Computer System Reviews

This article contains the components for September’s £600 PC. Not many changes this month, as always changes are noted in relevant categories.

Full Computer Specification:

Component Specification:

Processor - Intel Quad Core Q6600 2.4GHz S775:

The oldie but a goody. Intel’s old Quad Core the Q6600 still has a lot to give. Although stock clocked at 2.4Ghz, this will easily overclock near to 3.0Ghz without any problems. From last month’s PC we get the two added cores over the E8400. We loose some cache per core, however with a little overclock we can easily overcome the performance hit. This is now a great value processor.

Motherboard - Gigabyte S775 Intel P45 DDR2:

Perfect motherboard for the budding enthusiast. Can support DDR2 RAM up to speeds of 1200Mhz, has a 1600Mhz FSB, supports crossfire and also has two pci-e 2.0 x16 ports meaning that each card gets the full amount of bandwidth. Also perfect for overclocking, as the bios has everything you need for tweaking.

I have chosen to spend the remaining budget on this motherboard rather than a better graphics card because as the market stands today, there is no card that beats the ATI 3850 until we reach the realms of £170, which is far to much for our budget. So the remaining money went on this rather wonderful motherboard!

Graphics Card - Gigabyte Radeon 4850 512MB:

This month the prices on the new ATI Radeon cards have stabilized a bit more, allowing us to jump from the 3850 to the 4850. A ridiculous jump in processing power.

RAM - OCZ Technology 2×1GB PC2-6400 DDR2 (x2):

This memory is rated at CAS latency of 4-4-4-15, and at a speed of 800Mhz. This is from OCZ’s platinum range, their highest rated memory range. As such it comes with very low timing, good reliability and very good potential overclocking ability. With this build 4Gb of total system memory is included.

HDD - Seagate Barracuda 7200.1 500GB:

500GB is a fairly standard amount of space nowadays, however it is still a lot of space, that is many thousands of songs and documents as well as some movies and games. Comes with 32MB of cache.

Power Supply - OCZ Technology StealthXStream 600W :

OCZ’s philosophy with this PSU is silence and efficiency. So with 600W we have enough power in order to deal with this system’s configuration. It has four +12V rails, each with a maximum of 18 Amps, so you will definitely get all the continuous power you need. All the cables are fully sleeved also.

Case - Antec BLACK THREE HUNDRED:

With the increase of price of the processor and graphics card, some components have had to be downgraded, the case is one of those. It is replaced with the less design orientated Antec Three Hundred. This case however is still a very good buy, as it still provides ample space for cooling. Two fans are installed on this case, the top mounted 140mm fan and the rear mounted 120mm fan. There are three extra fans mountings, one on the side and two at the front of the case.

DVD Drive - Optiarc (Sony/NEC) 20X DVD+/RW/12X:

Fairly cheap DVD drive, though will write DVD’s at a 20x speed.

Cpu Cooler - OCZ Vendetta 2:

Another component that has had to be swapped out is the Vendetta 2 heatsink, with the old Vendetta heatsink. Slightly older technology and a smaller fan the older Vendetta obviously won’t be as good as cooling as the new version, however at £13 odd pounds, it is great value and fits the budget space perfectly.

Conclusion:

Some price changes have definately changed this build, luckily none of the main components have changed, so performance wise it is still that same, cooling and design have been the areas that have been hit.