Hey guys.

I'm looking at putting together a new computer very soon. I've quickly made up a spec by browsing ebuyer.co.uk. Would you mind taking a look at it let me know what you think? I've not put a massive amount of research, I've stuck to things I've seen referred to as being of suitable quality or just had a bit of a guess.

The spec (including ebuyer.co.uk quickfind codes in case you want to look at details):

Antec Nine Hundred Case (118268) @ 70.69

Antec TruePower Trio 650W PSU (114933) @ 78.21

Asus P5N-E SLI motherboard (125082) @ 60.11

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (3.0GHz, 1333FSB, 6MB cache) (105994) @ 133.03

Arctic Cooling AC-FRZ-7P CPU Cooler (105994) @ 15.24

OCZ 4GB PC2-6400 Memory Platinum Performance CL5 (132904) @ 66.55

XFX 8800GT XT Edition 512MB (140128) @ 144.95

Western Digital 500GB HD SATA (124741) @ 51.62

Optiarc DVD/RW SATA (139414) @ 15.32

Which comes to a total of £636.35.

So, any thoughts? What components have I forgotten to look at? I've made a list and checked it twice and there are no glaringly obvious omissions!

I'm mainly going to use this setup for gaming but I'm not working with a massive budget (I can stretch to a little more) so bear that in mind if and when making suggestions. This seems like a reasonable amount of power for a reasonable amount of money but I haven't kept up with all the technology like these damn fangled multi core doohickeys. Should I be thinking about going for a quad core for some sort of future proofing or is that excessive/unnecessary?

Also, ebuyer.co.uk seems to be pretty good on prices does anyone know of anything better?

Anyway, you get the picture...some general thoughts as to whether or not this is a good spec (for the budget obviously) and suggestions/advice for different parts etc.

Thanks in advance

Tom

Do you really need SLI? I would get some P35 board instead.

This rig will get you to 3ghz no problems whatsoever on stock cooling and voltage. Add a decent cooler and you'll get 3.3ghz on stock volts.


http://www.overclockers.co.uk/viewcart.php




By Bramski25t

Looks good, you'll love the Antec case...I love mine, probably more than I should, but set the fans to high and it sounds like a jet I have them all on low and it's bascially silent.

I'd stick with that CPU, I wouldn't really get a lower one and overclock it, it can be done but you'll miss out on the higher FSB and cache. Dual cores are more than fast enough, QUAD's only start to pull away when using certain applications, would be a good future upgrade. Also the stock cooler that comes with the retail package is more than good enough.

The SLI is a good idea as well, give you the option to stick another card in there if you want to.

I might go for a little more powerful power supply, but thats it.

Quote from garph :

but you'll miss out on the higher FSB and cache

doesnt have any impact on games.

Yep, I went for the SLI motherboard so I'd have an easy upgrade option should I want it. Maybe there's no point but it's not much money extra for that option to exist and that's the entirety of my reasoning on the subject. I suppose I should probably get a slightly more powerful power supply to support this idea also.

I'm not going to be overclocking it, not right away anyway. I figured I'd try and get something fairly decent without overclocking it and also decided to get a beefier fan so I could overclock it later.

Overall I don't think it's a bad spec but I thought I'd post it here so people more knowledgeable than myself could highlight any potential issues that I might not know about with specific parts or parts in combination!

Quote from Bramski :

doesnt have any impact on games.

I wouldn't really agree with that, you can check the comparison out for yourself.

http://www.tomshardware.com/re ... che-size-matter,1709.html

Quote from Bramski :

doesnt have any impact on games.

It really really does mate.

My E2140 with the same Cache as the one you specced up has been Overclocked to 2.8Ghz. Dandaman05's E6750 is at stock speeds ot 2.66Ghz.

His, totally owns mine in everything. Despite mine even having a higher clock speed. His at stock beat mine at 3.0Ghz in SuperPi, in games he's nearly equal FPS with me, despite me having an 8800GT and him having an 8600GTS.

Cache means a lot, people say it doesn't but from what i've seen and heard, it does. Definately go for the E8400, they're a brilliant chip.

I'd go for a Gigabyte P35-DS3R over an Abit IP35 tbh.

On Intel the nVidia chipsets suck - they are expensive (compared to the frankly 1337 Intel chipsets), buggy, slower, poorer overclockers etc.

If you NEED SLi then get an SLi board - if not then go for a crossfire board - Crossfire is a much better technology than SLi, even if the cards aren't neccesarily as good.

well i had to order that case today
the shop keeper said:
its a great case for gamers, very loved
all i can add

It is a great case, plus the new ones have 2 cable routing holes in the case so cable management is not a problem anymore.

You might need the 24pin and 4pin motherboard power cable extensions, I did for mine.

I also used a cable tidy kit, was a right pain in the arse to fit but worth it in the end. It's extremely geeky but I'm very proud of it all.

And I got an additional side panel fan, not a neon one just a plain clear plastic one (Antec Tricool) as there is enough blue coming from the rear fan for me.