Typical!!

[Admiral Huddy]

I spend half my time sorting out other peoples PCs, come home last night and my main rig is emitting a series of BIOS beeps!!

Into the workshop ( oh it's so handy ) and it turns out that the B-channel memory has developed a fault.

I can get over this by sticking both sticks into the same channel. I'll loose dual channel but not sure if this is going to be a problem. Interestingly, the memory now shows as 333MHz not 400Mhz in the POST.

It seems the motherboard is still under warrantee according to ASUS - 3 years but they say contact the supplier. That's going to be interesting. I'm sure scan won't be interested in a obsolete board?? Not sure how this is going to be handled. Anyway, I'm waiting for a call back. Maybe this is a good time for an upgrade.. the system is 2 years old now.. but the upgrade is costly..

I was thinking of this: although it's cheaper with scan

[MarcLister]

Pfft if Asus say Scan have to deal with the warranty, Scan have to deal with it. I was in Scan's warehouse/shop on Monday to get me a new PSU. I got the 520W version of the PSU you're looking at. Very nice.

As for RAM could you not stretch to 4Gb? I've heard/read that Vista "comes alive" when you have 4Gb of RAM, like XP with 2Gb.

Good choice of HDD, I have one in my IcyBox enclosure. Do you really need Vista Ultimate or is it for your e-penis score? I was going to get Vista Ultimate but I think I'll just get Home Premium when I ditch XP.

And you want an SLI motherboard? For my next PC, whenever that is, I won't bother with SLI. I don't game nearly enough to justify it.

[Zirax]

I was looking at that quad core! As said opt for 4gb ram really. Its not needed at the moment but it will be a matter of time. I would also get a second hdd to put into raid. Even on my system there is a real difference in load times when one hdd is running (general windows load/response and map load times).

That lot is crying out to be water cooled and cranked to silly speeds. Some people have gotten 3.4ghz out of that chip.

[Admiral Huddy]

SLi for future options. I have a gtx at the moment.. But mobo suggestions please.

I've picked 2GB at the moment with an option to add a further 2Gb later.. My buget on this is 1K, so can't push it too much.

[MarcLister]

Ah OK. Buying 2Gb RAM now and 2Gb later would work.

This looks like your motherboard. http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=505256. About £12-13 cheaper. And if I am not mistaken then the RAM you've chosen is too fast for your mobo. Unless you plan to underclock it and get better timings that way?

The mobo says "DDR2 533/667/800" so http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=402849 would work OK I think but the 1066 you've chosen might not.

And I suppose you want a 24 inch monitor for future gaming possibilities? If you get SLI running then you'd want a monitor to show it all off?

[Admiral Huddy]

Yes I plan on OCing.. and possibly changing the divider too so the RAM is working faster than the FSB.

Good point about the Corsair PC2-6400s I have a couple of 512MB sticks floating around

I've included the sumsang 24".. The GTX I've got should handle that nicely on it's own without SLi.. I think..

[Admiral Huddy]

I've written a report to scan, and they have raised an RMA.. The board gets sent back to ASUS and replaced.

I think I'll sell it all to buy new tbh..

not bad since I've had the thing 2 years yesterday

[semi-pro waster]

I'm perhaps a bit late with this but I'd agree with Mark, PC6400 is easily enough (3.6ghz would be possible without running the Ram out of specification if your chip/cooling were up to it). SLi is generally not worth it to me, simply buy the fastest single graphics card around at the time and replace/sell off what you have to recoup costs.

Although that website design makes me cry I'd probably go for something like this if buying. 4x1gb is about £60 cheaper than 2x2gb but obviously offers less potential for expansion.

Gigabyte GA P35-DS3P, iP35 Express, S 775, PCI-E x16, DDR2 1066/533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £74.49 £87.53

LN18937
24" Samsung SM-245B Black Widescreen LCD, 1920x1200, 3000:1, 400 cd/m2, 5 ms, VESA £273.39 £321.23

LN18576
4GB (4x1GB) CorsairXMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-18, DHX £133.79 £157.20

LN15215
620W Corsair HX Series Modular SLi PSU, ATX, EPS 12V, whisper quiet, 5 year warranty £76.99 £90.46

LN17162
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64Bit 1Pk OEM (DVD) £94.89 £111.50

LN19488
Intel Core 2 Quad-Core Q6600 G0 SLACR, 95W, S775, 2.40 GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 8MB Cache, Retail £145.49 £170.95

LN16546
500 Gb Samsung HD501LJ Spinpoint T, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ £54.89 £64.50

If you change any quantities, please re-calculate your basket
Scan Finance - Buy Now Pay Jul 2008
Pay £101.63 deposit and then NO payments for 9 months, then settle the balance and pay NO interest.

Scan Finance - More Sense Than Money


Net Total £853.93

Carriage £11.01

V.A.T. £151.36

TOTAL £1,016.30

[Admiral Huddy]

Thanks Semi..

Any reason for going for the Gigabyte.. The ABIT P35 looks a good bet too.

Also, is there any real benefit of Vista Ultimate over the Premium?

[semi-pro waster]

Gigabyte because it is cheap and they tend to overclock well, the P35 boards are all pretty good though.

Ultimate offers you remote desktop and a few other features that Premium doesn't, I suppose it might be handy for your business although the general rule is "if you have to ask you probably don't need it".