Advice on next PC - £700-£800

[Andeh13]

Hey folks, in South Africa at the moment with the family but in a weeks time im comming back to the uk (). I start my second year at university in september and want a new PC to join me(old PC is staying here in SA with the family).

I have a budget of about £700(£800 at a push), this PC will be used for a bit of heavy gaming and a lot of multi tasking (MSN, music/films, downloading & web, at all times, then DVD encoding/gaming etc now and then). Im hoping to go back to a duel screen setup so within that £700 budget id like a decent widescreen monitor(20+), something in black that would fit, style wise, with http://img.product.pchome.net/00/02/...s75d-27242.jpg, so height adjustable & in black.

Would quad core & an 8800GTS fit into that budget? Im hoping to run vista on it, but if thats pushing the budget a bit XP will be run until christmas.


Many thanks guys.

edit: i really like the look of this monitor, but the price would cut into the budget for the rest of the PC, would i have 2 sacrifice much to afford this?
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...uct_uid=113148

editx2: id also like to try and include a case which isnt garish, but is something slightly different. Iv been having a look at this: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=584958 but i havent heard much about it. Has anyone had any experience with it/recommend me a case?

[NightshadowUK]

Will you be overclocking?

Do you plan on upgrading to DDR3 at some point along the line?

Do you need a mouse / keyboard / speakers?

Do you already have an XP CD or will you be buying a new OS with the hardware?

[Andeh13]

Sorry, knew i would miss something(s).

I like the idea of o/c so i might have a go at giving it an extra 10-15% in the future, but if its gunna add much to the price then i wouldnt bother.

Dont know a great deal about DDR3, im afraid. Would do some research but im on a very very poor connection out here so any page with excessive pictures is a no go. Hexus' forums alone can take a good few mins to load, if they decide to load that is.

I already have a mouse & keyboard and a hi fi i use sound wise.

Already got a very old XP CD, however if vista premium can fit into that budget without cutting back on to much then i wouldnt mind giving it a go.

edit: HDD wise im just gunna go for a WD 250gb i think, already got one full of films & music so id just use a 2nd for OS & as an overflow.

[NightshadowUK]

Vista'll take about £100 off your budget so it's probably worth leaving.

Quad cores are too expensive at the moment so I'll use a dual core but maybe when price cuts kick in this can change.

Also, getting the rig up to overclocking standard will cost more money so you're probably best going for a powerful stock system.

That Sony display you already have, what size is it? I only ask because 22" widescreen is the sweet spot at the moment.

[Andeh13]

That Sony is a 17inch, 22'' i think would be pushing the budget out a bit too much(?), however if there is a (trustworthy make) 22'' that fits style wise & into the budget then id be more then happy to go for it. I watch a lot of films at uni so a bigger screen would probably come in handy.

As i said, if i did o/c it id only add 10-15% max, which im guessing wouldnt be worth the extra money?

[Andy3536]

Vista'll take about £100 off your budget so it's probably worth leaving.

Quad cores are too expensive at the moment so I'll use a dual core but maybe when price cuts kick in this can change.

Also, getting the rig up to overclocking standard will cost more money so you're probably best going for a powerful stock system.

That Sony display you already have, what size is it? I only ask because 22" widescreen is the sweet spot at the moment.

Vista £100?
Were are you buying it from?
Get an OEM copy
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=527300
And thats an expencive one, not much more than a copy of XP
You might though have to give quad core a miss if you looking at under £800 with a monitor in that budget.
Get a dual core with a board that'll overclock well and a big cooler.
My specs on left <<<< came to about &#163;740 with a few bits not listed and that was minus a monitor.

[NightshadowUK]

however if vista premium can fit into that budget

---------

Anyway here's the best I can do:

- Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 ~ &#163;86.06

- Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro ~ &#163;15.97

- Abit AB9 i965 ~ &#163;68.61

- 2GB (2X1GB) Corsair TwinX PC5400 4-4-4-12 ~ &#163;50.94

- 256MB Power Color RX1950XT ~ &#163;116.24

- 250GB Samsung SP2504C ~ &#163;37.58

- Antec P182 ~ &#163;80.95

- 520W Corsair HX V2 ~ &#163;68.02

- Optiarc (Sony/NEC) AD-7170S-0B ~ &#163;19.85

- Samsung 20" 204BW ~ &#163;154.75

Total ~ &#163;698.97

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CPU should overclock to 3.2GHz.

[Andeh13]

Thanks for that, tried to look at the components but the connection here just isnt having any of it. Think im going to have to wait till i get back to the UK before i can look into it in any real detail.

Thanks again though guys.

[aidanjt]

It'll be better to wait till near the end of the month before parting cash anyway due to Intel CPU price cuts, Q6600 is expected to drop to little over $250, which means peanuts for us