Building new pc

[Terminat.]

Okay, I'm considering (i.e. possibly) building a new computer, however I haven't been following the new technology much, so I could use a bit of advice. What do you think of the spec so far (haven't chosen on a case yet)?

1 x ASUS Crosshair SKT AM2 nForce 590 (£140)
1 x AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ 2.2 GHz Socket AM2 L2 1 MB (£112) 2 x OCZ 1GB DDR2-533 PC2-4200 Value Series (£130)
1 x Connect 3D X1900XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV Out Dual DVI PCI-E (£152)
1 x Hitachi 250GB T7K500 HDT725025VLA380 SATAII 7200rpm 8MB Cache (£47)
1 xWindows XP Home with Vista upgrade coupon (£57)

Also, I've got several questions for you guys:

1. Is the RAM okay? I know the AM2 processors run on a 200Mhz FSB, so is getting 533Mhz memory way too fast?

2. Which is better, the X1900XT or the Nvidia equivalent ? I know directx10 has come in the shape of the 8800 series, so hence why I'm only buying a mid-range directx 9 card - it'd be pointles to get a top-of-the-range one lol.

3. Speaking of directx 10, now that windows vista, should I spend the extra £100 ($190) or more and get Vista, or just buy XP Home with an upgrade coupon (meaning I can upgrade to vista for an extra £20 for the basic, or £40 for premium vista)?

4. Finally, what's a good AM2 heatsink? I want to do quite a lot of overclocking since I'm buying a premium motherboard, so I don't want heat to be a significant problem.

Thanks a lot

 

[1cem4n]

You're better off getting a Core 2 Duo system right now. Try out either the Asus P5B boards or the new EVGA ones. I'm sure the new Asus Commando is coming out too but I can't find it retail anywhere.

 

[deRusett]

You have been out for a while.

Intel is back on top for Processors, Core2 Duo systems are the ones you should be looking for.

RE: RAM, if you buy your RAM faster then the Computer FSB it is less likely too be your bottle neck when Overclocking. this doesn't seem to be as much of a case now as it did in early DDR and SD ram days but still something to consider.

I would personally ignore Vista all together for the first year so don't even think about it. If I was building a new system today I would get Vista only because I have 3 other Good PC/Laptops that I can continue to use as I wish, and just learn Vista for tech support reasons, but Vista does not seem to be a good buy for those with large amounts of Media on there systems.


Another comment about your RAM, I noticed you picked Value Series, if you want to do some major Overclocking, I suggest picking a performance Series RAM. you risk the ram of being your bottle neck when going with Value, it tends to be more pron to failure when being pushed beyond factory specs.

 

[grayg]

If you order before tomorrow over at Scan you will be able to buy a few things on special offer

C2D E6300 - £111
2GB Corsair Value Select PC5300 - £135

on 'Today Only' listing http://www.scan.co.uk/todayonly/

Then you want your motherboard, the Gigabyte P965-DS3 is £77 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=437659

Much better deal on price + much more powerful

Also the E6300 is known for overclocking and the gigabyte board is known for overclocking, lots of people up in the 2.8ghz+ from 1.8ghz stock

Also perhaps the value ram won't get you to the extreme side but you can take a toss up spend £40 more on PC6400 corsair twinx ram or spend £27 and get the E6400 instead?

 

[XTTX]

To adress the Vista problem, you could always install XP first then dual-boot vista via Partition Magic (check out lifehacker.com)

 

[Terminat.]

Thanks for the replies so far

Okay, everyone advocates Intel, but why exactly (links would be great)?? I mean, okay, the E6700 outperforms AMD, but its twice the price? I'll be happy to go Intel if I can get a much better cpu for roughly the same price as AMD however.

 

[meionm]

Okay, everyone advocates Intel, but why exactly (links would be great)?? I mean, okay, the E6700 outperforms AMD, but its twice the price? I'll be happy to go Intel if I can get a much better cpu for roughly the same price as AMD however.

Then get E6300 or E6400 and overclock it to speed of E6700. Any one of them can reach speeds of e6700 and beyond.

 

[grayg]

seriously do what I said, you have missed the sale on Scan now but just wait they will back up there again they always are.
E6300 @ stock > x2 4200 and when you catch it on sale it will be £111

or if your not into heavy overclocking just buy an E6600 £200 + the Gigabyte DS3 £77 = £277
Vs.
ASUS nForce 590 £140 + AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ £112 = £252

basically look at it this way you are going to spend £25 more for something which is faster than an FX62 across the board.

Make sure you get PC5300/PC5400 RAM atleast to go with it though.

Look here it will show you all: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2795&p=14

Okay, everyone advocates Intel, but why exactly (links would be great)?? I mean, okay, the E6700 outperforms AMD, but its twice the price? I'll be happy to go Intel if I can get a much better cpu for roughly the same price as AMD however.

Thats because the E6700 is basically a rip off and a victim of price fixing, you spend £140 more than what it costs for an E6600 just for 270mhz

The sweet spots in the C2D line:
E6300 if your a super overclocker with high end ram or looking for great value
E6400 if your an overclocker who doesnt have high end ram
E6600 for the none overclocker or the overclocker who can afford it and wants the extra 2mb cache

 

[Terminat.]

seriously do what I said, you have missed the sale on Scan now but just wait they will back up there again they always are.
E6300 @ stock > x2 4200 and when you catch it on sale it will be £111

or if your not into heavy overclocking just buy an E6600 £200 + the Gigabyte DS3 £77 = £277
Vs.
ASUS nForce 590 £140 + AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ £112 = £252

basically look at it this way you are going to spend £25 more for something which is faster than an FX62 across the board.

Make sure you get PC5300/PC5400 RAM atleast to go with it though.

Look here it will show you all: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...px?i=2795&p=14

Okay, cool, so will 800Mhz memory still be fast enough for a Core Duo 2 (since the FSB is quad-pumped and so running at 1066Mhz)?

 

[grayg]

You dont need 800mhz/pc6400 ram unless you are doing serious overclocking I would say.

Motherboards comes with settings in the bios for ram and cpu to allow the cpu to run at stock and your ram to run at whatever speed it is. There is no difference between pc6400 and pc5300/pc5400 for stock settings. The reason I say get atleast PC5300/PC5400 is that there is a difference in performance between that and lower speed ram for stock settings.