PC advice

[sonic youth]

my PC is pretty much fubar now and it needs upgrading anyway, so this is the time...this is what I've specced, thoughts?

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-E DDR2 ATX    £59.15
Hiper HPU-4M530 Type M Crossfire Certified 530W ATX2.2 PSU - Black    £34.00    
LiteOn DH-20A4P Black 20X DVD-RW Dual Layer - OEM    £16.95    
Intel Core 2 DUO E6550 2.33GHz 'Conroe' 4Mb Cache LGA775 (1333 Mhz) - Retail    £85.06    
Club 3D nVidia GeForce 8800GT 512MB DDR3 Dual DVI/TV Out (PCI-E) - Retail    £136.15    
Tekvalue 2GB (2x1024Mb) DDR2 800 PC2-6400 Dual Channel Kit    £25.49    
Samsung SpinPoint T 320GB 7200RPM SATA 3GB/s 16MB Cache - OEM    £39.99    
Club 3D Theatron DD 7.1 Soundcard - Retail    £25.49    
Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - No PSU    £58.00    

Total:    £564.34

[suttonred]

High failure rates on Liteon dvd drives would swap that, rest looks ok

[Simon Pieman]

If you only need 2 pci slots I'd get the DSP version of the motherboard as it will be cheaper. That said if you're looking to overclock I'd stay clear altogether, otherwise it's a good board.

I'd get the Corsair VX450WUK 450W PSU at £10 more...Corsair have very efficient psu's and have 5 yr guarantee on them. Although it's not modular which is the growing trend for power supplies (and rightly so).

Processor is really good, if you can, spare £20 more on the E6750 though.

I have the Antec 900. It's quality for air flow, not very roomy, but if you've built a pc before you should be fine. A modular psu will come in handy (see ablove).

[Simon Pieman]

Oh and the Samsung HD drives are supposed to be really good and in some cases faster than Western Digital Raptor X drives so that should be a good choice

[Simon Pieman]

Sonic I've just had a closer look at that power supply and actually I think it could be more suitable as it comes with ready sleeved cables - better for the case

[magicroundabout]

sorry to Hack your thread James but i'm after a new mobo/cpu etc for my XPS600.

I can only have P4 or P4d in my mobo and want to expand to duel/quad core cpu's.

thing is i've been told i can't upgrade my mobo cos the one installed is specifically designed for the XPS so no other will fit.

getting through to Dell XPS helpline is a nightmere so wondered if anyone on here knew any different

[Simon Pieman]

Dell use btx boards iirc so you'll need that form factor

[BANGKOK RED]

I'd beef the CPU up a bit more if I where you. I have an intel Pentium 4 (3 GHZ) and it does the job, but that's it. If you are a gamer SY, which I think you are then I don't think that 2.33 GHZ will do it for you.

[Samdy Gray]

It's a dual core though BR, so even though it's 2.33Ghz it's doing twice the work.

[BANGKOK RED]

It's a dual core though BR, so even though it's 2.33Ghz it's doing twice the work.

Mine's dual core as well, although I only have 1G Ram.

I'll get my coat.

[DMR]

Don't mention a fat lip or a black eye to a negroe  



Oooh push the envelope  

[Simon Pieman]

Dell use btx boards iirc so you'll need that form factor

Probably easier to get a new case, motherboard and processor at the same time and just swap the components over

[Peter Venkman]

Not a bad spec Sonic, and not a bad price to be honest, Liteon are ok DVD drives a lot better than they used to be, I have personally had 3 failures of philips DVD's.

If you can afford a slightly beefier CPU it might well be worth it, the other thing I would suggest...for a good gaming machine, which I do myself for a lot of builds I have done is...

Get an SLi mobo and get dual x1950pro ATI 256mb and crossfire them, they will far outweigh the 8800gt on performance, probably 50% more and for a similar outlay of cost, worth considering if you are a high end gamer.

[Pete]

8800GT is a fantastic card for the price, I've been using one for the last month.
Only drawback seems to be the fan speed setup, it's set to 30% and doesn't speed up until the temp hits 90degC.
I downloaded Riva tuner and reset it to 60%, it now idles at 45degC and 65degC during gaming.

cheers

Pete

[Simon Pieman]

I personally think SLI is a waste of time unless you need to run at high resolutions. Most singe cards can handle what's thrown at them these days.

Whether it's worth splashing the cash on a directx10 card or not is another matter. DX10 seems the biggest con of the year.