Well, this mid range system (Girlfriend's PC) ...

azcn2503 · Thu Mar 13, 2008 2:04 pm

It isn't going to be a mid-range system any more. Just watch this space.

I just ordered the motherboard and memory.

Skillers · Thu Mar 13, 2008 4:29 pm

Here we go again...

azcn2503 · Fri Mar 14, 2008 7:23 am

OK I will admit that I have made some sacrifices to keep the budget under £700ish but this will by no means be a low end or mid range system.

Skillers · Fri Mar 14, 2008 4:08 pm

£700ish? System Unit Only? You can make quite a nice system for that much. Quadcore, 4GB and a 8800.

azcn2503 · Sat Mar 15, 2008 10:43 am

But it's going to be dual core @ 4GHz, 2GB and 2x 3870's.

Skillers · Sat Mar 15, 2008 11:47 am

4GHz? I'm assuming you're going for the 45nm processor and hoping it overclocks that well, as some people have reported?

Why are you going for 2GB of RAM, 4GB isn't that much more, only around £40, and probably well worth it, much more than a second graphics card atleast.

azcn2503 · Sat Mar 15, 2008 1:42 pm

Yes, I'm going for a 45nm and a custom cooler.

And I'm not going for 4GB because it's not needed as much as a second graphics card

Skillers · Sat Mar 15, 2008 1:44 pm

But a second graphics card isn't needed at all, unless you are doing incredibly high res gaming, in which case the RAM would be needed too. Those specs are very unbalanced.

azcn2503 · Sat Mar 15, 2008 1:46 pm

No they're not.

4GB just isn't needed, so I'm going for 2GB instead.

I should know anyway, I work in IT, and this is my 6th build.

Unless you're just jealous

... In fact I've changed my mind about listing progress on this forum.

/thread

Skillers · Sat Mar 15, 2008 3:14 pm

Erm, I still don't get the point of 2 graphics card but 2GB of RAM.

And, erm, OK...

azcn2503 · Wed Mar 26, 2008 8:28 am

Here is the final specification...

Quote:

Your order consisted of the following items:
Item Qty Price
ArctiClean Thermal Material Remover and Surface Purifier - 60ml Kit 1 £4.99
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) 1 £5.99
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - OEM 1 £123.99
OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) 1 £20.99
HIS ATI Radeon HD 3870 XT ICEQ3 512MB GDDR4 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail 1 £109.99
PNY 8GB Attache Optima USB 2.0 Memory Stick (P-FD8GBA2OPT-BX) 1 £19.99
Belkin 6-Socket SurgeMaster with Network Protection (F9S623UK2M) 1 £13.99
Belkin F5D8001UK 300Mbps Wireless Desktop PCI Network Adapter 1 £49.99
Zalman CNPS9500-AT CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775) 1 £29.99
Dell Ultrasharp 2208WFP "Limited Edition" 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Silver/Black 1 £164.99
Sub Total: £544.9
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri) Shipping: £12.95
Total Vat: £97.62
Total inc Vat: £655.47

Skillers · Wed Mar 26, 2008 4:20 pm

Ah, nice spec, I see you changed to a quad core in the end (it's pretty cheap there, porbs due to the 45nm). Cheap RAM, too.

Very nice, good balance too.

azcn2503 · Wed Mar 26, 2008 8:02 pm

Only problem is the CPU cooler; my workmate highlighted this one to me after browsing these forums.

How will the NB get any cooling, apart from the massive passive heatsink?

Obviously, with the CNPS9500, it wouldn't really. So I quickly ordered a CNPS7500 to correct my mistake! This is being delivered on Friday so I need to hold off on anything to do with the motherboard until then.

I forgot to mention, I also purchased a Fansis anti-vibration kit. It contains 24 rubber washers, 24 silicon washers, some rubber fan mounts and some teflon feet for the bottom of the case (though these are not required). I want to make it quiet-ish.

Skillers · Wed Mar 26, 2008 10:11 pm

Yeah, that is a problem with wind tunnel type heatsinks. I think some companies have got some things that help the matter, by pushing air down out the back. I'm not sure how good the 7500 is for normal cooling.

BTW, do you mean the FETs? (volt regulators). The Northbridge isn't really that close to the CPU, usually.

azcn2503 · Wed Mar 26, 2008 10:16 pm

Oh, this chipset is pretty close to the CPU socket. The NB heatsink shrouds around the CPU socket, cooling the NB and all volt regulators.

The 7500 is better than the stock cooler for normal cooling! But it doesn't quite match up to a Thermaltake Ultra120 or anything like that...

There is ventilation in the I/O port that is obviously meant to help when using a wind-tunnel, but I don't think I will get far when overclocking. I intend to reach 3.2 or 3.3GHz with this Q6600 and keep it 100% stable.

Skillers · Wed Mar 26, 2008 10:20 pm

Ah, OK.

That overclock is a fairly high target, I would think, though not rediculous. You may or may not get it depending on how lucky you are with the chip.

azcn2503 · Wed Mar 26, 2008 10:23 pm

That should be Sims 3 compatible

Skillers · Wed Mar 26, 2008 10:29 pm

Heh, Sims 3. Knowing EA they'll want to make it as low as spec as possible so everyone can play it! Or they mess it up!

azcn2503 · Thu Mar 27, 2008 8:22 am

Well, Sims 2 is awful from a technical perspective.

It is very CPU dependant, however is not multi-core aware and to be honest, the only thing a graphics card is used for in Sims 2 is to provide the resolution. I would have noticed no difference between my Radeon X850XT-PE and my 8800 Ultra if I was using the same processor and the same resolution.

This is why originally I was going for a 45nm dual core, so that I could really ramp up the speeds and then my girlfriend would be very happy! I decided to sensible for once, and I went for the cheaper, bigger, slower (Hz) quad-core as it's more than likely going to provide better performance in the long run.

Also, the high demands and low supply of the E8xxx processors are making the prices absurdly high. Best to avoid them for the time being.

Skillers · Thu Mar 27, 2008 5:05 pm

Yeah, they did make it pretty badly in regards to speed, but it ran alright on most systems. I would think EA would make the new one multi-core aware, as it would be stupid not to nowadays.

azcn2503 · Sat Mar 29, 2008 2:19 pm

OK, Here are the pictures before the build was finished...

azcn2503 · Sat Mar 29, 2008 2:21 pm

And here are the pictures during the build and after the build, sitting beside my girlfriend's desk!

Skillers · Sat Mar 29, 2008 2:50 pm

Wow, some nice shots there. Pretty good job with the cables too, much better than I've ever done!

azcn2503 · Sat Mar 29, 2008 3:45 pm

I think I did a really good job with this system, though I made a little error with the CPU cooler.

It fits in, as you can see, and the temperatures are phenomenal. The first thing I did when I got it out of the box was to ramp it up from 2.4GHz to 3GHz and the temperatures have not yet gone over 30 degrees! But I had to bend back the aluminium heatsink close to the IO plate. In short: The Zalman CNPS7500 does not fit very well on the Asus P5E X38, you have to bend back the Aluminium heatsink at the back of the board and it does take a lot of effort! But it does fit in the end, so, if you really want this cooler then you can do it with some hard work.

The motherboard tray has just enough room behind it to hide the big ATX power cable and most of the other cables that aren't used.

A very well balanced system.

It gets 5.9 out of 5.9 on everything in the Performance Index in Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit.

Skillers · Sat Mar 29, 2008 4:03 pm

Yeah, shame about the cooler, but it looks like it will be very beneficial to the motherboard in general now that it's actually fitted. If I ever used that Mobo (unlikely) I probably would try and find a different cooler, just for fittings sake.

MS really need to update the performance index so it goes up higher, lol.

Well, this mid range system (Girlfriend's PC) ...

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