First attempt at a build, please check it

skinnyman9000

New Member
First attempt at a build, please check it (now revised)

Ok. I have £1000 with which to build a computer system. The system will be used for office applications, internet, and gaming. The majority of games that i play are strategy, such as Civilisations, C&C, Total war etc.

I want the computer to run DX10 and support Vista in 64bit mode. So, here is what i have come up with:

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+, £106
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...ual+Core+6000++3.00GHz+(AM2)+?productId=26636

Motherboard: ASUS M2N-SLI DLX nF570, £67
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...nF570+Socket+AM2+Motherboard+?productId=23584

Graphics card: nVidia Geforce 8600GTS, £103
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...a+GeForce+8600GTS+256MB+PCI-E?productId=26919

Memory: Corsair 2GB PC2-6400, £94
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...PC2-6400+C4+XMS2+DHX+(2x1GB)+?productId=27053

Hard drive 1: Weestern Digital 400GB caviar, £63
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...rn+Digital+Caviar+SATA2+16MB+?productId=26226

Hard drive 2: Western Digital 36GB raptor, £69
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...ern+Digital+Raptor+SATA+16MB+?productId=23820

PSU: Corsair 620W HX V2, £94
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...620W+HX+V2+Series+Modular+PSU?productId=27954

Sound card: Creative X-Fi Xtreme gamer, £60
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Sound+Cards/Creative+X-Fi+Xtreme+Gamer?productId=26290

DVD drive: Samsung 18x DVD/RW, lightscribe, £20
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...g+18x+DVDRW+LightScribe+Black?productId=24551

Heat sink: Xilence Icebreaker 64 Pro, £18
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...er+64+Pro+HEATPIPE+AMD+cooler?productId=27938

That comes to around £700. That leaves me £300 to buy a case (can anyone recommend one that is easy to work with but not stupidly big) and a monitor.

The only thing im not happy with is the price of software, i'm going to have to spend an extra £150 just to get Vista Home Basic!!!

So, can people please comment on the system posted above. Will it work well together? Other recommendations? Anything overkill? etc etc.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Chris.
 
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pslee

New Member
you wont regret when you go with it! x2 6000 is neck and neck with e6600 but e6600 overclocks better. To be honest with you, I overclocked mine to 3.3ghz, but i don;t feel any difference. Overlclocking is just for benchmarks.
 

skinnyman9000

New Member
Would i really need to overclock a 2.66-3.0Ghz dual core processor though? To be honest i dont plan on overclocking anything, unless it will be necessary in the future.

It seems that the only variance would be with the processor and motherboard, although for my use i dont think i'll be noticing too much difference, or will the Intel provide me with a noticeable improvement?

My mother uses a AMD Athlon X2 64 dual core 4000+. and that does seem rather slow in Vista. Although that might have something to do with the rather low rated 1GB of RAM they have.

Will i notice an improvement with the 1333Mhz bus speed with the Intel over the 1000Mhz of the AMD?
 

pslee

New Member
Would i really need to overclock a 2.66-3.0Ghz dual core processor though? To be honest i dont plan on overclocking anything, unless it will be necessary in the future.

It seems that the only variance would be with the processor and motherboard, although for my use i dont think i'll be noticing too much difference, or will the Intel provide me with a noticeable improvement?

My mother uses a AMD Athlon X2 64 dual core 4000+. and that does seem rather slow in Vista. Although that might have something to do with the rather low rated 1GB of RAM they have.

Will i notice an improvement with the 1333Mhz bus speed with the Intel over the 1000Mhz of the AMD?

no. Even if you could count in miliseconds, you wouldn't feel the difference. If no overclock, go for amd. I did all those super pi, orthos, etc, but those are just number counter programs that doesn't tell you much of your system.
 

skinnyman9000

New Member
I have found a small problem though. That system somes to £700, WITHOUT a case, operating system, or a monitor.

Ive just visted www.pcspecialist.co.uk, and made the exact same system, with a case, and Vista home Premium, and a 22" widescreen monitor, for just £1013 delivered, hmmm.

The system on there has the same CPU, memory, a BETTER graphics card, slightly different motherboard, same sound card, same hard drives, everything:

AMD ATHLON™ 64 X2 6000+ (3.0GHz) 2 x 1MB L2 Cache (Socket AM2)

2048 MB CORSAIR XMS2 800MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x1GB)

ASUS® M2N: DUAL DDR II, S-ATA, x16 VGA, 3 PCI

WINDOWS® VISTA Home Premium (inc Genuine CD & License) (£59)

500GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7200rpm)

36GB WD Raptor® SATA 16MB CACHE (10000rpm)

20x DVD±RW/RAM/Dual Layer + Lightscribe (48 x CD-RW) (£16)

512MB GEFORCE 8600GTS PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT

Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ XtremeMusic 7.1: £48

Stylish Black/Silver Trident case + 2 front USB

700W Quiet Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£79)

WIDE 22 INCH TFT Silver/Black 1680 x1050 5MS D-Sub, DVI (£179)

Standard Insured Delivery to UK Mainland (Mon-Fri 8am-6pm) (Free)
 
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pslee

New Member
I have found a small problem though. That system somes to £700, WITHOUT a case, operating system, or a monitor.

Ive just visted www.pcspecialist.co.uk, and made the exact same system, with a case, and Vista home Premium, and a 22" widescreen monitor, for just £1013 delivered, hmmm.

The system on there has the same CPU, memory, a BETTER graphics card, slightly different motherboard, same sound card, same hard drives, everything:

AMD ATHLON™ 64 X2 6000+ (3.0GHz) 2 x 1MB L2 Cache (Socket AM2)

2048 MB CORSAIR XMS2 800MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x1GB)

ASUS® M2N: DUAL DDR II, S-ATA, x16 VGA, 3 PCI

WINDOWS® VISTA Home Premium (inc Genuine CD & License) (£59)

500GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7200rpm)

36GB WD Raptor® SATA 16MB CACHE (10000rpm)

20x DVD±RW/RAM/Dual Layer + Lightscribe (48 x CD-RW) (£16)

512MB GEFORCE 8600GTS PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT

Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ XtremeMusic 7.1: £48

Stylish Black/Silver Trident case + 2 front USB

700W Quiet Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£79)

WIDE 22 INCH TFT Silver/Black 1680 x1050 5MS D-Sub, DVI (£179)

Standard Insured Delivery to UK Mainland (Mon-Fri 8am-6pm) (Free)

Well, i assume that that is in pound. hmmm. I got my system (with out the monitor) for $1000 if that helps you. I had the monitor. And I assume that 1000 british pound is more than 2000 dollars. Well, i had the oprating system, cd drives, and my video card cost me less than what you are going to get, but that doesn't give me a good reason why you are spending more than 700 dollars (i am taking 300 dollars off for the monitor etc) than me. Also I got my system 2 months ago when the processor was 50 dollars more. Come on. you could find a better deal.
 

daisymtc

Active Member
IMO, I will go for intel C2D as maroon1 said. Although you are not ocing at the moment, you can still do it later if you 'feel' your pc is slow. If you getting AMD, you don't have such opportunity.
 

pslee

New Member
Well, I think many people judge that amd can't overclock from other intel people but amd chips are very overclock friendly. There is also different steppings with x2 6000 as with other x2 lines. If you have B8 stepping, you could go up to 4.0 ghz on water cooling. I have seen 3.7ghz with air cooling. It doesnt overclock as much as intel, but it is not non-overclockable like all the intel people are saying. You just have to watch out for B6 stepping if you are going to OC.
 

maroon1

New Member
C2D also consume much less power and produce less heat

6000+ is 125W

E6550 is 65W

Why would someone get a power hungry processor like 6000+ when you can get E6550 for around the same price
 

skinnyman9000

New Member
An Intel system will cost me more as the processor is £50 more ($100) and a comparative motherboard is also more, so i think i'll be sticking with the AMD.

The last AMD machine i had was spot on, and all the computers at my mums place are running the AMD 4000+ chip.

I am however going to use a single 500GB Samsung HD and upgrade the graphics card to the 8800 with the money saved.
 
An Intel system will cost me more as the processor is £50 more ($100) and a comparative motherboard is also more, so i think i'll be sticking with the AMD.

The last AMD machine i had was spot on, and all the computers at my mums place are running the AMD 4000+ chip.

I am however going to use a single 500GB Samsung HD and upgrade the graphics card to the 8800 with the money saved.


Nice thinking:);)
 

skinnyman9000

New Member
Ok guys, after taking various recommendations i have shuffled things around and i now have the following:

CPU - AMD Athlon X2 64 6000+
£115

Motherboard - ASUS M2N NF570
£64

Memory - 2GB Corsair PC2-6400
£95

Hard drive - 500GB Samsung Spinpoint
£61

Graphics card - XFX Geforce 8800GTS
£193

Sound card - Creative X-Fi Xtreme gamer
£50

Heatsink - Arctic cooling freezer 64 Pro
£11

DVD drive - Samsung 18x DVD/RW
£19

PSU - Enermax 720W Infiniti
£130

Case - Antec 900 Ultimate gamer
£65

Monitor - Samsung SM226BW
£225

Vista 64 Home premium OEM
£56

I have changed the hard drives for a single 500GB unit as I have been told that this is infact faster than the Western Digital raptor, and so this removes the need for the 2 Hard drives from before.

The graphics card has been upgraded as I felt this was a weak spot in the system.
The monitor has been chosen by a recommendation and it is able to match the resolution available from the graphics card.

The PSU is a bit on the expensive side, but I have been informed that this is a very good unit.

As you can see this system comes to £1084, which is slightly over budget but I would rather do that than buy components that im not 100% happy with.

My only concern now is the Ram. For the same price I can purchase 2GB OCZ PC2-8500 Reaper module, the only problem being that this runs at 1066Mhz and so the motherboard will need to be changed.

So, thoughts?
 

maroon1

New Member
And E6750 which is about £15 more kicks 6000+ ass

benchespx0.png


E6750 is clearly the winner ^^

And don't forget that E6750 consume way much less power, and it overclocks way much better than 6000+
 

maroon1

New Member
I have changed the hard drives for a single 500GB unit as I have been told that this is infact faster than the Western Digital raptor, and so this removes the need for the 2 Hard drives from before.

Who told you this incorrect information ? Samsung 500GB is not faster than Raptor

Only WD 750GB is currently the the only 7200RPM hard drive that performs on par with Raptor 150GB

And don't get Samsung. Westren Digital and Seagate are the best brand for hard drives. Either get WD or Seagate.........
 

skinnyman9000

New Member
Doh, just when i thought i'd sorted my system out too!

So the general concensus is that i should run an Intel system as opposed to an AMD one? If this is the case, then can someone suggest a motherboard for around £65 that is on par with the AMD one, and that is obviously compatible with the Intel chip.

So will a Western Digital 400GB 16MB cache hard drive be sufficient to effectively run my games?
 

skinnyman9000

New Member
Well i think i've finally decided upon the components, briefly its this:

Intel Core 2 Duo 36750 CPU
The gigabyte motherboard linked above
OCZ 2GB PC2-8500 Reaper memory
500GB Samsung hard drive
20x Samsung dvd/rw
XFX GeForce 8800GTS 640MB graphics card
Creative Xtreme gamer soundcard
Enermax liberty 620W PSU
Antec 900 gamer case
Arctic cooling freezer 64 heatsink
Vista home premium

So, what does everyone think?
 
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