Another Upgrade Post :) New System Build

[fothsn]

Hi guys, am going to build my self a 2nd fully complete system, My main PC I use for gaming/Video Editing and my personal use etc, The one am looking to build will be for the rest of the family who do a little light gaming, web browsing, email etc,


(Any recommendations or alternatives would be much appreciated)


Here’s the spec and parts am currently debating to purchases.

__________
CPU'S
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 S775, 1.86Ghz, 1066Mhz FSB, Allendale Core, 2M Cache Retail @ £129.24
Intel Pentium 4 630 Socket 775 , Smithfield Core, 3.0 GHz , 2MB Cache, OEM @ £105.05
Intel Pentium D 945 Socket 775, PreslerCore, 2x3.4 GHz, 2MB x 2 Cache, Retail @ £118.83

Motherboard
Asrock 775I65G Intel 865G 6 Channel SOUND on board - LAN on board - VGA 64MB Intel Extreme 2 Gfx - @ £30.30 AGP GRAPHICS BOARD
Gigabyte GA-8I945GZME-RH, i945GZ, S775, PCI-E (x4), DDR2 400 / 533, SATA II, uATX, On Board VGA @ £45.83 PCIE GRAPHICS BOARD

Graphics Card
[COLOR="Blue"]256Mb Sapphire Radeon X1300 AGP4x/8x 500 MHz DDR2, GPU 450 MHz D-Sub DVI-I S-Video/TV Out, Retail @ £58.64
256Mb Sapphire Radeon X1600XT PCI-E(x16) 12Pipes 1400MHz GDDR 600MHz CrossFire D-Sub/DVI-I/HDTV @ £76.83

Ram
1Gb DDR2 PC2-4200 533MHz non-ECC 240 DIMM unbuffered CL4 Retail @ £64.61
1GB (2X512MB) Corsair Value Select, DDR PC3200 (400), 184 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 2.5 @ £74.40

HardDrive
320 Gb Western Digital WD3200JS Caviar SE, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, 8.9 ms @ £66.38
200 Gb Maxtor 6V200E0 DiamondMax 10, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, NCQ, 9.0 ms @ £43.35

Case
Scan Alpine 7104 Silver Case Midi - Apple G5 Design with 400W PSU @ £42.83
__________

What do you think of the above? Should I go the PCI-E route?

All the prices and parts are from scan , This is where am going to purchase all the system parts plus extra case fans, cdrw/dvdrw drives etc, Was recommended to use scan due to there customer service and aftercare (would I qualify for free delivery?)

Looking to spend around the £500 Mark, please no dell links etc looking to build myself,

EDIT: Also need a good/cheap 19" Widescreen TFT (Glossy Screen)

Regards Nigel.

[danroyle]

the conroe cpu should be a much better purchase in the long run and if you overclock it who knows

gotta go pci-e really get the x1600xt and all the other bits that match the pci-e

19"widescreens start from about £100 now if you look about

also i think it is 25 constructive posts for free delivery on scan

hope this helps

[DavidM]

Originally Posted by danroyle

also i think it is 25 constructive posts for free delivery on scan

Bingo

[kalniel]

Originally Posted by fothsn

Hi guys, am going to build my self a 2nd fully complete system, My main PC I use for gaming/Video Editing and my personal use etc, The one am looking to build will be for the rest of the family who do a little light gaming, web browsing, email etc,


(Any recommendations or alternatives would be much appreciated)


Here’s the spec and parts am currently debating to purchases.

__________
CPU'S
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 S775, 1.86Ghz, 1066Mhz FSB, Allendale Core, 2M Cache Retail @ £129.24
Intel Pentium 4 630 Socket 775 , Smithfield Core, 3.0 GHz , 2MB Cache, OEM @ £105.05
Intel Pentium D 945 Socket 775, PreslerCore, 2x3.4 GHz, 2MB x 2 Cache, Retail @ £118.83

The allendale listed is by far the best, even if it's overkill, it will last a long time.

Motherboard
Asrock 775I65G Intel 865G 6 Channel SOUND on board - LAN on board - VGA 64MB Intel Extreme 2 Gfx - @ £30.30 AGP GRAPHICS BOARD
Gigabyte GA-8I945GZME-RH, i945GZ, S775, PCI-E (x4), DDR2 400 / 533, SATA II, uATX, On Board VGA @ £45.83 PCIE GRAPHICS BOARD

I'm not sure either of these will actually work with a Core 2 Duo, you may need to spend a bit more on this bit.

Graphics Card
[COLOR="Blue"]256Mb Sapphire Radeon X1300 AGP4x/8x 500 MHz DDR2, GPU 450 MHz D-Sub DVI-I S-Video/TV Out, Retail @ £58.64
256Mb Sapphire Radeon X1600XT PCI-E(x16) 12Pipes 1400MHz GDDR 600MHz CrossFire D-Sub/DVI-I/HDTV @ £76.83

Both are fine for very light gaming, the 1600xt will obivously last a bit longer and is PCI-E.

Ram
1Gb DDR2 PC2-4200 533MHz non-ECC 240 DIMM unbuffered CL4 Retail @ £64.61
1GB (2X512MB) Corsair Value Select, DDR PC3200 (400), 184 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 2.5 @ £74.40

You need the DDR2 RAM for most things (first one).

HardDrive
320 Gb Western Digital WD3200JS Caviar SE, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, 8.9 ms @ £66.38
200 Gb Maxtor 6V200E0 DiamondMax 10, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, NCQ, 9.0 ms @ £43.35

Both good choices, just go with what you can afford.

Case
Scan Alpine 7104 Silver Case Midi - Apple G5 Design with 400W PSU @ £42.83

Should be fine.

Should I go the PCI-E route?

It's all PCI-E these days, so yes

Hope that helps,

[fothsn]

@ danroyle & kalniel Thanks very much for the info looks like im going the PCI-E Route! Regarding the 256Mb Sapphire Radeon X1600XT PCI-E card, should I get the 512Mb Version? or is this one of thoes cards that wont use the extra 256Mb?

@ DavidM, Its a shame about the Delivery, but hey you dont get nothing in life without asking


Thanks Guys.

[kalniel]

Yeah 512mb won't make any difference - if you're pushing that amount of texture/data around the card would be too slow anyway - particularly that model as it's hampered by having fewer texture processing units that it should do. (It's fine in practise, but 256mb is more than enough memory for it).

[danroyle]

Originally Posted by fothsn

@ danroyle & kalniel Thanks very much for the info looks like im going the PCI-E Route! Regarding the 256Mb Sapphire Radeon X1600XT PCI-E card, should I get the 512Mb Version? or is this one of thoes cards that wont use the extra 256Mb?

@ DavidM, Its a shame about the Delivery, but hey you dont get nothing in life without asking


Thanks Guys.

if you can save a bit on something else an nvidia 7600gt would be a lot better purchase than x1600xt from what i have read it is a lot better card than the ati and will play most games at a good level £100 ish for gt or £70-90 for gs

or get a second hand 7800gt on ebay for around £100 these days

[kalniel]

The 1600xt is just as fast as the 7600gt for web browsing and email