PC advice

[Barry Scott]

Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme QX6800 Socket 775 2.93GHz OEM Processor £576.93

I almost bought a 6600, on my new PC, but stayed loyal to AMD as i know Intel are a bit economical with the truth on their "64bit" processors, as well as their "Quad core" processors.

Correct me if i'm wrong, but I was also made aware that XP can't properly handle the quad core, and that the quad core is infact 2x32bit dual cores? I was also told that it can't truly function as a 4 separate/independent processors and, in fact, within a 64bit environment, is made worse and actually only functions as a dual core (due to it's 2, 32 bit dual cores) despite the OS understanding there are 4?

The proposed AMD 4x4 system (16 cores) will wipe the floor with Intel, it's just such a shame that everytime AMD produce a better chip than Intel, they can't keep up with demand.

[Peter Venkman]

I always used AMD for my own PC's and I will always recommend AMD to anyone but this chap insisted he wanted the quad core Intel so I thought fuck it, I will take his money, he has more money than sense!

I am going to have to investigate the space issue for the graphics card, I hadnt even thought about it to be honest Si, as I was only using one other card I was going to make sure they had a spare socket or 2 between the GPU and the sound card for some good airflow as airflow on that is going to be at a premium.

[Simon Pieman]

The space issue will be more to do with front to back rather than top to bottom. I think you should be ok as long as both hard drives are in one bay. Might be worth googling the case with the 8800gtx in the search too - I'm sure I read about it somewhere but I'm sure it's fine. I just know that the case is tight to work with (as I own it!).

[Peter Venkman]

Thanks for the head up, I am doing a few searches with that and a couple of other cases just in case no pun intended!

I just have not used that case before and thought it looked quite pretty....not £2,500 worth of pretty but pretty none the less!

[Simon Pieman]

It's a nice case. I expect an experience system builder such as yourself will find it ok to work with, just slightly more fiddly.

I've got a wi-fi card, tv card and 2 7600gt cards with massive heatskinks on them (passivly cooled) and it all fits ok. That's why top to bottom you should be alright.

The only major gripe I had with the case is that the front connection panel cable aren't too long. Other than that it is good quality and airflow is a major plus point.

[magicroundabout]

sipi,

whats the difference between the E6750 and the E8400???

which is better?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-192-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=793

[Simon Pieman]

The E8400 is definitely better. It utilises 45nm architecture instead of 65nm. In non geek speak this means it is more efficient (draws less power) and thus runs cooler than the 65nm equivalent at the same speed. In other words you can run it faster and still remain as cool.

The E8400 runs at a faster speed than the E6750 and also has a 6mb L2 cache, which means it is going to trounce the E6750.

Only issue is whether the motherboard supports the new 45nm technology. The foxconn does so that's ok.

[magicroundabout]

quality quality  

in that case maybe thats the cpu for me?!

going by reviews it overclocks really well.
get paid monday so might get half and then half next month

[Simon Pieman]

I've read 4ghz overclocks aren't out of the ordinary.

Cooling will have to be mental to get that though.

[Simon Pieman]

Going to get myself some faster memory after pay day as it is now so cheap.

Need to sleeve one last cable of my psu and make the final tidy up operation of all the wiring eventually as The case has a side panel window and I'm a neat freak.

May do that this weekend if I get bored and can be bothered.

[magicroundabout]

i'm so tempted just to buy the whole lot in one go but my final bills from my old house are bigger than i thought :evil:

in total it'll only come to £311 + delivery. thats ok isn't it  :?

then i can sell my PC5300 x 4gig towards it and also my mobo(nvidia Nforce 4 x16 sli) + CPU (Pentium D 3.4 dual)

how much on ebay for those do comp geeks reckon?

[Lash_sumthin]

get that memory this week just gone down by looks of it

£54.99 ex vat
(£64.61 inc vat at 17.5%)
 

[Simon Pieman]

i'm so tempted just to buy the whole lot in one go but my final bills from my old house are bigger than i thought :evil:

in total it'll only come to £311 + delivery. thats ok isn't it  :?

then i can sell my PC5300 x 4gig towards it and also my mobo(nvidia Nforce 4 x16 sli) + CPU (Pentium D 3.4 dual)

how much on ebay for those do comp geeks reckon?

Having a quick look:

Mobo won't get much, probably only a tenner.

Might be worth selling the memory in 2gb bundles, could probably get £30 for each set if you're lucky (which is much more than they're worth)!

CPU I think you could get £50-60 depending on number of bidders again.

So if you're lucky you may be able to sell all that for around £120

[magicroundabout]

that's what i was thinking with the memory. sell them in 2 x 2gig bundles.

i'm going to put them on ebay asap i think and then purchase the whole lot.

[Simon Pieman]

i'm going to put them on ebay asap i think and then purchase the whole lot.

I'd hang onto some of your old memory for now - the Ballistix are designed to run at 2.2v whereas standard setting in the mobo will be 1.8v. You'll have to boot up with one of your old sticks, change the 2 slots you want to put the memory in to 2.2v and then changeover. Otherwise it probably won't boot.

That said I'm not sure the memory you're getting will just switch the voltage correctly automatically and then I've just told you a load of bollocks    
But I would hang on to some old memory in case.

As for buying an Intel processor - you won't regret it. I was going to buy an AMD before Intel launched the Core2Duo. Luckily I put off buying my kit for a couple of months to see what the score with it all was. The fact is ever since then, Intel CPUs have been faster and cheaper in all the benchmarks. They're also better to overclock. Unless you're going for the cheaper-than-Intel market, you'd be foolish to buy AMD at this moment in time.