Honestly

[camifex]

I wish it was easier!

Background; I live in Austria and my German language skills are bad, so i generally dont trust what i dont understand.
I play games like Silent Hunter 3, Neverwinternights and want to download American Army.

Which brings me to my problem, I need a new rig.
I am a mere novice when it comes down to it so i asked for advice at an Austrian PC shop, He gave me this list.

- Intel Core2 Duo E6600 2x2.4GHz 4MB Cache
- nVIDIA GeForce 8800GTX 768MB DirectX 10 Support 2xDVI
- 1024MB DDR2 800MHz (2x512MB)
- 150GB SATA 10,000rpm 8MB Cache
- 18xDVD/RW Duallayer +/- Multiformat
- 7.1 sound on Board
- ASUS P5B Deluxe WIFI Edition
- CPU cooler Noctua Highend Ultra Silent+ 12cm Ultra Silent fan 8db
- Networkcard GB Lan on Board
- 700Watt Tagan TG700-U35 Easycon XL for SLI or Crossfire
- Thermalake Kandalf Big Tower

The problem for me is i dont know what its all about. I dont want to upgrade for a long time if possable and still play the latest games.

Honestly do i need to spend all that money for what i need?

 

[Flewis]

To be honest, all that is overkill if you dont require all that power, its probably a bit over the ideal price/performance ratio.

Firstly the only underestimate you have made is the RAM, i think everyone would recommend 2GB of RAM and make sure it is 800MHz or more and of 4-4-4-12 timings rather than 5-5-5-15.

A 6400 would suffice and outperform a 6600 if you overclock, use wusy's guide: (difference in cache only gives about 5% performance gains)

http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/Core2Duo-Overclocking-Guide-v1-ftopict197995.html

The GTX may be in excess aswell, the GTS would probably do fine.

The ASUS board is fairly expensive, the gigabyte ds-3 is a good value board and will overclock well.

The 150GB 10K drive may be a bit much too, get a smaller 10K drive for OS and apps, and get a big 7200rpm drive for storage.

The PSU maybe be slightly over the top but a good psu is essential. Someone who knows a bit more about PSU's may be able to help.

With these adjustments you will save a lot of money and get a very similar spec'ed comp.

 

[XrayMan]

Firstly the only underestimate you have made is the RAM, i think everyone would recommend 2GB of RAM and make sure it is 800MHz or more and of 4-4-4-12 timings rather than 5-5-5-15.

Well, 800 mhz usually has the 4-4-4-12 and the higher mhz ram is usually 5-5-5-15. So are you saying the 800 mhz is better than say, 1066 or 1200? I thought higher mhz = faster ram!

 

[Flewis]

sorry, higher speed ram rated at 5-5-5-15 is fine and will be faster than 800MHz ram at 4-4-4-12. All i was trying to say was to get 4-4-4-12 800MHz RAM over 5-5-5-15 800MHz RAM. Once you increase the speed, higher timings become extremely expensive.

 

[XrayMan]

Ok, Thanks for clarifying it for me.

 

[camifex]

Thanks for the advise and tips.

Ive just come back with an update it looks like i will only save 100 or so Euros. Which is good now ive ended up with this

Intel® Core™2 Duo nVIDIA Quad SLI Ready
- Intel Core2 Duo E6400 2x 2,13GHz 2MB Cache
- nVIDIA GeForce 8800GTX 768MB DirektX 10 Support 2xDVI
- 2048MB DDR2 800MHz G.E.I.L Low Latency (2x1024MB)
- 500GB SATAII NCQ 16MB Cache 7200rpm
- 18x DVD/RW Duallayer +/- Multiformat
- Sound 7.1 Sound on Board
- Mainboard EVGA nForce™ 680i SLI Motherboard
- CPU Cooler Noctua Highend Ultra Silent+ 12cm Ultra Silent Fan 8dB
- Network card Dual GB Lan on Board
- Fire Wire on Board
- WLAN/ Bluetooth WLAN 54Mbit Card PCI Rw. 550/115 Meter
- 700Watt Tagan TG700-U35 Easycon XL for SLI or Crossfire
- Watercooled Tower Thermaltake Kandalf LCS

I also need a monitor any suggestions?

 

[ARM]

To be honest, all that is overkill if you dont require all that power, its probably a bit over the ideal price/performance ratio.

Firstly the only underestimate you have made is the RAM, i think everyone would recommend 2GB of RAM and make sure it is 800MHz or more and of 4-4-4-12 timings rather than 5-5-5-15.

With these adjustments you will save a lot of money and get a very similar spec'ed comp.

I feel there is a contradiction in terms here.

Yes, 2GB is needed, no DDR2 800 is not.

DDR2 800 RAM is overkill and costs about £40 more than DDR2 667 RAM, which is STILL overkill. This is because, i assume that you will run the RAM in dual channel configuration? DDR2 533 WILL RUN IN 1066 when in dual channel, because 533*2=1066. DDR2 667 is good for overclocking an e6600 to 3Ghz, where you don't even need to overclock the RAM to get the 1:1 fsb ratio (which is good). DO NOT recommend DDR2 800. Ever.

 

[ARM]

Are you going to OC? If not, then you really don't need the water cooled tower.

And how much are you paying for your motherboard? It's like £190 at scan, almost 300 euros. That is way too much. The Abit AB9 Pro is supposed to be a good board for £90, 135 euros.

 

[calyn]

Like others said, the 8800GTX can easily be downgraded to a 8800GTS. It doesn't appear you do any gaming actually validating the purchase a GTX and the difference is 150-200 euro's. Also, I'd avoid a generic brand DVD/RW, the money you save on the graphics card can be put towards a Plextor 760 DVD/RW. The watercooling seems completely unnecessary as well, and unless you want to overclock heavily, you'll do fine with the stock HSF.

 

[Flewis]

Personally i would spend the little bit extra on 800MHz RAM, its not much more than 667MHz and it means you could take a 6400 to 3.2GHz without overclocking the RAM.