I had an old dell and this morning it seemed to turn on but would not boot, after a quick search on the net found that its a common PSU problem. I managed to salvage my assignment but not much else.. :( The machine is so old and out of date im just going to start fresh and finally buy my own PC.

Any comments on the specs below would be appreciative.. i have been out of the loop of PC parts for a long time now.

INTEL Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHZ 1333MHz (775) CPU 6M cache
Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS4P P45 D2/ RAID/ GLan/ 1394 (775)
Sapphire HD 4850 512MB PCIe Video Card w/ HDMI, DVI
Team Xtreem Dark 2GB PC6400 DDR2 800 RAM Kit(1GBx2) 1 4-4-4-12
Seagate 500G 32M SATA II Hard Disk Drive
Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI-Express (OEM) SB0820
LiteOn 20x DVD+/-R/RW/RAM D/L SATA Burner (20A3S)
SilverStone ST56F v3 560W Power Supply (SLi/Cross Fire rdy)
CoolerMaster Centurion 590 Mesh Design ATX Case (Black)

Total: $1039

Is there was anything you would upgrade or change?

(sorry for another one of these threads)..

You're gonna need a nice monitor to go with that so I recommend the 28" Viewsonic. $749 from CA's.

JakeG... Be aware thats a TN panel, so would only be 6 bit colour, and the 27.5" view area may emphasise the less-than-awesome viewing angle.

looks like a pretty solid box!

Team Xtreem Dark 2GB PC6400 DDR2 800 RAM Kit(1GBx2) 1 4-4-4-12

You can get good 4GB (2x2GB) sticks for $90 these days. I bought a G.Skill kit the other day for $105.

Even if you're using XP and can't utilise the full amount, 3GB availability is still > 2GB and doesn't cost much more.

The Samsung SpinPoint F1's are excellent hard drives. Get your self a 640GB HD. They're a fair bit faster then the Seagate 500GB due to the dual platters and are about $10 cheaper. Just as reliable.

f*** off the X-Fi card and replace it with an Asus Xonar DX, $105 from MSY. X-Fi have terrible vista support and the Xonar's have better audio quality.

Switch out the Silverstone PSU for a Corsair 520W or 620W power supply. They get great reviews, consistently. Cheaper too I think.

Check out the "Antec Three Hundred Tower" instead of the "Centurion 590", reports are it is a better case and $8 cheaper.

f*** the gigas*** board off and get rid of the sound card as well, you dont need it.

I'd definitely go for 4gb of ram.

I'd also ditch the sound card and go for a second HDD for RAID.

My PC died this morning..

The funeral will be held next week. :(

You fail at the funneys Snakeman.

Ditch the X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI-E, it's retarded beyond compare. If you truly want it, go the PCI version.

Do recommend following Lynx's comments on the slight changes, though you can leave the sound card out for now and see how you go. If it comes down to it and onboard isn't cutting it, you can easily add one later.

i've gone onboard before, and even upgrading to a $50 sound card made a world of difference

So they are all s*** now Erik?
Or just the unspecified board that you bought, that unspecified time ago.

i've gone onboard before, and even upgrading to a $50 sound card made a world of difference

if your onboard was pre- MS/HD sound then yeah. I chucked my old SB Live into my new work pc for cranking out the tunes last week it quite frankly - it's ghey. The onboard HD Realtek is far better for music.

I honestly never thought that would be the case.


dunno about the performance overhead though... I haven't bothered to compare my own onboard Realtek HD to my SB Live 5.1 24bit when it comes to frames and sound quality. I have this sinking feeling I need to upgrade to X-Fi... but not enough games take advantage of it :/

The thing that is screaming at me is that PSU. Stay the f*** away from silverstone PSU's. Enermax, coolermaster or thermaltake are decent. Maybe I'm just blanketing all silverstones for the atrocity that was the "Zeus" series, but it will be forever etched in my mind how s*** they were.

from someone in the industry,

I would change the PSU, CPU and video card. The mobo is OK and actually has very good onboard sound (digital up to 5.1 96khz IIRC) but I would really go for the Asus Rampage Formula s775 X48if instead if you can afford it now because it will save you money in the long run to upgrade later on. I agree with everyone saying that you dont need a sound card.

PSU is rubbish as slyin has mentioned I would recommend a Tt 430W.

The CPU is ok but for about $80 more you could have a C2D Quad Core Q9300 (2.50Ghz x 4) which IMHO is much better value for money and is very easily over clock-able as long as you have a better than standard CPU cooling setup. Im currently running mine on 3.33Ghz x4 with no dramas and have been for a month now.

Go for something like a Asus 9600gt if you dont want to go overboard on spending and stick with the 2gb RAM for the time being and if you need more just get it later on.

Can I ask where you are thinking of getting this stuff from and is that the shops RRP or a deal your getting?

last edited by eighty-eight at 04:56:36 30/Jul/08

Thanks heaps everyone for your input.. will end up changing a few things cause i do have a little bit bigger budget.

eighty eight - its pc shoppers RRP im pretty sure.. not aware of any discounts even though it is a friend who did me up the quote.

Thanks again peeps <3

from what í've read the 4850 is better than the 9600gt ?

i got a 4850 recently and it's pretty sweet

step speaks the truth about the audio

The CPU is ok but for about $80 more you could have a C2D Quad Core Q9300 (2.50Ghz x 4) which IMHO is much better value for money and is very easily over clock-able as long as you have a better than standard CPU cooling setup. Im currently running mine on 3.33Ghz x4 with no dramas and have been for a month now.

Unless he truly wants the e-penis factor of a quad or actually would benefit from working on one, it's a waste of money. The 8400 would be more than ample and usually can overclock much better too.

Go for something like a Asus 9600gt if you dont want to go overboard on spending

The extra $80 is better spent here by sticking with the 4850.

The model of his PSU is fine. For all the people bitching about Seasonic, the Corsair PSU's are rebadged Seasonics.

^
you are right with the video card but I was trying to keep the price in the area of his original quote. quad's are great, 2 cores dedicated to one game and 2 to back ground processes, they rock for video editing and more games in the future will support all 4 cores.

@ step

Where did seasonic come into this. I've found the corsair PSU's to also be complete s***. Haven't played with seasonic, but if you are correct with the rebadge deal, I'm staying away from them also.

Step is right, the Corsair HX series are rebadged Seasonics. The HX series come in 520,620 and 1000w models. I can't comment on the TX series of Corsair PSU as I think they arn't Seasonics.
Also I agree with many of the above posts, don't bother with a 9600GT; stick to a 4850. Though note that MSI 4850s don't come with Crossfire bridges.

Finally, sometime in the next week or two the price of Intels CPUs will drop, some by as much as 40% (Q9550). The E8400 will drop by about $20.
Thought this info might be of interest to you.

Edit: Here is the price changes in USD. Prices have already started dropping in the US.

last edited by Lynx at 20:23:40 30/Jul/08

Sweet as, cheers lynx.. i will probably be looking to buy after splendour this w/e but i might be able to go another fortnight =[..

Is there anything wrong with the motherboard up there? The rampage is 350ish but i could make the stretch, is it worth it?

Will probably get the 4G ram.

Also might get the Antec case.. says its pretty quiet which is what i need.

PS. goddam im such a computer fiend.. losing my PC makes it painfully obvious i spend 99% of my time on the PC when im at home.

If you have no special need of your motherboard then a $350 MB is a major waste of cash better spent on a CPU or GPU. If you don't plan on Crossfire'ing, stick with either an Asus or a Gigabyte P45 Motherboard. The Asus P5Q-E is a great choice, and the board I plan on buying mid Augest.
If you do what to have the availability of Crossfire for future GFX upgrades, then a X38 motherboard would be an ideal choice such as the P5E series from Asus. The X38's support Dual PCI-E x16 where as the P35 and P45 MB only support Dual PCI-E x8. The drop in lanes has a minor impact on performance.
Don't bother with an X48, as they are just X38's with official support for 1600fbs CPUs. Most X38s support 1600fsb with a bios tweak and there aren't any CPUs that require that speed.

Edit: That's P5E, not P5N. doh

last edited by Lynx at 22:25:02 30/Jul/08

Cheers for your advice i have the modified one now..

INTEL Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHZ 1333MHz (775) CPU 6M cache $186
Asus P5Q-E P45 D2/ FSB1600/ PCIe 3x/ RAID/ GLAN (775) $199
Seagate 500G 32M SATA II Hard Disk Drive $95
Sapphire HD 4850 512MB PCIe Video Card w/ HDMI, DVI $219
Team Elite Extreme Dark 4GB PC8500 DDR2 1066 RAM Kit (2x2GB) $139
LiteOn 20x DVD+/-R/RW/RAM D/L SATA Burner (20A3S) $30
Antec Three Hundred Tower Gaming Case (Black) $80
Corsair HX-520 Modular Power Supply w/ Cable Management $135

Around 1150 with gst.

Might change to the samsung 640gig harddrive but i dont see it on their website =[

*edit* cheers slyn *below*

last edited by JakeG at 21:35:46 30/Jul/08

Pretty sure thats a DDR3 mobo and with DDR2 ram isn't gonna be so hot lolol. CBF'd searching but unless its a multiram type board try again.

clarity edit

last edited by slyin at 21:28:10 30/Jul/08

woops fixed that up ta.

PSU is rubbish as slyin has mentioned I would recommend a Tt 430W.

Thermaltake 430s are budget as... they come standard in the s***ty soprano chassis and I wouldn't use them with anything more than a basic setup.

Corsair HX series is a excellent choice.

On the mainboard discussion, I used to be an Asus man, but I do think Gigabyte has taken over. Have used a few in systems for mates and they have delivered. I also agree theres no point in dropping $300+ on a mainboard for features that are going to sit unused.

Id probably grab a GA-EP45-DS3P

1. Revolution energy saving design with DES Advanced featuring hardware based Dynamic 6-Gear switching
2. Supports 45nm Intel® Core™ 2 multi-core processors with FSB 1600 MHz
3. Dual channel DDR2 1200 for remarkable system performance
4. 2 PCI-E 2.0 x16 graphic interface plus PCI-E 2.0 x4 with CrossFireXTM support for ultimate graphics performance
5. Diagnostic LED and ACPI LEDs on board to display system and power status
6. 2 Gigabit Ethernet LAN with Teaming functionality
7. Supports Dolby Home Theater® audio to create a stunning surround sound listening experience.
8. DualBIOS solution gives a multiple security to the system
9. Power/reset/Clr CMOS onboard button for easily operation on the workbench
10. Hardware Overvoltage Control IC Provides more voltage control options on CPU, North bridge and memory
11. Blu-ray playback outputs supported by high quality 106dB SNR ALC889A HD audio

Do you need more than that? It would suit me just fine and I am a fairly demanding user.

Definitely get 4 gig of RAM, pretty much the sweet spot right now seeing RAM is so damn cheap.

Hrmm, perhaps on board sound and I'd go a few more Watts on the power supply. I bought my comp at the start of 2006 and even then I decided to go for a 750 Watt TT toughpower (good decision it turns out as now that I'll be updating a few things, I won't even bother worrying about if system will handle it all as...it obviously will).

^^^ what he said. defs go the better PSU. or in the long run you'll regret it. (if you want to upgrade and such)

+ A dedicated soundcard is a must. gone are the days of the awesome Nforce onboard sound. Hell you could even buy an audigy or anything. It will be better than onboard. I think Umart sell them for 40 odd dollars.

try that. go to the creative site and check em out!

thats why I recommended it rubba.