1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
Variety of tasks has to last me a while.
Gaming - I like most game genres that don't have MMO in them.
Though predominantly. RTS + FPS e.g. CoD 4, DoWII, Company of heroes blah blah.
Photoshop for both artwork + photography.
Watching movies - DVD's are ok for now. I guess occasional HD content.
3Dmax - Occasional animator.
Zbrush - Occasionally.
Various other less intensive tasks.
2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
I'm trying to save money since I'm already stretched but I don't want to go too far with that if it means I get subpar performance.
Still need to purchase the following and what I'm trying to make the decision about..
Moboard - Deciding between Asus PQ5L-E and PQ5 - PRO etc..
CPU - Thinking E8500 currently due to gaming.
3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
Taiwan $NT 30ish = $1US for reference.
4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc, etc, etc, you get the picture.
I'm not brand specific but I do tend to shy away from cheapo brands for the more critical parts unless it got rave reviews all round. e.g. I have had both Intel + AMD systems, ATI + Nvidia gfx cards, Epox, Asus, Asrock motherboards etc..
5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
Already purchased
Cooler Master CAC-T05 Case.
Corsair VX550W PSU
DDR2-1000 4GB PQ (2GB*2) GSkill 4G 5-5-5-15
Powercolor HD4850 PCS *with custom cooler*.
Tuniq Tower 120 HS
ASUS VW222U 22" monitor.
Also have
1x500gb Seagate 16mb SATAII
1x WD160gb IDE drive 8mb *will probably swap this out for another 500 SATAII*
6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
Read numerous reviews + threads online for all parts, also built many pc's in the past with carefully picked components just seeking advice on few parts Im undecided on since I can't find a few bits of info, keep going back and forth changing my mind figured I'd ask here.
7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
I like playing around with overclocking and I like to thave the option. I don't agressively overclock though I do try to find what i can get as a maximum at reasonable voltages then pull back a little and go with what I consider a *healthy* overclock for day to day use.
8. WHEN do you plan to build it?
ASAP.
Hopefully that covers all the most common questions. My real decision lies in the differences between the P5QL-E's overclocking abilities vs it's cost compared to the P5Q-PRO here in Taiwan. 've searched the local markets + online + on bidding sites etc...
The prices for each *with approx us prices taking exchange rate costs into account as I'm from UK* are around
P5QL-E $NT 3490 ($116)
P5Q - PRO $NT 5290 ($176)
P5Q - E $NT 6290 ($209)
I don't really plan on crossfiring or anything like that, I'm more for just swapping out the single card for a faster new one when that becomes necessary.
Also I just wanted a little advice on the CPU from those in the know
I figured that since I like gaming I should go for a faster dual core + as far as I know they tend to have a little more headroom for overclocking.
The E8500 seems to be the sweetspot here in Taiwan at around $NT 5650 ($188) which puts it in the same ballpark as an Q6600+ at around $NT 5750 ($191) the e7xxx's aren't cheap enough to be attractive.
The cheapest Q9450 is around $NT 8450 which is way above what i wanted to spend. The E8400 was $NT 5050 which is only $20 less than the E8500 which was already stretching the amount I wanted to spend on an cpu but I decided the extra .5 on the multiplier might help with the overclocking.
My main concern with the P5QL-E is that I've read the P43 boards don't have much luck pushing beyond 400 on the FSB wheras the P45 based boards like the P5Q pro can go as high as 500. Is that still the case? I couldn't find any reviews here at Anand and reviews online are fairly patchy for the P43 when overclocking. Is it really worth the extra $60 to go with the pro + E8500
If anyone can point me to decent comparisons of the P5QL-E vs it's P45 bigger brothers I'd appreciate it or even other threads on here that show the overclocking potential of the P5QL-E. Personal experiences are also welcomed.
As a side note I'll be running all this on Vista home premium 64bit. I want to give it a fair try now that the SP1 is out, especially due to the additional RAM.
Any feedback on components I've already purchased and whether you think they are up to the task are also welcome.
Variety of tasks has to last me a while.
Gaming - I like most game genres that don't have MMO in them.
Though predominantly. RTS + FPS e.g. CoD 4, DoWII, Company of heroes blah blah.
Photoshop for both artwork + photography.
Watching movies - DVD's are ok for now. I guess occasional HD content.
3Dmax - Occasional animator.
Zbrush - Occasionally.
Various other less intensive tasks.
2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
I'm trying to save money since I'm already stretched but I don't want to go too far with that if it means I get subpar performance.
Still need to purchase the following and what I'm trying to make the decision about..
Moboard - Deciding between Asus PQ5L-E and PQ5 - PRO etc..
CPU - Thinking E8500 currently due to gaming.
3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
Taiwan $NT 30ish = $1US for reference.
4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc, etc, etc, you get the picture.
I'm not brand specific but I do tend to shy away from cheapo brands for the more critical parts unless it got rave reviews all round. e.g. I have had both Intel + AMD systems, ATI + Nvidia gfx cards, Epox, Asus, Asrock motherboards etc..
5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
Already purchased
Cooler Master CAC-T05 Case.
Corsair VX550W PSU
DDR2-1000 4GB PQ (2GB*2) GSkill 4G 5-5-5-15
Powercolor HD4850 PCS *with custom cooler*.
Tuniq Tower 120 HS
ASUS VW222U 22" monitor.
Also have
1x500gb Seagate 16mb SATAII
1x WD160gb IDE drive 8mb *will probably swap this out for another 500 SATAII*
6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
Read numerous reviews + threads online for all parts, also built many pc's in the past with carefully picked components just seeking advice on few parts Im undecided on since I can't find a few bits of info, keep going back and forth changing my mind figured I'd ask here.
7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
I like playing around with overclocking and I like to thave the option. I don't agressively overclock though I do try to find what i can get as a maximum at reasonable voltages then pull back a little and go with what I consider a *healthy* overclock for day to day use.
8. WHEN do you plan to build it?
ASAP.
Hopefully that covers all the most common questions. My real decision lies in the differences between the P5QL-E's overclocking abilities vs it's cost compared to the P5Q-PRO here in Taiwan. 've searched the local markets + online + on bidding sites etc...
The prices for each *with approx us prices taking exchange rate costs into account as I'm from UK* are around
P5QL-E $NT 3490 ($116)
P5Q - PRO $NT 5290 ($176)
P5Q - E $NT 6290 ($209)
I don't really plan on crossfiring or anything like that, I'm more for just swapping out the single card for a faster new one when that becomes necessary.
Also I just wanted a little advice on the CPU from those in the know
I figured that since I like gaming I should go for a faster dual core + as far as I know they tend to have a little more headroom for overclocking.
The E8500 seems to be the sweetspot here in Taiwan at around $NT 5650 ($188) which puts it in the same ballpark as an Q6600+ at around $NT 5750 ($191) the e7xxx's aren't cheap enough to be attractive.
The cheapest Q9450 is around $NT 8450 which is way above what i wanted to spend. The E8400 was $NT 5050 which is only $20 less than the E8500 which was already stretching the amount I wanted to spend on an cpu but I decided the extra .5 on the multiplier might help with the overclocking.
My main concern with the P5QL-E is that I've read the P43 boards don't have much luck pushing beyond 400 on the FSB wheras the P45 based boards like the P5Q pro can go as high as 500. Is that still the case? I couldn't find any reviews here at Anand and reviews online are fairly patchy for the P43 when overclocking. Is it really worth the extra $60 to go with the pro + E8500
If anyone can point me to decent comparisons of the P5QL-E vs it's P45 bigger brothers I'd appreciate it or even other threads on here that show the overclocking potential of the P5QL-E. Personal experiences are also welcomed.
As a side note I'll be running all this on Vista home premium 64bit. I want to give it a fair try now that the SP1 is out, especially due to the additional RAM.
Any feedback on components I've already purchased and whether you think they are up to the task are also welcome.
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