Erebus Mk.2 Prelim Spec and Pricing

[ez64]

Just by quickly looking at it, Replace the 360 with a 5870 and save yourself some money.

PSU you could spend around £40 less and still get something modular with Japanese capacitors, the sound card is really not needed at all just get something that offloads the small amount of processing to a external board even if it is £2.50 it will do the same job you are not getting £86 more sound quality or performance just extra heat inside your case and a bigger hole in your pocket.

Or alternatively a nice V8 car in america

[Isphera]

Just by quickly looking at it, Replace the 360 with a 5870 and save yourself some money.

PSU you could spend around £40 less and still get something modular with Japanese capacitors, the sound card is really not needed at all just get something that offloads the small amount of processing to a external board even if it is £2.50 it will do the same job you are not getting £86 more sound quality or performance just extra heat inside your case and a bigger hole in your pocket.

Or alternatively a nice V8 car in america

With what is the only part of my brain which holds an argument to heart without an overtly logical reason, I will never buy ATI over nVidia. And I'm not revisiting the PSU. I need the soundcard for my audio/music work, as well as to please my ears over the crappy onboard system I have ATM - the biggest regret I have with Mk. 1.

If there is anything I need advice on at the moment, it's the RAM. I'll probably end up with 6GB, but need advice on what clockspeed and latency I should get. I'd prefer an OCZ kit if possible.

[Chalex4]

need advice on what clockspeed and latency I should get.

Clockspeed high, latency low .

[Isphera]

I meant as in specific modules, not generic advice as to what I am looking for :P

I originally had OCZ DDR3 PC3-10666 Platinum 12GB, which had a clock speed of 1333Mhz and latencies of 7-7-7-24, but since I have downgraded to 6GB, I can afford to upgrade the clockspeeds and latencies. Also, would you guys recommend I look at an upgraded version of the P6T motherboard, or stick with the one I have specced?

[Calneon]

Personally that's what i'd do. Add W7 for £30 and a case for £50 and it comes to £1,040.

Although I see why you would want to go for the i7 instead of the i5, so you could spend some more on that instead. The graphics card is more than enough to run any modern game, I don't know what you play but a GTX380 will be more powerful than anybody needs (unless you have a 30" display). SSDs are still expensive and it would only shave a few seconds off your boot time compared to 2x1GB drives in RAID 0.

Unless you're wanting to overclock, i'd just leave the stock coolers and fans on everything. Replacing your headset is completely up to you.

[Colonel Mitch]

latencies wernt 7-7-7-24 they were 7-7-7-20.

Also pahnotm ive pointed this out to roic too but its literally like talking to a brick wall.

Hell change his mind about everything in 2 months times anwyay.

[D_K_Head]

as long as it gets 60FPS or better in WOW, right?

[Isphera]

I won't be needing 60FPS in WoW. It seems that advice for what I need has apparently ceased, and we have entered the 'off topic' life of the thread, so thank you for your help guys.

[Vicious Horizon]

Well, back on topic then

The RAM looks fairly good, those speeds are looking good for what you need, I'm not mad on Sound cards, so I can't give much advice other than - from experience of having them and not having them, there's not a massive difference.

Also @ Phant: That rig looks alot like mine XD Just with a 5 series and a couple of changes.

[Isphera]

It's about £30 dearer to go from PC3-10600 to PC3-12800, with the latencies the same (both are OCZ Platinums). Would you say that was a wise investment? This is the final piece of the build, so when this is sorted, I can get to prepping the order.

[Calneon]

You're already spending £1500, why not go for the 12800s.

[Isphera]

My usual logic, I just wondered if anyone had a reason not to, or had a suggestion leading to better module latency.

[Chalex4]

Yeah £30 seems like little to spend for the extra performance. However, if I were building a budget PC I would just go for the cheaper modules.

[VoX]

I prefer BFG though, they have far better RMA services.

Not any more, they are/no longer will be trading in the UK. Existing cards can already be RMAd however, just you won't be able to buy them new.

When it comes to choosing a sound card it's mainly down to personal preference. I'm still very keen on my Creative Sound Blaster Extreme Gamer Failtality.

Using all the money you've saved above, you can grab the Sennheiser HD555 headphones. They go better with X-FI than Xonar, or so I'm told. I got them for xmas with a clip on mic and now I really know how crappy all my ~£50 headsets have been in the past .

X-Fi's go better with Sennheisers, Xonar's go better with Goldrings. Not sure what causes it, that just seems to be the general consensus.


Personally if I were to upgrade my soundcard, I'd go for the Xonar D2X or an Auzentech X-Fi Prelude.

Headphone wise, never tried HD555/HD595 however a good friend has HD595's paired with an X-Fi Xtreme Failtality (Top creative X-Fi) and says the combination is incredible. If you're going for the Xonar D2X, look at the Goldring DR150's or the Goldring NS1000's both are apparently very nice. Personally use the DR50's (Lower in the range to the DR150's) and they are very comfortable and give nice sound for music and very good positional audio in games.

If there is anything I need advice on at the moment, it's the RAM. I'll probably end up with 6GB, but need advice on what clockspeed and latency I should get. I'd prefer an OCZ kit if possible.

Games favour clock-speed, applications favour latencies. (I've read that somewhere, however I strongly doubt if there's any massive noticeable difference visible, maybe a few seconds encoding/compiling time)


In terms of the OS I'll see how many copies I can get and give you a shout.



Hope that helps.

[Isphera]

In terms of the OS I'll see how many copies I can get and give you a shout.

Hope that helps.

It helps a lot. Cheers for that. Will deffo give Goldring a look.