Is it worth it?

[Unleashed]

Hey everyone,
I'm currently running:
Athlon XP3000+
MSI K7N2 Delta
1gb DDR3200 Crucial
A whole load of IDE hard drives
Windows XP Pro SP2

My question is, is this worth it:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/pcrange.html?ISM

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 4MB Cache Dual Core 64 BitProcessor
2048MB 667MHz DDR2 Ram
500GB Serial ATA II Hard Drive
nVidia 8600GTS 256MB PCI-E Graphics
16x Dual Layer +R/-R/RW DVD burner
Intel 946GZ Chipset MicroATX Motherboard Motherboard
Realtek 7.1 High Definition Audio
Gigabit LAN
Windows Vista Ultimate

Or should I build my own? From what I've seen financially I gain very little from building it myself using the same components.
SO, should I change the spec slightly and build it myself, perhaps with a little input from here as to different motherboards, graphics cards etc, should I buy that one or should I wait a while until there's better on the market for a similar price? Ideally I'd like to use that company too because of the 0% finance. I'm broke at the moment so can't really spring a load in one shot.
Mine currently does everything I want, but it is getting a little old, and my dad needs an upgrade so I would swap this for his, buy him a copy of Vista Home Premium for it, take his old one and use it as an internal server with my IDE drives.

Oh, and the intention is for quite a lot of gaming, a fair bit of media applications and general use too.

Thanks everyone, I've completely lost touch with the technological world and really don't know what's good or not!

 

[ray_gillespie]

That seems like quite a good deal, though I've never come across that motherboard and it doesn't say what kind of PSU it's using. Aside from that, it's not a bad piece of kit at all.

I suppose it's whether you can spare the time to research and build you own - if you can then I'd say go for it, you'll probably be able to get a better set of kit for around the same price. I'm sure you'll get all the help you need from the OSNN guys!

 

[LordOfLA]

IF you're going for E6600 or higher you must use i975X based boards or you slow things down (or nforce 600 based boards).

MicroATX and gaming don't go either

Build it yourself with a full size ATX board and tower case.

 

[LeeJend]

-You will be screwed on the PSU, guaranteed.

-The RAM is a joke it should be 800 Mhz minimum for that CPU.

-The MB is probably a junker with a poor chipset. From what I can find it looks like that chipset does not support RAM over 667 Mhz. 800 Mhz is standard and they go up to 1333. Having to upgrade RAM speed will kill the value of the deal, and forget going upscale on the video at a latter date without a PSU upgrade. The MB also hsa built in vidoe which I've become nervous about.

In my recent search for a new MB I have seen some MB's with built in video refering to their PCI-e as "simulated". There were some original PCI-e video implementations that were really AGP with "translation chip". The simulated PCI-e were faster than AGP but not capable of full PCI-e 16x.

You also need to find out if you will get the install disks or have to pay extra for them.

If you are buying a general purpose machine the "super" deals you find are usually ok but if you car looking for agaming machine or something you can incrementally upgrade as time goes by stick with a build your own. They have to cut corners somewhere to cover labor and profit for an assembled PC...

 

[ray_gillespie]

Actually, I've read on a few places that there's no point using the 800Mhz RAM on that CPU unless you're overclocking. I wish I'd got 800Mhz to o/c mine, but never mind!

 

[Unleashed]

Thanks for the advice guys, what do you think of this instead then?
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
Abit AW9D MAX i975X
ThermalTake Toughpower 750Watt PSU
Corsair XMS6400 2GB DDR2 (2x1GB) 800Mhz
Thermaltake Tsunami Dream Black Aluminium Case
GeForce 8600GT 512MB GDDR3 PCI-E
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500Gb 16Mb Cache Hard Disk Drive SATAII 300MB/s <8.9ms 7200rpm

Unfortunately that makes it, with Vista, £803.26 which is... A lot of money. As opposed to £656.83 that the system above comes to.
Is it really worth the extra. Really?

 

[LordOfLA]

Thats a better spec.

Yes gaming machines cost alot more than general all-rounder machines

 

[Tuffgong4]

if you look at this thread you will see that the processors are about to drop considerably. The quad core Q6600 will drop in half in the coming weeks.

When I built my system I went with ddr2-667. which is plenty since the fsb is 1066 so the quad pumped intel fsb is 1:1 with the memory, but if I were building now I would go with ddr2-800. Not that I would notice any but future proofing is the best way to go.

But for future proofing ddr3 and newer intel chipsets are on the horizon or really expensive so your next build may include these newer technologies. but not worth it to go with it now.

 

[LeeJend]

The core 2 may not drop much. It is the quad cores that are expecting the big cuts.

You could cut the PSU back to 600W to save money and be ok. Take a look at Enermax models. Even if you plan on SLI with the 8600 GT or single card 8800GTX. (For those surprised at me not mentioning Antec they are on my Shiit list now. Their pricing and quality have both lost it as far as I can tell.)

Would cutting the 8600 GT back to 256 MB help much on price?

I'm personally a WD fanboy but Seagate has been improving and they are way ahead of WD on price due to making their own platters.

Shop the RAM prices! The USA DDR2 800 prices have dropped in half over the last 3 months and are holding. It makes no sense for UK prices to still be high.

 

[Unleashed]

Thanks for the heads up!
I'll hang on a month then and see what happens to the Q6600. But looking at it now it's still double the price of the E6600 so would blow my budget right out of the water.
Is it worth mentioning that I don't mind going AMD? Or are Intel really the way to go at the moment?
Also, is that graphics card a good one? I tried to skim through some reviews and it seemed to come out well, but I haven't done a full comparison. Again, I don't mind going ATi if there is better.
Ta very much chaps.

 

[LeeJend]

Actually hang on for 12 days, the price cuts are due July 22 for Intel. AMD anounced their cuts today. 10-30%.

The nicely positioned price performance 4600 X2 is at ~$100 now which is $15 less than when I looked last weekend. If AMD hadn't announced another socket change for next year (new pins and DDR3) I'd have ordered one today...

The 6600 LGA775 is still the better choice for long term upward migration path.

 

[Unleashed]

Gents, I've decided to take the plunge and do some serious future proofing. Are there any comments to be made on this system? Obviously it's going to be a lot of money, so I intend it to last a few years at least with minimum future expenditure.

Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gamer Case

ThermalTake Toughpower Series Cable Management 700W Active

Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard for PC/PS2/XBOX USB

Logitech MX518 Gaming Grade Optical Mouse USB/PS2

SAMSUNG 20x DVD+/-R/RW/RAM SATA OEM BLACK

Western Digital Caviar 160Gb 8Mb Cache Hard Disk Drive SATAII 300MB/s <8.9ms 7200rpm

Intel Quad Core Q6600 4 x 2.40Ghz 8Mb Cache 1066 FSB Quad Core Processor

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Socket 775 CPU Cooler

Abit AW9D MAX i975X Socket 775 2x PCI-E 16x Dual Channel DDRII 7x SATA(II) Raid 7.1CH HD Audio Firewire ATX Mmotherboard

Corsair XMS6400 2GB DDR2 (2x1GB) 800Mhz Non-ECC (x 2 so 4GB RAM)

GeForce 8800GTS 320MB HDCP Enabled Dual DVI PCI Express (500MHz Core Clock) (1600MHz Memory Clock) (1200MHz Shader Clock)

Thanks for any comments.

 

[Unleashed]

Oops, could someone move this to the System Builds area please?

 

[fitz]

thread moved

 

[Sazar]

Why oh why did you get the 320MB card?

Save a little more, or spend a little more and get a much better product with the 640 MB card.

Also, HDD's are dirt cheap. 160GB is going to fill up rapidly.

Get a WD, Maxtor or something else, 16MB cache drive. I think you can get 400 or 500 GB drives for less than $100 now.

Also, what o/s are you running or intend to?

 

[LeeJend]

Looks good (too good, jealousy rising). Though if you are looking to future proof the 640MB 8800 would be better, unless you are planning on SLI as an upgrade path latter then the 320 might be ok. (You'll get 640 equivalent with an SLI rig in some of the modes.)

 

[Sazar]

Lee, the memory is the crippler, even if he has it in Sli mode bud.

 

[Unleashed]

I haven't bought it yet, I'll probably order at the end of next month depending on how much my car costs me.
To answer your questions:
It's £60 extra for the 640mb version. I have to be sure it's absolutely worth the difference because that pushes it over the £1000 mark - I'm only 20!
Hard drive space is not an issue for me, I store everything on either my server or removable drives, so local space is minimal requirement.
OS will be XP Pro, potentially Vista in the future but not yet.

 

[assclown]

You don't need 4gb Ram. Unless you are running a 64 bit OS. Save the money on the memory and step up the video.

 

[Unleashed]

As I said though, future proofing. One day when I do move to XP64 or Vista 64 I intend to be fully ready. I know XP won't read it all currently.
It is a good suggestion though, and for the meantime I may well take that on board... That would be the extra cash needed for the 640mb 8800GTS...