Been a while since I thought about an upgrade

[SamPNE]

...so I thought I would make another tedious 'what-goes-with-what' type thread.

Had my PC for about 2 years, its a poor AMD 3500+ thing which I got fairly cheap for starting uni. I did a few upgrades (HDD, GPU, PSU), but I am starting to get bored with it now, and as I have a well-paid summer job (£340/week) I can afford a PC with 2 weeks work (probably 3 weeks if I'm being realistic).

I put together a little list, tell me what you think:

Case: Coolermaster CM-690 v2 Dominator (could not seem to find the original which I saw somewhere and I don't know what v2 offers over it?)

CPU: Q6600 (going to O/C to at least 3.3Ghz)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS4 (nothing to say about this really - it seems a good overclocker!)

RAM: 4 x 1Gb G.Skill HZ 800mhz (my brother has 2 of these sticks in his PC and it is pretty fast - I want to beat him )

DVD/RW: Samsung SH-S223F/RSMN 22x DVD±RW x 2 (average joe)

Cooling: Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme (seems to be the most popular choice around here) plus a healthy scattering of Scythe S-Flex 120mm fans (bigger=slower rpm=quieter but still shift the same air - am I right?)

OS: Vista 64bit

PSU: OCZ GameXStream 700W (taken from my current build - has served me well)

GPU: GeForce 7900GS 256mb (its holding me back but I will upgrade it and the monitor eventually)

I plan to upgrade the monitor (Samsung 17" TFT) and graphics card at the same time, I am looking at the Samsung SM245B 24" monitor and either an ATI 4870 card, or an nVidia GeForce GTX 260/80 (still not sure) but this will be a while off and will cost nearly as much as the rest of the components put together!

This little lot comes out at £681.19 (Overclockers/Scan) WITHOUT the new monitor/graphics card, thats $1348.01 to you yanks. Just goes to show how overpriced components are over here.

So, what do you reckon? Help muchly appreciated

 

[The Zune Guy]

That is expensive...
Firstly, buy the Q6600 from the US, maybe from ebay (no customs?) or a site called Inferno Deals that was recommended to me (offers international shipping)
The coolermaster 690 is for sale on dabs.co.uk.
That memory you chose is very expensive. Perhaps someone might say otherwise but is there need for that knid of memory (Its not even PC2-8500?) Perhaps 4GB of normal Crucial Ballistix PC2-6400 memory, which uses the good micron chips would be cheaper and nearly as effective (People also say a lot for Geil Ram)
The Tuniq Tower is also an excellent cooler and the Freezer 7 Pro is cheap and effective but perhaps lacks the grunt for a Quad core
Get rid of the 7900GS as soon as possible. It doesn't have the power for newer games and will eliminate a good deal of the advantage brought around by the new CPU etc. If you can't afford a 4870, get a 4850 and maybe hold on for the monitor until a later date
The I have a lesser version of the motherboard. It's excellent!
Good Luck

What hard drive are you going to use

 

[SamPNE]

Thanks for the reply!

Teah I've just noticed the price of that G.Skill ram, why is it so expensive?? I mean, I know its good but not that good surely? I will probably get 1066mhz stuff for less. I have looked at the GeIl stuff and I can get 4GB for half the price, with 5-5-5-15 timings too. Looks good.

I think I will stretch and buy a 4870 (the 1gb flavour from Powercolor), I was thinking about it and I think I deserve it

Oh, the hard drvies will be 2 320gb Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 drives.

Anyone else have any opinion on this one?

 

[DawnOfDoom]

dont waste your money on a stupid little 7900GS your systems gona probably bottleneck because of it. Go for the 4870 now so you can go ahead and have it already. Not having a good monitor wont matter much so dont wast it on a 7900gs just to wait for a monitor. go ahead and get the new GPU and get the monitor later.

and PS if you do go for ballistix make sure you get dual sided ram because alot of people have been having issues with single sided ram from crucial. and excellent choice on Hard drives.

PS. x38 boards are excellent OC'ers for Crossfire if you wish to have crossfire eventually

and that gigabyte board is only open box on newegg so i hope you have sata cables

and if you dont wana crossfire then a P35 board is still excellent.

 

[Luke]

the normal crucial ballistix are all one sided, get crucial tracers as they are not one sided. JUst get one 500gb 7200.11, instead of 2 320gb.

The rifle is just behind the true in performance (over the tuniq and af7) and is much cheaper.


Also, my personal opinion on 1066 kits is avoid them, they up the timings and ****, so just get an 800 kit and overclock them, (sure you could tighten the timings on the 1066's but id still go for the 800's) Also try to grab a 2x2gb set, instead of 4x1gb.

 

[The Zune Guy]

Ok Sam (It is Sam?),
Post your final build if you go ahead with it just so we can see and
remember everything you've learnt in those few posts, these tips can be lifesavers!



(and generally money savers)