How active you feeling?

[dave87]

Alright, this is the problem.

I need to spec up a decent spec PC for around £500. It MUST have the following included;

Decent Graphics - not for gaming, but limited 3d modelling - so something like a 9550 (if looking at AGP?)
1Gb RAM - Its going to be running a few programs at once.
CD-RW - Needs to be able to burn CDs
Reasonably Upgradable
Include a Windows Proffessional (OEM is fine) Licence
Possibly include a 15 or 17" TFT

Thanks for acheiving the impossible

Dave

Oh, and its got to be made up from entirely new parts, purchased from a regular company

[ahat]

Try just starting with a barebones system. The AMD chips seem to be a cheaper platform than intel these days.
Tomshardware had a feature on a budget gaming system that was very useful.

[davethechamp]

LN8090 Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2 OEM Single £99.70
LN11240 1Gb (2x512Mb) Corsair, DDR400/PC3200,non-ECC, 184 DIMM, unbuffered, CL2.5, Lifetime Warranty £61.04
LN11833 NEC ND-4550A Silver 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer DVD-Writer OEM UK £31.21
LN10089 80Gb SATA300 Hitachi (IBM/HGST) Deskstar 7K80 (7200rpm,8MB) - NCQ £39.53
LN12111 Foxconn S939 6150K8MA-8KRS £57.30
LN9692 Akasa AK-862 S754/S939 9cm Ultra Quiet Amber Heat Sink Fan - A64/FX53 £9.27
LN11262 XClio 6010 Black (Silver Alumin Front) Midi Tower Case w/o PSU Hi End Prescott Ready £28.19
LN7925 425W HiperPower HPU-4S425 4th Gen Quiet Dual Fan Active PFC (24/20 pin)(ATX/BTX) £35.12

TOTAL £361.36

from Scan

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (Skt 939) OEM - £81.18 (inc free delivery)

Toat = £462.44

You could save a few quid getting Windows media center, but i'm not sur how that would effect you?


Dave

[Tobeman]

LN8090 Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2 OEM Single £99.70
LN11240 1Gb (2x512Mb) Corsair, DDR400/PC3200,non-ECC, 184 DIMM, unbuffered, CL2.5, Lifetime Warranty £61.04
LN11833 NEC ND-4550A Silver 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer DVD-Writer OEM UK £31.21
LN10089 80Gb SATA300 Hitachi (IBM/HGST) Deskstar 7K80 (7200rpm,8MB) - NCQ £39.53
LN12111 Foxconn S939 6150K8MA-8KRS £57.30
LN9692 Akasa AK-862 S754/S939 9cm Ultra Quiet Amber Heat Sink Fan - A64/FX53 £9.27
LN11262 XClio 6010 Black (Silver Alumin Front) Midi Tower Case w/o PSU Hi End Prescott Ready £28.19
LN7925 425W HiperPower HPU-4S425 4th Gen Quiet Dual Fan Active PFC (24/20 pin)(ATX/BTX) £35.12

TOTAL £361.36

from Scan

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (Skt 939) OEM - £81.18 (inc free delivery)

Toat = £462.44

You could save a few quid getting Windows media center, but i'm not sur how that would effect you?


Dave

I know everyone is all-for Hitachi drives (read: deathstars ) since they are no longer deathstars, but the 5 year warranty with the latest 7200.9 drives from Seagate are something to pay that little bit more for too, and it keeps me rest assured I haven't bought a bad drive, even though I've never had a bad experience with my Hitachi, or anyone elses

I'm not a big fan of Hiper PSUs either, just a personal preference, I'd rather them spend a little bit more of the money they spend on fancy packaging, on making a better PSU. Personally I'd go for one of the older Tagans, the 420w (LN8300) might be a good choice if you can strech that far.

Can't see a graphics card in the above list either

[davethechamp]

Can't see a graphics card in the above list either

The Foxconn S939 6150K8MA-8KRS is a micro ATX board with NVIDIA GeForce 6150 GPU. Should bo ok compared to what was suggested in the orinal brief

9550 (if looking at AGP?)

Hard drives : fair enough, don't know to much about them all, was basing that recommendation one one that came from CustomPC.
Tagan PSU- gooood. was trying to squeeze the budget down to make room for the monitor.

Plus if buying now, a few more quid could be saved from the Today only section on Scan (gotta love that place!), 2 x 512 DDR400 - £55.21, DVD-RW - under £30.

Dave

[dave87]

It would probably be better to get a half decent separate graphics card in all honesty. It needs to be semi-future proof as it will be used in dramatic productions as a lighting controller amongst other things.

Thanks for all the help so far though

Dave

[davethechamp]

The thing is, to include a 17" TFT in the overall cost (~£150) brings the component cost down a lot to £350, take out the £100 for Windows and your starting to strugle then with only 250 to play with.
Do you really need XP pro? XP home is only £61.90 and MCE is £76.30.

The integrated graphices on that board are better than the card you said above (radeon 9550), pluus the board will have the PCI-E slot there ready when you do want to upgrade a bit further down the road.
Just ideas for you, it can all be a bit of a minefield!

Dave

[davethechamp]

LN10089 80Gb SATA300 Hitachi (IBM/HGST) Deskstar 7K80 (7200rpm,8MB) - NCQ £39.53
LN9692 Akasa AK-862 S754/S939 9cm Ultra Quiet Amber Heat Sink Fan - A64/FX53 £9.27
LN11262 XClio 6010 Black (Silver Alumin Front) Midi Tower Case w/o PSU Hi End Prescott Ready £28.19
LN8089 Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition SP2 OEM Single £61.90
2 x 512Mb PC3200 (PC400) DDR Memory (Major) Retail £48.16
LN12194 Asrock 939DUAL-SATA2 S939 PCI-E/AGP USB2 Lan 7.1Ch Audio £43.70
LN9888 128Mb Leadtek WinFast PCI-E PX6600 GT TDH 6600 GT £98.64
LN8299 380W Tagan TG380-U01 Whisper quiet 20db aPFC Also support SATA 3 Years Warranty ATX/BTX £37.47
Pioneer DVR-110D Silver 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer DVD Writer (Reduced Length) £29.08
£395.94 - from Scan

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (Skt 939) OEM - £81.18 (inc free delivery)

Total - £477.12 (check my math?)

Hows this then??

Dave

[dave87]

Yea, the only reason it needs to be XP Pro is as it will be part of a Windows 2003 Server controlled domain - XP Homes just doesn't cut it. Basically the £500 mark was a guide price really, and the monitor would be good, although there are other avenues. Is it worth going 64 bit over a decent spec 32bit system -> Ok PCI-E is a distinct advantage but otherwise I cant see many disadvantages? and your right, I'm pretty much as confused as many at the moment, all my previous systems (for home, excluding 1 Dell) have been 32bit so thats my area of expertise

Thanks all,

Dave