PC bits

Post by **FatherJack** » March 24th, 2007, 3:35

Have rather overcompensated on the old "save a bit of money for a new PC" front. No PS3 or 360, and not many games the last few months mean my current account is bulging at the seams, and burning the proverbial hole.

Liking the look of EVGA's NF680i-based motherboards, although finding 1200MHz RAM is proving to be difficult, a few places list the Kingston Hyper as 2-3 days, but has anyone ever used/heard of stuff-uk.net? I think that RAMs in short supply and the 2-3 days thing is just a placeholder.

Any comments/advice/etc? Possibilty of a free copy of Soup Commanderer for someone that needs it - EVGA are doing some sort of deal.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » March 24th, 2007, 4:40

The 1200mhz ram is what the mobo /can/ support.

s'very posh and very expensive right now. tis probably called something like PC-9600 and 2gb of it probably costs about as much as an 8800gtx.

Depending what cpu you buy it probably says something like 1066fsb, which is how fast you want the rams to be, depending on the cpu you buy pc6400 is fine, pc8500 is nice and will allow for nice safe overclocking.

Motherboards wise, The 680i chipset is new and still a little shaky for some people, but the evga one looks like the reference design so you're probably in good hands there (as most manfs. are selling a version of it)

edit: tis late and i'm drunk, asked deject to reply with more clarity.

Post by **deject** » March 24th, 2007, 5:01

The highest DDR2 standard speed is 1066MHz, so unless you're planning on overclocking there's no point in buying a 1200MHz module, and only the fastest Intel chips even use 1066MHz. AMD's AM2 processors only go up to 800MHz. Over here, a 2x1GB kit of it costs as much as an 8800GTS 640MB.

For the record, 1066MHz is PC2-8500 and 800MHz is PC2-6400. Again, unless you're going to do some serious overclocking, don't waste money on anything higher than 1066MHz.

As for the mobo, there might be some bugs with the 680i chipset, but overall it seems to be the one to get, especially if you want to do SLi. However, the 650i is almost the same, but it only has 16 PCI-Express lanes for graphics, so SLI would run on 2 8x slots instead of 2 16x slots like the 680i does. I honestly do think that the extra bandwidth will make any noticeable difference for a couple years.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » March 24th, 2007, 5:25

deject wrote:As for the mobo, there might be some bugs with the 680i chipset, but overall it seems to be the one to get, especially if you want to do SLi. However, the 650i is almost the same, but it only has 16 PCI-Express lanes for graphics, so SLI would run on 2 8x slots instead of 2 16x slots like the 680i does. I honestly do think that the extra bandwidth will make any noticeable difference for a couple years.

I must say the 680i is a nice chipset, but it can very much an enthusiasts chipset - that is to say they can need some love to get running stable, expect a few bios flashes under your belt no matter what version you buy.

However, once they're right, they're great platforms, support lots of PCI-E, a bucketload of SATA (6 devices) and generally outclasses the competition.

680i info

Post by **deject** » March 24th, 2007, 7:46

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:I must say the 680i is a nice chipset, but it can very much an enthusiasts chipset - that is to say they can need some love to get running stable, expect a few bios flashes under your belt no matter what version you buy.

entirely possible. then again, a BOIS flash shouldn't scare anyone away from a good mobo.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » March 24th, 2007, 8:30

deject wrote:entirely possible. then again, a BOIS flash shouldn't scare anyone away from a good mobo.

Trust me, (admittedly not a reference 680i, 3 months old, 6 bios flashes so far)

Should be a good mobo though

Post by **FatherJack** » March 24th, 2007, 23:19

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:s'very posh and very expensive right now. tis probably called something like PC-9600 and 2gb of it probably costs about as much as an 8800gtx.

I think I've found some Kingston 9600 for about £30 more than Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C5, which is odd as the Corsair 8888 and 9136 are the ridiculous prices you mention.

pixie pie · Post by **pixie pie** » March 25th, 2007, 0:49

If you're thinking about spending silly money on RAM, remember that Intel will be switching to DDR3 (Which would support 1200+) in about a year and a bit.

Post by **FatherJack** » March 26th, 2007, 12:40

Nearly there:

EVGA 122-CK-NF68 NF680i SLI, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 1200/533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX
Corsair® 2GB DDR2 TwinX XMS2 Dominator PC2-9136 (1142MHz) 240Pin Non-ECC CAS 5-5-5-15 EPP DHX
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 S775, 2.40Ghz, 1066Mhz FSB, Conroe Core, 4M Cache Retail
Asus 22in MW221U, Widescreen VGA/DVI 1680x1050, 2 ms, 700:1, 300 cd/m2, Black/Titanium
Enermax Liberty 620W ELT620AWT ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU
Zalman CNPS9700-NT nVidia Tritium Super Aero Flower Cooler
Creative Sound Blaster X-FI Fatal1ty FPS
74GB Western Digital Raptor, SATA, 10000 rpm, 16MB Cache
74GB Western Digital Raptor, SATA, 10000 rpm, 16MB Cache
500GB Western Digital Caviar SE16 5000KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
Trust EasyConnect 5 Port USB2 PCI Card HU-3150
NEC AD-7173-0B 18x DVD+/-RW LabelFlash DVD Writer - Black
768Mb EVGA e-GeForce 8800GTX KO ACS3 Superclocked PCI-E (x16), Mem 2000MHz DDR3, GPU 626MHz 128Streams Dual DVI-I/HDTV

Just short of £2k, including VAT, monitor but not case (£170)

Still need another monitor, gig networking kit, backup drive, mouse and keyboard - most of these can either wait or need a hands-on test in PC World first. Oh and Windows.

Lateralus · Post by **Lateralus** » March 26th, 2007, 12:50

Nice, and where do you live exactly?

Also you appear to only have a CD drive, not DVD

Post by **FatherJack** » March 26th, 2007, 13:14

Lateralus wrote:Nice, and where do you live exactly?

Here: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&z=17&ll ... 2&t=k&om=1

Lateralus wrote:Also you appear to only have a CD drive, not DVD

/me whistles

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » March 26th, 2007, 13:14

Veery nice.

apart from having a floppy drive.

Post by **deject** » March 26th, 2007, 13:29

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:Veery nice.

apart from having a floppy drive.

Post by **FatherJack** » March 26th, 2007, 13:47

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:apart from having a floppy drive.

Good point, can't remember the last time I used one other than for ASR.

Post by **fabyak** » March 26th, 2007, 13:50

SATA Drivers for me, pulled it out of my old machine, put the drivers in, removed it again once the OS was done

Post by **FatherJack** » March 26th, 2007, 13:52

fabyak wrote:SATA Drivers for me, pulled it out of my old machine, put the drivers in, removed it again once the OS was done

I'll use a USB one. Cheaper than buying a black one+case mod and easier than pissing about with the old box.

mrbobbins · Post by **mrbobbins** » March 26th, 2007, 14:13

WOO for new PC's!

Some of my bits arrived today, the Tuniq Tower is f'in massive

Post by **FatherJack** » March 27th, 2007, 23:08

My case arrived today...when no-one was in. Will pick it up later in the week, probably Fri.

I got the overspeed memory in the end, as I might try overclocking that processor - the jump to the next one up was a 70% price increase for a mere 11% more Hz - hence the extra CPU fan. For now though, I'll see how I go with it as built, and the tweaky tools, as the GPU and mobo are factory-overclocked already.

Also went for the twin Raptors, will try the various RAID levels and see if there's any noticeable difference. Downloaded a few random disk benchmarkers, including PC Mark - any recommendations welcome.

eion · Post by **eion** » March 28th, 2007, 8:16

FatherJack wrote:Also went for the twin Raptors, will try the various RAID levels and see if there's any noticeable difference.

A good choice, I suppose... but RAID-level wise, anything other than 0 is a waste for twin Raptors in my opinion. I certainly wouldn't recommend 1 for a gaming machine, and with only two drives those're your options.

Post by **FatherJack** » April 5th, 2007, 12:00

New PC goteim. Have all the bits I was able to order. Unfortunately can't find anywhere with the fatal1ty sound card with front panel, or the EVGA factory-superclocked KO 8800GTX. Am making do with onboard sound and a 7300 that I ordered for a friend.

Update: found a superclocked BFG card (4Mhz slower, £40 cheaper) and bought the fatal1ty without panel (£60 less) - should be here on Sat.

Had to use OC for the extra bits in the end.

RAID-wise I think 0+1 is an option too, but mirroring isn't really needed, hopefully the disks will be very reliable, and even if one does go, it's not like there's anything particularly critical on there.