Is my new spec any good to go? Or should I alter it?

[jaysbarbq]

Hiya Folks,

I hope you're all well.

Can anyone aid my choice with advice on a pc I need to build? The machine will be used for emails, internet, downloads, video editing, multi tasking, (possibly for virtual machines) etc. Not for gaming.

I have been using this for the last 4 years:

Athlon XP 3200

2.5GB Ram (Kingston)

XP Pro 32bit

300GB Western Digital HD (had 2 Samsungs fail!)

MSI K8N Platinum

Here is the initial spec which still has some blanks and may also be worthy of some changes if I can be convinced it is worth the bucks:

1 x Intel Quad Core q9450 Yorkfield core with Go Stepping (12mb cache, 1333mhz)

1 x Fan – Freezer Pro 7 - although I have read some peoples moans about the noise and size

1 x Motherboard – Possibly an Asus, not sure and also not sure about which model.... ???? I am very happy with MSI, but their 775 boards are not hitting the right notes. I do NOT want a DFI, Asrock, Abit or ECS. I have also noted some buggy reviews on 790i boards.

2 x 2GB RAM modules 800, 1066 or 1333mhz branded and overclockable (OCZ, Crucial, Corsair)

1 x floppy drive

1 x Nvidia 9600GT 512 DDR3 graphics card

2 x LG GSA-H55N (multi bezel – black/silver) 8.5GB Dual Layer DVDRW with LightScribe

1 x CPU compound (suitable for Intel Quad Core)

2 x Seagate Barracuda ST3500320AS 500GB SATA II drives with 32MB cache – mirrored with C:O/S, D: Installed Apps, Eagefile

1 x Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB SATA II drive, for backup of all .exe applications

1 x portable external drive (USB powered) – 320 to 500GB is fine (NOT Lacie)

1x VERY good quality wireless keyboard & mouse in black or silver (NOT Microsoft) – I like Logitech

1 x O/S – not sure about this yet. Choice of XP pro 32bit, XP Pro 64bit, Vista Premium 32Bit, Vista Ultimate 64bit

Your advice would be much appreciated.

 

[Luigi]

All sounds good, No point going with a 790i though, Id go for a solid ddr2 X38 or x48 motherboard, Ive had myn a while now and love it

 

[jaysbarbq]

Hi Teknokid,

Many thanks for your reply.

I have never had an Intel chipset board, always Nvidea and have been very happy with them, so am hesitant about a switch.

Can you tell me what the main difference would be if I went with Intel with my new config?

I have read good reviews on the following boards:

XFX nForce 790i SLI

MSI P7N2 Diamond

Asus Rampage Formula x48

Gigabyte x48-DQ6

That said, I also appreciate that the way forward is possibly 790i.

 

[Silentsnake]

1 x Intel Quad Core q9450 Yorkfield core with Go Stepping (12mb cache, 1333mhz) (I have this processor runs well better then my Q6600 havnt overclocked yet but ive been happy with it)



1 x Fan – Freezer Pro 7 - although I have read some peoples moans about the noise and size

1 x Motherboard – Possibly an Asus, not sure and also not sure about which model.... ???? I am very happy with MSI, but their 775 boards are not hitting the right notes. I do NOT want a DFI, Asrock, Abit or ECS. I have also noted some buggy reviews on 790i boards. (EVGA nForce 780i, EVGA good company, its reliable i havnt had any problems with it, or if you got some money spair buy the 790i board, for future proofing)

2 x 2GB RAM modules 800, 1066 or 1333mhz branded and overclockable (OCZ, Crucial, Corsair)

1 x floppy drive

1 x Nvidia 9600GT 512 DDR3 graphics card

2 x LG GSA-H55N (multi bezel – black/silver) 8.5GB Dual Layer DVDRW with LightScribe

1 x CPU compound (suitable for Intel Quad Core) (I reccomend this GREAT STUFF

http://www.watercoolinguk.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=63&products_id=251)

2 x Seagate Barracuda ST3500320AS 500GB SATA II drives with 32MB cache – mirrored with C:O/S, D: Installed Apps, Eagefile

1 x Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB SATA II drive, for backup of all .exe applications

1 x portable external drive (USB powered) – 320 to 500GB is fine (NOT Lacie) (i had a Western Digital My book i think they called 1TB External and only lasted me one week WTF! u may say lol, i know i didnt even drop it or anything!... so personally i would rather just stick to USB sticks lol)

1x VERY good quality wireless keyboard & mouse in black or silver (NOT Microsoft) – I like Logitech

1 x O/S – not sure about this yet. Choice of XP pro 32bit, XP Pro 64bit, Vista Premium 32Bit, Vista Ultimate 64bit

sry i ran out of time to complete the list but helped were i could

 

[Mr. Smith]

Intel chipsets are far superior than nvidia, the only reason to choose an nvidia chipset is if you are 100% going to run sli. If you are on a budget P45 chipsets are cheap now and good overclockers, X48 etc are better...

That gpu is weak mate, I think you'll be dissapointed. Can you stretch to £120? If so check this 4850 review

 

[jaysbarbq]

Thanks for the reply Mr. Smith.

Sure, £120 for a graphics card is no prob, as is the same with the mobo - budget is not a problem. I guess I'd like to spend between £120 and £220 on the mobo. I needs lots of USB's, firewire, IDE, Sata, speed and overclockability!

Ideally I would like to have a graphics card with 2 connectors on it so at some point if I decide to buy another monitor I can hook them both up. Is this possible?

 

[haofeng]

i think most graphic cards support dual screens.

 

[Mr. Smith]

OK, let's do this another way, what is your budget for the whole system and what is the purpose of the machine? (e.g. high res gaming, light gaming, just surfing the net etc)

 

[jaysbarbq]

Hi Mr Smith.

My Budget is circa £800 inc vat (not inc the OS), although for good enough reason I can stretch it a tad more - maybe up to a max of £1000.

The main computer use will be:

1. Lotus Notes (using a local 4GB database / Outlook
   
2. Downloads
   
3. MSN / Skype
   
4. Internet
   
5. Video Editing with Pinnacle Studio
   
6. Photo editing with Photoshop
   
7. Web design with Fireworks, Dreamweaver etc
   
8. Lots and lots of multi tasking
   

The possible extended use will be:

1. Virtual Servers in VMware
   

What I will NOT be using it for is gaming.... But would like to have a GPU on which I can attached two monitors and split my desktop accross the two.

I hope that helps?

BTW - I REALLY appreciate everyone's help here. Thank you.

 

[lamboman]

So, no gaming, in that case, you don't need a high end graphics card.

I will use Overclockers for this one, because their website is the easiest to use to spec up:

Q6600 - This is a better choice than the Q9450. It is WAY cheaper, and offers similar performance when overclocked.

P5Q Pro - good value motherboard, overclocks well, and has all the major features that you might need or consider.

GeIL Black Dragon PC6400 - Good kit, overclocks pretty well for the money.

Gigabyte 8600GT Fanless - Cheap, silent, and does the job.

2x Samsung Spinpoint F1 750GB - Very quiet, fast, and very well priced.

2x Samsung SH-S233Q/BEBN - Quiet, fast, well priced, with Lightscribe.

Tuniq Tower 120 - Still a great cooler, well priced. You could go searching for something slightly better, but they are usually a bit more expensive, and they won't cool your processor down a huge bit more.

Case - I won't choose something for you, as I would choose something that cools well, but you might not like the aesthetics. A Lian Li, Coolermaster, Silverstone, or Antec case at around £100-120 would be perfect for a machine like yours. Go for a quality case is all I can say.

Corsair HX520 - A quiet, effecient power supply, and a very popular choice.

Logitech MX5500 - Probably the best of all keyboard/mouse combos. Expensive, but worth it.

Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit (OEM) - The best buy out of all the versions of Windows now. Ultimate is too expensive with not enough extra features, Basic is like XP pimped, and XP is getting a bit old, and although MS is still going to be supporting it, Vista is the way to go when it comes to 64 bit OSs.

This adds up to £900 without the external hard drive.

Hope this helps

 

[Mr. Smith]

Looking at your requirements I agree with most of lamboman's recommendations.

- TT120 - £35, it's not that good for modern quad cores, Thermal Right is king and only £5 more.

- That £100 kb/m combo; seriously?! Waste of cash. Pick your own, saitek eclipse kb are ~£15 and pretty good. You don't need a games mouse... Actually just get a MS kb/m combo for £20-30 and you'll be fine.

Like I said the rest looks fine to me... Oh, ram... That link doesn't work for me so I don't know if it's 2gb/4gb but for vid editing etc 4gb kits can be had for £70.

@ work so having to be very brief and not providing links to products/alternatives. Sorry.

 

[Silentsnake]

So, no gaming, in that case, you don't need a high end graphics card.

I will use Overclockers for this one, because their website is the easiest to use to spec up:

Q6600 - This is a better choice than the Q9450. It is WAY cheaper, and offers similar performance when overclocked.

P5Q Pro - good value motherboard, overclocks well, and has all the major features that you might need or consider.

GeIL Black Dragon PC6400 - Good kit, overclocks pretty well for the money.

Gigabyte 8600GT Fanless - Cheap, silent, and does the job.

2x Samsung Spinpoint F1 750GB - Very quiet, fast, and very well priced.

2x Samsung SH-S233Q/BEBN - Quiet, fast, well priced, with Lightscribe.

Tuniq Tower 120 - Still a great cooler, well priced. You could go searching for something slightly better, but they are usually a bit more expensive, and they won't cool your processor down a huge bit more.

Case - I won't choose something for you, as I would choose something that cools well, but you might not like the aesthetics. A Lian Li, Coolermaster, Silverstone, or Antec case at around £100-120 would be perfect for a machine like yours. Go for a quality case is all I can say.

Corsair HX520 - A quiet, effecient power supply, and a very popular choice.

Logitech MX5500 - Probably the best of all keyboard/mouse combos. Expensive, but worth it.

Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit (OEM) - The best buy out of all the versions of Windows now. Ultimate is too expensive with not enough extra features, Basic is like XP pimped, and XP is getting a bit old, and although MS is still going to be supporting it, Vista is the way to go when it comes to 64 bit OSs.

This adds up to £900 without the external hard drive.

Hope this helps

I totally disagree with most things lol

The Q9450 according to benchamarks does alot better then the Q6600, even when it comes to overclocking so i say stick to the Q9450 i had a Q6600 and now i have a Q9450 and will not swap it for a Q6600

Also Geil ram sucks!. i had these and have had them replaced 3 times now in the last 6 months.. i dont know what is wrong with them they just dont like to be overclocked, i ended up giving them to my dad... and he has had to have the replaced and he doesnt overclock, i wouldnt get any geil!

and for graphics i would get the

ATI 4850

or

EVGA GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB

especially for photoshop you want somthing that you dont need to upgrade in 1 year...

 

[Luigi]

Not the gtx.. its out of date..

Deffinately go intel chipset, get an ati card and be done with it

I also think the q9450 will be better as it is more power efficient and cooler

 

[lamboman]

I totally disagree with most things lol

The Q9450 according to benchamarks does alot better then the Q6600, even when it comes to overclocking so i say stick to the Q9450 i had a Q6600 and now i have a Q9450 and will not swap it for a Q6600

Also Geil ram sucks!. i had these and have had them replaced 3 times now in the last 6 months.. i dont know what is wrong with them they just dont like to be overclocked, i ended up giving them to my dad... and he has had to have the replaced and he doesnt overclock, i wouldnt get any geil!

and for graphics i would get the

ATI 4850

or

EVGA GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB

especially for photoshop you want somthing that you dont need to upgrade in 1 year...

First of all, where the hell are you reading your numbers? The Q9450 is maybe 5-10% quicker. The Q9450 is more efficient and cooler and whatnot, but it is also around £90-£100 more. That much of a price increase for not much of a real world speed increase? Not worth it.

He has already said he is not gaming; a gamer orientated graphics card is pointless.

As for the GeIL memory, that is your personal experience, but, considering that you have had 3 failures, maybe they are worth avoiding. I would go for some comparably priced G.Skill instead then.

 

[Silentsnake]

First of all, where the hell are you reading your numbers? The Q9450 is maybe 5-10% quicker. The Q9450 is more efficient and cooler and whatnot, but it is also around £90-£100 more. That much of a price increase for not much of a real world speed increase? Not worth it.

He has already said he is not gaming; a gamer orientated graphics card is pointless.

As for the GeIL memory, that is your personal experience, but, considering that you have had 3 failures, maybe they are worth avoiding. I would go for some comparably priced G.Skill instead then.

as he will be photo editing etc, the Q9450 certainly does better for them products and is also a great overclocker for future... as it is cooler which plays a big role when it comes to overclocking

But he needs somthing future proof, what if in the future one day he wants to test out abit of 3ds Max or Maya work on a bit of animating etc... i mean even in the future with Photoshop always updating it will also be more demanding, i am thinking about the present but their is the future to consider aswell

and yh go for some G.Skill or OCZ... i've heard alot about OCZ being pretty good

 

[lamboman]

The Q9450 doesn't get much past the Q6600 at all. As I said, 10% is about right. It isn't a performance difference that will be notice.

The Q9450 doesn't overclock much further than the Q6600. Most people consider the Q6600 better because of the higher multiplier, higher temperature tolerance, and higher voltage tolerance. In reality, they probably reach the same speed, but still, the latter is far cheaper, and not much slower. If you have found a good source that shows the Q9450 to be hugely faster, please show me, I like to be proven wrong

 

[Silentsnake]

The Q9450 doesn't get much past the Q6600 at all. As I said, 10% is about right. It isn't a performance difference that will be notice.

The Q9450 doesn't overclock much further than the Q6600. Most people consider the Q6600 better because of the higher multiplier, higher temperature tolerance, and higher voltage tolerance. In reality, they probably reach the same speed, but still, the latter is far cheaper, and not much slower. If you have found a good source that shows the Q9450 to be hugely faster, please show me, I like to be proven wrong

hehe i will jump on google now... i was looking at it yesterday

 

[Silentsnake]

well i cant find what i was looking at yesterday but heres a few thigns i found

These are some of the quotes i have found in forums

The main difference between a Q6600 and a Q9450 is that the Q6600 is 2.4GHz stock and the Q9450 is 2.66GHz stock. The replacement for the Q6600 is the Q9350 where as the Q9450 will replace the Q6700

SSE4 is for media applications and helps encoding/decoding such as taking a MP4 and converting it to a DivX. It will allso help with HD content and movie play back

The main downthing is the multiplier and the little extra price

Me personally would still go for the Q9450 but if you are on a tight budget then i would get the Q6600 and put money towards ram...

but i still stand by the Q9450

Mr.Smith shine some light Q6600 Vs Q9450

 

[lamboman]

well i cant find what i was looking at yesterday but heres a few thigns i found

These are some of the quotes i have found in forums

The main downthing is the multiplier and the little extra price

Me personally would still go for the Q9450 but if you are on a tight budget then i would get the Q6600 and put money towards ram...

but i still stand by the Q9450

Mr.Smith shine some light Q6600 Vs Q9450

Nothing on actual performance though. The Q9450 will push the whole system out the budget anyway.

Mr Smith, good point about the Thermalright, I thought that it was more expensive, clearly the prices have come down... and I have been thinking in dollars...

As for the keyboard and mouse combo, I think that if you want something really nice, and only one dock, it is worth it IMO. But, if you really wanted something less, the Enermax Aurora Premium is said to be one of the best keyboards out there. Expensive at nearly £50, but worth it. I like expensive keyboards

Mouse, MX1000 can be found cheap, though you have to be careful, there are still some going around with the wobble problem (I got a replacement recently, and it had this problem). The MX Revolution is bloody expensive as well, but also worth it. If you really want a quality keyboard and mouse, you might need to make a compromise somewhere. For something that is GOOD, but not AMAZING, the Saitek is a popular option.

The memory kit is 4GB. I have changed the link.

 

[monkey7]

For a keyboard I would go with the Logitech UltraX Premium. It's retailed at €16,- in The Netherlands, I've bought it for €21,50 at a local shop and I really just love this keyboard. It's lowprofile (laptop keys) and increases my typing speed from 300 to 400 characters / minute when compared to high profile keys. Just has everything you need from a keyboard, but nothing more.

Only downsides:

1. It's wired

2. It's not suited for gaming. But since you do not game that is not really important.