Help me price a system

[Jimmy Little]

Hi guys

My brother has asked me to build a pc for his friend that is more aimed at gaming. The key points our

1. A desent case (not to expenive though)
2. Standard Ide hard drives (not sata)
3. AMD chip (not sure on which one, but top end)
4. Mobo has to be able to take his 1 gig or 2100 ddr plus be USB 2
5. He wants a rad 9800 (x800 or something… is that right?)
6. 450w at least and needs to be quite power supply
7. DVDRW (not sure on what make here)
8. Half desent sound card (not to pricey)

I would like to order from one web site if possible, but two at the max.

Who want’s to help with a system…

there is no set budget just those points above, but as low as possible without skimping out!

[coco]

how about http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=301143&cks=PRL

[Jimmy Little]

thats not to bad i guess, but it says out of stock?

[Allen]

1. A desent case (not to expenive though) - Coolermaster Centurion (silver or black designs) ~£40

2. Standard Ide hard drives (not sata) - Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 ~£40-60 depending on size

3. AMD chip (not sure on which one, but top end) - Athlon 64 3000+ ~£100

4. Mobo has to be able to take his 1 gig or 2100 ddr plus be USB 2 - MSI K8N Platinum nForce3 250 ~£80

5. He wants a rad 9800 (x800 or something… is that right?) - X800Pro ~£280-300 depending on make

6. 450w at least and needs to be quite power supply - Tagan? Enermax? Antec? CWT (called Meridian now?) ~£40-80 depending on make

7. DVDRW (not sure on what make here) - NEC 2500, 3500 if you need 16x ~£50-60

8. Half desent sound card (not to pricey) - onboard sound should be good enough for gaming and listening to CD's/DVD's

[Allen]

Here ya go, I was bored. All from Scan.co.uk:

LN6645 Coolermaster Centurion CAC-T01UK Black (Aluminium/Zinc-coated steel) £31.50 £37.01
LN4520 160Gb Maxtor Plus 9 ATA-133 (7200rpm, 8MB) £52.74 £61.97
LN6398 AMD *Retail* Athlon 64bit 3000 32/64Bit CPU S754 (Newcastle) £96.30 £113.15
LN7526 MSI K8N Neo Platinum nForce3 250, ATX, DDR400, Gbit Lan, USB 2.0, 1394, 7.1Ch Audio, SATA, Raid £69.49 £81.65
LN7517 256Mb Connect3D Radeon X800 Pro (GDDR3, D-sub, DVI, TV-Out) £247.00 £290.23
LN4297 350W Enermax EG365AX-G-FMA Manual Fan/Temp Control £32.50 £38.19
LN7513 NEC 2510 Black x8 DUAL LAYER DVD-Writer, OEM £39.99 £46.99

Net Total £569.52

Carriage £15.00

V.A.T. £102.29

TOTAL £686.81

[Jimmy Little]

not bad at all mate, i will run it buy him he might have to get a lesser rad 9800 but will ask

[Allen]

The 9800 is different to the X800, the X800 are the newest cards from ATi. The 9800 will still pack quite a punch though for about half the price too!

LN7614 128MB ATI RADEON 9800 PRO DDR DVI TVO *256-BIT* RETAIL* £120.84 £141.99

Oh yeah, and I'd suggest he upgrade his PC2100 ASAP as that'll hold him back, severly!

[nichomach]

Hi guys

My brother has asked me to build a pc for his friend that is more aimed at gaming. The key points our

1. A desent case (not to expenive though)

Antec Plus 1080AMG Entry Level Server Case

£86.98 inc VAT, comes with an Antec 430W, so the PSU's solid; it's 430 not 450, but it's an Antec, so that's a sustained output not a "Q-Tec Special" And Antec PSUs ain't noisy.

2. Standard Ide hard drives (not sata)

OK, you der boss (why not SATA? But OK)...I agree with the Maxtor DiamondMax Plus9 recommendation. Very solid drives, good balance of price, performance, noise and RELIABILITY.

160GB, £59.99 inc VAT

3. AMD chip (not sure on which one, but top end)

S939 Athlon64 3500 £232.99 inc VAT. The S939 platform gives you a dual channel memory platform, like on the FX Athlons but on the Athlon64 platform. Should come with retail heatsink.

4. Mobo has to be able to take his 1 gig or 2100 ddr plus be USB 2

Asus A8V/Deluxe/WiFi £84.98

5. He wants a rad 9800 (x800 or something… is that right?)

Connect3D X800Pro £290.98 - there are cheaper X800Pro cards at Dabs, but this is full VIVO which he may find useful. If not, then Here's the Gigabyte alternative for £268.99

6. 450w at least and needs to be quite power supply

See above

7. DVDRW (not sure on what make here)

Asustek 16x Dual layer Full retail, so WITH software, on order at the mo' £52.99 inc.

8. Half desent sound card (not to pricey)

I'm going to hate myself for recommending a Creative product, but Audigy LS PCI £37.98

I would like to order from one web site if possible, but two at the max.

Who want’s to help with a system…

there is no set budget just those points above, but as low as possible without skimping out!

We do der Dabs fing. Seriously, though, there may be cheaper suppliers for some components, but Dabs generally (I've found) have good prices for just about everything.

edit: Oh yeah, Allen's dead on with the memory. Tell him to get 2x512MB PC3200 modules like THESE
for £110.99, at least.

[Stewart]

1. A desent case (not to expenive though) - Coolermaster Centurion (silver or black designs) ~£40

2. Standard Ide hard drives (not sata) - Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 ~£40-60 depending on size

3. AMD chip (not sure on which one, but top end) - Athlon 64 3000+ ~£100

4. Mobo has to be able to take his 1 gig or 2100 ddr plus be USB 2 - MSI K8N Platinum nForce3 250 ~£80

5. He wants a rad 9800 (x800 or something… is that right?) - X800Pro ~£280-300 depending on make

6. 450w at least and needs to be quite power supply - Tagan? Enermax? Antec? CWT (called Meridian now?) ~£40-80 depending on make

7. DVDRW (not sure on what make here) - NEC 2500, 3500 if you need 16x ~£50-60

8. Half desent sound card (not to pricey) - onboard sound should be good enough for gaming and listening to CD's/DVD's

Not too bad, but 9800Pro's are better value than X800pro's if he's not a serious gamer, and just wants the odd blast every now and again. £140 Vs. £300.

[Allen]

Yes Vaul, true. But I wasn't too sure whether his mate wanted a 9800 or an X800 though as the first post was a bit confusing.

nichomach, even though socket 939 is the way forward at the moment, I personaly doubt that £230 for a CPU is a justified expense. Socket 754 is not going to disappear overnight and it'll be a very good, powerful rig for ages yet. Plus the socket 939 chips will come down in price eventually. Suppose it depends on how much they wanna spend right now.

[nichomach]

Suppose it depends on how much they wanna spend right now.

Quite so; if it were me, I wouldn't be spending money on a platform that was being phased out, though, and w/the dual channel memory controller there are some performance advantages. Anyway, he pays his money and takes his choc-ice. Vaul, I went with the X800 assumption on the basis that he isn't wanting to be in the market for an upgrade anytime soon.

[Allen]

nichomach, the socket 754 platform is not being phased out at all. It will be the new 'budget' platform for the Semprons and whatever AMD release after that. The socket 754 was a temporary platform for A64 and the performance difference between the two isn't that much, I hear.

[nichomach]

OK, but I'd remind you that the original requirement was "top end". Excluding the "workstation" level chips, like AthlonFX's, that's the S939 A64, and most of the benches I've seen do indicate a measurable performance differential.

[Jimmy Little]

ok just got back from him and cheap is the way to go, so the lesser rad 9800 will be ok, case needs to be good lookin and he's not fussed with cpu being 64bity or not

man why do i bother!

[Allen]

Hmm, I'd say the A64 is 'top end' whether it be of the socket 754 or 959 variety. They are both very powerful, very fast chips. Another requirement was 'there is no set budget just those points above, but as low as possible without skimping out!'. I crossed out the socket 939 due to that.

[Allen]

ok just got back from him and cheap is the way to go, so the lesser rad 9800 will be ok, case needs to be good lookin and he's not fussed with cpu being 64bity or not

man why do i bother!

Then a Mobile 2400/2500+ from CPU City will be cool and fast. Couple that with an Abit NF7-S or DFI Ultra Infinity for ~£60 for super performance.

Case wise, he'll have to choose himself, as it will be him looking at it all the time, not us.