FooAtari

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Hi folks.

Im planning on building a new system in the very near future, and just wanted to get some opinions on this setup....

Asus P5N-E SLi nForce 650 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Intel Core 2 DUO E6600
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400
BFG GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3
Hitachi Deskstar 7K160 NCQ 160GB
Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 NCQ 320GB SATA-II
Antec TruePower Trio 650W PSU
Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Aluminium Midi-Tower Case
Samsung SH-S182D 18x18 DVD±RW ReWriter
Belinea 2225S1W 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32-Bit Edition DVD

Ive gone with Vista 32-bit as I was told elsewhere that running 64-bit would cause no end problems...

Also will the GTS be ok with a 22" widescreen monitor or is it more suitable to maybe a 19" widescreen. I cant really stretch to a GTX. I can always stick in an other GTS later I guess. Anyway, thanks for any advice.
 

akhilles

Splendid
Hotter than an overclocked prescott.

The Vista 32 I tried had trouble installing XP drivers. Beta Vista drivers are fine. There were no Vista drivers for my mobo. What I'm trying to say is make 100% sure there are Vista drivers for your parts, particularly the motherboard. Or the Vista disk will be your next coaster.
 

FooAtari

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Thanks.

So nothing there you would change. It's all good clocking hardware as far as I can tell. I'll check the drivers, thanks.
 

sirrobin4ever

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Why the 160 GB hard drive? Do you already have it? If not, I would suggest buying a larger 500 GB HD instead of two smaller ones. I'm a Western Digital fan myself....so here.

Best of Luck
 

FooAtari

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Well I might dual boot Ubuntu/Vista on this sytem, not sure yet... So one drive is bascailly for the OS, or both of them if I install Ubuntu on it. And the second drive is for storage.

I read on the site that the Hitachi 160GB offered slightly better performance as it was a singe platter. No truth in that? And the 320GB seems to offer good value, there seemed to be a sudden increase in price for sizes above that.

Any comments on the mobo?
 

FooAtari

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yeah, it does get good reviews. Think ill stick with it...


What about the 8800 GTS? I read under DX9 its not any faster than the 7950 GX2. Anyone know when we will start to see the first DX10 games. Maybe I would be better getting a ATI 1950 Pro and waiting for the GTX to drop in price, or see what the R600 can do... But then perhaps by the time the GTS is struggling I could just stick in another one anyway. Is the GTS worth it, will it cope with the first wave of DX10 games

One other thing....

I have seen two monitors both at the £200 mark, one a 20" widescreen with DVI, the other a 22" widescreen without, only VGA. I do fancy a bigger screen, and I read that if you setup VGA correctly there is little difference between VGA and DVI connections. Any thoughts?
 

-silencer-

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You'll be fine with the 8800GTS, even on a 22" monitor. I refuse to ever buy a Hitachi (IBM) Deskstar hard drive after the massive amount of problems I had with multiple Deskstar GXP60/75's. Go Western Digital SE16 or Seagate Barracuda 7200.10.. I prefer the SE16's.
 

FooAtari

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I'll check out other hard drives. See waht the score is, thanks :)

Anyone got anything to add on the DVI v VGA? I think I am fairly happy with the setup, just not sure weather I should go for a 20" DVI or 22" VGA... Both appear to be good monitors with 5ms response times.
 

sirrobin4ever

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I decided to check out the Hard Drive charts after your response....and surprisingly, the Hitachi IS faster....strange. (Usually large capacity drives have higher read speeds....)
Anyway, I agree with silencer; I WILL NOT buy a Hitachi drive. From my experiences, they tend to not be incredibly reliable. In addition, Maxtor hard drives are fairly unreliable, and run very loud, in general. I suggest a Western Digital or Seagate hard drive. They should be priced competitively.

As for the monitors, what are the resolutions? What brands?

Best of Luck
 

-silencer-

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I decided to check out the Hard Drive charts after your response....and surprisingly, the Hitachi IS faster....strange. (Usually large capacity drives have higher read speeds....)
Anyway, I agree with silencer; I WILL NOT buy a Hitachi drive. From my experiences, they tend to not be incredibly reliable. In addition, Maxtor hard drives are fairly unreliable, and run very loud, in general. I suggest a Western Digital or Seagate hard drive. They should be priced competitively.

As for the monitors, what are the resolutions? What brands?

Best of Luck

Yep. I never said the Hitachi (IBM) deskstars didn't perform. the Deskstar 60GXP drives were easily the best available before WD Raptors came on the market. The problem I had was with reliability.. out of the blue.. sometimes weeks.. sometimes months.. the drives would just die. I don't care about a warranty replacement when I'd receive the same unreliable 60GXP in return. I never had a 60/75GXP last longer than a year and a half.. that's pathetic. I've never had another brand last LESS than 2 years.

Suffer a 1% performance penalty to support a better history of WD or Seagate? That's fine with me - I don't want to deal with the hassle of replacing hard drives that frequently ever again. Now go compare which drives are better for temperature and noise.. I'd bet the WD SE16 and Seagate 7200.10's are better. Less heat generated inside the case is better for the rest of the system, so I'd gladly take a slightly slower hard drive for that benefit.
 

FooAtari

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Ok guys, point taken :D

For OS ill go for a Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 160GB 1600AAJS. Apparantly very quiet, with low temps. And still quick.

for storatge, Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS.

As for the displays. I am looking at two.

Belinea 2225S1W 22"
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-006-BE

- 1680 x 1050 (WUXGA) Optimum Resolution
- 16.2 Million Colours
- 1000:1 Contrast Ratio
- 5ms Response Time
- 300 cd/m2 Brightness
- One Analogue Input
- Integrated Speakers
- Warranty : 3 year on-site warranty supplied by Manufacturer (Call Belinea direct for all support and RMA issues on 01344 788920)

Dell E207WFP 20"
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-012-DE

- 1680 x 1050 Optimum Resolution
- 16.7 Million Colours
- 800:1 Contrast Ratio
- 5ms Response Time
- 300 cd/m2 Brightness
- One DVI-D Input w/HDCP Support
- One Analogue Input
- Warranty : 4 year next business day exchange supplied by Manufacturer (Call Dell on 0870 9080800 and have the work number from the original packaging handy)

Both get good feedback from customers who have bought them.

Specification wise the Dell looks better, with HDCP support and DVI. But the Bilinea is larger. However both having the same optimum resolution I guess I would get a shaper image on the dell, and when using it on my desk it will be a mere 1 or 2 feet away so 20" should be big enough... I wont be using it for watching films or anything. I have a 32" for that :)
 

sirrobin4ever

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Such a tough choice....
The Belinea has larger size going for it, while the Dell has features...
The specs for the two monitors look about the same. Personally, I would go with the DELL, but that is only because I am partial to DELL monitors. Historically speaking, DELL has a very good track record with monitors, delivering high quality monitors at a low price. I also like that the DELL has a higher pixel per sq. cm count, which, as you said, makes the picture sharper.

Best of Luck
 

akhilles

Splendid
Dell - I had used the 19" quite extensively at a programming class.

8800GTS is fine. The first DX10 game I think is Crysis. Google it & click images & drop your jaw. Or my bad, I think it's MS Flight Sim X. So that makes 2 games?
 

FooAtari

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It is a tough choice sirrobin. But the Dell is a little cheaper and should have better image quality, which I think I would rather have over an extra inch or two. At the moment im leaning towards the Dell

I have seen the shots akhilles and the videos and everything else 8O

Thats not due out until the middle/later part of the year I thought.... Which is why I thought maybe id be better going with a cheaper DX9 card and seeing how things work out. But I also read CoH has a DX10 patch on the way, and I already have that. finally, I thought C&C Tiberium Wars was DX10 and due in March.
 
The Belinea 2225S1W 22" uses a 6-bit LCD screen. The Dell E207WFP 20" uses an 8-bit LCD screen.

6-bit LCD screens are inexpensive compared to 8-bit LCDs because they are less color accurate. Each color (Red, Green & Blue) uses 6 bits to represent them. That means that there are 64 (2^6) shades of each color. The 64 shades of each color can blend together to create 262,144 colors (262,144 = 64^3 = 64 x 64 x 64). The monitor uses interpolation (aka guessing) to figure out the 16.2 million colors. These monitors tend have lower response times because fewer "actual" colors are being used. This means less color acurracy and some slight burring effect. Great for games, bad for video and pictures.

8-bit LCD screens are more expensive than their 6-bit counterparts because they use more registers for the shades of each color. 8-bit LCD can display 256 shades of each color (256 = 2^8 ). Because of that these monitors can really display 16.7 million colors (256^3). In general 8-bit LCD screens offers better colors and are sharper than the 6-bit LCD screens. But they also have a slower response time due to all the colors and are not as good for gaming. But they are great for video, pictures and text.

Generally speaking, you are more likely to see motion blur when gaming on the 8-bit LCD than the 6-bit LCD. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses. If it were my choice, I'd buy the Dell.
 

FooAtari

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Nice explantion, thanks :)

Still not sure though, lol. I am upgrading mainly for games, but I do use my PC just as much for non game related purposes. The Dell has a response of 5ms. I think my current LCD has 12, and I have not had much issues with ghosting on it. Is it something i'm likely to notice on the Dell?

I also noticed the Bilinea has a higher contrast ratio, as I understand it this should provide better blacks and dark colours?