Sourcing non option parts

[Ardbeg]

Hello Neil/Andy.

I am just enquiring whether you can supply any parts to a desktop from your range even if the parts are not on your systems configuration page as an option?
I am still waiting patiently for your new systems to be placed on the website and I am sure they will include newer items from the existing parts on offer.
I was looking on the OCZ site and found this ram http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/memory/ocz_ddr3_pc3_17000_flex_ex_low_voltage_triple_chan nel
that doesn't feature in your options at present. would you be able to offer it as a bespoke option?

Thanks in advance :)

[Azuricate]

They've been known in the past to special order if you ask for it here or in a mail so I wouldn't worry too much about it except if they would find compatability problems with a certain product.

I'll let them answer it for you with certainty though.
Best of Luck,
Azuricate

[neil@kobalt]

As Azuricate mentioned we are always building systems with components not offered on the config pages but there's so many manufacturers and models that we have stuck to the most commonly used comps.

On the high frequency memory, you're only going to see a benefit if you benchmark half your life - in real world apps lower latency gives the same performance which is ine of the reasons we don't offer some of the higher MHz models as standard. To be honest you would be better off with the Flex EX 1866MHz but I don't have a price for that at the moment unfortunately. The Flex EX 1600 CAS 7 is an £85 upgrade though, Flex 2133 CAS 9 is going to be about £200 upgrade.

Depending on the spec you're looking at you would be better off putting the money towards the GPU or SSD etc.

On the other systems, we have the i5 configurator online and the other new models I'm going to try to get done over the weekend but it will probably be the config pages only atm.

[Ardbeg]

Thanks for the reply Neil.
I am wanting to get a good stable overclock on the comp and probably not keep changing it. the comp will be for gaming mostly on either two 24" monitors or 1 30" but I also do a little video editing and a lot of Photography editing, so it will need to be a good performer.

I am seriously considering an SSD for a OS drive, and maybe for storage once the prices come down to a more reasonable level.
I am looking at the ram on your Apachie ice, and I have to say that the Blade or Corsair dominator look like thay are far better performers (Not sure in real world terms if the price vs performance makes a difference), but I am thinking more on the cooling side of things. Would the watercooled RAM be better clocked than the non watercooled dominator or blade series? I am thinking in terms of the Blade chassis here and possibly the Apache Ice X58.

[Azuricate]

If you've got the money for it I'd definately say: Go for the SSD.
It does make a difference, especially if you have your most commonly used programs on the disc, like your browser, photoshop, premiere/vegas etc.
The fact that they're dead silent doesn't hurt either ;)

[neil@kobalt]

I'd agree with Azuricate on the SSD front. In terms of RAM it's probably best to take a look at these two reviews rather than me babbling on!:

http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=3589&p=7

The straight answer is that if benchmarking isn't important to you (and I don't mean what 3DMark06/Vantage score you get, I mean teasing the last drop of performance out of memory bandwidth tests or SuperPi etc) then there's not a huge ammount of point in spending a fortune on RAM. The most you will see is a 2% difference in a couple of encoding progs, games will see zero difference.

The 2000MHz kits are in limbo at the moment because of some QC issues a couple of months ago (across all manufacturers as they were using the same Elpida kits) but the OCZ we had seems to be fine because we got the first batch. The cooling won't really make any difference to the RAM speeds either really - i7 systems should always be tuned to the fastest CPU speed rather than RAM so overclocking RAM just isn't worth it really. If you are thinking about 1866MHz+ RAM then you should go for a 950 or 975 CPU.

There's new ATi GPUs out imminently as well which are very nippy indeed (and with DX11 so they can encode etc themselves in Windows 7 rather than using the CPU:D) may well be the first ATi cards we recommend over NVIDIA in a long time!!!!

[Andy]

There's new ATi GPUs out imminently as well which are very nippy indeed (and with DX11 so they can encode etc themselves in Windows 7 rather than using the CPU:D) may well be the first ATi cards we recommend over NVIDIA in a long time!!!!

Sounds like exciting times. I also agree about the SSD! :)

[Salandtwig]

I am in the process of having my nexus built, but have run out of dosh :(

Therefore in about 6 months time i will be looking for a SSD for the nexus. Is this an easy thing to upgrade to? -

Also can the SSD be purchased directly from yourselves - i am a relative IT noob / technophobe so advice appreciated.

I would have loved to have got a SSD in this build but i need approx 200 - 400 GB and that would have broke my piggy bank.

[Azuricate]

Hehe that's a common problem ;)

In 6 months time SSD's should have dropped a bit in price as well so that's nice for ya ;) I would say it's an easy thing to do, there are some guides out there on how-to but I can understand if someone who's not sure about their tech skills is reluctant to opening up his or her case.
If you would feel to unsure about doing it yourself in 6 months time then I think the guys at Kobalt would have no problem doing it for you if you sent in/came in with the laptop.
I'm sure you could order it directly from Kobalt, as said previously in the thread, they usually have no problems supplying us customers with the desired item(s).

[Andy]

It litterally is about 6 screws to undo the back of the Nexus and 4 more to get the HDD out, then you simply put the SSD in and put all the screws back. Nothing complicated at all. If you get stuck then let us know and we can post a guide with some photos. :)

[Ardbeg]

Thanks Neil, that post really clears things up a bit :). I never really delved into RAM clocking much, it allways put me off due to the fact that if you push it too far, you could fry them for good. SSD is definately going to feature in my comp but only for an OS drive so something around 120GB. (2x 250gb in the future when prices drop)

I will be looking to get the i7 950 as that seems to be a more realistic performer over the massive price of the i7 975. I will make a final assessment when I see the configs of the new systems.

So from your statement watercooled ram or non watercooled wouldn't make much of a difference in any system from a performance perspective, why go for watercooled then? as the heat sinks on the non watercooled would allow more ram to be added on the Mobo. (I am looking at 6Gb and possibly even 8GB) The Blade has watercooled RAM, which with the rest of the cooling setup, looks fantastic! Is this for looks rather than benefit or for reducing ambiant temps inside the case to reduce amount of airflow needed, as I see the blade only has 1 internal fan that looks like 120mm (I know the TECS have a fan connected to each Radiatorand these are at the top of the case)

The Mobo I really fancy is the Rampage II Extreme, apart from easy resetting of OC's will this Mobo be more benificial to a high spec sytem over the P6?

Well I am hoping Nvidia have a DX11 card in the wings that has managed to stay top secret! I may have to wait for a DX11 card, I just don't like ATI.

Thanks in advance guys ;) I am looking forward to the new systems coming online soon.