish on the front.

[oralpain]

Toss the rapotor, get another segate.