Check me spec!

Joe T

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Hi all

I'm looking at putting together a new PC in the next few weeks, and I have come up with the following spec:

spec1.jpg


Any comments?

Cheers :)

P.S. As you can guess it's not for gaming. It will be used for everything else though!
 
That's quite a spec for £540 :eek:

My only thought would be, for a few extra pounds, why not got for the fully monty Vista Ultimate, rather than Home Premium?
 
That's quite a spec for £540 :eek:

My only thought would be, for a few extra pounds, why not got for the fully monty Vista Ultimate, rather than Home Premium?

I've heard that Ultimate doesnt really offer anything to most users over and above Premium. But I will do some more research anyway. Thanks

What site is that Joe?

I'll send you a PM. :)
 
This was what I bought back in March from ebuyer...

You have ordered the following items:
Item: Nvidia 8800GTX 768MB GDDR3 Dual DVI PCI-E Graphics Card OEM
Qty: 1Cost: 187.19

Item: Seagate ST3500320AS 500GB Hard Drive SATA II 7200rpm *32MB Cache* - OEM
Qty: 2Cost: 56.12

Item: Optiarc AD-7200S 20X DVD±RW/DL/RAM Internal SATA Bare Black Drive - OEM
Qty: 1Cost: 13.56

Item: Corsair 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL5(5-5-5-18) Heat Spreader Lifetime Warranty
Qty: 1Cost: 55.31

Item: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Energy Efficient 95W edition Socket 775 (2.40GHz) G0 Stepping L2 8MB Cache OEM Processor
Qty: 1Cost: 127.65

Item: ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP AiLifestyle Series P35 Socket 775 Socket eSATA 8 channel Audio ATX Motherboard
Qty: 1Cost: 75.40

Item: Arctic Cooling AC-FRZ-7P Freezer 7 Pro Socket 775 Processor Cooler
Qty: 1Cost: 13.13

Item: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium - Licence and media - 1 PC - OEM - DVD - 32-bit - English
Qty: 1Cost: 47.74

Item: Antec P182 Gunmetal Grey Super Mid Tower Case - No PSU
Qty: 1Cost: 68.92

Item: Antec TruePower Trio 650W PSU - With 3x 12v Rails and 120mm Fan
Qty: 1Cost: 64.00

Item: Microsoft Black Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 USB/PS2
Qty: 1Cost: 24.13

Item: Logitech Wave Keyboard - Ergonomic Keys - USB
Qty: 1Cost: 23.46

Item: SanDisk 12 in 1 USB Memory Card Reader
Qty: 1Cost: 13.01

Order confirmation email was priced excl VAT

Subtotal: 825.74
VAT total: 144.56
------------
Total: 970.30

well it was xmas and my birthday combined :lol:

edit. oh and the only thing I don't like is this keyboard. It will have to go soon!
 
Went for the wi-fi mobo because some other spec on it was better not because i needed wi-fi - can't remember now what it was though!

I wouldn't buy a case with a power supply already in it. bound to be a cheap PS.
PC is good at games - but you have a cheap graphics card.
You might consider a TV/capture card too.
 
Went for the wi-fi mobo because some other spec on it was better not because i needed wi-fi - can't remember now what it was though!

I wouldn't buy a case with a power supply already in it. bound to be a cheap PS.
PC is good at games - but you have a cheap graphics card.
You might consider a TV/capture card too.

I was looking at different versions of that mobo - was difficult to pick the right one - so I went for the cheapest! I will take another look though.

Word is that the powersupply with that Antec case is supposed to be pretty good. 500W should be more than enough for the spec I intend to run.

I dont think I need a TV card, as freeview isnt receivable in this area (I have freesat from sky downstairs) and I dont really want analogue lol!
 
Seems good spec to me. I would get a decent PSU instead of having the standard 500W one in it.

Why don't you get the (scrap that) :D? I know you don't play games but it seems a better card that the Rad
 
I've got a Q6600 processor with 4G RAM and very happy with it. I chose a P5Q PRO motherboard in the end but can't remember why... I think it may be the RAID function as I have a separate high speed system/application drive and then a 4x750Gb array in RAID5 giving 2.1Tb for photos...
 
Seems good spec to me. I would get a decent PSU instead of having the standard 500W one in it.

Why don't you get the (scrap that) :D? I know you don't play games but it seems a better card that the Rad

I'll research the PSU again. :)

I've got a Q6600 processor with 4G RAM and very happy with it. I chose a P5Q PRO motherboard in the end but can't remember why... I think it may be the RAID function as I have a separate high speed system/application drive and then a 4x750Gb array in RAID5 giving 2.1Tb for photos...

Sounds like a pretty hot system you got there! I'm not all that bothered about RAID for myself to be honest. :)
 
I'll research the PSU again. :)

The PSU will be fine it's a good quality antec one that has more than enough watts for that spec and is pretty well regarded in the industry. It's always been one of the key selling points for the sonata cases for me not only do you get an excellent quality branded case but also an similarly good quality power supply. go with it you won't be disapointed.
 
I would stick at least a couple of Hard Disks in.
 
The PSU will be fine it's a good quality antec one that has more than enough watts for that spec and is pretty well regarded in the industry. It's always been one of the key selling points for the sonata cases for me not only do you get an excellent quality branded case but also an similarly good quality power supply. go with it you won't be disapointed.

Thanks a lot. I'd just done some research and come to a similar conclusion.

However, I understand the Sonata can be pretty cramped? For similar money I can get the Antec Three Hundred Case and the same 500W Earthwatts PSU. The Three Hundred seems to have a better rating generally.

I am after a case that looks good - it's replacing a Lian Li PC-60, which is in gorgeous brushed aluminum! However, I dont want to spend £100 on a case alone again....:p
 
I would stick at least a couple of Hard Disks in.

There is a 750Gb included above, and I will probably add in a 320GB from my old machine (which has at least 4 drives in it at the mo!)

The other thing I'm trying to figure out is whether it's worth putting the OS on a separate partition (or even drive?)?
 
get rid of that spinpoint hd and but a 10,000 rpm WD raptor, or there new 15000rpm Raptor, far faster hd's. if you look at www.overclockers.co.uk you can get the Q6600 overclocked for 20 quid dearer, also they hae some good deals of faster cpu's and better boards
 
Also do not stick in a that GFX card with a system like that.

You may well find it holds it back somewhat.
 
Not a million miles from the upgrade I did recently either

Asus P5Q Pro
E8400
2X WG 640GB for data
2X Seagate 500GB for data
1X 320GB for Operating system and apps
4GB XMS 6400 C5
kept my 8800GT
Noctua NH-U12
Enermax noisetaker 535W psu

I was undecided between quad and dual and eventually went for the dual core because of the higher clock speed. Not being overclocked the comparisons between it and the quad meant there wasn't much difference between them for performance and it runs cooler.
 
I would opt for 756mb graphics card min, and i think the new version of CS4 will take advantage of the more powerful graphics cards too,

Otherwise, good :D

Gary.

Cheers. Given that the one I've included is only £25, I'll wait and see what happens with CS4 and upgrade if need be. :)

Just been looking at the current Lian Li cases. Dammit I might have to get one! :( :D
 
better graphics card would be a waste of money at this time as it won't improve the apps your running, you can always add one later should CS4 run alot better with one. I'd also stick with your spinpoint drives the raptors are not worth the money and the spinpoint F1's get very good reviews.
 
better graphics card would be a waste of money at this time as it won't improve the apps your running, you can always add one later should CS4 run alot better with one. I'd also stick with your spinpoint drives the raptors are not worth the money and the spinpoint F1's get very good reviews.

Agreed. Thanks :)
 
That about the same spec as mine that I got a few months ago, except I opted for 2 x 350gig sata drives rather than one big one as I like having seperate drives in case of failure and XP 64 rather than vista. Paid about the same money and it performs incredibly quickly. Had a few issues with the 64bit OS, but all sorted now and most things run quite happily on it, you should enjoy that one Joe :thumbs:
 
The PSU will be fine it's a good quality antec one that has more than enough watts for that spec and is pretty well regarded in the industry. It's always been one of the key selling points for the sonata cases for me not only do you get an excellent quality branded case but also an similarly good quality power supply. go with it you won't be disapointed.

Really? They used to be not very good when i used to build my own :)

Mind you, they used ro come with a 240W back then i think
 
antec PSU'sare not that bad - i have them in my 2 pc's at the mom and they have been gonig well for about a 1-2 years.

I always make sure they are never to capacity even at load so they run cool and quiet.
 
That bag of bits looks fine Joe, any better Gfx card will be a waste & the speed advantages of a Raptor drive would be minimal. You could RAID some drives for extra speed but if one pops you would lose all the data :(

What display/mouse/keyboard will you be using with it ? after all those are the bits you see/touch :)
 
That bag of bits looks fine Joe, any better Gfx card will be a waste & the speed advantages of a Raptor drive would be minimal. You could RAID some drives for extra speed but if one pops you would lose all the data :(

What display/mouse/keyboard will you be using with it ? after all those are the bits you see/touch :)

Cheers.

The display is an Acer 17" jobbie I bought 5 years ago for £400.... It's lovely and I dont really want to give it up right now! :p

Keyboard and mouse is a Logitech Cordless combo jobbie which is a similar age :p
 
Thats a wonderfull spec.

Where did you do your computer shopping for that?

And what a bargain must be a nice site if they exclude free shipping and VAT

Jordie
 
Hi all

I'm looking at putting together a new PC in the next few weeks, and I have come up with the following spec:

spec1.jpg


Any comments?

Cheers :)

P.S. As you can guess it's not for gaming. It will be used for everything else though!

Is that everything you need to build a computer? Cool, I thought there was a lot more inside the 'magic box' :D

Neil
 
Nice spec you got yourself there. I too have the q6600 with 4 gig ram and vista ultimate. Runs like a dream. There are hardly any apps at all that use 4 cpu cores so it will last you a fair while. As said above invest in a good psu mate, im not all that keen on ones that come with cases. I have corsair psu here in my pc and one in my server. Very good and highly recomended.
 
nVidia is matched up much better with Intel. I'm going to get multiple 320gb HDs with 16mb cache instead of one big HD.

I'm going to wait for Intel's new 6 and 8 core processors before purchasing the cheap Q6600 quad core. They'll be out by Christmas this year.
 
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