Can anyone tell me what they think of this

[skoda69rr]

is this any good for a gaming stroke multitasking pc

Asus P5Q PRO P45 Socket 775 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard
EV Blue Gaming Mid Tower Case With Windowed Side Panel - No PSU
LiteOn 20X SATA DVD±RW/RAM Black, Beige & Silver Bezels Inc Nero - Retail
BFG 9800GT OCX ThermoIntelligence 512MB GDDR3 Dual DVI HDTV Out Cuda and PhysX ready PCI-E Graphics Card Ebuyer Exclusive!
Seagate ST3250310AS 250GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 8MB Cache - OEM
Corsair 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL5 Lifetime Warranty
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2.5 GHz (FSB 1333MHz) Socket 775 L2 6MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor
Arctic Power 600W PSU - With PCI-E, 3x SATA, 20+4, ATX12V, 8pin +12V Connectors - Retail Boxed *Special Offer Price*
Extra Value 120mm Internal Case Fan In Black - 4 pin connector

 

[micahtheman13]

go with Western digital Hard Drive NOT seagate.

 

[aevm]

Get a HD 4850. There's no point in getting a Crossfire MB with an nVidia card.

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

Uhm, why the opposition to seagate? I've got one of their drives I've using for about a year with no problems. One my parents have in their machine is probably 3-4 years old.

 

[aevm]

There's nothing wrong with Seagate, yeah. I use Seagate at work and WD at home and they're both just fine.

I would however dump that particular Seagate model ($50, 250GB, 8 MB cache) and upgrade to this one ($80, 640GB, 32MB cache)

Seagate ST3640323AS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148335
It's faster and has a much better price per GB.

BTW, the equivalent WD product is WD6401AALS, same price, same speed.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319&Tpk=wd6401aals

 

[skoda69rr]

""""Get a HD 4850. There's no point in getting a Crossfire MB with an nVidia card.""""

a hd 4850??? i take it that is an ati card.

is this build any good for gaming and an overal good packeage for £550 pounds.

first time builder and need more advice.
thanks for the advice so far.

 

[aevm]

Yes, the HD 4850 is an ATI card. Most likely you'll find it listed as Sapphire or Gigabyte or HIS or Visiontek. Those are ATI partners who actually manufacture the card based on ATI's designs and chips.

It's a good gaming box. There are better video cards and CPUs (GTX 260 Core 216/HD 4870, Q9550), but they cost more and give you less performance for the money. The HD 4850 can give you 80 fps in COD at 1680x1050, or 30 in Crysis, or 41 in Oblivion. If you add a second one it will gain between 30% and 80%, depending on game.

I've never heard of Arctic Power. That in itself is a pretty bad thing. Not that I'm a PSU expert or anything, but still, it worries me a bit. Does that PSU have 2 PCI-E connectors with 6-pins each? You need one such connector for each card.

This PSU for example matches your needs and it's good quality:
Gigabyte ODIN GT 550W Modular PSU (GE-S550A-D1) £57.49 (41A)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp... Dual-SLi Compliant Modular PSU (GE-S550A-D1)

 

[skoda69rr]

fantastic help mate.
wasnt sure about all this but seem to begetting there.
have gone for a budget system, but trying to make it as good as possible for the money.

i take it because the motherboard has two graphic card slots im better of going for ati cos i can have two running alongside.

any other things you think i can change would be much appreciated. i probably have another £ quid to spend so can take system little further.

lastly can this processor be overclocked. i know the 6600 can and the 8200 cant. so can this one??

 

[skoda69rr]

by the way this is what the arctic power has....

Arctic Power 700W PSU - With PCI-E, 4x SATA, 20+4, ATX12V, 8pin +12V Connectors -

on www.ebuyer.co.uk

most popular power supply.. apparently.

 

[aevm]

The Q9300 can be overclocked, but it's bad at it. Multiplier 7.5 doesn't help at all. For example Q6600 has 10 and Q9550 has 8.5. The Q9300 also has a smaller cache than both.

That Arctic Power is OK for the price, but it's not honestly labeled. That should not be called a 700W PSU. It has two rails with 22A each, so you can expect at best 44A, more likely 35 to 40. Compare that with a Corsair 650W that claims only 650W but delivers 52A,i.e. way more than the so-called 700W from Arctic Power. Also, the Arctci Power comes with a single 6-pin connector, so you'd have a problem adding the second video card (assuming you get HD 4850 cards, which needs a single 6-pin connector each). Cards like GTX 280 or HD 4870 X2 wouldn't even work because they need two connectors each. There are solutions for that but TBH they're not worth it. Here's a quote from a reviewer. He needed two 6-pin PCI-E connectors for an 8800GTX, but two HD 4850 cards need the same thing.

The only thing i dislike is the missing PCI-e power cables. it comes with 1x adapter but this sis still no good if out have a 8800gtx like me where you need 2x 6pin power cables. The adapter supplied only uses 1x4pin molex, but I can''t find another like this anywhere and can only find one using 2 molex connectors. So i have had to use 3 molex power cables for 1 GFX card. Apart from that no issues

 

[skoda69rr]

so i might be better off going for a 9550. so which psu would you recommend?? ie the one you postd earlier.

 

[aevm]

If you can afford the Q9550 sure, it's much better, especially after overclocking.

If you can afford 76 pounds for the PSU, there's the Corsair 650W.
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/135514

It's one of the best PSUs, and with that one you have no worries even with an OCd quad and HD 4850 Crossfire. See, the minimum recommended for those cards is 550W, but an OCd quad is not exactly "minimum" so 550W is cutting it close.

Still, that Gigabyte would do too, if you don't add to many other things (disks, PCI cards, etc.)

 

[aevm]

Found another good deal:

PC Power & Cooling 610W, £71.29
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-002-PP

What the Corsair 650TX gives you for the extra 4 pounds, compared to this PC Power & Cooling:

3 more A on the 12V circuit - nice, but not really necessary for your setup

The PCI-E connectors have "6+2" instead of "6" pins. You don't care for HD 4850 Crossfire, but it could be handy if 3 years from now you dump those cards and get something that needs an 8-pin connector or two.