Hey everyone, looking for any good advise here on building a new pc, my DELL pc finally failed the other day so I thought i'd build my own to replace it. I already have a m-audio 2496 soundcard which I will use again but this is my new spec from ebuyer.com: -

ASUS P5K-VM AiLifestyle Socket 775 iG33 onboard VGA 8 channel Audio mATX motherboard

Corsair 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL4(4-4-4-12) E.P.P. Technology Heat Spreader Lifetime Warranty

Corsair 1GB DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL5(5-5-5-12) Heat Spreader Lifetime Warranty

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 Stepping (2.4GHz 1066MHz) Socket 775 L2 8MB Cache (2x4MB (4MB per core pair) Retail Boxed Processor

Antec NSK 6580 Mid Tower Case - With 430W EarthWatts PSU

Arctic Cooling AC-FRZ-7P Freezer 7 Pro Socket 775 Processor Cooler

Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB SATA II 7200RPM 16MB Cache - OEM

Pioneer DVR-215BK 20X SATA DVD±RW DL Ram Int Black - OEM

Can anyone confirm this would all work ok or if I could improve the system within the same budget. I'm gonna use XP again rather than vista, i've read too many bad rumours about vista and all my existing software runs fine on XP. Any advise welcome!

Cheers

Ade

Looks good. More RAM maybe?

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quote:

Originally posted by Ade_B ASUS P5K-VM AiLifestyle Socket 775 iG33 onboard VGA 8 channel Audio mATX motherboard

You'll be getting (or perhaps you already have) a good quality sound card, right?

quote:

Originally posted by Ade_B ASUS P5K-VM AiLifestyle Socket 775 iG33 onboard VGA 8 channel Audio mATX motherboard

onboard vga is shit - it will leech system RAM. you need a separate video card with it's own memory. NOTE: just because a video card is separate, does not mean it does not leech system memory. many cards have "turbocache" and shit like that.

quote:

Originally posted by Ade_B Corsair 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL4(4-4-4-12) E.P.P. Technology Heat Spreader Lifetime Warranty Corsair 1GB DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL5(5-5-5-12) Heat Spreader Lifetime Warranty

this is stupid. firstly, you don't need this premium ram. normal corsair ram (without heat spreaders) will perform the same and be half the price. you only need premium ram if you're retarded and plan on OCing your box like an elite 13 year old.

likewise, you should stick to either 2x1gb or 2x2gb (if you're using 32bit OS, you will sacrifice 1gb of the 4, since it can only address 3gb). 3gb, like you have here, is bad - it cannot run in dual channel.

quote:

Originally posted by Ade_B Antec NSK 6580 Mid Tower Case - With 430W EarthWatts PSU

decent case, bad power supply - see if you can get something quieter. i don't know what is on the market at the moment, but 12 months ago, corsair hx* were the best.

quote:

Originally posted by Ade_B Arctic Cooling AC-FRZ-7P Freezer 7 Pro Socket 775 Processor Cooler

see if there are any better heatsinks on the market: www.silentpcreview.com. if you get a good enough heatsink, you can run the system with one fan on the rear exhaust only (no fan on the heatsink itself). don't use the casefan that comes with the case, it is crap and loud.

Thanks for the response guys, i'll look into what has been said. I do already have a m-audio delta 2496 audio card from my old pc which I will use gain and a ATI Radion 128MB graphics card that I can use to avoid onboard graphics, I wont be playing any games or video, just messing with music production and recording.

That RAM is quite cheap by the way, I see the point of 4GB not 3GB even though it does not address but that twin pack is about £25.

Cheers

Ade.

Heres precisely what I built my last pc with, per receipt from newegg. It's the best pc I've ever built, taking into account time period versus performance versus cost.

MEM 2Gx2|GSKILL F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ R 84.99
CPU INTEL|C2Q Q6600 2.40G 775 8M R 219.99
BRBN SHUTTLE SG33G5B G33 775 R 189.99

I use onboard video, and it performs fine without gaming. Note that the motherboard's does not appear listed as it is built into the shuttle case. Also note, no fan purchased - it's not needed. Processor comes with one, unless it's OEM, and it's a great fan. It can handle mild overclocking without any problems. And last but not least, windows vista ultimate for the 64 bit OS, to utilize the ram. Vista runs great.... AFTER I turned off all the visual bullshit, and put it to classic view.

Finally, note that M-Audio does not have Vista 64 sp1 drivers. They're being developed though.

I am fully software based (ftw), and use many softsynths concurrently, and have even used multiple reverb units, and other dsp's. My cpu usage has never even gone above 30% yet.

Grats in advance with your new computer! I'll bet it's gonna rock.

Last edited by MOK on Jul-03-2008 at 08:58

quote:

Originally posted by echosystm you only need premium ram if you're retarded and plan on OCing your box like an elite 13 year old.

Yeah, you can get to 3.5+ GHZ on air with these, how retarded.

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quote:

Originally posted by echosystm this is stupid. firstly, you don't need this premium ram. normal corsair ram (without heat spreaders) will perform the same and be half the price. you only need premium ram if you're retarded and plan on OCing your box like an elite 13 year old.

What in the name of fuck are you talking about? The FSB of the processor he's getting 1066MHz, and that RAM runs at 800MHz, so if he wants to run the RAM at 1:1 instead of at a slower FSB he will need better RAM than that.

Not to mention that if you bothered to look on the site you'd see that 2GB kit is £29.99 including VAT, if thats 'premium RAM' I shudder to think what you think 'cheap RAM' is...

quote:

Originally posted by Sanguis Mortuum What in the name of fuck are you talking about? The FSB of the processor he's getting 1066MHz, and that RAM runs at 800MHz, so if he wants to run the RAM at 1:1 instead of at a slower FSB he will need better RAM than that. Not to mention that if you bothered to look on the site you'd see that 2GB kit is £29.99 including VAT, if thats 'premium RAM' I shudder to think what you think 'cheap RAM' is...

i wasn't talking about the speed, i was talking about these big corsair heatsinks. they're unnecessary and basically always have been. when i bought my new ram (6 months?), i got it without the heatsinks and it was half the price. it's a fair assumption, don't have a cry babe.

out of curiousity... do you oc your casemod, to the max, sanguis?

quote:

Originally posted by echosystm i wasn't talking about the speed, i was talking about these big corsair heatsinks. they're unnecessary and basically always have been. when i bought my new ram (6 months?), i got it without the heatsinks and it was half the price. it's a fair assumption, don't have a cry babe.

'A fair assumption' that just because some RAM has heatsinks it must be expensive 'premium' RAM? Thats not a 'fair assumption', its just plain ignorance, and your post was misleading and unhelpful.

My music rig here is 3GB of ram,Intel Q6600,GeForce 6500, M-Audio Delta 1010LT, ASUS P5E running on XP 32bit.

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