Looking to spec a new PC - advice?

[A9X]

Hi all,

in early 2001 I specced a PC (1G Athlon, Asus A7V board) and used it up until a few months ago when it died. I bought a secondhand PC for change to use in the interim, but it sh**s me as it's slow and does wierd things.

When I bought the Athlon it was pretty high spec for the time, and am looking to configure a good PC that I can use for several years. It will be for net, general wordprocessing etc, some audio recording and editing and some video editing as well as engineering applications like CAD and PCB design. It'll also serve as a music server as I'll put all of my CD's (uncompressed) onto a couple of external HDD's.
OS will be XP Pro SP2 as I already have it. Soundard will be MAudio Audiophile 24/192, internal.

What I was suggested by a local shop was;

-Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, 2.4ghz(x4), 2x4mb L2 cache, 1066mhz FSB
- Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P, 1333mhz FSB, Ultra Durable 2
- 4G RAM, 800MHz, 2x2G
- Nvidia 8600GTS
- 500gb SATA, 16mb buffer, 7200rpm (I'll probably get another HDD too)
- 500W PS, Thermaltake case

I'll use all my current external and take the existing IDE drives as externals by getting some cases for them.

Is this a decent spec? Not looking for cutting edge SOTA gaming performance as I don't game.

Any help/advice appreciated.

[fenderhutz]

Other than the video card being a bit overkill, those specs look pretty good for what you need. If you don't game you can save some mondo dough on a cheaper card.

Also if you are sticking with XP, anything over 3GB's of RAM is REALLY overkill if you don't game, even with CAD.

[Snarf]

PC Gamer's most recent issue has a great article on building an excellent machine and not spending $3000 to do it.

[DigMe]

Originally Posted by fenderhutz

Other than the video card being a bit overkill, those specs look pretty good for what you need.

haha...I was going to suggest stepping up to an 8800GT

That video card will probably do what you need but I'd say it's definitely NOT overkill. It's pretty much a midlevel card IMO. The rest looks good.

bc

[bobbykokinos]

If you can swing the extra cash, step up to the 8800GT.. I went from the 8600GTS to the 8800GT and it was a night and day difference.

Everything else looks good..

[jsbass]

Whatever you do, www.newegg.com !

[Liquid-Tension]

Yeh, Nice how much are they asking for the setup?
And if your using Xp then 4Gb is deff over kill

[DigMe]

BTW, I just checked out Tom's Hardware's "best graphics cards for the money" chart for January and they say that the ATI Radeon X1950 PRO is the better card for the money in that price range:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/01/...rd_for_120_tie

And those who are saying that 4gigs is overkill - He wants something that will last him for several years. I'm willing to bet that in 2 years..maybe even 1 year, 4 gigs will not be considered overkill. It is already starting to become commonplace with enthusiasts.

bc

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Im building a similar PC soon, But looking at the ASUS P5K Premium motherboard (built in wireless), and im only going to get 2Gb RAM, but on the flip side, im going for the 8800 GT, but i do game quite a bit.

If your sticking to XP, it can only use a max of 3Gb.

The processor your looking at is pretty good too, very overclockable (from what ive read) !

You might also want to look at a hard drive with a 32Mb buffer, but, it wouldnt be a huge difference.