New Spec - Opinions?

WantoN · 7 Mar 2006 at 17:54

Hey fellas,
After a lot of help from the guys here, who pretty much specced my rig for me, give or take, I've come up with my final machine.

Now, I'd like to shave a little cash off, if possible. So it falls under the £1k bracket. Specs are :

+AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ - £187.94
+Asus A8R-MVP Crossfire - £82.19
+HI Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 NCQ 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM - £75.14
+Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail - £340.69
+G.Skill 2GB DDR HZ PC4000 (2x1GB) CAS3 Dual Channel Kit - £152.69
+Thermaltake Big Typhoon 4 in 1 Heatpipe - £25.79
+NEC ND4551 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Silver) - OEM - £32.84
+Hiper HPU-4K580-MK Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU - Black UV - - £62.22
+Lian-Li PC-60 Silver Aluminium Midi-Tower Case - £82.19
TOTAL - £1,041.70

EDIT: For clarification, I'll be attempting to push a relatively meaty overclock (though this won't extend to the x1900 just yet) and it's mainly a gaming rig.

Ant :cool:

Eliminos · 7 Mar 2006 at 17:57

IIRC the Hipers aren't as good as the Tagan EasyCons. Might be worth switching it for the 580W EasyCon for about £20 more.

WantoN · 7 Mar 2006 at 17:59

Eliminos said:
IIRC the Hipers aren't as good as the Tagan EasyCons. Might be worth switching it for the 580W EasyCon for about £20 more.

I've looked into it. However, the modular system of the Hiper appeals to me more (I loathe untidy cases) and the added cost would mean more cutting somewhere else

If you think it's imperitive I'll give it more consideration... Other PSU ideas?

Ant :cool:

Monstermunch · 7 Mar 2006 at 18:13

WantoN said:
I've looked into it. However, the modular system of the Hiper appeals to me more (I loathe untidy cases) and the added cost would mean more cutting somewhere else

If you think it's imperitive I'll give it more consideration... Other PSU ideas?

Ant

The Tagan Easycon is modular, and to save a little money you could switch the Heatpipe for the Arctic Freezer 64 Pro.

WantoN · 7 Mar 2006 at 18:15

Monstermunch said:
The Tagan Easycon is modular, and to save a little money you could switch the Heatpipe for the Arctic Freezer 64 Pro.

I know, but the wires aren't coated are they? Aren't they just the usual black, yellow and red twisted garb?

Ant :cool:

Eliminos · 7 Mar 2006 at 18:19

The Easycon cables are coated in a mesh

see:

WantoN · 7 Mar 2006 at 18:21

Hmmm, ok I shall consider. It's just, as pathetic as it may sound, aesthetics are rather important to me.

On another note, will I need a Sound Card?

Ant :cool:

Explicit · 7 Mar 2006 at 18:58

WantoN said:
On another note, will I need a Sound Card?

Ant

Unless you're an audiophile, the onboard sound should be fine.

valerian · 7 Mar 2006 at 19:05

aesthetics are important, if the guts are on show, also if it is tidy it usually follows that the air flow is unimpeded, for the record the arctic freezer in my opinion, makes the biggest difference over stock, including my zalman 9500, not an entirely scientific statement but i had the arctic on a p4 3.2, and now the zalman on the current p4 3.2d dual core the 90nm one.
but the arctic is one hell of a difference.
the zalman keeps my dualcore at max 65c when being caned by a good game and running a virus scan.
i cant comment on watercooling at all.
also they have improved the fans on the arctic

WantoN · 7 Mar 2006 at 19:28

Right, I've gone with the Arctic Cooler instead.

Frankly, I shall be sticking with the Hiper, unless it'll impede my overclock or offer any detriment to the system.

Other tips for reducing the price a little?

Ant :cool:

BigDom · 7 Mar 2006 at 19:29

Explicit said:
Unless you're an audiophile, the onboard sound should be fine.

Yep the onboard sound is VERY good on the MVP.. the Tagan is a very tidy PSU, I run one in Project red alert which also needed to be very tidy.

Squidge · 7 Mar 2006 at 19:41

If you can't decide between the Hiper and Tagan, maybe reading these reviews would help:

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/custompc/labs/79289/hiper-hpu4k580.html

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/custompc-labs/79291/tagan-tg530u15.html

BigDom · 7 Mar 2006 at 19:45

Squidge said:
If you can't decide between the Hiper and Tagan, maybe reading these reviews would help:

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/custompc/labs/79289/hiper-hpu4k580.html

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/custompc-labs/79291/tagan-tg530u15.html

hehe well looks like both have problems, personally the tagan seems to have less of a problem as it doesn't overheat or make a noise. Neither PSU can sustain max power and both are equally inefficient.

WantoN · 7 Mar 2006 at 19:46

Frankly the reviews make me start to believe I want neither of them :/

What's the liklihood of the Hiper hitting full spec with the proposed system? Stock gfx, overclocked cpu?

Ant :cool:

Explicit · 7 Mar 2006 at 20:05

WantoN said:
Frankly the reviews make me start to believe I want neither of them :/

How about the Seasonic then? It's not modular but it's one of the most respectable units.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/07/11/stress_test/page24.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/07/11/stress_test/page30.html

Eliminos · 7 Mar 2006 at 20:08

I have pretty much the same rig as you specced with the Tagan PSU. I reckon it is pulling about 350W at full load. It, of course, is going to be quieter than the Hiper - who puts an 80mm fan in a PSU?! I've heard the Hiper has real troubles supporting Crossfire too, so if you're planning on getting a second X1900 later on, I wouldn't not recommend it. I REALLY wouldn't recommend it.

BigDom · 7 Mar 2006 at 20:33

Remember you shouldn't really push a PSU to it's limit's, if your running at the limit then you need a bigger PSU - simple... Most PSU's I'm sure hit some problem or other close to their limit's, the tagan's voltage problem could just be a rogue problem too.. plenty of people in this forum mention the Hyper's noise problems though.

Zefan · 7 Mar 2006 at 20:41

The 80mm is actually very helpful, however noisy it is.