How-To Geek

Hi All,

I'm pretty sure I've researched this fully - i just want to post a list and check compatability/thoughts with everyone here.

New Machine build - all prices from e-buyer.co.uk

Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Mid Tower Case - With 500W EarthWatts PSU - £99.99

Intel DQ35JO iQ35 Socket 775 onboard VGA 6 channel audio mATX Motherboard £122.46

CPU –Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 Stepping (2.4GHz 1066MHz) Socket 775 L2 8MB Cache (2x4MB (4MB per core pair) Retail Boxed Processor £127.95

Memory – Corsair 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL5(5-5-5-18) Heat Spreader Lifetime Warranty – £57.51

Hard-Drive - Samsung HD502IJ SpinPoint F1 500GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 16MB Cache – OEM - £42.29

Hard-Drive 2 - Maxtor STM3250310AS 250GB SATAII 8MB Cache – OEM – £27.90

Optical Drive - Samsung SH-S223F 22X DVD?RW/RAM/DL Serial ATA Black Bare Drive - OEM £15.98

HSF Cooler – Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro £15.98,

GPU - Palit 9500GT 1GB DDR2 VGA DVI HDMI PhysX and Cuda ready PCI-E Graphics Card - £48.99

Front case fan - Hiper 120mm HiperFlow Chrome Blade Case Fan With Blue LED - 3pin Adaptor with Screws £7.02,

OS - Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition w/SP2 - Complete package - 1 user - CD – English – £180.95

APC Performance SurgeArrest 8 outlets with Phone, Coax & Network Protection 230V UK £31.28

Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Compound – £4.42

Hiyatek Black Flip LCD Screen 52-in-1 Card Reader With E-SATA - 5.25" Bay - £17.61

***Questions***

That Case/PSU isn't as i orgionally spec'd - will that power supply still work? (It's my little treat - taking me over budget :S)

The Motherboard - does that come with built-in graphics (If so, can i still fit the Palit 9500 GT?) Sorry, the info on the e-buyer website is a bit naff.

All in all - im pretty happy with this spec - any advice or thoughts would be great.

Many Thanks,

Nick.

Hi Raph,

Well £750 was my origional budget - can't really push it any further than it is now - unless i live on beans and rice for the next month or 2! :D

Hi Rick,

Thanks for looking into it so deeply for me - been to plenty of board that simply say "Yup - looks good. Have fun"

The problem we have regarding I7, vista and newer features is that this machine is being built as an intrim music production computer and the manufacturers of music tech are notoriously slow to bring updates / patches and fixes to the table. Plus, given the fickel nature of the way the industry works (and the obvious profit margins involved) once a product has been launched, except in the case of much bigger companies that can afford it, updates for newer components and systems are rare - meaning that vintage or "slightly out-dated" software and plug-ins are unusable. Believe me, i would love to utilise Vista 64bit for recording - however very few programmes (mainly the big boys) can support it. In my experince, the updating just isn't worth the hassle! There's nothing worse than hitting a session and getting errors with clients in the room!

With this spec - i have tried to get the best out of what can be used - if you follow me. I'm not even sure if i can utilise the 4g ram with the 64bit XP pro, as one of our programmes has no support for 64bit and have been advised against using the 64bit/32 bit counterbalance as it can cause problems with this peice of software.

Sorry im being a pain in the arse - any help you can give would be brilliant, im really grateful.

Essentially, we need as much ram as possible to ensure the system avoids latency issues! The rest is changeable.

Nick.

Nick,

Since you are constrained by your business software, suggest Downloading X58 Motherboard Manuals, Reading them to see if CPU Hyper threading feature can be turned off in Bios Settings. That could give you i7 1366 CPU choice for a better Build.

Some X58 Motherboards
http://www.newegg.com/Product/.....der=RATING

A 32Bit O/S will only support (4) Gigs of memory due to addressing limit.

Suggest using 32Bit XP Professional Edition instead of XP Home Edition as you specified.

Not sure why HDs do not EXACTLY match??

Antec Enclosure is very good choice. Order case and +80% PSU from http://www.antec.com

Regards,
Rick P.

Nick,

OK !! Now you are going in the right direction. :) :)

1. If you like the Gigabyte MB better than the Asus models, that's OK. I just personally prefer Asus because I've used them for so many Builds and years.

2. Suggest EXACTED MATCHED WD 32 Cache HDs. Seagate's have a (HIGH) failure rate which they are working on. Generation 11 is a NO-GO.
MB supports Raid I think so for future, HDs need to be MATCHED in CAP, RPM and Cache.

3. Probably don't need HSF Cooler. Your choice.

4. Believe that MB is SLI. Video Card Choice CAN Be Improved Upon.

5. Purchase Case, PSU and Fans from (( Antec )). They will honor warranty PLUS have SPARE PARTS.
Need at least 650 Watt 80% eff. Power Supply.

6. Use Vista Business Edition instead of Home Edition.

I prefer Newegg and Antec for vendors if available in UK.

Inserting Links to componets is easier. (LOL)

Best Regards,
Rick P.