Overclockers UK | Nobody Reads This

Out of Sight

James Reynolds | October 22, 2008

Out of Mind. That’s currently my policy on the HP piece of shit sat on my desk at home. I’m getting ever closer to the idea of just mounting a different HDD in it rather than sending it off, but tbh I still want to get my money back.

Until that moon turns blue i’ve been doing some shopping on Overclockers UK (a site recommended by a friend) and have come out with the following 2 spec sets:

Set 1

Intel 6600 Quadcore £130
(Undecided) Quality Mobo £120
Cooling £20
4 Gb DDR8500+ Ram £60
(Undecided) Graphics Card £120
1Tb HDD £85
(Undecided) Case £80
DVD-RW £25
PSU £70
Total: £700~

Set2

Intel 6600 Quadcore £130
(Undecided) Quality Mobo £120
Cooling £20
2 Gb DDR8500+ Ram £30
(Undecided) Graphics Card £45
500Gb HDD £40
(Undecided) Case £47
DVD-RW £25
PSU £43
Total: £500~

The point here was, look at what PC I would like to have … Then scale back the interchangeable components and upgrade them one by one. So whilst keeping the solid Intel 6600 & Mainboard there makes up literally half the price of the machine they’re also key components that probably won’t need changing for years (Considering 6600s have been clocked over 3.2Ghz/core on air cool).

Further cost cutting could include pulling out the Graphics card altogether but generally it becomes a negative economy of scale to go much further down the specs from what you see in Set 2.

Atm the hunk of junk at home is:

Tri-core
4Gb Ram
£700~ Gb HDD
8800GT (I think … Evan probably knows )
Unknown Mobo (probably terrible)
DVD-RW + Lightscribe
Unknown PSU (probably stock and terrible)

I think my Set 2 with an overclocked Quad-core (Would probably not push it and take a safe clock of about 2.8) would out perform the Non-clocked Tri core with more RAM and a better GFX card. Then in a few months I could always sink £100-£150 into a (some?) graphics cards and up the RAM and you’ve got a winner.

Would probably need a new PSU though because my Set 2 only has a 500w in my price range, although it is a quality 500 and ultra silent.

… Out of sight, out of mind … Out of reach. Sigh.

Regards,
JamesR.

P.S. Whatever Wordpress did to their WYSIWYG editor – Fucking undo it. I spent more time resizing this post and putting breaks in than I did writing it.