Good setup?

[ghosty86]

Hi guys,

I am getting a PC built with the following specs:

Case: Asus V3-M2N61S , Socket AM2, DDR2 533/667/800MHz, Silver/Black, On Board VGA

CPU: AMD AM2 Athlon 64 4600+ Windsor Core

RAM: 2GB (2X1GB) Corsair Value Select, DDR2 PC5400 (667), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5

Hard Drive: 160 Gb Samsung HD160JJ SpinPoint P80, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, NCQ, 8.9 ms

Graphics Card: 256MB Sapphire Radeon X1950Pro, PCI-E(x16), Mem 1400MHz GDDR3, GPU 580MHz, 36Pipes, Dual DVI, TV-Out

DVD Drive: Sony AW-G170AB2 Black 18x DVD±RW x12 Ram Dual Layer DVD-Writer

Floppy: 1.44Mb Sony Silver Floppy Disk Drive

Soundcard: Onboard

Monitor: 17" Daewoo HL720AD Black TFT, DVI/VGA, 1280x1024, 8 ms, 500:1, 300 cd/m2, Speakers

________________________________________________

I was wondering if you guys thought this was a good setup?

In particular I was wondering if anyone knew what motherboard came with the Asus case? The PSU is also 250watts and the people making the PC say they have tested the configuration and it is fine, but 250 watts still sounds rather low to me. Would it be enough to power that system?

Also, does any1 have experience of the Daewoo monitor as I couldnt find any reviews of it?

Thanks!

[Clunk]

How much is it?

[staffsMike]

I was under the impression the ATI gfx cards were quite hungry for power I would have say 350w was a minimum for that especially if its a cheap psu which it most likely is.

AMD's dont perform as well as C2D chips. They also like low latency RAM which that is not. All in all it will be OK for a most games etc.. but it wont be amazing and will struggle as next years games come out probably.

Daewoo make fairly decent screens but I can't comment on that one.

Can I ask how much you are paying as to me that looks like £350 at most. (without the monitor)

[ghosty86]

It's £645

[staffsMike]

I would tell them where to shove that.

EDIT: that was a bit brief. You're paying about £150 on top of the components worth and not getting a great PC for it.

is this a company or a friend?

[Clunk]

I would also tell then where to shove it as well.

If it HAS to be a pre-built system, keep an eye on the dell special offers, you can pick up something pretty decent for less than the one you listed.

Or build one yourself

[ghosty86]

It is prebuilt from Scan.

[max99]

The fact alone that they are recommending a 250W PSU is enough for you to walk away.

[ac82]

Hi,

I am looking at building a new system myself and for £645 your not getting a great spec for your money. If you are planning on spending around £600 you have, as I see it 3 options

1. Build your own pc
2. Buy a cheap pc (ie around £300) and add extras to it
3. Buy a pc outright

With option 1 you will definitely get very good value for money and the system will be exactly what you want. You don't have to buy everything staright away either. Get a decent motherboard/power supply and add extra ram, more graphics cards etc when money allows.

The last pc I built was done using option 2. I bought a Acer aspire for £200 and added extra memory, graphics card and loads of hard disc space. You will, as I have found, find this slightly restrictive as usually as the motherboard doesn't have the scope for expansion that one you have chosen yourself may have.

You have chosen option 3 which is ok but you will most likely get poor value for money as you are paying someone to put the system together for you. Building a pc yourself saves you cash which you can put into getting a better system. Like the people above, there are vendors such as dell who do give good deals on their pc's.

Hope this helps

[Clunk]

I just totted it up on their 3xs bulder thing and it came to £693, which, if it isnt a mistake, is a complete ripoff.

What exactly do you want to do with it? Is it just for general stuff and the odd light bit of gaming? or do you want better?

[Blitzen]

It's £645

How much???

As much as i like Scan, and use them frequently, that is a poor value deal.

[dave87]

for 600-700 you could have core2duo, decent mobo, 2gb RAM, and a 19" Widescreen. Possibly even an 8800, though that may push the budget...

[staffsMike]

E4300 - £100
AB9/P5B - £80
2GB 667/800mhz ram - £100
8800GTS 320mb - £180
160gb HD - £35
DVD RW - £20
PSU - £75
case - £30
17 - 19" lcd - £120

Everything on that list could and probably would have a warranty of 3 years all for around £700.