Configuration
I think I managed to come to a final decision regarding the components for my new computer, seeing as I was told I have 1000 Euros available for this purpose. I’m still waiting for two things to be available, but more on that after I show you the configuration I have in mind:
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3 (Intel P35 / ICH9 chipset, 1333 MHz FSB, 1066 MHz DDR2 RAM, 1 PCI Express x16 slot, 8 Mb flash, on-board audio and LAN)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (3.0 GHz dual-core, 1333 MHz FSB, 6 Mb L2 cache)
RAM: Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C5D (2 Gb, 1066 MHz, 5-5-5-15 ms latency, “Dominator“)
Video card: BFG NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS OC 512 Mb (675 MHz core and 1674 MHz shader, compared to 650 MHz standard core and 1625 MHz standard shader)
HDD: Seagate Barracuda ES SATA 3.0 Gb/s 320 Gb (16 Mb cache, supposedly created with heavy and constant use in mind)
Power supply: Corsair VX450W
Case: Akasa AK-ZEN-01 WH (includes two 120 mm fans)
It will also include some components and peripherals from this computer, namely the TV/FM tuner (Leadtek WinFast 2000 XP Expert), DVD (Plextor PX-755A), monitor (Philips 190S7FS), mouse (Logitech MX-518), keyboard (Genius KB-12E), headphones and speakers. Apparently my webcam won’t be able to make the move as it doesn’t run under Vista, but I wasn’t using it anyway.
Yes, I’ll take a leap of faith and get Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit), but I’m waiting for the DVDs with Service Pack 1 to hit the market so I won’t need to download and apply the service pack right after installing, and then again whenever I’ll need to reinstall, and so far no shop could give me an estimate. Microsoft announced a few weeks ago that it will happen “sometime in March”, so we’ll see.
I said I’m waiting for two things and one of them is obviously Vista SP1. The other is the CPU, there’s a complete drought of E8400s here, nobody has any and they can’t even estimate when will they get some as their suppliers say they don’t have any either. Maybe they’re just waiting for the reported temperature reporting problems to be solved, as I found on forums that Intel only “partially resolved” the issue in the second batch they sent out, but I think a general shortage is more likely, due to the great demand doubled by the exchanges requested by those who got the flawed ones, and the Romanian market is seen as low priority. It’s quite frustrating to finally know I have some funds available after so long, but see that what I want is not yet available.
But speaking of funds, all of this currently costs about 3400 lei, which at today’s rate means about 910 Euros. So I could teoretically add a little more, but I set myself a limit of 3500 lei as it’s better to be safe than sorry. I’d also really like to actually buy The Witcher, but perhaps after the Enhanced Edition will be launched.
If anybody is reading this and notices and incompatibilities, please let me know! I’m mainly talking about the motherboard not supporting those specific RAM modules or the video card needing a better power supply, because those are the things I’m not completely sure about right now, but I might have missed something else too. (Yes, I noticed that I’ll only have one PCI Express x1 slot available, as the one below the x16 slot will be covered by the cooling system of the video card and the one above the x16 slot won’t have a corresponding backplate on the case, but that doesn’t bother me.)
And there’s one more thing… It’s silly, but I might as well ask since I’m at it. If anybody knows of a decently priced, small “gaming” mouse pad, let me know. It needs to be small because that’s what I have room for here, preferably about 25 cm (10 inches) in width, certainly no more than 28 cm (11 inches). The current estimate of 3400 lei includes 50 lei set aside for that.
