[alex]

Originally Posted by Carbon Uh, they're just renamed E8400s with lower fault tolerance. There's no physical difference.

Not quite correct. The pre-fetchers in the cpu aren't optimised for home pc's (gaming, encoding etc) they're optimised for server applications.

[alex]

Lucian, how do you feel about overclocking?

I can spec you a rather good build for around the £450 mark. Including o.s.

Even take you, step by step, through oc'ing the cpu.

Just an idea.

[lucian]

Originally Posted by alex Lucian, how do you feel about overclocking? I can spec you a rather good build for around the £450 mark. Including o.s. Even take you, step by step, through oc'ing the cpu. Just an idea.

This would be great if you could, i'm all for overclocking, although have ony ever oced my graphics card before (but have read about how to do cpu/ram). I've been looking forward to playing around a bit with overclocking with this build. I've also upped my budget to £600 due to some extra money from my parents

[serverguy]

Originally Posted by alex Lucian, how do you feel about overclocking? I can spec you a rather good build for around the £450 mark. Including o.s. Even take you, step by step, through oc'ing the cpu. Just an idea.

Thats a good offer

[alex]

Apologies for not posting back last night Lucian. I've managed to burn my hand rather badly and it's a tad painful to type.

I'll get a list drawn up tonight of components and lob it in the thread.

[lucian]

Originally Posted by alex Apologies for not posting back last night Lucian. I've managed to burn my hand rather badly and it's a tad painful to type. I'll get a list drawn up tonight of components and lob it in the thread.

Than you very much! Sorry about your hand

[alex]

Sorry for the delay Lucian. (I hate hospitals).

This one-handed typing lark isn't for me

Anyway:

Case £25

PSU £65

Mobo £44

CPU £43

RAM £33

CPU HSF £14

Graphics card £113

HDD £32

Optical £18

O.S £63

Intake fan £7

Total: £457.

(Spec'd from one site so the carriage charge will be lower as well).

The motherboard doesn't natively support 1333mhz fsb cpu's but will with oc'ing and it's a good oc'ing mobo for the money. The cpu is a superb oc'er, especially when paired with the hsf quoted as the AC7 is, in my opinion, the best in the business.

The hdd you chose was a very good choice as it only has one 160gb platter. But the one I've quoted is rather quiet, runs cool, is nearly as fast and also offers an extra 90gb of storage*

*Pre-format and manufacturers measure.

The case is screwless but doesn't come with an intake hence quoting an intake fan. But you'll now have one 120mm intake and one 120mm exhaust making for good airflow throughout.

The only downside to this build is the VRM's on the mobo don't have stock heatsinks for the extra voltage when oc'ing, so you'll risk damage, in my opinion, as they stand now . But it's easily solved with some active cooling or VRM heatsinks.

But this risk is dependent on the level of oc'ing. Go nuts and you're going to blow anything, go steady, and keep good airflow throughout and you should be fine. I personally stand on the side of caution.

If you're unsure about that board now, let me know. I can always spec another.

This build, with the cpu at 3gz, will happily game at 1680x1050 all day long. With AA/AF and high-detail settings in the majority of games currently on the market.

Anyway, it's all just an idea. As your budget is larger now you may want to go a different route.

[lucian]

Thank you very much for this!