Comments on new build

[Lee Van Cleef]

I'm finally taking the plunge (after pay day) as I've pretty much finalised what I want, is there anything I should know before I splurge in 10 or so days?

MOBO: Asus P5Q-E iP45 Socket 775 Motherboard
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz 95W (Retail 775)
Memory: Patriot 4GB PC2-6400 C4 Extreme Performance (2x2GB)
Hard Drive: Samsung 500GB 7200RPM 16MB 3.5"
Graphics Card: Sapphire HD 4870 512MB PCI-E 2.0 Retail
PSU: OCZ 780W ModXStream Modular PSU
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit OEM
CPU Fan/Heatsink: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro


This is stuff I've already picked up:
Optical Drive: Samsung 22x SH-S223F DVD±RW
Case: Antec 900
Monitor: Samsung 2232BW
Keyboard: Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000
Mouse: Microsoft Habu

In particular I'm thinking about the CPU, is it worth getting the Quad, or should I get the E8400 which is the same price, thinking about performance in games (though the most challenging thing I will run will likely be Oblivion).

[Mul.]

Will you be doing any overclocking at all?

[Lee Van Cleef]

For the purposes of your question I'll say yes, why?

It's unlikely I'll do it straight out of the box. I've never done it before.

[Mul.]

My reasoning is due to the fact that it's a tie between the Q66 and E84/E85 if you aren't overclocking. If however you'll consider it the future, it's got to be the Q6600. You get four cores for the price of two and all you need to do is ramp up the clocks to make it a done deal :)

[Lee Van Cleef]

Fair dinkum, I was pretty much set on of the Q6600 from the start, it was just a question that seemed relevant to ask before I laid down the hard earned.

[Audigex]

Current games will run fine on the Q6600. They'll be happy as larry using 2 of the 4 cores and your lovely 4870, as will just about any near-future games. The ones after that should be 4-core compatible, so you'll be fine until you eventually need more power from all 4 cores and the Graphics card.

[solidsteve]

all seems apart from 3 parts to me

i would go with a different hard drive, a different power supply and a different set of ram

one of the power supply's i would go for is either corsair 750W TX (item number 29100) or the corsair 650W TX (item number 29099) there £69 and £60 but there quality

also for the hdd i would pick a 500gb seagate (item number 29640) or a 500gb western digital (item number 27026) there both £53 but again your paying for reliability

the ram again i would go for reliability over cost and go with a set of ocz ram, either item number 29106 it's £3 more then the super special offer but, or item number 32243 if you want one better it's a slight bit more costly but it would last

[Lee Van Cleef]

one of the power supply's i would go for is either corsair 750W TX (item number 29100) or the corsair 650W TX (item number 29099) there £69 and £60 but there quality

also for the hdd i would pick a 500gb seagate (item number 29640) or a 500gb western digital (item number 27026) there both £53 but again your paying for reliability

the ram again i would go for reliability over cost and go with a set of ocz ram, either item number 29106 it's £3 more then the super special offer but, or item number 32243 if you want one better it's a slight bit more costly but it would last

The OCZ PSU should have been under the already ordered section, it was pretty cheap when I ordered it (on supersaver) had to return the original unit though as it had been damaged, replacement has been sent out to me.

Samsung not reliable for HDDs? I understood everyone was raving about the F1, and as you can see from some other items, I generally trust Samsung products.

The reason I went for that particular RAM is the low latency timings, which I understand to be pretty good. I was looking those OCZ sticks but the Patriot swayed me from some reviews.

Anyone else have any thoughts on these items?

[wonderlust]

I am running 2 sets of the 2GB kits (2x1) and I am very happy with them.

[solidsteve]

The OCZ PSU should have been under the already ordered section, it was pretty cheap when I ordered it (on supersaver) had to return the original unit though as it had been damaged, replacement has been sent out to me.

Samsung not reliable for HDDs? I understood everyone was raving about the F1, and as you can see from some other items, I generally trust Samsung products.

The reason I went for that particular RAM is the low latency timings, which I understand to be pretty good. I was looking those OCZ sticks but the Patriot swayed me from some reviews.

Anyone else have any thoughts on these items?

fair do's on them, the reason i looked at the samsung hdd was because i seen a lot of mixed review's and topic's on different sites so rule of thumb tells me look at the best 3, they fair 3rd (in my opinion) behind seagates (1st) and western digital (2nd)

your still getting a good drive but personally i would go for a different one

[Lee Van Cleef]

fair do's on them, the reason i looked at the samsung hdd was because i seen a lot of mixed review's and topic's on different sites so rule of thumb tells me look at the best 3, they fair 3rd (in my opinion) behind seagates (1st) and western digital (2nd)

your still getting a good drive but personally i would go for a different one

My initial tendency has always been to go to WDs they are built like bricks, so I agree with you in that regard. I will definitely get another one at some point for backup purposes and probably a 1TB at some point for storage (nudge nudge, wink wink).

Point taken, however.

[solidsteve]

have you thought of getting 2 in raid, i've just got 2 500gb western digital hdd's for (at the time) £30 less then a 1TB drive and that's still the case but you would be saving about £10-£15

2 750gb hdd's come to £130 where a 1TB drive is £120, i think the extra £10 is worth a extra 500gb

[Audigex]

Plus give more options for splitting up data. Better than partitioning.

[Lee Van Cleef]

Sadly the concept of RAID doesn't make any sort of sense to me whatsoever. I'm having problems even understanding what the motherboard booklet is telling me regarding the PSU connectors.

[wonderlust]

Stripped raid no parity (raid 0) = good chance of loosing data further down the road.
mirrored raid (Raid 1) = good chance of keeping all your data but loosing 50% of your disk space as 2 drives are duplicated.
Striped set with distributed parity (Raid 5) requires at least 3 drives and you loose maximum a thrid of your drive space, but If one drive dies you keep all your data.

more info

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks

[Lee Van Cleef]

That sounds complex to set up.

[wonderlust]

not really, just select raid in bios then follow on screen instructions.

[Lee Van Cleef]

Raid 1 sounds pretty handy I must admit. That said, can you have three drives with two in RAID and one not?

[Audigex]

Yes.

Although if you're using 3 drives, you may aswell use raid 5.

3x 500gb drives in raid 5 = 1TB of storage. Any one drive failing can be rebuilt using the other two.

So if you're using raid 1, you have nothing to lose by moving it to raid 5. You don't lose any storage, and all the data is mirrored.

Striping is good for performance, but most people wouldn't notice the difference.

[solidsteve]

seen where talking raid i got a question

if you have 2 hdd's in raid 0 can you add a third a few months later and make it raid 5 without losing data

[marsey99]

depends on the controller but for most modern ones yes. you can add more to the current array, as a mirror (but this would take some time to set up and can require 3rd party apps) or just a bunch of disks.

[Lee Van Cleef]

Well I've just set it up with one HDD right now. Only have one Sata drive in the house and I needed to get everything running to see how it goes.

Thanks for all the help, the PC is running fine (and spiffingly blue) just got to transfer all the old **** I want from my old PC now, which should take a week or so then I can start to make use of the 4870 (which surprised me with how big it actually is!).

I'll post pics when everything is ship-shape.

[Lee Van Cleef]

Holy mother this is strange. I'm not used to things looking this good.

[solidsteve]

i know i just got my pc from the guys at aria, it has a Q6600, 2 500gb hard drives (in raid 0) and a 4850 graphics card in, that with a nice 26"hdtv its great

[alexnifty]

Holy mother this is strange. I'm not used to things looking this good.

The problem is that you then get used to things looking good and can't go back to using anything budget!


Like going from 15" to 20" to 26" to 30" etc. You can't go back!
EDIT: I mean monitors. Obviously.

[PeterStoba]

EDIT: I mean monitors. Obviously.

:lol::lol:

[solidsteve]

The problem is that you then get used to things looking good and can't go back to using anything budget!


Like going from 15" to 20" to 26" to 30" etc. You can't go back!
EDIT: I mean monitors. Obviously.

i second that (the monitor part :lol:) i went from a old 15" (the big *** ones) to a 17" tft to a 20" to this 26" hdtv

the next one up for me is either a 32" (with sli or crossfire) or a 40" :|

[alexnifty]

Yeah that's the problem! If you get a bigger screen then you start having to get more and more expensive with your PC's specs to run it native.
I have a 20" monitor and I'm sticking with it until it dies!

[Audigex]

17" desktop and 15.4 laptop. I sit so close to either I'd have to start side-stepping to see the edges of the monitors.

Next upgrade will probably see a 19-21" (depending on how much is left at the end of my budget) which will have to last until it dies.

[alexnifty]

Actually I went back in terms or resolution. From a 17" 1920x1600 laptop screen to a 20" 1680x1050, did take a little bit of getting used to the larger icons.

[solidsteve]

well this screen i have can do 1950x1080 (which is good but not the best) but i have it sat on a computer table like you would have a 17" or a 19" sat there and it seems small now its been sat like that a few months

i couldent see me going smaller now that i'm used to this, i strugle looking at my nan's 19" monitor

[Lee Van Cleef]

I installed Morrowind last night because I never got to play it much originally as my PC was already struggling when it first came out. Now I'm running it on full in a huge res and I'm able to leave stuff open in the background. I'm feeling lightheaded at how much this thing has changed my usage already.

[alexnifty]

Your insulting that 4870 by running the likes of morrowind on it! Get Crysis on there.

[Lee Van Cleef]

Your insulting that 4870 by running the likes of morrowind on it! Get Crysis on there.

I don't do FPS. Well, except for CS.

[Lee Van Cleef]

Pics for those interested:

http://forums.aria.co.uk/showthread.php?p=56592#post56592

Thanks for all the help to people who suggested items and put up with my dumb questions.

[Audigex]

What was your final cost overall?

[Lee Van Cleef]

£1044.90 all in. Have to say that so far I'm loving it, it is a fair bit of cash to spend on something but I searched around for the cheapest prices I could get (about half the gear came from Aria), and some of the other sites enabled me to get cashback through Quidco and similar websites so I'm content with how much it ended up at.

[Audigex]

Nice. I mainly ask because I want many of the same components as you (same mobo, cpu, ram, gpu and case) - but I'm on a slightly lower budget :(

[Lee Van Cleef]

If you look about you can get the 4870 for around £170-ish, the case is usually around the £60 mark and I bought the CPU and Mobo from Aria on Superspecials.

[Audigex]

Yeah, I'm hoping the Q6600 goes back onto superspecial. I'd imagine it will - aria are making big sales off it I think (well, they go quick enough).

Sales team - if you could put all the above items on superspecial at the same time, that'd be grand :D thanks