New build for gaming - check and advice

[fisnik]

There's another thread here with similar specs to mine but I thought it best to make a separate thread for my build anyway. I will also order today as the today only offers end today.

Here it goes:


Your Basket
QTY Price (ea) Ex VAT Total Inc VAT Remove
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600, Socket 775, 2.4 GHz, 1066MHz FSB, Conroe Core, 4MB Cache, Retail £164.99 £193.86

1 LN15049 Intel Core 2 Duo E6600, Socket 775, 2.4 GHz, 1066MHz FSB, Conroe Core, 4MB Cache, Retail

Samsung SH-S183A/BEBN Black SATA 18x18 ±R Dual Layer DVDRW Writer OEM UK inc Nero 6.x £17.50 £20.56

1 LN13548 Samsung SH-S183A/BEBN Black SATA 18x18 ±R Dual Layer DVDRW Writer OEM UK inc Nero 6.x

640MB XFX 8800GTS PCI-E (x16), Mem 1600 MHz, GPU 500 MHz, 96 Streams, 2 x Dual Link DVI HDTV £209.88 £246.61

1 LN16578 640MB XFX 8800GTS PCI-E (x16), Mem 1600 MHz, GPU 500 MHz, 96 Streams, 2 x Dual Link DVI HDTV

520W Corsair HX Series Modular PSU, ATX, EPS12V, whisper quiet, 5 year warranty £57.99 £68.14

1 LN15216 520W Corsair HX Series Modular PSU, ATX, EPS12V, whisper quiet, 5 year warranty

LN17232
Asus P5N-E SLI NF650i SLi, S 775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £64.79 £76.13

LN14162
320 Gb Seagate ST3320620AS Barracuda 7200.10, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.5 ms, NCQ £54.19 £63.67

LN13080
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro - P4 up to 4.4GHz - S775 Dual Core / Core2Duo Ready £12.49 £14.68

LN10262
Logitech MX518 Gaming Grade Optical, 1600 dpi, PS2 USB 1.1/2.0, 5 Buttons, Black £27.99 £32.89

LN16180
RAPTOR GAMING K2 GAMING KEYBOARD £26.49 £31.13

LN8282
Akasa Eclipse-62 Midi Tower Case - Hi-End w/o PSU £69.94 £82.18

LN14277
2GB (2x1GB) CorsairTwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12, EPP £149.64 £175.83

LN5291
1.44Mb Sony Black Floppy Disk Drive OEM £3.69 £4.34



Net Total £859.58

Carriage £15.21

V.A.T. £153.09

TOTAL £1,027.88



The budget is £1k and I really would like to keep to it unless I really it is necessary to go over.

I think the hot issue is the board. The main reason I chose it is the value for money. It has good features and it got a good review at anandtech. It has EPP and it seems that it will go very well with the memory at stock settings. I may overclock but since it's not something I've done before I've decided to go safe. I might just to try it out for a bit but I doubt I will keep it at overclocked settings. I realise the p5b-deluxe is a good board but I think that's out of my league unless I cut something else out.

Another problem might be the power supply. Not a problem as such, cos I've heard only good things about Corsair but I think it might have been better to go for the 620W version. The thing is that's another £30 for just 100W more. Also it's out of stock and if I order it will hold up the shipment until the 31st, or so it seems. From looking at the power usage of my system it looks as the 520W will be more than enough.

What are your thoughts?

[dave87]

Ditch the 650i - if you are trying to overclock it won't let you. Get the P5B Deluxe instead

[fisnik]

I'm so tempted... grrr. The p5b-deluxe also got the gold award for the 965 chpset at anandtech but on the other hand £50 more... I really wanna go for it but £50...

I'm undecided at the moment and I think I'll try and dig more stuff on the 650i, especially user comments.

How about all the other stuff? Comments on all the parts welcome. Especially with regards to the power supply or any memory compatibility with the p5b or 650i.

[Flewis]

The 650i overclocks well:

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/434/16/

and the bios looks fairly easy to work with. It is the older NF5 boards that dont allow overclocking.

Otherwise everything looks pretty good. Good PSU choice. Raptor gaming keyboard might be a bit excessive but its your choice.

[Smokey21]

Id probably get the 620W Corsair instead.

[fisnik]

I suppose £30 for a keyboard is a bit much. I could ditch that and get the 620W PSU from Corsair. The thing is what keyboard can I get that's not just cheapo unbranded one?

[Clunk]

You cant blame anyone for being skeptical about Nvidia/Intel based boards after their last few attempts.

I hope that the 650i boards turn out to be fantastic, but as Ive asked in another thread today, do you really want to be a guinnea pig for Nvidia, when, for a few pounds more, you can have yourself a guaranteed rock solid, high overclocking well supported motherboard? It should be a no brainer really.

[dave87]

The 650i overclocks well:

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/434/16/

and the bios looks fairly easy to work with. It is the older NF5 boards that dont allow overclocking.

Otherwise everything looks pretty good. Good PSU choice. Raptor gaming keyboard might be a bit excessive but its your choice.

I'm sure they can overclock well - a mate of mine has one and can't get much past stock on his e4300 with it...hence my suggestion of a tried and tested board...

[fisnik]

Well, I could get the p5b if I cut out the keyboard and put another £20 up. But the thing is I'm worried that it won't post with the memory i've chosen, because it needs more than 1.8v right? Is that something they've fixed? What bios does it ship with at the moment?

If I have to get some cheap ddr2 just to get it to post so I can change the voltage that will mean another £20 or so and also a lot of hassle.

[Clunk]

That ram is 1.9v (i think, mine is anyway), and boots perfectly, even at 1.8v, which is the board default.

[fisnik]

Well I just placed my order. After a lot of hard thinking and lots of reading, I went with the p5n-e 650i. The price is just too good. It will serve me well at stock settings and that's my plan at the moment. I will delve into the overclocking side of things once I'm a bit more comfortable and maybe there's better bios versions by then. There was a lot of good words about it and it seems with the release of new bios it will be a solid chipset.