any problems/things I should change in my new system

[jamiejme]

Hi guys

I am just about to buy a new gaming system to replace my 3 year old laptop. I have done quitea bit of forum lurking and article reading to make sure that I make a good choice but before I buy it, I would really like to run it past some tech experts to see what you think of it and if you have any suggestions.

I want a good gaming system that can play games from the last few years and from the next 2 or 3. Good graphics is a definite bonus but I am not prepared to pay loads and loads for only a slight increase in performance.

Because of this, I am planning to purchase a SVGA 8800 320mb graphics card so that I can use their step up program when the G9 series comes out. That way, if prices for the 8800 series falls drastically or the G9 series are fabulous compared to the 8800 series, I can upgrade easily and painlessly.

I am going to purchase the actual system from http://cougar-extreme.co.uk for approx £550:

Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3.0 GHz 4Mb
Motherboard - QC - ASUS P5N-ESLI 1333fsb-DDR800x4
Hard Drive - 500GB SATA Hard Drive
Memory - 2GB Kingston DDR 667
PSU - Atrix 650Watt Transparent Blue LED 12v
Operating System - Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium■


Any suggestions/opinions on this build would be brilliant.

Thanks a lot!

 

[Maziar]

if u want to keep it for few years go for Q6600 ,
http://xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2quad-q6600.html
http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3038&p=8

also get DDR2 800 ram

 

[jamiejme]

Thanks for your reply!

In terms of quad vs Duo - I know that quad will be better in the future but I also want to be able to run games from the last few years. The Duo seems to always come out better for older games so I thought it would be good enough to last me for the next few years?

In terms of the faster RAM, I wasn't sure if this is worth it. I spoke to a few PC sellers about it. 1 guy said that you don't see much difference from faster memory and it would be better to spend the money elsewhere. The other guy said that the duo process wouldn't be able to take full advantage of the faster memory and so wasn't worth it.

Is it worth paying an extra £20 to get the faster memory or will the benefits not be that obvious?

 

[Mousemonkey]

Having run both the E6850 & Q6600 I can tell you that apart from video encoding the difference is minimal, the E6850 may have a better resale value however due to being a relatively recent addition to the C2D line-up whereas the Q6600 is coming on for a year old now and other than a stepping revision (which you would have to explain to the buyer no doubt) is unchanged. As for the RAM, I would say get the DDR2-800 or even DDR2-1066 but only 2GB if the version of Vista you have chosen is the 32 bit one, only get 4GB if you are getting the 64bit version.

 

[lordszone]

if u are going to overclock then ddr2 800 is better, else u will be ok with ddr2 667. as for q6600, it is better as the coming games will take benefit from multiple cores. like crysis. hope i helped

 

[Falken699]

Wouldn't go any less than 4 cores at this point either.

 

[sharp910sh]

i would get a better mobo, the p5ne sli sucks, get the asus p5k a much better board and supports the 35nm cpu's, and 1066 ram. i would get 800mhz ram

 

[Mousemonkey]

i would get a better mobo, the p5ne sli sucks, get the asus p5k a much better board and supports the 35nm cpu's, and 1066 ram. i would get 800mhz ram

[:mousemonkey:2] I think you mean 45nm surely, and let's not forget the Abit IP35's whilst we're on the subject of motherboards.

 

[sharp910sh]

oh i meant 45nm sorry

 

[aevm]

Atrix???

 

[Mousemonkey]

oh i meant 45nm sorry

No worries mate.

Atrix???

I think the 'get a better PSU' line has been done to death and back again so many times I couldn't be arsed. :lol: