New PC

[just_laze]

Hello,

I'm building a PC for my lovely girlfriend, she'd like to keep the cost below £500.

-------------------------------------
Hard Drive:
250 Gb Western Digital WD2500KS Caviar SE16, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16mb cache
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=256891 £52.28

Case:
Silverstone TJ08S uATX aluminium tower chassis, silver
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=378733 £60.98

Memory:
2Gb (2X1Gb) Corsair Value Select, DDR2 PC4200 (533)
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=121626 £140.32

Motherboard:
Asrock CONROE945G-DVI, i945G, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667, SATA II, uATX, On Board VGA
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=443860 £47.46

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300, Socket 775, 1.86 GHz, 1066MHz FSB, Allendale Core, 2MB Cache, Retail
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=430631 £125.71

PSU:
330W Tagan TG330-U01 Whisper aPFC quiet 20db 3 Years Warranty ATX/BTX
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=138556 £32.30

Cables:
50cm SilverStone SATA-II (3G) Cable Black CP-01 £1.75
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=244418

60cm Akasa Round IDE Cable Black ATA-133 Certified £3.28
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=129203

Cooling:
120mm Akasa AK-174BK-S Black Case Fan, 3 Pin, Sleeve Bearing Ultra Quiet x 2 £6.82
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=326073

£470 odd
-------------------------------------

This is the specification i've decided on, she doesn't play games.

Opinions?

laze.

[kalniel]

Do you already have a retail version of windows XP, monitor, keyboard and mouse?

[just_laze]

Yes, she only needs the base unit.

[HoldenBurn1000]

i may be wrong but maybe a more powerful PSu for the conroe set up?

[just_laze]

Hi,

I'm considering buying an OEM E6300 and an after market cooler to address the noise of the stock cooler.

Something like this:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=396322

Opinions?

laze.

[just_laze]

i may be wrong but maybe a more powerful PSu for the conroe set up?

I think it'll be fine, remember i'm using onboard graphics.

[kalniel]

330W should be fine, core 2 duo is based on Mobile technology after all.

The only thing I'd suggest to save some money is going for an aspireX Qpack uatx case as this comes with a good 420w PSU saving you some money. You also won't need the sata cable or case fan. You can also drop to a 160gb hard drive for more money savings (samsung p80 160gb 8mb cache is a cracking drive).

I've had bad experience with Sony DVD drives, so would recommend Lite-on or pioneer out of preference.

[just_laze]

Hi Kalniel,

Thank you for your suggestions, but i like the aesthetics of the case and i intend to use the entire £500 budget i've been provided with :-).

I only decided on a Sony drive as it was the only silver CD/DVD rom drive Scan sell, thinking about it further, i have a spare one at home, in silver made by Lite-On :-).

(She already has an NEC 4500a drive).

laze.

[Koolpc]

NEC are great. No need to change that unit.

[just_laze]

I know, the additional CD/DVD Rom is for Disk to Disk burning.

laze.

[just_laze]

Hi,

For an additional £3, should i use 667 memory over 533?

laze.

[x64united]

That would give you better performance yep! And help with ocing if you ever did.

[just_laze]

Hi,

I've recently read a review on the above board, the below sentence worried me:
"With the integrated graphics on board, the CPU utilisation is always around 90-100%, taking up all CPU resources in decoding the H.264 transport stream. With the ASUS En7900GT graphics hardware acceleration turned on, it dropped to close to 30% on the average".

What's the lowest GPU in nVidia's range that has this so-called hardware acceleration? My girlfriend does intend to dabble in video editing.

laze.

[just_laze]

Hi,

I've ordered her machine, a few changes to the original spec, the main one being the inclusion of a monitor.



laze.

[BlindMelon7]

Damit! I was too slow . I would have suggested an NV 7300gs or something. Oh well.

[x64united]

Well if hes quick he can change his order before its delivered with most sites. (not sure about scan)