General Computer DiscussionYou should use this section to discuss software topics including Windows, Linux and various software applications, together with hardware related topics including buying a new machine, graphics cards, keyboards, etc.
Yeah the Core 2 Duo CPUs are very overclockable. It's pretty safe as well but I'd not bother unless you need the performance.
OK, that looks good, I don't think you've missed anything.
One thing though...that hard drive I recommended, I bought myself 2 weeks ago. It's *very* fast because it's just one 250GB platter, it's small, cool and almost silent...but mine broke a few days ago. It's of course very likely to be a one-off...but I thought I should say anyway. What I would recommend is buying 2 hard drives. You can get an 80gb one for £25, and you can use this if anything ever goes tits-up. Hard drive breaks, Windows corrupts or whatever.
You don't need the soundcard as the mobo will have 7.1 onboard. Sound quality will be better with a soundcard but tbh you will only notice this if you have a £2000 surround sound system.
Does your case come with fans? Do you have heatsink and fan with the CPU? Depending on which case you buy depends on what fans you need for airflow. Just a couple of things that crop up with heat.
in that case you should be covered but be careful overclocking the memory as this can seriously heat it up - you can even get memory heat sinks now. However if your setup has a good airflow over the motherboard the memory should overclock without major problems. If your going all out to get the very last ounce of speed out of it then you may be advised to get the heatsink for it
I wouldn't even want to overclock, there's little point trying to juice out the cpu if the memory bandwidth isn't matching it, makes the whole point of overclocking redundant imo,
that heatsink is quite a good one, however, and will get you a lot cooler than the stock.
just as long as the case fans have enough pull to clear the built up heat inside the case.
remember to give the graphic card any addittional power it needs via leads if the card is socketed,
and make sure the power supply cable matches the socket on the board exactly.
the good thing about these brand heatsinks is that sometimes they align nicely
to allow air to blow over the memory sticks as well for that extra cooling benefit
I wouldn't even want to overclock, there's little point trying to juice out the cpu if the memory bandwidth isn't matching it, makes the whole point of overclocking redundant imo.
are u sure this is the case? cause your the first person to mention anything about this :S
ah well.. its too late now, i already placed the order >__<
delivery date is this tuesday.. so expect lots of threads asking how to set it up
Less than 10% difference between 800 and 2000mhz, and for about £350 more.
DDR3 will only be a decent choice when it's adopted as mainstream and the prices are driven right down.
sheer drivel, that's comparing FPS, not memory performance, and in only individual applications,
also that is a table of benchmarks taken from ramping up voltages on a given brand,
cpu o/cing will give improvement, but if the memory isn't there to carry the workload, then what's the point??
it's like revving an engine, but having flat tyres to move along on, you won't get anywhere,
on any system, you need to have memory that can handle the same workload as the CPU,
what's the point in spending the cash on a decent CPU, but giving it slow memory to work on?
bottlenecking a brand new system isn't taking full advantage of it's power, so imo it's kinda a waste,
if you don't want max performance, or aren't really bothered, then fine, use any old ram with the new PC,
but speaking as a power user and high-performance system builder, my rule is to always match the CPU bus with the same speed of ram, to get maximum performance from the hardware you spend your money on.
that's comparing FPS, not memory performance, and in only individual applications,
Do you think DK who has mentioned crysis and bioshock cares more about performance in games, or sisoft sandra's memory bandwidth test?
Even if she did spend her time calculating Pi to 2 million decimal places, I don't think going from 41 seconds to 39 seconds is worth another £100 or whatever...
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also that is a table of benchmarks taken from ramping up voltages on a given brand,
No, it's a table of different RAM speeds. The voltages go up, but the memory is rated for those voltages.
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cpu o/cing will give improvement, but if the memory isn't there to carry the workload, then what's the point??
You assume here that the bandwidth between CPU and RAM is always saturated. It's not. I can't believe you are actually arguing this, have you never seen CPU benchmarks where memory speed is kept similiar yet the CPU is clocked much higher and gives a massive increase in score? Hell I've done this myself...Athlon 1.8ghz with 400mhz mem to 2.5ghz with 360 mem...huge increase in CPU power reflected in several different benchmarks - obviously the gain in cpu speed more than offset the slower RAM.
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but speaking as a power user and high-performance system builder, my rule is to always match the CPU bus with the same speed of ram, to get maximum performance from the hardware you spend your money on.
So you would spend hundreds of pounds on 1333mhz ram just to match the FSB of the CPU?
That money would be better spent on getting an 8800 GTX/Ultra instead of a GTS, I guarantee the improvement in games would be massive, as opposed to pretty much negligible going from 800 to 1333 ram speed.
Remember we are talking about games here, not professional number-crunching.
I thought an 8600 would be alright because my 8800s run everything and quite a few games only use 1 of them. I didn't think the 8600 would be that much worse.
Sega rally revo only uses 1 and it looks and runs unbelievable.
... My advice is build your own, it's really not that difficult and you can get exactly what you want. ... If you made it yourself you could easily include an 8800GTS and keep it under £700...
in any case I would put it together myself if I wer U .. built my own PC in january and works PER_FECT - it's not the top-parts-best-machine of course but alltogether it costed around 800 €
hm - about vista ... no - don't like it at all ... still keep my updated and well-shaped XP ^^
but be careful overclocking the memory as this can seriously heat it up - you can even get memory heat sinks now. However if your setup has a good airflow over the motherboard the memory should overclock without major problems. If your going all out to get the very last ounce of speed out of it then you may be advised to get the heatsink for it 
do it yourself
oh - how I DO know that system ... I got 2 dinosaur laptops here for outa house plimplum 
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