decoded_ Something for your mind… Something for your mind…

August 22, 2007

New PC

Filed under: General — decoded_ @ 11:44 pm

Inside the Intel Core 2 Quad CPU

I’ve been talking about getting a new PC for years. Looks like it’s coming together…

Months of reading and researching, waiting for new technologies to arrive and settle, and recent shopping around. Here’s what ‘Black Beauty’ will be put together with…

[CPU] : Intel Q6600 Core 2 Quad 2.4GHz G0 stepping (Overclocked to 3.6GHz)

[Motherboard] : Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6

[RAM] : 2GB / 2 x Corsair XMS DDR2 1024MB PC2-6400C4 800MHz (CAS 4-4-4-12)

[GPU] : Gigabyte nVidia GeForce 8800GTX

[HDD] : 2 x Western Digital 320GB (WD3200AAKS Caviar SE 7200rpm 16MB Cache Sata II)

[FDD] : 1 x ? Black Floppy Disc Drive

[PSU] : 620W – Corsair HX620

[CPU Cooling] : Zalman CNPS9700LED CPU cooler (w/ Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste)

[Case/Enclosure] : SilverStone TJ09 black case w/ side window

[Audio] : Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer PCI

[DVD/CD] : Asus DRW-1814BL black

[OS] : Windows XP Pro

[LCD Monitor] : Samsung SyncMaster 226BW 22″ Wide Screen black TFT LCD

[Keyboard] : Logitech black PS2/USB

[Mouse] : Microsoft USB/PS2 Wheel Mouse Optical black

I’ll stick with Windows XP for a while until Vista matures. I think it’s too soon to move to DDR3. I decided against the nVidia 680i chip-set and SLI graphics possibility.

After 8+ years of this Pentium III 450MHz I’m well over-due for a new PC! My own PC!

Let’s build!

3 Comments »

  1. Looks nice…but dare I suggest – get a Mac…

    Comment by skip — August 31, 2007 @ 12:42 am

  2. hey dave
    ..yeah indeed skip, i understand the “i want to upgrade when i want” but seriously why?? mann its good here in mac land, real good still no viruses, not downtime its all good
    oh well.. enjoy yr new pc.. if you must stay in the land of M$/PC
    xp

    Comment by paul — September 5, 2007 @ 12:03 am

  3. Yeah an Apple MacBook Pro would be very nice, but I would need another $1-2K for one of those. I have no need for a laptop anyway.

    I would probably be a little bored with a Mac to be honest, being just a passive computer user. A lot of the fun of computers for me is messing around with the hardware, taking things apart, upgrading parts, overclocking, messing around in the BIOS etc. I have always wanted to spec and build my own PC from scratch… and now I have *happy sigh*. I have a cheap/easy DIY upgrade path now as well. There was no chance to upgrade the old PC, every slot/connector, and connection format/technology has changed on PCs over the last 6 years.

    Macs are awesome but not really good for games. Yeah I know you can stick Windows XP on a Mac via boot-camp, but the video hardware would not be able to handle the new generation of games. I really wanted to get back into playing PC first-person-shooter games again. I must be having a mid-life crisis, hehe. I have been having a blast playing Half-Life 2 and Doom 3. Next up is Half-Life 2 Lost Coast, Half-Life Episode 1+2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow Of Chernobyl, BioShock, FEAR and more… The performances of my GeForce nVidia 768MB 8800GTX video card is amazing, the most expensive part of the whole PC.

    Also, what is with Apple releasing a new better/cheaper model not long after the original model is released? I had 2 friends caught out by that with the MacBook Pro, and iMac, and there is now way to even upgrade a couple of parts to reach the same spec. PC for me.

    Comment by decoded_ — September 5, 2007 @ 12:23 am

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