Processor (CPU) INTEL® Core 2 Duo E6600 (2 X 2.40GHz) 1066MHz FSB/4MB L2 Cache Memory (RAM) 2048 MB CORSAIR DDR2 667MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x1GB) Motherboard ASUS® P5B: DUAL DDR2, S-ATA II, x16 VGA, 3 PCI etc Operating System WINDOWS® VISTA Home Premium (inc Genuine CD & License) (£70) USB Options 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS (4 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD Memory - 1st Hard Disk 400GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7200rpm) 2nd Hard Disk 400GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7200rpm) 1st CD/DVD Drive 18x DVD±RW/RAM/Dual Layer + Lightscribe (48 x CD-RW) (£17) Graphics Card 320MB GEFORCE 8800GTS PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT Sound Card Sound Blaster® Audigy® SE with 7.1 Surround Sound: £15 Network Facilities ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (ETHERNET) Memory Card Reader INTERNAL 57 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) Case Stylish Silver/Black Sigma case + 2 front USB Power Supply & cooling 600W Quiet Quad Rail PSU incl Case Fan & CPU Cooler (£69) The whole thing will be about £1000 I was thinking should I get the 640MB version of the same graphics card or is this one okay? it will make the price go up by about £100 if i get the other one though. Also is the processor ok? Was thinking of lowering it to a cheaper one :2 X 2.40GHz 2MB L2 Cache Getting a network card to connect my cable modem to is pointless right? if the case already has one built in? Currently I use a network card but I dont think i'd need one for the setup above? Anything else I need to know?
first off build a system to last that period of time is hard and you must invest a lot of money to make it worthwhile 1.Sound Card Sound Blaster® Audigy® SE with 7.1 Surround Sound: £15 i dont think you really need it the board im looking at(your model) has 7.1 unless it comes with a remote or something its pointless. built in sound cards give the same quality as cards 2.INTEL® Core 2 Duo E6600 very good CPU but the cpu in a system is the probaly the first thing to get outdated but it should last. if your looking for a multi tasking system this will run the programs(NOT games) in 5-6 years but get after market cooling otherwise you may risk decreased performance in the future if your temps are too high. there are lots of options with intel cpu's so there is lots of choices. 3.Memory - 1st Hard Disk 400GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7200rpm) 2nd Hard Disk 400GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7200rpm) you should buy a 10k rpm drive because in the future many programs are being made to incorapte faster hard drive write speeds in 3-5 years 10k will be standard 7.2k will become the 5.4k of our time other than that every thing should be fine. unless you plan on gaming 320mb video ram is fine on the 8800 but doubling it for 100 euros isnt bad either. i would either buy 640mb or get a lower end card. the memory and core speed are too fast to be useful for 320mb other than getting more bang for your buck(buying a new card in the future with 640mb would be more expensive than 100 euros) 320 should do
I do plan on gaming with the comp so you're saying that 320mb i want is a bottleneck for the cpu? 640mb is better?
FIRST "built in sound cards give the same quality as cards" rudsta if u have hearing prblms il let that one go but dude come on have u heard an x-fi card? once u hear that u would NEVER want to hear anything cheap again get ure facts straight now boco getting the video card with more ram would be better also get an x-fi card from creative and dnt buy the audigy all the parts seem ok so in the future all u would need is to upgrade the ram to 4gb (in 2yrs)
What do you guys think about the PSU? Its only 600 watts, with all that hardware I dont think it will be enough. And with high end videocards like that you want a top of the line PSU. I highly recommend the PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750 Quad, I have one and its a kickass PSU. Here are its specs..... *750W Continuous @ 40C (825W Peak) *Up to 90% (10dB) Less Noise per Watt *NVIDIA SLI Certified (Dual 8800 GTX!) *High Efficiency (83%) with .99 PFC *+12VDC @ 60A (Powerful Single Rail) *Rock-Solid, Super-Clean DC Output *24-pin, 8-pin, 4-pin M/B Connectors *Quad PCI-E and 15 Drive Connectors *Automatic Fan Speed Control Circuit *3-Year Warranty and Tech Support And its $199.99 Heres a link to the companies site for this PSU http://www.pcpower.com/products/viewproduct.php?show=S75QB And heres a link to this product at www.newegg.com http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817703008 The PSU is available in a Black and Copper finish. Newegg only offers the Copper finish, but I am fairly certain you can buy PSU's directly from the PC Power and Cooling webtsite.
not sure if i should laugh or cry.......sorry boco but this guys has never heard the sound thru a x-fi or played a game with a core 2 duo. as for needing better cooling in 5 years ?wtf? if you want better cooling get it now, what goods it going to do after your cpu has been too hot for 5 years? hes about right with the hard drives but if you run those 2 in a striped raid array it would give you the performance of a 10k hdd. add to this you could always get a 10k hdd in the future for your c drive if you needed to and use those 2 just for data. i would also go for an x-fi sound card not the audigy. dont try to save money on the psu, never a good idea. 640 or 320 mem...hhmm...right this second it wouldnt matter, no games are out that need that much or even dx10 to be total honest, will it matter in 5 years? probably yes if not before that. if you want it last you need to buy the best available right now, or purchase things that will allow you to overclock them in the future when you need that little bit more performance. also you wont need an nic add in card as that mobo has one built in.
why does x-fi sound better? i thought it was down to the speakers and not the soundcard? i have sony 2.1 stereo speakers why would having a better soundcard enhance the sound? and 600w is more than enough i would havc thought even with all that stuff
the sound card is the source and if the source makes a low quality sound it wont matter 1 little bit how good you speakers are. add to this the x-fi's (not all but most) have on board ram to free up your system ram and its own proccessor to free up the main cpu which aids the overall performance of your system. now there is no way for me to explain in words how much better my x-fi sounds compard to onboard hd audio, or compared to my mates c-media sound card. all i can say is that now i have heard one there is no way i would ever want anything else in my setup, not for gaming or for playing media.
For a 8800 GTS you need a minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 26 Amps. Thats what I found on average. So can your PSU deliver a constant 26 amps to the videocard? Whats the PSU company? What are its power ratings?
ok i'll be getting the x-fi xtreme music 7.1 card but just the card not the control unit and remote that comes with some bundles. Anyway I was wondering if i could get coaxial input with this card but without that control unit? I want to hook it up to my 7.1 speakers through coaxial
you might need another add on they sell for that it has all the digi in/outputs on a wire you plug into the back of the card. http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=16&product=1780
So is 600w enough for this rig? originally the price i was set at was £800 now its gona up by £400 to £1200 because of all these other costs. Should I just wait till summer for cheaper vid cards and hdd's and cpu's?
@Boco77 Please listen carefully. A sound card is a great addition to a PC, but it is not one that is vital to the system. A PSU that is feable/underpowered is a component that could/can seriously affect your systems stability and lets not forget that besides a PSU not supplying enough power if its built of shoddy components and/or built to crappy standards besides not just delivering enough power it could also damage every component that is recieving power from it and/or through a device delivering power to another device from it. For example, part A delivers power to part B. part A gets fried because of a fauly PSU part b has a great chance of getting friend because it is part of the circuit. So please buy a quality powersupply. If it cant be the one I suggested tell me how much power the card needs/give me a link to the cards specs. And I will find a worthy power supply for a price that will work for you. And I would stick with Windows XP, Vista has so many issues its not funny.
pea is right, a x-fi soundcard is a non essential componant, but if you are going to spend on a sound card it is the only way to go. if you choose another mobo you can pick one that has an audio digi out on board, such as the gigabyte ga-965p-ds3, there are many others but this one is the first that comes to mind, then you could add the x-fi later when funds allow. that is the case for most things as you can always add more later. you want to get the back bone of the system right now then you can add things as newwer tech gets released. pick the right mobo, ram and psu now and it will set you up for a few of years of hassle free computing.
Boco77, i wouldn't bother spending the extra money for the 640MB card...video memory is different than RAM in that the speed is more important than the amount...320 will be just fine...I once bought a ATI Radeon card (128MB) version...the 256MB version was 100 bucks more and it was just barely faster (so little so) that it wasn't worth spening that much more money...
Well, those specs are better than mine and mine will play every game i throw at it. One lucky thing foe me is the motherboard is Quad-Core compatible (MSI 975X Platinum Power Up Edition) so i can always upgrade the proicessor, and throw in another 2GB of ram.
